Page 91 of The Sun and Her Star

“Can you believe my girlfriend is friends withtheGraham Davis?” he asks them, with a laugh.

Graham’s eyes fly to mine, all traces of charm and humor absent.

I wish the ground would open up and swallow me whole.

Lucas faces him again and is clearly too blinded by the stars in his eyes to see that Graham is not amused. His grin only widens. “Apollo knows I’m your biggest fan. I can’t believe she never mentioned this.”

I want to die. I give Lucas an apologetic smile. “Well, it’s been—”

“Oh, Apollo.” Graham’s eyes widen, and he shakes his head in mock disappointment. “You’ve never mentioned your very oldest and best friend in thewholeworld to Lucas?”

He looks back at Lucas, his megawatt, superstar smile on full blast. Poor Lucas looks like he’s going to faint. “May I call you Lucas, Mr. Wilmot?” he asks unnecessarily.

Lucas just nods. He has a stupid, lovesick smile on his face. If Graham called him a goat fucker right now, he’d probably thank him for the honor.

“You’rebest friends? With Apollo?” Lucas looks back and forth between us, his eyes wide with surprise and delight.

“Well, we used to be. It’s, uh—” I look at Lucas and try to smile casually.

“It’s been a while.” Graham finishes my sentence for me.

“Are you attending the gala?” Lucas asks, not even trying to disguise his hope.

“Well, no, I’m staying at this … hotel.” He looks around the room as if he wasn’t sure whether or not it was good enough for him before he turns his friendly smile back on Lucas.

“I was checking in and saw your gallery on the event banner.” His eyes slide to mine, his smile triumphant as he says, “Great name.”

Where’s my magic cloak of invisibility when I need it?

“Lucas.” Graham turns back to him, and Lucas is practically batting his eyelashes. “You can imagine how eager I was to come and find Apollo. This is a damn lucky coincidence—you being here at this very hotel on my very first day in the Big Apple.” He gives me a knowing look. Graham’s in his full-blown, Southern charm mode that makes whomever it’s turned on feel like they are the most important person in the universe.

But I’m not fooled by it. Not for a second. He’s nervous. He’s cracking the knuckles of his right hand, and his smile doesn’t come close to reaching his eyes.

This is no coincidence.

My stupid heart is doing the Dougie when it should be tripping over itself with terror.

“Oh! Where are my manners? Please, sit down.” Lucas pulls out his chair and bows as he offers it to Graham like he’s the Sultan of Brunei.

Graham claps him across the shoulder like they’re old friends as he drops into Lucas’s abandoned chair.

“Gra—” I clear my throat when my words come out in a croak. “Graham, hi.”

I’m trembling, and my head is spinning. My entire body is alternating between flushes of heat and cold prickles of anxiety as I try to figure out what to do next.

If this fund-raiser wasn’t so important to me, I would get up and leave.

Out of nowhere, a server runs up with an extra chair, and Lucas points to the space between Graham’s chair and mine. He drops down into it, and Lucas smiles broadly as he looks between us. Graham eyes him with an air of cool disdain.

“So, how do you two know each other and how come I had no idea I was living with the best friend of the coolest guy on the planet?” I give him a weak smile that wobbles when I look at Graham to find him grinning happily at both of us.

“Well, I know all aboutyou,Lucas. I had to make sure my best friend wasn’t dating a sociopath or anything.”

He punches Lucas in the shoulder playfully, but with enough force that Lucas tips over in his seat. His smile only widens as he rubs his shoulder and bursts out laughing.

I pray for some sort of divine intervention.

I’ve always hated Lucas’s laugh. The first time I heard him laugh out loud, I prayed it was an aberration. But it wasn’t. The only thing more disturbing than his laugh was that he was laughing hysterically atThe 40-Year-Old-Virgin, aka the stupidest movie ever.

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