Emily arrived with Abigail. All dressed up, Emily hardly resembled the sobbing woman in the parking lot, whose life had been in ruins just a few weeks before. We talked regularly since that night, and when her husband had resurfaced, not a big surprise, she told him he needed to get help before he was welcome back in the family. He had opted to keep drinking. I listened while she cried, and I made sure with the help of the Sunshine House staff that she could stand on her own. It was my intention that she get one of the houses in the new developments that Lexi and I were going to build.

“I did,” Emily said. She was grinning at Elijah. “You looked amazing up there, being Mr. Daire’s helper.”

“Nick,” I corrected her.

“Nick,” she said with a nod. She glanced down at her son. “Want to go see the exhibits before your sister falls asleep?”

“Yeah,” Elijah said. He turned to me and gave me a hearty high five. “See ya, Nick.”

“See ya, buddy.”

“Thank you,” Emily said, but it ended on a yelp as her son pulled her away. I had a driver waiting to take them home whenever they were ready, but I appreciated that they were here. They grounded me.

“Time to own your bullshit.” Jackson’s voice boomed, and I was about to snap back that I was when I noticed the leader of the protesters I had seen from backstage was standing in front of Lexi.

“I . . . I’m sorry, Ms. Daire,” he said. He was tall and thin with a scraggly beard. He looked to be about nineteen. “I didn’t know . . . I didn’t realize—”

“Idiot,” one of his fellow protesters muttered.

The young man turned a deeper shade of red, blushing all the way to the roots of his dark brown hair.

“I grew up in that neighborhood, and I saw the construction happening, and I just assumed it was going to be more of those overpriced town houses that are horrible for the environment and the economy.”

Okay, now it was my turn to get red-faced as I was responsible for a lot of the poorly planned gentrification of the city. Annabelle joined the group, and I saw the wicked twinkle in her brown eyes when she heard what was being said.

“Your heart was in the right place, err, what’s your name?” Lexi asked.

“Jacob.”

“Come visit me at the jobsite,” Lexi said. She grinned. “We can formulate a plan about what to do about those horribly cheesy developments.”

Jacob grinned. “I’d like that.” He shook her hand and then departed, signaling to his squad that it was time to go.

“Impressive speech,” Jackson said to Lexi as we watched them leave.

“Wasn’t Nick amazing?” Lexi cried. She hugged Jackson tight and stared up at him. “I was so nervous. I made a mess out of it, didn’t I?”