Page 43 of Love and Loathing

“I wouldn’t mind watching this,” Maggie May said. “It’s been a while, and now that we know Alex, it’ll be more fun.”

“No, Maggie May,” Caroline started, “I don’t think—”

“It’s okay, I want to watch it,” Jessie said.

Jessie had told Caroline about Alex’s visit, everything except about Alex’s sister—she couldn’t bring herself to share such a delicate topic. But she’d told her about the fight, and that she’d quit.

“Are you sure?” Caroline whispered, but Maggie May had already started it.

“You know at the twins’ birthday party, he danced with all of us,” Maggie May said.

Jessie’s gaze flew to her sister. “He did? When?”

Maggie shrugged. “I didn’t check my watch.” Her tone sounded likeduh! “He even danced with this weird ugly girl that was hiding in one of the booths. I didn’t recognize her; she must be from Charleston.”

“That’s not nice,” Caroline said.

“But it’s the truth! Doesn’t matter. After he danced with her, a bunch of other guys there danced with her too.”

He’d stayed after she’d left that night? And danced with her sisters? And not just with them. Her mind whirled as she thought it through, shame coloring her emotions … again. She’d been so argumentative and angry with him, had easily believed the bad things about him that Jacob had told her, and the more she learned, the more she saw that it’d been the other way around the entire time.

Cecilia came in the room, pointed at the TV, and scoffed. “Why are y’all watching this?”

“Because it’s a good film.” Caroline turned to Cecilia. “Who are you going out with?”

She grinned, then stared at her nails. “Tess Westbrook. We’re having a girls’ night. It’s going to be so fun.”

“Oooh, oooh, there’s Alex!” Maggie May said. Alex appeared on a motorcycle, wearing jeans, a T-shirt that hugged his muscles just so, and aviator glasses.

It was all Jessie could do not to swoon and then burst into tears. And she wasn’t even sure why. They’d never gotten along, not really. And they came from two totally different worlds. He was famous; she just one of five girls in a small town. He had more money than she would ever see in her lifetime. He’d spent more money on the villa at the Sunset Valley Lodge and Spa than she would on the down payment to her house times ten—she might have looked that one up a couple months ago. Half the women in the world were in love with him, and she wasn’t sure anyone had ever been in love with her—she dismissed Alex’s confession of love to her as a moment of temporary insanity. And he clearly had better taste in friends than she did.

“Look at those biceps.” Maggie May pulled her knees up. “He could probably lift a house.”

Cecilia folded her arms. “If y’all are watching this, then I’m going to have to wait outside.”

“Don’t let the screen door hit you where the good Lord split ya,” Jessie said, and she sank further into the crinkly couch. Caroline nudged her with a toe.

“Whatever,” Cecilia said, and she stormed outside.

This was it. She would watch thisonemovie, wallow in what might have been for tonight. And tomorrow, she’d let it go. Hanging on to it wasn’t helping anything. The movie zoomed in on his face, on his pretty blue eyes and strong dark brow, and sorrow whipped through her. Only tonight, she reminded herself.

* * *

Alex opened the door to his villa, anxious, agitated, and exhausted, and paused in the door. All the lights were on, and from the hall he could hear the TV. On the little table next to the door sat a vase filled with flowers. He took the flowers out, dumped the water out the still-open door, and tiptoed down the hall. He jumped out of the hall with a loud yell.

Roxy jumped off the couch, the bowl of popcorn she’d been eating flying into the air and all over. She glared at him. “Alex! You scared the life out of me.”

He lowered the vase. “What are you doing here?”

She rolled her eyes and pointed to the screen behind her. “I was watchingSudden Speed.” She dropped to her knees. “But now I’m cleaning up popcorn.”

Glancing up at the screen, it was all he could do not to roll his eyes. That was the last movie they’d starred in together. In fact, it was the last movie he’d ever done. Why she’d want to watch it, he could only guess. He’d never liked watching himself. He set the vase on the table and grabbed the trash from under the sink. “I meant, why are you here? In my place?” He squatted by her and helped clean up the popcorn. “Actually, how did you even get in here?”

“Charlie told me what happened. I thought you could use a friend,” she said.

He cleared his throat and arched a brow at her. “And how’d you get in?”

She gave him a flirty smile, dumped a handful of popcorn in the bowl, and dusted her hands. “I told the front desk I was your girlfriend.”

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