Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 82698 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 413(@200wpm)___ 331(@250wpm)___ 276(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 82698 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 413(@200wpm)___ 331(@250wpm)___ 276(@300wpm)
But he couldn’t forget Gareth’s reaction, and his fear for artists like his best friend. The real world would crush some of them. He couldn’t allow any lingering consequences for Dylan.
Saskia had left, off to confer with San Holo about the mural, Clay assumed. Hopefully, she would talk with the artist about Dylan, especially because he’d painted in the same alley that San had a week ago. He could only hope the great man would impart some wisdom that Saskia could relay to Dylan, something strictly artist to artist. Maybe Gareth could help, too, and lend advice from someone who’d been through the same thing.
Then Clay did the only other thing he could. He called for an emergency family mastermind. Everyone was in, and they could all make it by late afternoon.
A few months ago, his sister Ava had started the mastermind as a space for everyone to air their issues and solicit advice. His brothers and sisters were his best friends, always there for each other, even in the middle of the night.
Not quite the cocktail hour yet and a Thursday to boot, the elegant Asian fusion restaurant in San Francisco’s Chinatown was far from full. Clay had nevertheless reserved the large round table in the middle. His family were all there for him when he entered. Even Fernsby, who’d been with Dane—and the whole family, truth be told—for over fifteen years. He was tall, thin, and ageless—no one knew exactly how old. Fifty, sixty, or, good Lord, even eighty. There was just no way to know. But Fernsby dispensed advice like an ancient oracle.
Fernsby, always a miracle worker, had managed to get the restaurant owner to allow him to bring in Dane and Cammie’s mini dachshund, T. Rex. That man could talk anyone into anything.
Clay gave his sister Gabby a hug and whispered in her ear, “Thanks for coming.”
Ava had somehow inherited the red hair of some distant, even far-flung relative, but his younger sister was blond like their mother. Gabby had driven up from Carmel with Fernsby, Dane, and Cammie. She owned a bakery on Ocean Avenue, the main drag of Carmel-by-the-Sea. She’d also franchised her vegan cafés in cities all over the country, where they all used her recipes. She had no ego, and if one of her franchisees came up with something extraordinary, she incorporated it into the menu, giving full credit.
He moved on, kissing Cammie’s cheek. Then he said to all of them, “Thanks for coming on the spur of the moment.”
Dane clapped him on the back. “We’re family.” Which said it all.
Cammie and Dane had been an item for a year, though Cammie had been his personal assistant for more than ten. Now his project manager, she oversaw the logistics for Dane’s new resort for kids and adults with special needs. She was also the love of his life, though it had taken too damned long for Dane to realize that. Or, more aptly, until he would admit it.
Ava, statuesque and only a few inches shorter than Clay, threw her arms around him, then backed off, holding him by the shoulders. “Of course we’re here, little brother.” She waved a hand over the group, including Ransom Yates seated next to her. “You were all here for me last year when I had that catastrophe with the caterer.”
After firing her caterer, Ava had been frantic to find a replacement for her five Bay Area eldercare homes. Though she had facilities all over the country, and internationally, she used regional caterers for each. Clay was pretty sure he’d been the one to suggest she try Ransom Yates, a celebrity chef who also catered large events.
Did that mean Clay was also responsible for their love story? Shaking Ransom’s hand, he didn’t miss the gleam in the man’s eyes as he turned his gaze back to Ava.
That was definitely love. Same for Cammie and Dane.
Then it hit him in the chest. Could this be what he felt for Saskia? He hadn’t known her long, but his feelings were different than they’d been with anyone who’d come before. Perhaps even cataclysmic.
As he took a seat next to Ransom at the round table, he asked, “Where’s Troy?” just in time for his brother to breeze in. Troy was a couple of years older than Clay. In fact, all his siblings were two years apart. The timing was so exact, he had to think his parents planned his mother’s pregnancies around their worldwide ski adventures.
Troy threw himself into his chair, out of breath as if he’d been running. “Sorry I’m late. I had a meeting with a new vendor that took longer than expected.”
Troy had gone from gold-medal Olympic diver to spokesman for several sports manufacturers, and now he’d built his own sporting goods line into a conglomerate with stores worldwide. But he still found time to deliver inspirational speeches to youth groups.