Chapter 1
Kate
Even though I designed every gorgeous detail of this place, I don’t want to live here. I’m almost forty and I’m moving into my mother-in-law’s pool house. This was not how things were meant to go.
“Do you need a hand?” Stella shouts from her lounge chair by the pool.
When I glance back at her, she hasn’t even looked up from the script she’s studying—lest anyone in this family forget she’s auditioning for a big part alongside Nora Levine in a few days.
“Here you go, babe.” Kevin hands me a bottle of water. “It’s only for a few weeks.” He squeezes my shoulder. “Our house will be ready and beautiful in no time. Trust me.”
I want to trust my husband so very badly. I want to trust him with the same passion I felt when I said ‘I do’ at our wedding. But so much has happened—and hasn’t happened—since that day.
“I’m not asking again,” Stella shouts.
“We’ve barely moved in,” I hiss at Kevin, “and already your sister’s getting on my nerves with her entitled ways.”
“Cut her some slack,” Kevin says, predictably. “She’s preparing for—”
“No need to say it.” I take a deep breath. “And I’m sorry.” None of this is Stella’s fault, although she’s still a spoiled brat, convinced, as she has been since the first day I met her, that her big break is just around the corner.
“I’m going by the house one last time to pick up the rest of our stuff.” Kevin pecks me on the cheek. “Try to get settled in.” He flashes me a grin. “Or hang out with my lovely little sister by the pool.”
I roll my eyes and sigh, but none of that makes any difference to my current situation. I glance at Stella, who is talking to herself, running lines, as though she’s all alone in her mother’s backyard.
“I hope I’m not bothering you too much,” I say, just to vent my frustration.
“You could never bother me, Kate.” Stella puts down the script and pushes herself up. Her smile looks genuine enough. She knows why we’re here. Perhaps she’s not so self-absorbed that she can’t muster a smidgen of compassion for her brother and his barren wife. “It’s great that you and Kev are staying here. The more, the merrier, now that Mom has moved Keanu in.”
I walk over and sink into the chair next to hers. “As long as you don’t expect me to make you dinner.”
Stella shakes her head. She fixes her gaze on me but remains silent. Her shirt has fallen open and all she’s wearing underneath is a skimpy bikini.
“Just a heads-up,” Stella says after a few seconds. “Keanu’s cooking us a big family dinner tonight.” Keanu is not Mary’s boyfriend’s real name, but Stella has taken to calling him that because of his resemblance to Keanu Reeves in his Point Break days, laid-back surfer vibes included. “That should be fun.” To say that Stella doesn’t approve of her mother’s choice of partner is an understatement—probably because she has to share her mom’s attention. But I say, good for Mary. And Keanu—whose real name is Nathan—is very easy on the eye.
“That sounds like fun, actually,” I say.
“Kevin’s not too crazy about him either, you know.”
“I know.” But Kevin’s mature enough to not let it show every time he gets the chance. Kevin respects his mother enough to just let her be happy with whomever she wants to be with. But that’s too much to ask from the likes of Stella, who still lives at home at twenty-eight because she claims she can’t afford her own place until she gets that ‘big break’. While LA rent is steep, Stella could move out if she really wanted to, but she’s too spoiled at Mary’s. Case in point, she’s rehearsing pool-side for her upcoming audition.
“How’s that going?” I nod at the script because I don’t feel like talking about Nathan behind his back any longer. If that means indulging Stella, then that’s what I’ll do. At least that way, I also don’t have to talk about myself, and the reason Kev and I ended up here.
“I’ve never been so nervous in my life.” Stella sounds pretty confident to me. “Not even when I had to kiss Faye Fleming.”
I try not to roll my eyes and, despite myself, giggle like a teenage girl at the mention of Faye’s name. The urge to giggle wins out because I’ve always had a soft spot for Faye Fleming and my irritating sister-in-law got to play her lesbian lover on screen—a fact she likes to remind me of every chance she gets.
If it was anyone else, I’d offer to run lines with her, but this is Stella, Kevin’s exasperating little sister, and today of all days, I can’t bring myself to do it.
“I’m sure you’ll smash it,” I say on a sigh.
“Hey, Kate.” Stella’s voice goes all mellow. “Are you okay? Today’s pretty rough, I bet.”
I run a hand through my hair and take a deep breath. “Kev just really wants to do this. To create some sort of impossible clean slate. To give us a different house to return to after…” It’s still hard to say, but Stella knows.
“That’s Kev. He needs to be busy. He needs to build something. It’s how he processes.”
I nod.
“How are you… processing?” Stella asks.
I’m not, so I just shrug.
The touch of Stella’s hand on my shoulder startles me. “Faye and Ida are hosting a cast party the day after the movie premieres next week. Would you like to be my plus-one?”
“Faye Fleming and Ida Burton?”
“Yes.” Stella flashes me a big smile. Maybe she’s not as bad as I thought. Maybe I’ve been too caught up in my own struggles to give my sister-in-law the benefit of the doubt.
“You want to take me to their party?” Incredulously, I bring a hand to my chest.
“I sure do.” She looks at me in a way that allows me to see, maybe for the first time since I met her, that Stella Flack could be a movie star in her own right. She has the kind of commercial smile that dazzles Hollywood executives, and the girl-next-door-with-a-little-extra air about her that moviegoers can’t resist.
“Hell, yes!” I shout. “Thank you so much.”
“That’s what family’s for,” Stella says. “To make each other feel better.”
