My brow creases in confusion, recalling past conversations, self-deprecating jokes he made that never really felt that funny.Soyou’re in the family business, I said that first summer, when I learned who his father was. “You’ve called yourself a nepo baby before, Everett.”
“Yes,” he says. “But I didn’t knowjust how muchof a nepo baby I am.”
I shake my head. “What do you mean?”
“I got a call a few hours ago. You know that stupid movie I made a couple years ago?” Everett asks. All the edges of his words are rounded, ineffective. “The one with the kids. The one Laurel made us all see this week.”
“Cooneyisn’t stupid, Everett,” I say. “You love that movie. Everyone loves that movie.”
“Well, it turns out,” he says, “that my father—you know my father?”
“Yes, I know your father,” I say, with less disdain than I’m currently feeling.
“Myfather, Ben Astor, America’s favorite actor, is friends with the head of a certain studio that might have given me funding for a certain stupid movie that launched my whole stupid career.”
I pause, let the words settle. I can’t think of a worse thing for Everett to find out, and yet, I know he knows the sway his father has. Know he’s aware that no matter how far he tries to run from him, there are people that justknowhe’s Ben Astor’s kid, and even if he hates it, he can’t escape it. There was always a chance his father might do something like this. But even so, I can’t imagine what it must feel like.
“Everett,” I say. “All that means is thatCooney, which is agreat movie, got—”
“That’s not even the worst part,” he interrupts, leaning in even closer.
“It’s not?”
He shakes his head. “My dad wants me to repay the favor,” he says. He leans in so his lips are against my ear, hot and heavy. “He’s going to be the lead in my next movie.”
I lean away from him as he does too, stretching toward where I set his beer. He lifts it in a cheers toward me before draining the rest of it, setting it back down on the bar top.
“Can you say no?” I ask.
He shakes his head. “Casting loves the decision. Think he’s perfect for the role. Which—” he lifts a hand toward the bartender again “—he probably is.”
“No he’s not,” I say.
“You don’t even know what the movie is about,” Everett says, which stings for some reason.
“I know you’re reading all those books about physics,” I say. “I know people are already thinking it will be a contender during award season because it’syournext movie.” I read it somewhere this spring, that whatever the follow-up toCooneywould be, everyone was expecting it to be big.
Everett looks confused, then surprised, then away from me completely when the bartender sets another beer and a shot of whiskey in front of him. He hands her a fifty and tells her to keep the change.
“Everett, slow down,” I say as he tosses back the shot. He winces, chases it with his beer before looking back at me.
“Isn’t this exactly the kind of thing people drink about?”
“People, maybe,” I say. “You don’t.”
Everett stands up, grabbing his jacket from the back of his chair and slinging it over his shoulder. “I don’t know, Sutton,” he says. “Remember what you said?”
“When?” I ask, twisting on my stool to look at him.
“You said you can’t see any reason to trust me.” The words run cold through me, twisting deep into my stomach.
“Everett, I didn’t mean that,” I say softly.
“No, I think it’s probably a good thing. Turns out, I can’t even trust myself.”
I watch as he slaps far too much cash on the bar, even though he’s already paid, and starts through the crowd, a little unsteady on his feet as he goes. I can feel it, that pot boiling over, everything we’ve avoided talking about this week starting to burn. I was stupid to think we could ever ignore it, could just go back to some time before it happened. The moment we fell apart will continue to define us until we address it.
I jump off my stool, swinging the strap of my purse over myhead just as he disappears out the door. By the time I weave my way through the crowd and outside, he’s already halfway down the beach, walking toward the ocean like he might disappear into it. I take my heels off and run to catch up with him.
