My gaze shot ahead and to the right and… Marcus.
I let out a loud exhale.
He was talking about my ex, Marcus. Not Jack. I elbowed Brandon in the ribs. “Don’t do that to me.”
“What, did you think I meant…” He glanced over at me and winced. “Sorry.”
I took a deep breath and struggled for cool and calm. “We were just talking about Jack,” I said. “Of course I thought you were talking about Jack.”
The silence that followed was fraught with all the unspoken crap we hadn’t talked about since leaving Pinedale.
Like how I’d left Jack behind.
How Brandon had left Jack in silence.
How both of us had done our damnedest to pretend the brooding, hottie cowboy didn’t exist for the past month. Until he’d shown up on set yesterday, all sexy as sin and still just as judgmental as ever. I took a deep breath to ease the sick feeling at the mere memory of those eyes. That look. The clear disgust when he’d sized me up and found me wanting. “I just…” I huffed loudly and pointedly ignored Marcus’s gaze as we walked past.
I’d dumped his butt before I’d even left for Pinedale, and he’d had the nerve to rewrite the story while I was gone. Fair enough, I supposed. No one wanted to look like a loser. But that didn’t mean I had to make nice when I’d returned.
The only reason he wanted me back now was because he wanted to show the school that he was hotter, cooler, and had more game than Brandon.
Please.
Once Marcus was out of sight and out of mind, I continued, “I just don’t understand why you’d ask him to stay.”
Brandon shot me the side-eye. “Because he’s my best friend?”
“Yeah, but…” I huffed again as I tugged on his arm, dragging him into a deserted classroom where we couldn’t be overheard. “But… this,” I said, pointing between the two of us. “It’s hard enough to fool strangers and to keep up this act, but if Jack’s around—”
“I’m gonna tell him the truth, Lila.”
I blinked up at this guy who’d become so important to me so quickly. My best friend, I supposed. Maybe my only friend.
God, that was depressing.
“You are?” I said. “Are you… I mean, are you sure?”
His smile was slow and sweet. “Yeah. I mean, I’m not sure if I’m ready to announce it to the world yet—”
“Daddy wouldn’t let you even if you wanted to,” I reminded him.
He gave a short laugh. “Right. So it all works out. I’m still getting used to being in the public eye, I don’t really want to go there yet, but with Jack…” He shrugged. “He’s my best friend.”
I nodded. I got it. I mean, I sort of got it. I’d never had to make a decision like that, but I also knew that after this month, Brandon was ready to take this step. He’d be ready to shout it from the rooftops in no time, and I just felt bad that my dad’s deal would make that an impossibility… for a while, at least.
But not forever.
I looked toward the doorway as if people might be hovering outside with their ears pressed to the door. Of course, they weren’t. If anyone saw us disappear, they’d likely think we’d gone off to have a quickie in a deserted classroom.
I had a reputation like that.
Not that I’d ever done that, but I had no problem with people believing whatever they wanted about me. Especially if it helped sell our ruse.
“Good for you,” I said. Sure, it came out grudging, but I meant it. I was happy for him, just… not for myself. “I still don’t get why you needed him to stick around, though.”
I rubbed my bare arms as Brandon studied me. My short-sleeve button-down was appropriate for the weather outside, but for the air-conditioned classrooms of this academy? Not so much.
“I asked him to stay for you as much as for me,” Brandon said.
I met his gaze and let out a long, weary sigh.
“You have feelings for him, Lila,” Brandon said. His tone was so gentle it made my throat get all choked up.
We hadn’t talked about this. Ever. And for a good reason.
Mainly because I hated crying. Especially in front of other people. It was basically just as bad as hurling in public.
So gross.
Brandon’s gaze was warm and filled with understanding. “Look, I appreciate everything you gave up for me.” He reached out and squeezed my hands. “More than you’ll ever know. You saved me back in Pinedale, and for the first time in my life, I feel like I can breathe.”
I was having a hard time meeting his gaze—I hated when people got all gushy on me. “Yeah, well. You’re not gonna thank me when Richard wants to go public and you have to have an illicit affair.”
He gave a little snort of amusement. “I’ll deal with that when the time comes.” He arched his brows meaningfully. “I’ll deal with your father when the time comes too.”
I winced just thinking about it. “You don’t know my dad, Brandon. He doesn’t renegotiate.” But even as I said it, I wondered. What if the day came when Brandon could come out of the closet and our fake relationship would be over and I would be free to date whomever I wanted?
Jack’s face instantly filled my mind.
Yeah, I definitely wondered what would happen when that day came.
Or maybe… I hoped.
Whatever it was, this feeling was a weird one, and I didn’t know what to make of it. So, I crammed it right back into whatever dark hole it had come out of. After all, ever since dinner last week, Tess had been nothing but cryptic. It wasn’t like she’d given me much to hope for. She’d revealed almost nothing except that she’d enlisted Vivien to help get some leverage on Daddy, and that she needed my help to get some more necessary information.
She’d given me only the barest of details, but it was enough to figure out one thing.
Tess was investigating Daddy.
What she’d learned so far, and how long she’d been at it… I had no idea. And quite honestly, I was still wrapping my head around it. I mean, this new information meant I had to readjust all of my former feelings toward Tess. All this time, I’d been so sure she was Daddy’s lapdog. His spy and his lackey. And now…
Well, I still didn’t know much. But I didn’t think it was because she didn’t trust me, I kind of thought it was just her way. Tess was more mysterious and secretive than I’d ever realized. The more I realized how sneaky she was, the warier I became.
Like, seriously. How much crap did my sister have on me?
Brandon was eyeing me, waiting for me to respond.
Right. We were discussing Jack. My Jack. Jack who’d asked me to stay...
I glanced up at Brandon and he arched his brows up higher, prompting me to respond. To open up.
Honestly, I’d rather stand here and stew over my family drama than let my mind wander into Jack territory.
Nothing good ever came of it, and I think I already mentioned how opposed I was to crying.
“He doesn’t want me back,” I said.
I hated how it came out. How needy and pathetic. Ugh, this was why I didn’t talk about my feelings.
“You don’t know that,” Brandon said.
“I do.” I huffed loudly because it was better to sound like an entitled brat than a pathetic wuss. “You didn’t see the way he looked at me on set yesterday, Brandon. He…” I cleared my throat and tried for nonchalant. “He hates me.”
Brandon winced. I’d fooled no one with that casual tone. “He doesn’t hate you, he just… he doesn’t know the whole story. But once he does, he’ll get over it.”
I looked away, my mouth hitching to the side as I held back the urge to protest. I didn’t want to hear his optimistic view. I didn’t want to have hope.
Between Tess and Brandon, hope was like a drug, and they were the worst pushers on the block.
“Just give him a chance, okay?” Brandon said.
Give him a chance? My mind instantly went back to that night, right before I’d left Pineda
le. The way I’d hurt him. The way he’d wanted me…
It wasn’t about me giving him a second chance, it was about him taking another chance on me.
I wasn’t sure we could go back. I wasn’t sure love worked like that.
Hell, I wasn’t even sure what we’d had was love. Maybe if we’d had more time. Maybe if I’d stayed and figured out who I was away from Daddy and the drama…
But I hadn’t. And I refused to think about what might have been.
“Fine,” I said, cutting this conversation short just as the last bell rang. “Come on, let’s get out of here. I’ve got to get home for dinner.”
He fell into step beside me as we headed toward the parking lot. We’d done this often enough now that it felt like a weird sort of habit to let our bodies collide and our arms wrap around each other.
Honestly, if I didn’t know we were faking this happy couple routine, I’d be gagging right about now.
He swung open the doors to the outside. “Don’t tell me you have another dinner date with your dad,” he said, his voice filled with wariness.
“Nope. Different parent.”
“Your mom?”
I cast him a smirk as I nudged him with my hip. “Don’t worry, you don’t have to come.”
He let out a sigh that held even more relief than when I’d let him off the hook with my dad. And for good reason. My mom’s latest boyfriend was on location for something—didn’t know what, didn’t care. But it meant that my mom was lonely.
And by lonely, I meant horny.
No guys were off limits, even if they were my boyfriend.
Fake boyfriend. Whatever.
I was pretty sure my mom knew Brandon was gay—I’d gotten my impeccable gaydar from her, but that hadn’t stopped her from tormenting him with her merciless flirting. She got a kick out of making him blush.
She’d made enough ‘beard’ jokes that I was positive she was onto the fact that we were faking it for the press, but she wouldn’t tell. She’d been on Daddy’s bad side often enough to know the consequences.
If Daddy wanted us to play pretend, she’d go along with it. But like I’d said, that hadn’t stopped her from making him miserable with her teasing.
“Oh man, thank you. I couldn’t deal with another—” Brandon stopped talking so abruptly that I tensed. Then, I saw where he was looking, and I froze.
“Jack,” Brandon called out. “I didn’t realize you’d be here.”
I was still frozen at his side, but my mind was working well enough to know that Brandon’s comment was for my benefit more than Jack’s. He was not-so-subtly letting me know that he hadn’t intentionally sprung Jack on me.
As if I’d ever think that of Brandon. The guy was so not the sneaky sort.
Neither was Jack, which was how I knew he’d come here to see me. He was staying at Brandon’s, so if he wanted to see Brandon he could have just waited at home.
Sure enough, Jack’s gaze was trained on me. More than that, it was caught on us. On me and Brandon.
I stiffened, denying the urge to pull away from Brandon. I knew Brandon meant it when he’d said he’d come clean with Jack, but he hadn’t yet. And this wasn’t my secret to tell.
But whatever Jack saw when he looked between the two of us… I could have sworn he slumped slightly in relief.
Brandon caught it too, I was pretty sure, because he relaxed beside me and then kissed me on the top of the head as he squeezed my shoulders. “I’ll see you on set tomorrow, yeah?”
I nodded. Now that shooting was well underway, Brandon would be on set almost full time for the next few weeks. The production company had arranged it with the school that he could do private tutoring to make up for his time out of the classroom.
He and Amber… and now Jack. They’d all be on the set, getting tutored as they acted in the biggest primetime soap opera since Dallas. How cozy.
I didn’t get that kind of treatment, obviously, since I was merely the daughter of the executive producer and the girlfriend to the lead star.
Nope. Don’t mind little ol’ me.
Clearly I was just a little bitter.
And clearly, I was avoiding the issue.
Or rather, the guy.
Jack and I both watched Brandon walk away, casually intercepting a group of guys who’d been heading straight toward us, led by Marcus, of course.
Marcus was forever sticking his nose where it wasn’t wanted these days. But Brandon was grinning, and then Evie and Siobhan joined the group, and I was officially out of reasons to avoid looking at Jack.
“So,” he said slowly.
I dragged my gaze back to him like I would a kicking and screaming child. Don’t make me do this. Don’t make me do this!
Not again.
Brandon would talk to him. But in the meantime…
I met his unflinching gaze and forgot how to think. How to breathe. God, he looked good. He looked better than good. And if I moved any closer, I knew he’d smell like heaven on earth. And if I really lost my mind and wrapped my arms around his neck, he would feel like…
Well, I didn’t have a name for what it felt like when Jack held me in his arms.
A romantic might have said it felt like home, but that would be an insult in my case. The way he made me feel was like nothing I’d never known before, and certainly like nothing I’d ever experienced at home.
I shifted from one foot to the other as my mind, at least, adjusted to what was happening here.
Jack. Here. In the very place where I was supposed to be known as Brandon’s girlfriend.
I jerked my head toward the parking lot, hoping to get him out of view of the others—okay, fine, out of sight of Siobhan and Evie—before they could start sniffing around him like a dog.
And before I accidentally gave something away just by looking at him.
“Come on,” I said, already leading the way toward my car. “Walk with me.”
He gave me a familiar smirk as he fell into step beside me. “What… ashamed to be seen with me?”
“Something like that.” I softened it with a smile of my own, and for a second…
It was good.
This was good.
Bickering. Teasing. It was surprisingly easy after a month of silence.
“You saying I don’t fit in?” He pretended to be offended, and that made me laugh. “I’ll have you know I’m an actor now.”
“So I’ve heard.” I eyed him from head to toe. Yeah. I could see it. I could see exactly what the director was thinking when he’d hired Jack on the spot. Hot as hell and a legit cowboy?
He was too good to be true.
And he could have been mine.
I shoved the thought to the side as we drew close to my car.
“This your ride?” he asked, nodding toward the cream-colored convertible Maserati I was heading toward. “Nice,” he said. “It fits you.”
I tensed. “What does that mean?”
His silence had me glancing over, and my whole body felt hit by flames at the heat I saw there. “That wasn’t a dig, Lila. I just meant it’s beautiful.”
I tried to swallow.
My throat wasn’t working.
No part of me functioned properly around this guy.
He tore his gaze away first as we paused beside my car. “So, you and Brandon, huh?”
I studied him as he studied me. Brandon hadn’t told him yet, so I wouldn’t either. But everything in me wanted to explain. Wanted to make this right. “Look, can we—”
“I think I get it,” he said suddenly.
My eyes widened. “Um… you do?”
He eyed me again, and I braced for his judgment. Another sneer or a huff of disdain like he’d given me the other day, but his expression just remained guarded. “He said it wasn’t what I thought.” Pain flashed in his eyes and made my legs tremble. “He said you did all this for him. That you gave up…” He swallowed thickly. “Whatever it was we had… for him.”
A surge of
affection made my eyes sting. “He told you that?”
Jack sighed. “It’s why I stayed.”
The silence lasted too long as my chest filled with emotions that threatened to choke me. After a month of trying not to hope….
Hope was a freakin’ stubborn little witch.
His eyes burned when he took a step closer. “Was it real, Lila? With us, I mean. Was any of it real?”
Yes! Yes, of course. All of it. What I’d felt for him was the most real thing I’d ever experienced. The most solid and tangible emotion of my life.
The air left my lungs in a rush. I wanted to say ‘yes,’ but to say it, to admit it…
What would it change? I’d still be tied to Brandon, and Jack would be heading back to Pinedale eventually. He’d never want to be a part of this life, and I could never be a part of his. Not while my father still owned me. Not when being a part of my life meant that Jack would be another pawn in my father’s games.
I couldn’t do that to him. I couldn’t drag him into this mess, not when he had a kind father waiting at home and a town full of people who would miss him.
Oh God, my heart felt like it was breaking in two all over again as he waited for me to answer.
My phone dinged, saving me. Breaking the tension and letting me breathe as I pulled it out of my purse and looked at the text.
Tess. I blinked in dismay at the novel she’d sent me. Step by step instructions for what she needed me to do. I’d need to get access to my mom’s computer without her noticing to install this spyware that Tess was sending me.
“Hey, Lila, who’s your new friend?” Evie called out. “Bring him up to meet me.”
Jack and I both looked up to see we had an audience.
Evie bit her lip and even from here I could see her sizing up the new hottie.
As if I’d ever let her get her claws into my guy.
Mine. I glanced up at Jack, unnervingly off-kilter as this surge of possessiveness swept over me. But he’d barely given Evie and the others a second look before turning back to me.
Waiting.
He was still waiting for the truth. And I wanted to give it to him.
My lungs deflated and my chest sank with a crazy mix of relief and disappointment as I realized that now was so not the time to be having this conversation, and this place—I glanced up to see Marcus and Evie watching me with unveiled curiosity.
Princess of Hollywood (The Glitterati Files Book 2) Page 6
