“Yeah, it’s nice.” She let out a little giggle aimed straight at my heart. “You really don’t miss it?”
I decided Keri was old enough for the truth. “I did for a while after I first quit, because it’s all I’d ever known. But this last shoot showed me that I’m past it. I’m happy with where I am today.” Mostly. “I just need to find my next chapter, that’s all.”
“Why? I thought you were rich.”
“We have money, but I’m a father now, I need to set an example for you. Can’t have you thinking you can just laze about all day and live off your savings. Besides, I’m too young to sit in a rocking chair on the porch waiting for death.” That, and I was pretty sure that any day now, Valona will find a valid reason to no longer require my services.
“Write a book about modeling or something. Or start a blog, everybody has one.” Keri flashed another smile and dutifully ate her salad before diving for another slab of lasagna. “I hear pretty people like you get paid tons of money to wear fancy clothes and pimp other people’s products.”
I choked on my beer. “First of all, pimp?”
“Yeah, it means to endorse or advertise. I’m working on my slang so I’ll seem more like everyone else in my class.” She chewed slowly and then smiled when her mouth was empty. “Second of all?”
“You shouldn’t be giving me career advice, that’s my job.”
She nodded. “I plan to have my career mapped out by the age of fifteen, so we still have a few years. Your problem is today.”
Who was this little girl, and had she always been so great? “I’m glad you’re here with me Keri. I miss your mother like crazy.”
“Me too,” she admitted. “I’ll bet she’s getting a big ol’ laugh out of us here together, trying to find our way without her.” She smiled brightly across the table. “She would be proud of the job you’re doing, Uncle Trey.”
“Thanks kiddo, I hope so.” At least someone thought I was worth more than my face and my body.
“Uncle Trey?”
“Yeah, Keri?”
“Mrs. Berryman has loads of romance books on her shelves.”
I nodded because I’d seen them all over the bookshelves, end tables and even in the kitchen. “She’s an avid reader like you.”
“No, she devours romance novels, Uncle Trey. She is a romantic at heart, and Momma always said that a woman who loves romance also loves a grand gesture.”
A grand gesture. I didn’t know if it was appropriate, and I wasn’t sure it would make a difference to Valona’s age concerns. “Thanks kiddo, I’ll take it under advisement.”
“All right. Is there any dessert?”
I smiled because no matter what happened with Valona, I was crushing my relationship with Keri.
Chapter 21
Valona
The studio was dead today.
Completely and totally dead. There had been only one session booked for the day, and thanks to a weekend hiking mishap, it had to be rescheduled. That was fine, stuff like this happened more often than I would like, but most people just rescheduled, so it wasn’t a bad omen for the business or anything.
The booming silence in the studio though, felt like a bad omen for the future. I’d stupidly told Trey that he didn’t need to come in today. Not out of spite—not necessarily—but I needed some space and some time to think, and being with him in the studio all day just seemed like a bad idea.
Not that his absence inside the studio meant that I hadn’t seen him all day. It felt like every single time I looked out the studio window, there he was. Not looking through my window, nope. He was out being a good neighbor, a friendly neighbor. He’d helped Ricky Boone decorate The Book Shoppe for Valentine’s Day, hanging up cupid silhouettes and lace hearts outside and on the front door. He’d done the same for Maybelle down at the Life’s A Yarn, helping the sixty-six year old woman hang up her red and white knit blanket with the giant heart in the center. The old girl had stood out there and ogled his perfectly fine backside for the entire fifteen minutes it took for him to hang everything.
When he was finished Maybelle patted his perfectly sculpted ass and then his cheeks before he followed her inside, where I knew she would reward him with snickerdoodles and tea.
He was everywhere, and I felt as if I couldn’t escape him. Not that Trey seemed all that broken up over our fight and possible break up. He was all smiles for everyone who crossed his path, stopping to chat with locals as if he’d been living here all of his life. Anyone watching wouldn’t think there was any inner turmoil inside the man, especially not the groups of women who went out of their way to stop and chat wherever he was.