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“We should celebrate,” he says.
Usually he’s the one telling me to stop celebrating.
“What do you have in mind?” I ask.
“Why don’t we head to Santa Monica Pier tonight after I’m done on set? It’ll be like old times, back to where we started?”
I smile. It’s our spot and I love that he suggested we go there. “I like it.”
“Okay, I’ll send a car for you and meet you there. That way you can ride back to the house with me.”
“Perfect. What time should I be ready?” I ask.
“I’ll text you about an hour before.”
“’K, see you then.”
I hang up with a sense of hopefulness brimming with possibility. Good things are happening. Maybe I need to learn to accept them. On my way to my room, I repeat my mantra—don’t fuck it up.
Chapter Nineteen
JIMMY
“See you tomorrow,” Adelaide says as we head to our cars in the studio parking lot.
“Yeah, sure thing.” I pull my keys from my pocket.
“You sure you’re okay?” she asks, stopping and hiking her purse farther up on her shoulder.
“I’m fine. Just have some things on my mind, that’s all.”
Namely my mom. The private investigator did some digging and found out that she bounced around a lot after she left my dad and me. Seemed to move from one man to the next and they all supported her. No record of any drug or alcohol abuse and no arrests. Meaning, she’s not an addict or a criminal, just an opportunist.
Adelaide frowns. “Anything I can do to help?”
“Nah. It’ll work itself out.”
“Okay then, have a good night.”
“You too.” I walk over to my car, using the remote to unlock it.
Once I’m seated inside, I stare at my phone in my hand, attempting to rein in my temper over the fact that I have to pay off my own mother. I can’t let her know how desperate I am for her to go away, otherwise she’ll dig up more dirt and come back for more. I’m giving her enough to set her up for the rest of her life if she’s not stupid with the money.
I press her number and listen to it ring through my car’s Bluetooth.
“Hello?” she says on the second ring.
“Hey.”
“Son, how are you doing?”
I cringe at her referring me to as her son. “I have the money for you.”
A sigh of relief sounds through the speakers of my car. “I knew you’d come through.”
“You didn’t leave me much choice.” My knuckles turn white as I grip the steering wheel.
“Now, now. Don’t be like that, kiddo.”
