seen sides of him that no one else has seen. He could be a good person, if he wanted to be.” Bitterness now colored Blake’s voice, the sadness gone. “But I found out the hard way that he has no desire to change. And that’s all I have to say on the subject.”
From some of the things I’d heard Cyrus say to and about Blake, I got the feeling the desire to change each other had been mutual. Cyrus would have loved to convert Blake into a full-scale Olympian, and the fact that his current boy toy bore such a striking resemblance to Blake made me wonder if he’d ever fully abandoned that hope.
“Did this stuff make you feel better, or worse?” Blake inquired.
Honestly, I had no idea. “Knowledge is power, right?” I said with a shrug that was supposed to look careless, but probably didn’t. “I’ll just have to hope he finds some inoffensive use for me before anything potentially sticky comes up.”
What I didn’t say, but I suspect we both knew, was that if something sticky came up, I might balk at it despite it fitting the letter of our agreement. The consequences of balking might turn out to be disastrous—no way would Cyrus take it well if I failed to honor our agreement—but I would just have to cross that bridge when I came to it. And hope I never did.
ELEVEN
I’d turned my cell phone off during the meeting with Cyrus, and I didn’t remember to turn it back on until I was in my suite after talking to Blake. I saw that I’d missed a call from Steph.
With the way my life had been going lately, I couldn’t help bracing a bit in fear of bad news, but Steph’s perky greeting instantly put me at ease.
“I got your message,” I said. “What’s up?”
“I called that trustee I know,” she answered, and for a moment I didn’t know what she was talking about. In all the stress and drama, I’d temporarily forgotten about my plan to draw Jamaal out of his shell.
“Wow. You work fast.” I wouldn’t have been surprised if she’d dragged her feet about it, considering how much she disapproved of my interest in Jamaal.
She breathed a delicate sigh. “Well, after what happened, I figured you’d be badly in need of an escape.”
My heart swelled with love for my sister, who was way better to me than I had any right to expect. “You have enough balls in the air trying to get ready for the big homecoming. I don’t want to add to your workload.” I knew Steph had already talked to the insurance company multiple times, and that she had rented a furnished condo for the Glasses to stay in while the house was being rebuilt.
“It wasn’t that much work. Just a few phone calls.”
“Have I ever told you you’re amazing?”
I could hear Steph’s smile in her voice. “Will you still think I’m amazing if I tell you I’ve arranged for you to meet with the curator of the exhibit for a private showing at seven o’clock tonight?”
“Tonight?” I asked in a startled squeak.
“Yeah. Sorry for the short notice, but Dr. Prakash is going to be massively busy in the next few weeks, so the only time she could fit you in was today.”
When I’d asked Steph if she could set something up, I’d imagined Jamaal and me being shown around during regular business hours by a docent. Not being given a special, after-hours showing with the curator, who was probably already overworked and underpaid.
“I don’t want to put her out,” I said, hedging.
“It’s a done deal,” Steph said firmly. “I’ve done a lot of favors for people who’ve donated a lot of money and art, and I was past due to call some of them in.”
“Yeah, but the curator isn’t—”
“She’ll be excited to have a chance to show off the exhibit, especially if Jamaal is knowledgeable about art, which I gather he is.”
The books in his room gave me the same impression, but I wasn’t convinced Dr. Prakash was going to be as thrilled to show us around as Steph thought. If it were me, I’d resent being made to drop everything just because someone with connections wanted a special perk.
“She’s already rearranged her schedule to fit you in,” Steph said. “Don’t you dare try to wriggle out of it. And instead of asking Jamaal if he wants to go, you’d better tell him he’s going. It would be unspeakably rude to