Page 323 of How to Kiss a Hawthorne Brother
Joni exchanges a quick glance with Nate, then looks back at me. “They came to see you in Costa Rica.”
Details flood my memory. The Oakley peopledidcome to see me. We had dinner at a little cantina on the beach, and they plied me with alcohol and showered me with compliments, and I guess…here we are. “When? And how long will it take?”
“Not until November,” Kenji says. “And it shouldn’t take more than a couple of days. One for the photoshoot, another to film the commercial. Those are the details we’ll have from Simon this week.”
I nod. “Fine. But it can’t conflict with Thanksgiving.” It’s been years since I’ve spent the holidays with my family. I’ve had to modify my expectations somewhat since getting home—I’m not spending nearly as much time with my brothers as I thought I would—but the holidays are different. That’s when we’resupposedto be together.
Joni’s expression softens. With the angular cut of her straight blond hair, hitting right at her chin, her look generally saysI’m perfectly capable, thank you,with a side of,So you’d better get out of my way.But right now, her face is saying something else entirely. She’s either touched that I’m trying so hard to do things differently now,orrrrrshe feels sorry for me because my brothers are not the bachelors they used to be, and they spend their time accordingly.
Not that I blame them. If I had the option to snuggle up on the couch with a beautiful woman, I wouldn’t want to come over to drink beer with me either.
“Of course it won’t conflict with Thanksgiving,” Joni says. “We’ll make sure of it.”
“All right, I’m out,” Kenji says. The sounds of Los Angeles suddenly come through the phone, and I can imagine him pushing out of his office, tugging at the sleeves of one of his impeccably tailored suit coats. “I’ll reach out to Rita one moretime and make the point about Lea's directing and see if that sways her. It can’t hurt to try, anyway,” he says.
“Thanks, man,” I say, but I don’t have a lot of confidence in Rita. I’ve met her. She’s as fame hungry as Claire.
Kenji disconnects and Joni closes down her iPad, a welcome silence filling the room.
I’m suddenly very tired. And very grouchy. And I definitely need a cookie.
I reach for one and rip off the cellophane, only to notice this one has a tiny mustache drawn above my lip, the ends long and curly.
Wait a minute.
I look up to see Nate, lips pressed together like he’s trying to hold in his laughter. I reach for the bag of cookies and dump them onto the counter. Every single one is slightly different. A beauty mark on my cheek. A third eyeball in the middle of my forehead. An impressive array of different mustache and goatee styles. But the most impressive thing is that the cookies are all stillsealed.Somehow Nate—because it wasdefinitelyNate—managed to graffiti every single one of my cookies and thenresealthem into their packaging.
“Dude. You’ve got too much time on your hands.”
He bursts out laughing. “This one is my favorite.” He pulls out a cookie from the bottom of the stack and slides it toward me. On this one, one of my teeth is blackened out, and a long feather earring dangles from my ear. Honestly, I’m impressed with the artwork. I had no idea Nate had it in him.
“How did you even know how to do this? Can we still eat them? This isn’t sharpie or anything, is it?”
“Ann taught me,” Nate says. “And they’re fine to eat. I used edible ink.”
“I still think it was totally unfair for you to ask Ann to help when you wanted to defacehercookies,” Joni says. “She neverwould have answered your questions if she’d known what you were up to.”
Nate waves his hand dismissively. “Pretty sure she figured it out. Either way, she had a fresh batch of cookies out on the counter. Who cares what happens to the ones she already sold?”
“Wait, she has new cookies out?” I ask. “She made more?”
Nate nods. “She sold three while I was waiting in line. Only person who didn’t buy one was the trespassing biologist lady.”
“Audrey?” I ask. “She was there?” My heartrate ticks up the slightest bit at the thought, which is dumb. I probably won’t ever see her again. Her bright blue eyes flash through my mind’s eye, and a twinge of disappointment pushes through me. “She saw the cookies?”
Nate nods, and the feeling in my chest tightens, then shifts to embarrassment. This should not matter even a little. But the thought of Audrey seeing those cookies, maybe even thinking I had something to do with them, makes me uncomfortable.
“Did she say anything to you?” I ask, trying to keep my voice neutral.
“Nah. She waved,” Nate says, “but she didn’t look very happy to see me.”
“Because you almost had her arrested,” Joni says. “And you're the size of a tree.” Joni leans over and kisses Nate on the cheek. “Sometimes you intimidate people, baby.” She grabs her phone off the counter and slides it into her pocket. “Are we done here? I’ve got a million emails to sort through.”
“Yeah, go,” I say, waving her off. “Just keep thinking about possible solutions to this whole Claire situation.”
Joni nods. “Will do.” She steps away from the counter, then pauses and spins back around. “Flint, have you thought about just taking adateto the premiere? Not a fake one, like Simon suggested, but just…a date.”
I furrow my brow. “A real date?Who? I’m not seeing anyone.”
