She thought of him now and wondered if he was sleeping. He’d been in North Carolina for three days. She’d talked to him earlier that morning, and he’d been at his hotel room, attempting to work on his book before he went to the hospital. He’d seemed chill, but she couldn’t forget how anxious he’d looked before he left for the airport earlier that week. Nick told her that his dad was stable and mostly slept whenever he visited, and that he was helping his mom get herself better situated, because she and his dad had been living at a motel before his dad’s accident. But otherwise, he didn’t go into much detail about what was happening with his parents. He sweetly evaded Lily’s probing questions with such skill, she ended their conversations wondering if she’d attempted to ask anything at all.
“Why am I sitting down? It’s my bachelorette party!” Violet said, jumping to her feet. “I need another drink!”
She joined Karina on top of the table again, and Lily and Iris both yawned at the same time.
“Technically, I know I’m not too old for the club life,” Iris said, “but I feel too old for the club life.”
“I’m hungry,” Lily said.
Iris checked the time on her phone. It was almost three a.m. “Let’s get an Uber and see if they can take us to McDonald’s on the way home.”
“Deal.”
They said goodbye to Violet, who gave them sloppy kisses on the cheek and kept dancing.
* * *
? ? ?
Someone from Karina’s security team let Lily and Iris inside of Karina’s mansion. It was so spacious, you could hear an echo when you spoke. Because Karina rarely spent extended periods of time in Miami, the entire house was pristine. The fancy marble dining table alone probably cost half of Lily’s yearly salary.
After she and Iris finished eating, they migrated upstairs to their shared guest room. Iris went to shower, and Lily lay across the king-size bed and texted Nick. Are you awake? She watched three dots appear.
Nick: Hey, yeah. How’s the club?
Lily: It was definitely an experience. Iris and I left, though.
Lily: You’re up late.
Nick: Oh you know, just chilling here, waiting on that goodnight text from my lady.
She smiled. Facetime?
Her phone vibrated in her palm then with a FaceTime call from Nick. She answered, and he was sitting on the hotel bed, pillows stacked up behind him.
“Hi,” she said, grinning.
“Hi.” His smile was tired, but warm. She was hit with how much she missed him when he said, “I miss you.”
“I miss you too. How’s your dad doing?”
“He still has a concussion, and he’ll need physical therapy for his broken leg.” He sighed and rubbed a hand over his face. “I think I’m gonna be here for at least another week. I need to make sure his sessions get paid for and I’m helping my mom get approved for an apartment. She said she’s leaving my dad.”
“Really?”
Nick nodded. He looked so exhausted.
“How are you feeling?” she asked. “Are you okay?”
“It could always be worse.”
“You’re a good son,” Lily said.
Nick smiled faintly, but it didn’t reach his eyes. She could tell that he didn’t believe her.
“Are you okay? You’re the one who survived a whole weekend with XXL magazine’s rapper of the year.” When she looked at him in surprise for dropping that fact, he said, “I just googled it.”
Lily smirked. Nick was trying to lighten the mood and change the subject, evading her again. She couldn’t shake the feeling that after everything they’d been through, he was slowly rebuilding his defenses. He was still there with her, attentive and present for now. But she wondered if one day she’d blink and be completely shut out.
Then she had a realization.
“You’re going to miss M&M’s party this week,” she said. “Maybe your team can put together a bookstore signing for you instead once the book publishes.”
Nick fell quiet. “Nah, I don’t want them to do that.”
She tried to gauge what he was thinking, but his face was carefully blank.
“Why not?” she asked.
“I don’t think it was ever a good idea for me to go to the party in the first place.”
Lily frowned. “But what about all the things you wanted? You said you wanted to stand in front of a crowd and talk to people about your book. You wanted to take the credit.”
“I changed my mind.”