Commitment (51 page)

Shawn still looked tired, and his voice was strained as he talked about working with Mike and Darryl in California
.
Something still
bothered him about helping promote them but this time
Riley
knew better than to press
him on it
.
She had her suspicions, but wanted him to tell her
.
Until that happened there was no point
nagging him about it.
Instead she
talked about
work
;
but only in the most superficial way because it was obvious his mind was elsewhere.
As she spoke, she could feel his eyes running back and forth over her frame.

“You want to keep your eyes on the road there partner?” she joked.

“You look nice,” he said, but there was
some reservation in his tone
.

She was wearing a white crocheted halter and white palazzo pants
with high-heeled white sandals.
Cameron Cole’s part
ies were always white parties.
He claimed in
a
Rolling Stone
interview
that
he’d
originated the idea before some other rap mogul had stolen it.
So now he had his white party in the late spring, well ahead of the other guy's white party which was generally much later in the summer.
But t
hat was a standard Cameron Cole
type of
claim.
He was constantly beefing with others in the entertainment business, usually because they were “biting” off him, or hadn’t given him his props in some way.

Riley knew all this because she’d looked him up, researching him as though he was a story she was about to write.
This new life of hers was still taking some time to adjust
to – the
new cast of characters was tough to keep up with, but the one advantage to their being in the entertainment business was that Shawn’s friends and colleagues all had a staggering array of information about them just floating around in the public domain.

Shawn had grudgingly gone along with the dress code, wearing an off-white li
nen suit with all-white Pumas.
Since it was obvious he didn’t really want to go the Hamptons, Riley wondered but did not ask, whether it was worth it to make the long drive.

“How was the interview with Chris?” he asked out of nowhere.

“Fine,” she said, keeping
her voice light. “He talked to me about his sister. So thank you for that.”

“No problem,” Shawn said, his voice low. And then after a few beats. “You two talk about anything else?”

“
You know,” Riley said vaguely. “
Stuff.
And you’re right. I shouldn’t have judged him.”

Shawn didn’t answer. Riley looked over at his face, trying to make out his expression in the dim light, trying to gauge his mood. When he returned home from one of his trips, there was never any way to tell what kind of mood he was going to be in. Sometimes he was buoyant and playful, other times quiet and taciturn. Tonight, he seemed moody. It was frustrating, not being able to read him.

“So is
Brendan
related to
Cameron Cole
?” she asked, in part just to stifle the silence.
“They have the same last name, so I just wondered . . . .”

“Cousins,” Shawn said. “They’re not close.”

“Oh.” She didn’t know what else to say. She was all out o
f ideas for how to pull him out of his weird mood.

Ridiculous; t
hat was the word that came to mind as soon as
Riley spotted Cameron Cole’s house.
It
was a vulgar, ostentatious approximation of a French chalet and
seemed to go on forever,
blocking any view of the surf
from the road.
She could only imagine how thrilled the neighbors had been when construction of
this monstrosity was complete and they realized that their view had been basically poached from them.

As
they pulled up, Shawn put a hand on her knee and Riley turned to face him.

“Let’s not stay too long, okay?” he said.

She nodded. “Okay.”

Valets in red vests were dashing back and forth, opening doors and parki
ng cars as the guests arrived.
As Shawn surrendered their car keys,
Riley
looked around at th
e other guests.
She
recognized
a good proportion of
the revelers
as people who were constantly in the entertainment news
.
The entryway was
l
it with hundreds of tea-lights and the chandeliers inside were just dim enough to accentuate the effect, calling to mind a clear night and starlit sky
. 

“You like this?” Shawn asked
.
“We could buy something out here if you want.”

“Only if it has a spot to land our helicopter
,” Riley said.
“Y’know, so I don’t have to worry
a
bout traffic and all
that
crap the little people put up with.”

Shawn l
aughed.
“You got jokes, huh?”

“
Even if we ever got a place in the Hamptons, it couldn’t be anything like this.
Can you imagine how many
beachside cottages had to die to make way for this
place
?
”

“And think of all the seagulls that got evicted,” Shawn said in mock horror.

Riley
punched
him in the arm.
“Yes.
Exactly.”

Shawn
held
Riley
’s hand as they entered,
stopping once to
introduc
e
her
to a popular R&B singer who was with her husband
.
Inside, servers in white tuxedos skillfully navigated the crowd, holding aloft
trays of canapés and champagne.
Shawn reached for two glasses,
handing
one to
Riley
then ta
king her free
hand once again.
The house seemed to have been emptied of all its furniture, except for white overstuffed sofas, and a smattering of
matching
arm
chairs.
Through a wall of French doors,
Riley
could just make out the rear of the house
, where around an infinity pool – in
which even more candles floated –
guests milled.
The trees nearby were decorated with Chinese lanterns,
also white.
In the distance, the foam of the breakers was just visible. 

“
Wow.
Now
that’s
p
retty,”
Riley
admitted
.

“Pretty over the top,” someone said.

Riley
turned to see a short dark-skinne
d woman with a quirky haircut,
buzzed on the sides and back but long and f
lopping over her eyes in front.
She was
dressed in
an oversized white tuxedo
with
boxy lines that didn
’t quite conceal her femininity,
thoug
h that seemed to be the intent,
and
white
wing tips
.
Shawn leaned over and kissed her on the cheek.

“
Riley
, this is Jodi Weeks.
Jodi; my wife
Riley
.”

“I was beginning to doubt you existed,” Jodi Weeks said extending a hand.

Riley
took it and smiled, ignoring the commentary, since she didn’t understand what it meant in any event.

“Y
ou’re just as cute as everyone’s been saying,” Jodi continued.

“Jodi.
” Shawn’s voice held a note of warning.

“What?
I’m just saying.
I
heard she was cute and she is.”
Then she turned to
Riley
.
“I don’t mean to talk about
you as though you’re not here.
Sorry.”

Jodi Weeks regarded her for a few moments more, looking her over
from head to toe.
Then she abruptly turned to Shawn.
 

“
I’ll catch up
with
y’all later
.
I’m going to go check out what else Cameron has going on in th
is joint,
”
she said.

Riley
watched
as she
walked away and when she was safely out of earshot turned to Shawn
looking at him
archly
.

“Yes
,” he said,
“
T
he answer is yes.”

“How recently?”

“Not for years.”

“
Years
?”
Riley
asked.
“And she’s still
that
into you.”

“She’s not still into me,” Shawn said shaking his head.

Riley
rolled her eyes.
“Okay.
Sure.”

Shawn pulled her closer, wrapping
his
arm
s about her waist and leaning
in to kiss her on the collarbone. 

“Don’t try to butter me up,”
she said, trying not to laugh.
“You better not have brought me into a den of your ex-girlfriends.”

“Not a den of them,” Shawn said into her sho
u
lder.
“Maybe just one or two.
Or three.
Four
tops
.
”

Riley’s token display of faux-jealousy seemed to lighten his mood and Shawn leaned in, pressing his forehead against hers, then kissing
her. Riley responded easily, feeling herself relax
.
As long as he was touching
her that
was a language she understood.
Shawn
suddenly
looked up, his jaw tighten
ing
. 

“
Riley
,
Cameron Cole.
Cam, this is my wife.”

Riley
turned to greet their host and
disliked him on sight. Maybe it was because of Shawn’s non-verbal cues, but something about him immedi
ately rubbed her the wrong way.
He was
tall, but not quite
a
s tall as Shawn and looked
African-American and Asian.
She recognized him
of course, but he looked a lot rougher around the edges
than his CD jackets suggested.
He wore a
white
fedora
, jauntily cocked to on
e side, and a white linen suit.
On his wrist was a gold watch that rivaled the house in its
tastelessness
, and t
here were
gold caps on his front teeth.
H
is eyebrows appeared to have been
plucked and
arched.
R
apper
gone metrosexual. 

“
Mrs.
Gardner.
”

H
e took her hand, holding it a little too long.
Beside her, Shawn’s displeasure was
so
palpable
Riley
almost expected him to wrench
it
free
. 

“I saw your manager by the pool lookin’ like he done lost his
puppy,” Cameron said
to Shawn
.
“What’s up with that nigga?”

“He a’ight,” Shawn said dismissively.

“You should go find him,”
Riley
said
.
“
It’s
fine
, I’ll wait here
.”

Shawn glanced out to the
pool, looking
torn
between going to find Brendan and
staying with
her.
Riley smiled
reassuringly
.
As soon as
he
was gone,
she felt
Cameron
’s hand
on her
shoulder.
W
hen she turned
to face him
, he
had moved significantly
c
loser.
The
strong earthy scent
of his cologne
filled her nostrils.
She
took a step back.