“I was at Marv’shouse.”
Her lips pinched down as she reached the bottom and stepped onto the mahogany flooring. “The Carter boy? What were you doing overthere?”
“We’ve become…friends,” I said, casually straightening the cuffs on my dressshirt.
One elegantly carved, perfectly plucked eyebrow arched and her mouth turned down in a frown. Well, as much of a frown as she could manage after so much plastic surgery. Teddi Vandersen-Caruso looked as fake as she acted. She moved towards me, gliding across the floor and I stiffened when her long nails brushed against the fabric of my shirt as she reached out and touched thecollar.
"I didn't know you were interested in the Carter family," she said, straightening my collar. I should have known better than to come home looking anything but perfectly pressed and put together. I barely resisted the urge to yank myself away from her. Of course, she would think that all I was interested in was Marv's family. God forbid I actually wanted to have afriend.
Relieved when she finally pulled back, I turned my face away and moved down the hall. The soft click of her heels on the hardwood echoed through the mansion like the sound of nails in a coffin as she followed. I kept moving until I turned the corner into the small study that had once been my father’s. That is, it was before he eloped with his secretary. We were a family of stereotypes. My father, the one who couldn't keep it in his pants. My mother, the frigid ice queen. Josh, the party boy and royal fuck up. And me. Whatever Iwas.
"So, when are you seeing this boy again? Have you met his father?" I stiffened at the interest in her voice and turned slowly as I stopped in front of the antique, neoclassical, executive desk. "Perhaps we should invite Marvin and his father over fordinner."
"Why do you care and why would we dothat?"
"Grayson, dear, you know I care about who you decide to align yourself with." Teddi moved across the room to drape herself across one of the two matching, dark gray, chaiselounges.
That might have been true had I mentioned a family of less substantial wealth and power in Charleston. But she had never before mentioned her interest in them. In fact, she had been averse to inviting anyone over, lest they realized that my father had moved out and disappeared to somewhere in Bermuda with his new wife, and that her divorce was now not only filed, but finalized. Funny, what money could accomplish in the span of a few months; that and a few well-placed affidavits andfabrications.
"I'm just saying, Grayson, darling, that it might behoove us to invite them over." She sighed as though I were causing one of her famous migraines to appear out of thin air and shot me an irritated glance before flitting away again. "It'll be nothing too fancy. Perhaps something here. Something intimate. Just call your friend and ask him if he and his father would like to come. Friday sounds like a goodday."
The father. Did she think I hadn't noticed? She was only mentioning Marv's father. A part of me wanted to think that perhaps she didn't know that Marv's parents were happily married, but I knew better. I had met Caitlyn Carter and she was nice. Much nicer and warmer than Teddi Vandersen-Caruso could ever hope tobe.
I turned fully, facing my mother. "I will not be asking Marv or his father to come to dinner," I said quietly. Her eyes shot back to mine and she raised halfway up on the lounge, her features strained as she tried to convey her disappointment past her Botox. I smiled. "But perhaps, I could ask his mother if she'd like to join us. I'm sureMrs.Carter would be more than happy to come. I know how you like to have yourconnections."
My mother sat up and eyed me. At one point, she had been the most beautiful of the Charleston debutante society. That beauty, while still somewhat remaining under her surgical attempts to appear nineteen again when she was pushing into her late thirties, was only a mask for the snake lying within. I didn't doubt the reason she wanted Marv's father to come over without his wife. I doubted that even a good man such as Mr. Carter could withstand her for long once she set her sights onhim.
Teddi stood, gliding across the study. When her hand landed softly on my cheek, her thumb rubbing up and down, she smiled. "Oh, Grayson, dear. You're too young to worry about things likeconnections."
Too young? Maybe. But this woman had aged me before my time. I grinned back at her. "I only want to support you," Ilied.
All the while my mind rioted. If Marv and I were going to be friends, and if I did as he asked—if I joined Iris—we inevitably would. I liked him. I liked the idea that he represented. He was only a few years older than me, and already I could see in him what I couldn't in Josh. Friendship. Promises that would be kept. A chance to get out of thishouse.
"Invite your friend over, darling," Teddi ordered, taking her hand back as her eyes strayed away—her mind likely turning over various ways to get what she wanted. "I expect that he'll come. Make sure his father isinvited."
I watched as she sashayed out of the study before turning and placing both of my palms down on the French, white wood of the desk. What was I going to do? I could put her off this week. Maybe even next week. Hell, I was good enough I could probably put her off for a long while. But I knew that look in her eyes. It was the same look she had the first time my father had attempted to leave her. She was on the hunt. Either for a new husband or for a lover who’d lavish her with gifts and money, I didn't know. All I knew was that I couldn't let my family fuck upMarv's.
The phone in my pocket rang and it felt like eons before I finally managed to reach into my slacks and pull it out. "Grayson."
"Hey, man. Did you think it over?" Marv's voice rolled over the receiver, cheery,upbeat.
Shit. I coughed to alleviate the sudden dryness in my throat. "Yeah," I said, moving swiftly around the desk and taking a seat in the chair directly behind it. I swiveled around, my gaze finding thewindows.
The back lawn of the Vandersen-Caruso mansion was immaculate. A bubbling brook in the distance surrounded by tall cherry blossom trees, flown in from somewhere in Japan. There was a rose garden to the left where Teddi would often host tea parties. Though, that, too, had changed.Why?I thought to myself.Why the fuck would he do this to us? To me?It wasn't fucking fair. I shouldn’t be the one dealing with her. It should be myfather.
"And? What's your answer?" Marv's question drew me out of my musings, making me realize that I had gone silent for severalmoments.
I contemplated briefly how to approach this. I couldn't let him know the real reason why I couldn't join Iris, why I couldn’t be his friend. But it had to be something believable. Something that would stick with him. Something that would keep him from looking further into this. My gaze moved to the door that Teddi had exited just minutes before. She could control a lot of things, but she couldn’t control Marv. I knew that. If at all possible, I had to keep him as far away from me as possible. I glanced down at the surface of the desk—my father's desk—some father he was. There, on the surface, were the acceptance letters to a private school across the country. Jacques Morris Academy. I fingered the edges, hissing when I slit the pad of my thumb on the edge of one. Pulling the hurt digit away, I put it in my mouth, and tasted copper on mytongue.
"Grayson, are you stillthere?"
Fuck. I had done it again. I sat up straighter. "I'm here." I squeezed my eyes closed, blocking out the image of the back lawn and all of the beautiful things there. I didn't need to see what I was selling my soul for. What I was saving him from wasn't beautiful. It was cruel. It was a woman who would use her connections—her own son—to remain in a position of luxury and envy. Without Rodrick Caruso, she was just a failed trophywife.
And just like that, it hit me. I knew exactly what to do to drive him away. I leaned my head back into the chair, opening my eyes and feeling my fucking soul sink into the depths of my chest. "I can't accept your offer," I spat the last wordvenomously.
"What? Why?" Marv sounded surprised, as though he were already counting on my acceptance. If I were anyone else—had I been something other than a Caruso or a Vandersen—I would have. But I needed to keep him the fuck away from my shit, from my personal she-demon.
"Because I don't want to be connected to the son of a—" I choked on the wordcheater.