So, right now? I recognized that wary look for what it was. Protectiveness. But the fact was, this girl was new here, and she was just that… a girl. What harm could she do?
“Lila and her sister are here from California,” Jack said, a note of warning in his voice, though the warning seemed to be directed toward Lila since he hadn’t taken his eyes off her.
She didn’t notice. Her gaze was still locked onto mine as she made her way toward me, carefully picking her steps as she trod over sticks and stones.
“Those are some shoes,” Amber said, laughter in her voice. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen Louboutins in the wild before.”
Lila ignored her, all her attention was on me as she reached my side and placed a hand on my arm. “It’s such an honor to meet you.”
The heat that had been burning my skin made my mouth go dry. “Uh…”
Yeah. Eloquent. That was me.
“I’m such a big fan of Love on the Range,” Lila said. Her blue eyes met mine, and they were filled with sincerity and warmth and something so sweet it made my chest hurt. “Your father was a hero for me.”
“Thank you.” I managed to get words out even though they sounded gruff. Like I’d said, few people spoke about my dad anymore, and when they did it was about something that seemed foreign to me. The memories the older folks here in Pinedale had of him didn’t mesh with the man I remembered.
But then, my memories of my dad were mainly from the set and from the stories my mom had told me about him. I preferred the memories from the set. “He was my hero too,” I said.
I think I surprised all of us with that mushy comment. I felt Amber’s hand squeeze my other arm, and Jack looked down at the ground and kicked the dirt with his toe.
Ah hell, I hadn’t meant to make this weird. “Welcome to Pinedale,” I said to Lila with a bright smile and a far less depressing tone.
She grinned. “Thank you. I’m so happy to be here.”
Jack made a snorting noise, and while I glanced over at him, Lila didn’t seem to notice. She was too busy looping her arm through mine and nodding toward the group who’d stopped whatever they were doing to stare at the newcomer. “Will you introduce me?”
“Uh, sure,” I started, but Amber interrupted.
“Are you going to Pinedale High this fall?”
Lila seemed to notice Amber for the first time, and her smile fell a bit when she turned to face her. “Possibly.”
I exchanged a quick look with Jack. Possibly? What did that mean? School started up in a week and she wasn’t sure if she was going?
She seemed to read my mind because her gaze moved back to meet me and she ducked her head a bit, her voice softening even more. “Things are a little… up in the air for me and my sister right now.”
Now, I wasn’t much of a tough guy. Jack played that role for both of us. But I swear, I felt the urge to pick up a sword and battle every one of this girl’s demons. “We’d be lucky to have you if you stick around.”
I was rewarded by a smile that was almost sweet. It would have been all the way sweet if there hadn’t been a hint of something naughty there as well.
Something seductive.
I took another step back, but with her arm tucked in mine, that meant we were both moving away from Amber and Jack, and I let her steer us toward the group of onlookers who weren’t even pretending not to stare.
As soon as I introduced her, they stopped staring and the questions began. It didn’t start well.
“Where are you from?” Zoe asked.
“California.”
“What part?” Tom asked.
“Los Angeles.”
I winced inwardly on her behalf as that answer was met with varying degrees of disdain. California was sort of a curse word around here to begin with since the tourists who came through here often called California home.
Let’s just say the ski crowd that came through town rarely left a good taste in anyone’s mouth, so California had become synonymous with uppity snobs. And Los Angeles? Yeah, that only made things worse.
“What are you doing here?” one of Amber’s friends asked. She didn’t try to be polite about it.
Lila stiffened a bit against my side, but she kept her chin held high. Too high, actually. Was it my imagination or was she looking down her nose at Amber’s friend. “Slumming it,” she said.
The silence that followed was deafening. Lila broke it with a laugh. “I’m kidding. Jeez, totally kidding.”
The joke did not go over well. What had already felt tense was now becoming weird, even by Pinedale standards. I could practically see the walls going up as Lila was judged and found lacking.
She did not fit in here.
Thank goodness for Amber. She joined us, with Jack following, hanging out on the outskirts of the circle as he was wont to do. He’d be no help, but Amber was exactly the sort of friendly face this group needed to ease the awkwardness.
She broke the tension and got conversations started, taking the heat off Lila. I cast her a grateful look, and she gave me an answering wink.
“Hey Brandon?” Lila said, drawing me ever closer.
“Yeah?”
She nodded toward the lake where two couples were swimming, including my football teammate Ryan and his girlfriend, Kimmie. “Would you join me?” she asked.
I glanced around and saw that everyone else was diving into the cooler full of beers that Ryan and his friends had no doubt brought. I wasn’t into drinking. When the entire world finds out that your beloved dad was a user who overdosed, you tend to steer clear of drugs and alcohol. Or at least I did.
“Sure, why not?” I went to lead the way, but Lila was way ahead of me, stripping as she walked.
Holy crap. The girl wore a bikini, but it was skimpy beyond belief. I heard the chatter stop behind me and knew I wasn’t the only one watching. I wasn’t the only one getting a show.
When she reached the rock ledge where others had been diving, she never even stopped to look back at the mortals in her wake. She didn’t even stop to assess the lake before diving in headfirst in a graceful display that left us all speechless.
I didn’t turn around to see what the others made of this newcomer and the splash she’d just made—literally and metaphorically. But I could tell you I was grinning like crazy because for the first time in what felt like forever, I wasn’t the only one who stuck out.
This girl here? She might as well have come from another planet.
And I loved it.
Six
Lila
The water felt amazing. Or maybe that was the rush of adrenaline that came from knowing my time here in Podunk was nearly at an end.
In less than twenty-four hours, no less. I’m not gonna lie, sometimes I impressed myself. The way Brandon watched me frolicking in the water?
I’d be willing to bet I could have him, me, and Tess on a plane out of here before I even had a chance to shout I told you so in my sister’s smug face.
She’d thank me for it. Much as she might kiss up to our dad, she didn’t want to be here any more than I did. She didn’t tell me exactly what he was holding over her head, but my best guess was college on the East Coast.
Keep tabs on your sister, help her seal this deal, and I’ll pay for you to go to any college of your choosing.
I could practically hear my father’s voice, that’s how well I knew him. Like I’d said before, no one did anything for free in my family. Maybe he’d even sweetened the pot with something ludicrously lame that Tess would get all hot and bothered about. Like an internship at a Fortune 500 company or something.
The girl was pathetic.
But she was my sister, and if I won the part, she’d win too. Maybe if she went off to the East Coast, she’d get some much-needed freedom.
My father had her under his thumb at all times. Me too, I supposed, but in exchange I got his money and his power and his name.
It was worth it.
Tess? She’d never wante
d any of that.
She was such a weirdo.
Brandon swam alongside me, splashing and teasing. Some of his friends joined us, and for the first time since we’d arrived in my version of Hell on Earth, I was actually having fun.
Sort of. I mean, as much fun as one could have in Little House on the Prairie land. Still, Brandon was just as hot as his father had been, and I hadn’t been lying about how much I’d loved his dad as a kid. He’d been my hero on screen and off.
On screen because, duh, he was a fab actor. But off, that was where he’d really earned my love. He’d come to our house on occasion. I’d seen enough of Frank MacMillan—or rather him and my father together—to know that he was one of the very few people I’d ever seen stand up to the old man.
Maybe the only one. I mean, my father’s wives didn’t really count because one glare from Daddy Dearest and they were begging for mercy. One foul word and he’d leave them, and they all knew it. All four of them, including the current one.
No one got into bed with the devil without knowing what the deal was. And no one worked for him without learning the truth of the matter either.
But Frank MacMillan? He’d never cowered. He’d never begged. Most of all, he’d never kissed my father’s butt.
For that, he would always be my hero.
And for that, he died. Oh, I’m not saying my father killed him or anything. He might’ve been corrupt and maybe even cruel, but he wasn’t a killer.
I didn’t think.
But I didn’t doubt that he’d go out of his way to make any enemy’s world a living nightmare if challenged, and no one who’d seen them together could deny that Frank had been a thorn in my father’s side.
Did he shove the pills down his throat? No. Probably not. But he’d likely pushed them into his hand.
And that brings us to the main reason that I was here under the name Lila Baker.
I wasn’t sure how much Brandon knew about me, about my father. Or how much his mother had told him. I’d tell him who I was eventually, of course. We couldn’t arrive in L.A. as Hollywood’s new “it” couple and star of the newly rebooted series without him knowing exactly who I was.
But all in good time. I had a plan. And step one? Well, it was going swimmingly.
Pun intended.
On the shore, some of the guys unloaded a grill from the back of a truck, and that prompted Brandon and his friends into action. “I’d better go help them,” he said, shoving some of that dirty blond hair off his forehead.
All those gossip rags were wrong. He wasn’t the spitting image of his father. Brandon was better looking. It was hard to imagine that possible, but there you had it. The guy had his father’s crystal blue eyes along with his chiseled jaw, but he had a softness about him too. Maybe it was his lips. Something that softened the ruggedness just enough and added an element of the sensual.
I bit my lip as I watched him climb up out of the lake, his muscles glinting in the late afternoon sun.
Oh yeah. Playing the part of his girlfriend would most definitely not be a problem.
I watched Brandon and his friends work for a bit before following after them. I wasn’t exactly excited to go back to making small-town chitchat with that group of catty witches he called girl friends.
Could I blame them for being jealous of the hottie new girl? Obviously not. Still, having to put up with them wasn’t nearly as fun as flirting with Brandon.
I took my sweet time following him out of the lake, well aware of the eyeful I was giving every guy at this lame ho-down. I couldn’t help myself. I mean, if these girls were going to be jealous, I might as well give them a reason, right?
All eyes were on me. Guys and girls alike. I even caught gentlemanly Brandon sneaking a peek, but it was Jack’s gaze that burned my skin. His eyes were dark, and his gaze scorching.
I tried to ignore it.
I tried to ignore him.
But it was impossible not to notice the way he stared at me. When my eyes met his, I looked away quickly, but not quickly enough.
There was desire there in his eyes but something else as well. Something far less pleasant.
Judgement.
I tilted my chin up further and hoisted myself onto the shore. I reached for the clothes I’d discarded along with a towel.
Soaked. All of it. My clothes were drenched, and the towel was dripping. I stared down at the soggy pile and shivered. The sun was rapidly sinking below the horizon, and the breeze that had earlier been a relief nipped at my wet skin and made goosebumps rise on my arms.
But that wasn’t the worst part.
No, the worst part was the stinging sensation at the back of my eyes.
What the hell was this? I wasn’t a crier. I didn’t cry. I blinked rapidly, keenly aware of the fact that everyone was watching me.
But not like before. Even with my head tilted down, I could feel it. The barely suppressed laughter, the smug smiles, the judgy censor.
They were laughing at me.
I swallowed past the thick lump in my throat, and my mind raced to think of something biting to say, something that could put these hillbilly a-holes in their place.
No words came.
Of all the times to lose that trademark Devereaux snark. But this was a first for me. No one in their right mind would think to humiliate me like this back in Beverly Hills. No one messed with the daughter of Hollywood royalty.
Not if they expected to live.
Okay, fine. Not if they expected to work again or be admitted into the best clubs or the most exclusive parties, or—
“Here.”
A dark gray hoodie was thrust unceremoniously into my line of vision. I glanced up to see Jack scowling down at me. What the hell. Like this was my fault?
I snatched the hoodie out of his hands, and that’s when I heard it.
The snickering. The whispers.
Sadly, it was preferable to the silence.
I clenched my jaw as my eyes met Jack’s. There was a flicker of something else there, beneath that angry scowl.
Pity.
“Were you expecting a thank you?” I snapped as I slipped my arms into the sleeves and pulled it tight around me.
It came out even harsher than I’d intended. But right about now, I didn’t care. This guy was one of them. One of these weirdo, mouth-breathing, backwoods morons who had the nerve to think that they could get the best of me.
His jaw clenched, but he didn’t do what I would have done. He didn’t laugh at me, and he didn’t walk away in the face of my anger. He just kept watching me, standing in front of me so his much larger frame blocked the others’ view.
I dropped my head and stared at my bare feet. I wished he’d say something. Tell me how pathetic I was or snap back at me for being an ungrateful jerk.
“Brandon’s checking his truck to see if he can find some more dry clothes.”
I nodded, temporarily unable to speak. The sight of my pretty silver, strappy sandals caught my eye, and I shifted so I could slide them on.
I could feel Jack watching me. I could feel all of them watching me.
My eyes burned with the effort to hold back tears. I’d never felt more alone in my life. What was I doing here, stranded in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of idiots who hated me?
I glared at Jack. Anger. Anger I could do. “Did you do this?”
He drew his brows together in disbelief. “Do I look twelve?”
“No, you look like the smug loser who hated me at first sight.”
“Actually, I disliked you before that,” he said evenly. “I heard about these rich girls who’d rented the apartment and figured I wouldn’t like you right then and there.” He leaned forward slightly. “But no matter how much I don’t like you, I wouldn’t stoop to a stupid prank to get you naked and wet.” One side of his mouth hitched up in a ridiculously sexy lopsided smile. “I wouldn’t have to.”
I drew in a quick breath at his unexpected candor and the not-so-subtle double e
ntendre. I would not laugh, dammit. He was not amusing. Somebody over there had done this to me, and they would pay. No one humiliated Lila Devereaux and got away with it. I nodded toward the others. “If you didn’t do it, who did?”
He shrugged. “Some of the girls standing over there trying not to laugh, I’d imagine.”
Heat surged through me, but it wasn’t just embarrassment anymore. In fact, it was mostly rage.
He held his hands up as if to calm me. “Whoa there, Princess. Before you go declaring war, you should know it’s not just you. They’ve done it as an initiation every time a new person hangs.” He gave another small shrug. “Normally, it’s lowerclassmen so they know what to expect.”
I stared at him for a while because I wasn’t sure he was serious.
He was.
I let out a short humorless laugh. “It must be so insanely boring around here if that’s what you people do for fun.”
His lips twitched. “It is.” He eyed me from head to toe, and I had the distinct impression that he was seeing past the hoodie. My skin burned all over again. “Or I should say it was. Something tells me your presence here will make life at Pinedale High a lot more interesting.”
I opened my mouth and clamped it shut again. I wouldn’t go to your lame ass school for all the money in the world.
But of course I couldn’t tell him that. Not yet. Get in, get the guy, get out. That was the plan. I’d be back at my Beverly Hills Academy in time for the first day of first semester.
Instead of answering, I bent down to do up the clasps on my sandals and something about the utterly ordinary movements helped me to calm down. By the time I stood back up, I remembered who I was.
It might not mean much to this group of heathens, but to the rest of the world, I was a bona fide celebrity. An heiress. The daughter of a freakin’ legend with a name that inspired fear and awe.
All-American Princess (The Glitterati Files Book 1) Page 4
