Chapter 11: Two Questions

Kelsey left first. She fixed her hair at the door and went out smiling.

I stood at the sink until my hands stopped shaking.

Then I dried them and walked back out onto my mother's roof.

The trio was playing something slow. Rafferty was dancing with Kelsey under the lanterns, his hand low on her back.

Cal was by the railing, where I'd left him, watching the door. He straightened when he saw my face.

"What happened?"

"Stay here," I said. "I'll tell you in a minute. Everybody's about to hear it."

My mother was at the end of the bar in a black pantsuit, drinking a martini she'd made herself.

She'd been watching the powder room door too.

"Mom. Can I borrow your roof?"

She held out the microphone. She'd had it the whole time.

"It's your roof too," she said.

I walked into the middle of the deck. The trio stumbled and stopped.

Rafferty and Kelsey stopped dancing.

"Sorry," I said into the mic. "I know this isn't my party. It'll take two minutes."

Rafferty let go of Kelsey. "Lainey. Don't."

"You made a joke about my strings," I said to the crowd. "So let's talk about them."

"I'm not going to ask anybody here to believe in them. I don't need you to."

Some people shifted on their feet. Somebody's ice rattled.

"I'm going to let somebody else do the asking."

I looked at Kelsey on my way past.

Kelsey's smile was still on, but it had gone stiff at the corners.

I turned to Rafferty's mother, who was standing by the bar with her wine.

"Mrs. Sheridan. I'd like you to ask your son two questions. Just two. You'll know if he's lying. You raised him."

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