Nicola remarks on the coincidence that Juliana ended up buyinga house on the same small island where David and Taylor own a home. Jack nearly does a spit take. “Coincidence?” he said. “It’s not a coincidence, my darling Nicky.”
Her mind is moving more slowly because of the heat of the late afternoon sun, and because of the liquor, and because of Jack’s hand. “Wait. Are you saying Juliana bought a big house and started throwing parties to get David’s attention?”
Jack laughs and kisses Nicola on the nose. “You have the cutest nose. No. Juliana bought a big house because she’s a badass.”
“Sheisa badass,” Nicola agrees. She almost spills the beans about the IPO, but she remembers just in time that it’s not public knowledge.
“She’s throwing these parties for the business,” says Jack. “To drum up excitement with influencers and brands. CEOs do that all the time. She thought David would come to at least one. But he hasn’t showed. And they haven’t casually bumped into each other either, out getting an ice cream cone or, I don’t know, sunbathing.” Nicola can’t picture Juliana doing either of these pedestrian summertime activities. “She’s been trying to figure out how to see him. At the party the other night she asked me to ask you if you’ll have David over for drinks.”
Jack rests his hand on Nicola’s thigh. Her shorts are short, more so because she’s sitting, so this hand of his, which strokes the edge of the shorts, is pretty far up her leg. Like really far. She’s already tingling from the almost-two Mudslides; now, she begins to tingle even more. She tries to focus on the story.
“What would my having David over for drinks do?”
He makes a motion like he’s knocking on Nicola’s head. “She wants you to invite her too.”
“Ohhhh.” She takes this in. “But I’m confused. How did she know before I told her that David and I are cousins?”
He shrugs. “I’m assuming she did her research when you moved in. Or someone did it for her. Where there’s an assistant there’s a way.”
Nicola snorts. “Okay. But why didn’t she ask me herself, when we went out on the mopeds?”
“She’d already asked me to ask you. She doesn’t really know you yet.” (Nicola tries not to be offended at this statement; do a moped ride around the island and cocktails at Ballard’s meannothing?)
“She hardly knowsyou.”
“True. But she met me at that party, and she must have figured when she sent that email that David would have his best man with him the night before his wedding.”
“How’d she know you were David’s best man?” Is this how investigative reporters feel? She’ll have to ask Reina. Maybe Nicola has chosen the wrong career pivot.
“How’s anyone know anything?”
“The assistant again?”
“Instagram. The wedding account.”
“Ah.”
“I guess she felt she could trust me to tell you the story, that I knew enough of it to do it justice, and then she didn’t have to go through it herself with you. Who can say? Maybe she also knows that I’m not Taylor’s biggest fan.”
“You’re not?” Nicola leans in closer, very interested. “Why not?”
He doesn’t answer for a minute. “I don’t love the way she tries to un-David David. Like, all the things that make himDavid,his midwesternness, and his obsession with car racing, and the way he won’t throw away socks with holes in them...”
Nicola winces. “I think I’m with Taylor on that last one.”
“Okay, fair. But the rest of it, you know, that’sDavid. How much he loves his family—” Nicola can’t help but interject. “His familyispretty amazing.”
“I think Juliana really appreciates that part of him, where Taylor wants to strip him down and build him back up as a Buchanan.”
Nicola bristles because this hits home. “Criminal,” she says. “Do you know the one time they made it to the lake they stayed in a hotel? And Felicity’s never even been out there!”
Jack whistles and shakes his head, either appropriately shockedor pretending to be. “And besides all that, I think Juliana talked to me because she’s terrified.”
Nicola raises her eyebrows. “Of what?”
“Of seeing David.” He pauses. “And of not seeing David. She considers me a buffer.” He takes a long sip of his drink and then says, “I’m an amazing buffer, Nicola.”
Doesthisstatement have a sexual connotation too?Does everything?Nicola takes a deep breath. She tries to square the person from the party with the person from lunch at Ballard’s with the person Jack is describing. The many faces of Juliana George.
