Page 16 of Show Off

“No,” I say instead. “I’m not cold.”

“Then leave it off.”

Why is his bossy thing so hot? My arm’s still wedged in the sleeve. My heart’s lodged in my throat. I feel hot and prickly and more than a little turned on.

I lick my lips. “Have you always been so blunt?”

“No.”

“What changed?”

He holds my gaze, not blinking at all. “My brother got paralyzed.”

“I’m sorry.” I tug off the sweatshirt, tucking it carefully beside me. “That must have been hard.”

His jaw clenches. “I spent months hearing doctors talk in circles. So much jargon and medical-speak. Everyone talking in innuendo or whispered speculation.” A muscle ticks in his jaw. “It’s fucking insulting.”

“I see.” It does make sense. “Maybe I’m the opposite.”

“How do you mean?”

He sounds truly intrigued, so I give it some thought before answering. “I’m the youngest of six kids.” I’m guessing he knows this. “I grew up going to grocery stores with my family and seeing?—”

“Your parents did their own grocery shopping?” His incredulous tone should annoy me, but he’s right.

“Thenannytook us sometimes.” The maid did the shopping, but not always. “Mostly for popsicles or special treats when we’d been good.” I’m getting off track here. “Every time we’d get in line, I’d read the headlines. The stuff all the tabloids wrote about us?”

“Yeah,” he says softly, and I realize maybe hedoesknow. Even I’m familiar with Yang’s Spicy Sauce Blends. With the public profile Dal’s family had at the time of the accident.

“Right, well.” I clear my throat. “They’d write about our mother’s movie comeback or Dad’s new jet. Harmless stuff like that, sometimes.” Other times, not so much. “They got mean, too. Like when Dean hit puberty and got photographed with a pimple—you’d think he’d killed a kitten in the street. Or when Lauren started dating, they’d follow her.”

Dal’s brow furrows. “She was how old?”

“Fourteen.” Too young to be dating, but we Judsons grew up fast. “They’d chase Cooper down the street, commanding him to smile. This was before he starred in anything. He wasn’t even a child actor yet.”

“That’s sounds…gross.”

“That’s one way to put it.”Scaryis another.Embarrassingis another. “As the baby of a family, you don’t get many chances to play the family protector, you know?”

Dal gives a tight nod. “Being younger than Ji-Hoon—” He stops, throat rolling as he looks away. “Yeah. It’s tough when you want to be the fucking family hero, but you’re just a dumb kid.”

Wow. I blink in case I’ve heard wrong, but no. Dalgetsit. I never considered that. “How did you?—”

“Tell me how you handled it.” His gaze snaps back to mine, his command not one I feel free to ignore. “How did little Lana Judson get to step up for Clan Judson?”

I can’t tell if he’s mocking me, but I don’t think so. He’s asking for real. Like he’s wanting to know me.

Like a pathetic little girl, Iwantto be known. Taking a slug of wine, I lay it all out there. “We were at an event. A movie premiere, I think.” It’s been decades, but I still remember my sparkly dress. The glare of the spotlight as Mom clutched my hand. “Some scandal had just come out. A conflict Dad had on a movie set.”

An affair, actually, but that’s irrelevant to the story.

“How old were you?”

“Six.” But I remember like yesterday. “The paparazzi’s off to the side snapping pictures and shouting stuff. ‘Hey, Laurence, what can you tell us about the allegations?’ Or ‘Laurence, is it true what your producer toldVanity Fair?’ I could feel Mom getting tense. My brothers and sisters kept looking at each other. Dean’s getting mad, and so is Lauren. Gabe and Cooper keep awkwardly cracking jokes, and Mari’s just trying to hide behind our dad, who’s getting more and more flustered.”

In hindsight, Dad must’ve thought the vultures would leave him alone with his family in tow. He thought wrong.

Dal’s watching me, wordless, but paying attention. I can tell by how his eyes hold mine, how his body leans in like he wants to hear every word. “What did you do?”

---