Holidays at the Jackson household were a solemn affair. Garnet Jackson had worked too hard at clawing her way out of poverty to settle for anything but an expensive and sophisticated holiday that showed off every bit of wealth she and her husband had accumulated in their years away from the slums. Half of her family hated her for it. The other half revelled in the chance to live like the rich for a day. Jade could never decide which half she agreed with. She’d never been good at following the crowd.

  This year she was leaning toward hating it. After graduating with a Fine Arts degree, she was well on her way to a life of creative frustration and poverty. Her mother didn’t care about the first, but the second was a capital sin given how hard she had struggled to drag her family into the upper echelon of society. Jade’s father might have been more concerned about his daughter’s wellbeing, but he knew better than to talk about it in front of his wife. And he wasn’t much for words anyway.

  “There you are, Jade, dear. My, what a festive outfit!”

  Jade’s grandmother was all of four feet three and the kindest, most generous woman she had ever met. “Nana,” Jade greeted her warmly, gently taking her crinkled hands into her own and bending over to look her in her spectacled eyes. “How are you?”

  “Well, the knees aren’t working so well these days, but I’m still walking so how can I complain?” Nana laughed, a raspy half-cough that made Jade worry about her health, but her toothy smile was infectious. “But how are you, J? How did your art exhibition go?”

  Not one to sugarcoat anything, Jade couldn’t manage to spin the truth into anything overly positive. “Well, it happened,” she said. “So that’s good.” Linking her arm with Nana she began leading her down the hallway to the living room where she could get her a drink to soothe that rough cough.

  “Did many people come?” Nana asked. “I was so sorry I couldn’t make it. The gout was acting up and I couldn’t stand for very long.”

  “A few people showed up. Only the one art critic.” Jade cringed at the memory. She’d cut the horrible article out and pasted it on the wall as motivation. Then she’d drawn devil ears on the author’s portrait and thrown a few darts at it. She was going to have fun refinishing that wall if she ever moved out of that miserable little apartment. Which was possible. She and Ethan had reconnected recently and he was looking for a place to stay in town and she could afford better if she had a roommate.

  “Vince said your work was lovely,” Nana said with warmth in her rheumy eyes.

  Jade’s father hadn’t said a word to her about the exhibit, but she wasn’t surprised that he had talked to his mother about it. He wasn’t the type to give praise directly. But she was surprised at the description. She wasn’t sure how anyone could describe an installation of bloody fur coats lined with money as lovely, but the cause was certainly just enough. “That’s charitable of him,” she said finally. “It was a lot of work. I’m so glad it’s over.” Jade collected a couple of glasses of eggnog from a tray as a server passed and handed one to Nana.

  “Here’s to your next exhibit!” Nana said, lifting her glass with a shaky hand.

  Managing a grin, Jade clinked glasses with her and they both drank. She didn’t mention that she had been creatively blocked since the exhibit and hadn’t painted or sculpted a single thing. Maybe she wasn’t cut out for this art thing after all.

  “Oh look!” Nana exclaimed, so excited that she nearly spilled eggnog over the front of her sweater. “Your brother’s here.”

  Jade’s expression tightened as she turned to look at the front door and watched Sloane sweep into the foyer with a petite blond on his arm. Zoe. That was a new development. Sloane was dressed in a classy brown pinstripe suit that practically sent their mother into hysterics at how utterly perfect it was. Bespoke, no doubt. And his shoes probably cost more than Jade’s rent.

  “Who wears a suit to a holiday party?” she muttered under her breath, grateful that Nana had already hobbled off to greet Sloane and didn’t hear the bitterness in her voice. Of course, Jade’s mother would have preferred that everyone dressed in tuxedos and evening gowns for her party. Jade herself was wearing a loud red and orange tie dyed crinkle skirt and a purple silk vest with nothing underneath it. The vest hid everything it needed to, but was certainly on the edge of propriety and her mother had nearly choked on her own tongue when she saw it. Which made the fact that she was freezing in the drafty marble and tile house completely worth it.

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  “I come bearing gifts,” Sloane announced to anyone in earshot, lifting a fancy black bag and pulling out a simple cardboard box stamped with the logo for his company, Motiv8.

  Their mother looked like she was going to cry when she took it, her dark eyes shining brightly in the candlelight as she opened the box and regarded the little plastic watch as if it were a diamond bracelet. “It’s beautiful,” she gasped.

  To Jade’s surprise, her mother’s only reaction to Zoe’s presence was to welcome her with a kiss on the cheek and loose embrace and wave her into the living room. Clearly she already knew about Sloane’s new love interest. Irritated by the fact that she was out of the loop, Jade stood at the back of the room and sipped her eggnog while she waited for her brother to notice her presence, but Sloane had a lot of admirers and was so busy making deliveries that he didn’t notice her for quite some time. In fact, Zoe noticed her first.

  “Jade,” she greeted with a forced smile that didn’t quite meet her eyes. “It’s been a while. You look great!” Yeah, that was definitely a lie. The slightly crazed look in Zoe’s eyes as she gave Jade a once over gave everything away.

  “And you look like a princess,” Jade cooed, gesturing to the white ruffled affair Zoe was wrapped in like a package stuffed with tissue paper.

  Zoe attempted to smooth some of the peacock layers of the skirt and shifted uncomfortably. “It’s a bit much, isn’t it? It’s not really my style, but Sloane liked it.”

  “He chose it for you?”

  Shrugging, Zoe’s hand wandered up to her hair absently, smoothing invisible hairs down in place. “He didn’t tell you about us, did he?”

  Echoing her shrug, Jade replied, “We don’t really talk much these days.”

  “Yeah. He stays really busy with his business,” Zoe said, clearly misunderstanding Jade’s unspoken message. “He’s a bit of a workaholic, to be honest. But I guess I’m not much better. Med school is pretty all-consuming.”

  Jade hadn’t asked. But Zoe was clearly nervous and babbling, so she just inclined her head and waiting for her to run out of steam. Sloane finally made his way over to them before that happened, but Jade wasn’t really paying much attention to Zoe’s rambling at that point.

  “Hey, J,” Sloane said warmly, not even flinching at her outfit. “Nice duds. Audacious as usual.”

  “And yours is so…” Jade waved a hand at him, “expensive.”

  “Ah, it’s not so much,” he scoffed. “But it does have some meaning for me. I landed my first investor in this suit.”

  “Nice.”

  “Oh, before I forget…” He retrieved another cardboard box from his bag of goodies and presented it to her with a flourish.

  “Thanks. I’m afraid it won’t go with my outfit.”

  He laughed. “Not sure many things would go with that outfit—but you wear it well!”

  “Right.” She took the box and narrowly resisted the urge to toss it over her shoulder. Unable to think of anything nice to say, she bit her tongue so hard that it stung. She wanted to tell him that she had no interest in a fitness tracker, especially one that he designed. But she knew that he probably actually cared what she thought and as much as she hated to let him win at anything she was not that cruel.

  “I’m going to go get a drink,” Zoe announced a little too brightly. “You want anything, babe?” she asked Sloane, and Jade tried not to wince at the term of endearment.

  “A glass of wine would be great,” he replied, giving her a peck on the cheek as she walked away.

  “So…” Jade said, drawing out the vowel. “You and Zoe. How long has that been going on?”

  Sloane smiled fondly. “A few months.”

  “So after she broke up with Ethan, then.”

  A scowl swept over Sloane’s features. “What kind of a guy do you think I am?”

  “A perfect gentlemen,” she said begrudgingly. A perfect everything, she thought to herself. She had never been able to compete with Sloane on anything. Even as children he had always been the golden child and she’d been the oddball that her mother would have believed had been adopted if she hadn’t delivered her herself. “I’m happy for you, bro,” she said with a forced smile, punching him lightly in the arm.

  “Thanks.” They stood in awkward silence while they waited for Zoe’s return, and she noticed that Sloane gulped at his wine as soon as she handed him the glass.

  “How is everything with you, Jade?” Zoe asked, really making an effort to bring some warmth to the conversation. “Did your exhibit go well? I was so upset that I couldn’t make it.”