couture and gold and diamonds.
I’m just as good as everyone here, Hara told herself sternly, squaring her shoulders. She ran a palm across her flat stomach; the dress and jacket clung in the right ways, even if doing nothing to hide her hard nipples. With her hair pulled up loosely, she’d followed the directions from a Vogue video and added a dab of rose-colored blush to her angular cheeks, mascara to her already dark and long lashes, and a sheen of pink-tinged lip gloss to lightly lined lips. She felt sexy. Also professional, she reminded herself, fingering a rolled-back cuff on the silky suit jacket. But she’d let the jacket hang open, and it slid over her hips, not hiding her curves.
Hara found it amusing that O’Donnell suggested she would only find something to talk about with the young women in the room. Her job was to talk to everyone, and this was a varied crowd. The professional athletes tended to stand out, being at least a head taller than the other men. She recognized a few of the Fisher team owners, and a handful of movie and music people.
When she spotted Kendrick Lamar with Mark Wahlberg, she thought she might pee herself, just for an instant, but then got her fangirling under control. It was time for business.
* * *
Derek appraised the twin butlers in gold livery and white gloves at the entrance to the grand room, sentinels guiding and guarding at the same time.
His mother would have scoffed and claimed this was new money, whispering loudly about the gaucheness. But Derek could respect that people wanted grandeur in their life. They wanted a sense of import. Of magnificence. What was wrong with that?
Charles had stopped twenty feet from the entrance to the room, to let Derek retie his tie.
“Wreck, can I tell you something?” Charles asked, his head craned up. “We good, right? You and me been buds since forever, since we was grommets, skateboarding to the courts.”
Derek dropped his hands, done with the tie. “Yeah?”
“If something did come out about me, something that might make me look bad, you’d have my back, right?”
“Oh Jesus.” Derek’s heart lurched. He peered around, made sure no one was close. “Fuckin’ A, man. ’Course I got you.”
“I’ll tell you about it later, but I didn’t kill nobody, you can get that look off your face.”
“Hold up.” Derek pitched his voice low. “Is this about your mom? Her coming into money before you went off to play pro ball?”
“Goddamn it, I knew you caught that. Ma. The biggest mouth.”
“You the one bringin’ it up.”
Charles walked farther away from the party entrance and the people, Derek following.
“She didn’t know what she was doin’ was wrong. Before I announced where I was going to college, the school came to Ma and told her they’d give her money if I went there. They called it a bonus, told her everyone did it. She knew that’s where I wanted to go anyway, so she didn’t spend too much time thinking about it, just accepted the money. You know her. So damn naive. I didn’t know anything about it until I came back home on my first break and she was changin’ shit up. She thought she’d surprise me.” He groaned. “She did.”
“Why you telling me this? Especially right now?”
“What if the press finds out? What if this reporter did some digging before she came here? What if I’m about to get jumped?” Charles eyes were wide, his nostrils flared.
“Goddamn it.” Derek clenched his fists, not sure what to think. “How could you let this happen? It’s not just your mother. Your school could be stripped of every title you won for them, and you’ll get fired.”
“I don’t need the lecture right now. I need your support.”
“You know what you need to do? You need to go in there and out yourself right now, get ahead of this thing, put your spin on the story. I know your mother, I believe you, there was no way she realized she was doing something wrong.”
His friend was unable to meet his gaze.
Derek inhaled sharply, having thought of something else. “O’Donnell knows about it. It’s why he doesn’t want you to talk to reporters.”
“Yes and yes.”
“What a slimy fucker. Did he know before he brought you onto the team?”
Charles shoved his hands in his pockets. “We gotta go in. I’ll explain more later. But will you come into the interview with me? Watch the reporter, see if you think she