Which doesn’t go quite as well as either of us expected.
Kelsey and Adrienne arrive together, which I gather is unusual from how Jason greets them at the door. Kelsey unwinds the scarf around her neck and goes to hang it on one of the line of hooks on the wall just inside the front door. She hesitates before she hangs it up and I can see the set in her shoulders as she notices the extra outerwear hanging on the hooks next to Jason’s overcoat and winter parka.
My winter coat, since we had a cold snap earlier this week, a lighter jacket now that the weather has warmed up a little, the red beanie that I wear often enough she surely recognizes it.
Her head tips down and I know she’s clocked a few extra pairs of shoes that weren’t here the last time she was. My running shoes, a pair of winter boots, and the casual kicks I usually wear when the weather’s not shitty.
When she turns around, her eyes sweep the room. And fuck, there’s my Michigan hoodie draped over the banister, which I’d meant to take upstairs. In other words, while I haven’t officially moved in yet, there’s enough of my stuff scattered around the house to indicate that I’ve spent more than a few nights here.
Kelsey finally looks between me, wearing casual pants and my scuffed leather house slippers that I obviously didn’t walk here in, and Jason, who’s hanging up Adrienne’s coat and seems not to have realized yet that the cat is out of the bag. When he turns toward her and approaches for a hug, he halts comically with one leg outstretched, then slowly sets his foot down.
“Hi, sweetie,” he says. He looks calm, but he must be as ready to jump out of his skin as I am.
Kelsey’s chin lifts. “Dad. Is this it? The big announcement that you and Daddy are together?”
The tips of Jason’s ears turn an adorable pink. “Um, I guess so?”
Kelsey glares at him like she hasn’t since she was a sullen teenager. After a moment, she turns on her heel. “I need a minute,” she tosses over her shoulder without looking at the rest of us. She heads straight for the bottle of wine Jason opened just before they arrived to breathe, grabs a wineglass from the cabinet, and pours herself a sizable glug. She takes two sips, fills the glass about two-thirds of the way, and stalks to the door to the deck.
Barnaby lurches up when he hears the door open, and winds his way around Jason and past me, his tags jingling and nails clicking on the floor as he crosses the kitchen. Kelsey holds the door open for him—I guess his company is acceptable—then it slams shut behind them.
“Jesus, Mary, and Joseph,” Jason breathes.
“She’ll come around.” Adrienne pats him on the shoulder. “There’s some shit happening at work that she’s dealing with right now.”
Kelsey settles into a chair on the deck, her back to the window, and Barnaby sidles up next to her and rests his chin on her knee.
Jason pinches the bridge of his nose. “I think I need something stronger than wine.”
“I’ll make it,” Adrienne says, then turns to me. “Manhattan, Victor?”
“Sure.”
She seems as familiar with Jason’s kitchen as Kelsey is and for the moment, there’s only the sounds of Adrienne bustling around in there. The clink of glassware set on the countertop, the pop of a cork-lined cap pulled off the whiskey bottle, the rasp of liquid and ice stirred together in the metal cocktail shaker.
Jason drops onto the sofa while she finishes mixing the drinks and I plop down next to him. Not too close. I don’t want to make Kelsey any more uncomfortable than she already is. Assuming she decides to come back inside.
Adrienne returns with three lowball glasses balanced against each other between her hands. She sets the trio down on the coffee table together, then places each on a coaster for us, and settles in an armchair with her drink in hand.
“So,” she says, after a little silence. She tips her glass in Jason’s direction. “I hear congratulations are in order?”
“Doesn’t seem like Kelsey thinks it’s something to congratulate,” Jason mutters darkly.
He’s not having second thoughts, is he? He swore he wouldn’t resent me for causing him to leave Saint Sebastian’s but we didn’t even talk about the possibility of Kelsey not being okay with this. With us.
I push my fingers into my hair and massage my scalp, trying to keep my shit together. Kelsey’s disapproval would change everything.
“I meant about the job,” Adrienne says.
I look up at Adrienne. She’s leaning back in her chair, sipping her cocktail like this is just another family dinner. Then at Jason, who looks startled.
“Oh, right. Yeah, thanks. I’m excited about it. I think. It’s a huge change.”
“You’ll be great. It’s just a different venue than you’re used to, that’s all.”
Jason turns to me and clarifies, “I got a job offer from Silas’s producer. Vocal arranger for his musical.”
“That’s wonderful!” I remember Silas panicking in Costa Rica when he learned that the original vocal arranger for his show became unavailable.
