The Paradise Problem (31)

Eleven


ANNA


Well, shit.

There’s no way out of this. I know West sees it roll through me—the instinct I have to do an immediate one-eighty and go back to dancing with a five-year-old as far across the room as I can get. But his eyes widen, and he does a quick, warning shake of his head. “It’s okay,” his lips say.

And I can do nothing but trust him.

Little Nixon is smarter than I expected, peeling off and running back to Lincoln just as we approach the circle of his family: Ray, Janet, Jake, and West. And with them, the two people I assume from family resemblance are Alex and Charlotte.

Like his father, Alex is shorter, with Janet’s thin, birdlike frame. Honestly, he looks almost exactly like I imagined he would. Hawkish and intense. But Charlie got the best of all of them: the thick, honey hair, full mouth, and graceful posture. Each child has inherited their father’s eyes, but like West’s, Charlie’s are warm. They’re also playful like Jake’s, and she immediately turns to me, pulling me into her arms.

“Finally!” she sings. “There is no excuse! None! I am never letting you go! Another sister!” Laughing, she pulls back and hello? I am immediately in love.

“It’s so good to meet you,” I say, taking her hands in mine. “It’s crazy that it’s been this long.”

“It must be so amazing, though! To be in medical school and go to Cambodia for a class? Your life is unreal!”

I glance at West, and he avoids my eyes, lifting his glass to his lips. “It is actually unreal, I agree!”

“I was in Thailand a couple weeks ago, and I could have come to visit you in Battambang if I’d known sooner!”

This cover story has made my palms so sweaty I’m tempted to reach up and drag them down West’s chest in retaliation. “No, no. No apologies needed.”

“I hope after the wedding we’ll see each other more?”

“We absolutely will.”

Hoping to head off any questions from Charlie about Cambodia, a place I sadly have only experienced through the LA food scene, I turn to Alex. “Hi,” I say, extending my hand. “You must be Alex. I’m Anna. It’s lovely to finally meet you.”

“Yes.” He loosely clasps my hand in his and then lets go. If Ray Weston gives a grizzly-bear handshake, Alex Weston’s is a jellyfish. He says nothing else and aims a pained smile somewhere over my shoulder.

A brick wall, interesting. I knew West and Alex didn’t get along swimmingly, but this is bigger than I imagined.

West still isn’t looking at me—he appears to be listening to a conversation between Jake and Ray, but I can feel his passive attention anyway. And there are one hundred thousand reasons why I need to up my charming game. Alex seems like a dead end, so I brave the odds that Charlie might ask me about Cambodian geography and turn back to her. “How are you? Ready for everything that’s going to happen this week?”

“I am!” She launches into a happy spiel, describing the events of the week (“The itinerary is amazing!” I agree), how excited she is to see everyone (“I’m sure!”), how I must meet her best friend coming in from New York who just finished her residency in otolaryngology (fuuuuuck me), how she can’t wait for the Old Hollywood party night and she hopes I will make it (“Of course, are you kidding?” I enthuse, because honestly what else would I be doing that night?) before she does an adorable little overwhelmed gesture and hugs me again. I catch West’s eyes over her shoulder and see it on his face, how much he loves her.

“Your hair is so pretty!” Charlie cries when she steps back. My God, this is like conversing with a flower.

Janet, who had been talking to Jake and Ray, turns to us. “Charlotte wanted to color her hair in high school. I said absolutely not.”

“Actually, Mom, you said if I got straight A’s, I could do it.”

Janet smiles tightly. “Exactly.” Welp, there it is. She turns her laser focus to me. “How do your professors react to your hair?”

I feel West’s hand settle on my lower back. “I mean,” I say self-consciously as all other conversation halts and every eye is on me now. “I’m sure they like it but are probably more impressed with my amazing doctor skills.”

West’s fingers flex against my back in response to this, and yes, Mr. Perfect, I realize that sounded idiotic. I want to stomp hard on his big, stupid foot. If he’s going to judge how I fake-doctor this, then maybe he should have given me a different job.

“How was Cambodia?” Charlie asks in a low, reverent voice. Every member of the Weston family waits for my answer.

“So humid.” I pause, and in the silence realize that this isn’t exactly what Charlie meant. “Oh, but there were also, like, a lot of broken bones?”

Oh God.

Alex frowns, decides to speak. “Bones, specifically?”

West’s hand does the flexing thing again.

“Right,” I say. “Well, I was helping in a clinic near a bridge. Without rails. A lot of people fell off.”

Janet gasps. “Dear God, that’s horrible!”

I shrug, smiling. “But good for business, I guess!”

The circle falls deathly silent. West drowns himself in his whiskey.