Totally and Completely Fine(60)

For the first time, I saw Spencer get jealous. Truly jealous.

“It’s always Ollie this and Ollie that,” he said. “Has he not met other people in Hollywood?”

“You’re still his best friend,” I told him, which of course made him even more indignant.

“That’s not what this is about,” he said.

“Sure,” I said.

I could barely hide my smile whenever the topic came up.

As fast as Gabe’s life changed, ours did too.

Suddenly there was all this money. So much money.

And Gabe had no idea what to do with it.

One morning I came downstairs to find Spencer hanging up the phone, looking stunned.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“Gabe paid off our mortgage,” he said.

“What?”

“He—”

I reached past him and grabbed the phone.

“What did you do?” I demanded when Gabe answered.

“This is a weird way to say thank you,” he said. “You and Spencer really need to work on that.”

“You paid off our mortgage?”

“Is this phone broken? I just gave Spencer all the details.”

“You’re going to tell me,” I said.

He did. It wasn’t just our mortgage. He’d paid off our mom’s as well.

“Oh, and I started a college fund for Lena,” he said.

“How long are you expecting her to be in school for?” I’d asked when he told me the eye-watering amount he was putting aside.

“I always thought it would be nice to have a doctor in the family,” he said.

“You don’t need to do this,” I told him. “We’re fine. We’re doing fine.”

“Consider it back rent,” he said. “From when I stayed with you.”

“You were here for a month.”

“It’s about the monthly rate here in Los Angeles,” he said. “Don’t worry. I want to.”

It was hard to tell how Spencer felt about it. For the rest of the week, he was quiet and kept to himself more than usual.

“We did kind of wish for this,” I told him one night after we’d put Lena to bed.

We were sitting in the living room. Of a house that we now owned free and clear.

“We wanted to win the lottery too,” he said. “But I never expected it would happen.”

“Are you upset that it did?” I asked.

He was silent and I could see that mind of his spinning.

“It would be pretty dumb if I was,” he said.

“Since when has that stopped you?” I teased.

It got a smile out of him. A small one, but a smile.

“It’s just a lot,” he said. “We won’t ever be able to pay him back.”

“I don’t think he’d accept it if we could,” I said.

Spencer nodded. And then he took my hand.

“I would have found a way to pay the house off,” he said.

“I know,” I said.

“I had a plan.”

“I know,” I said.

“Okay,” he said once he seemed convinced that I understood what he was saying.

And I did. This wasn’t a gift we could turn down—we didn’t want to—but Spencer’s sense of self—his worth—had taken a hit in the process. We were out of debt, but it took him a while to recover.

He would dodge Gabe’s calls, pretend he wasn’t home when I answered the phone, feign forgetfulness at not answering his messages.

“Just give him time,” I told Gabe.

“I don’t get it,” he said.

Then he bought us the store.

“No,” I told him when he showed us the plans.

“Why not?” he asked. “Mom doesn’t want to teach anymore; you don’t do anything all day—”

“Hey!”

“Cooper needs a bookstore.”

“I hope you’re saving some of this money for yourself,” I said.

“Lauren,” he said, “you have no idea.”

When it was announced that Gabe was officially going to be the next Bond—and the first American to play the role—things went bonkers. He told us that he’d become a hot commodity for the paparazzi, that he was recognized constantly, and that he got stares everywhere he went.

“Are you sure it isn’t because you have an abnormally large head?” I asked him.

Someone had to keep him humble.

“Hilarious,” he said.

“Are you coming home for the holidays?” I asked him.

If he was still drinking, I couldn’t tell.

Spencer was sure he was. But things were still tense between them. The store had been a lot for Spencer to swallow.

“I’m going to try,” Gabe said. “We start filming in the New Year, but I have this one interview I have to do in L.A. before I get time off.”

“Don’t say anything stupid.”

“Great advice,” he said. “I’d planned to exclusively say stupid things.”

Unfortunately, when he arrived in Montana a few days later, it seemed that he’d done exactly that. When I tried to ask him how the interview went, he refused to say anything about it.