Little Known Facts A Novel - By Christine Sneed Page 0,13

squeezes past them, murmuring an apology, pulling Danielle with him. The hostess looks at them with a blank expression until Will says his father’s name, and then her face is transformed by a smile so sincere that Danielle feels an answering smile spread across her own face. Will doesn’t return the girl’s smile but his expression is softer than it was at home, when he initially resisted her suggestion that he change into an unwrinkled shirt and a clean pair of khakis. In that sour moment, Danielle could not see herself moving in with him, at least not any time soon.

Renn is already seated at a table on the far left side of the stage, one half hidden from the room’s general view by a pillar decorated with a twining string of white Christmas lights. Anna is at the table too, Will’s pretty younger sister who is so different from him in temperament that Danielle privately marvels over the fact they were raised in the same family. When she and Will are spotted, both Renn and his daughter stand up. Danielle can feel herself blushing when Renn hugs her. His embrace feels oddly apologetic but also proprietary, and she smells whiskey on him and a clovelike aftershave. He is warm and bearishly strong, and she can’t ignore the rush of pleasure she feels when he touches her.

“It’s so nice to see you both,” Renn says as he settles back in his chair. “Danielle, you look as gorgeous as always.”

She looks down at the table, self-conscious but thrilled. The whites of her eyes feel seared when she looks up at him again.

“Don’t let her get away from you, Billy,” he adds, his smiling, flirtatious gaze still on her.

“I’m not planning to,” says Will, his voice a little too loud, even for the club’s cacophony.

“How are you, Anna?” Danielle asks, already feeling the tension between the two men, a whole heated front having moved into the bar with them.

“I’m doing well,” says Anna. “Four weeks left in the semester and then just one more before I graduate.”

“Dr. Ivins,” Renn says proudly. “Just like her mother.”

“But she would have liked me to be a pediatrician too.”

“You can help more people if you go into family medicine,” says Renn.

“She could help a lot of people as a pediatrician too,” says Will.

“Of course she could,” says Renn, “but she should do what she feels most passionate about.”

“You guys,” says Anna, smiling warily. “Don’t worry about me. I’m just glad I’ll be graduating soon.”

Renn laughs. “With the highest grade-point in the class.”

“No, not at all,” she says, abashed.

“But close, I’m sure,” her father says. “You’re too modest for your own good, sweetheart.”

“What’s going on in New Orleans, Dad?” Will asks, handing Danielle the beverage menu, which she finds is unpleasantly sticky. She looks at him, but his expression is as nonchalant as his tone.

“We finished shooting thirty-six hours ago,” says Renn. “A day and a half ahead of schedule. I couldn’t believe it. Saved us more than a hundred grand. Now we just have to put everything together so that it makes sense.” He winks at Danielle.

“Is Elise back in L.A. too?” says Will.

His father drinks from his water glass, not meeting his son’s eyes. “Yes, she is.”

“Elise?” says Anna. “Your female lead?”

“Yes,” Will and Renn say simultaneously.

Anna laughs. “Wow, in stereo.”

Will gives Danielle a strange, guilty look, and in that moment, she finally understands the real source of his and his father’s recent problems. It feels as if someone has come up suddenly from behind and pushed her, but she knows that she shouldn’t be surprised. The beautiful, famous girls who interest the father would of course interest the son too, all the more because the son isn’t likely to have them, at least not first. She teased Will about this once—had his father ever given him a hand-me-down girlfriend? She hadn’t realized how her question would disconcert and embarrass him; how close, it seemed, she had cut to the bone.

Objectively, the father, despite being twice his son’s age, is the more desirable man. Along with the money and the fame, it is his confidence, his stature, his sheer Renn Ivins-ness that draws people to him. He is his own thriving industry, a true celebrity, with his metal star already embedded in the famous sidewalk a few miles away. How many women have offered themselves to him over the years? How many women, the world over, believe themselves to be in love with him at