Page 24 of This Side of Beautiful

“Is that your way of asking me to breakfast?” She followed me out of the bathroom.

“Are you hungry?”

She grinned. “I can eat.”

“Antwone Fisher.”

She smiled wider. “Yep. I loved that movie. I had to watch it during one of my therapy groups. Why did you watch it?”

“Same reason,” I admitted quietly. “Come on, let’s get something to eat.”

“I can show you my city.” Janae looked at me expectantly.

I shrugged. “By the time we eat, they’ll be awake. You can grovel to the band and plead your case.”

She studied my face before she pulled on the drawstring of my hoodie. “I need to go back to my suite at the Four Seasons and change first. I didn’t plan to spend the night.”

“As in penthouse suite? Is Del paying for you to stay in a penthouse?”

“No. I’m paying for this whole trip. Del had to work overtime to get me this gig.” She averted her gaze over my shoulder. “I had to agree to do it for free.”

“You performed at the rodeo for free? Can you afford to stay in a penthouse? You haven’t made any music in over three years.”

Janae had been a young starlet who rose and fell in a short period of time. Not long enough to have money stacked for the rest of her life unless she’d invested well, and I was highly doubtful that a twenty-something from the poorest part of Houston knew how to handle her money.

“I haven’t stayed in a penthouse in a long time, and I couldn’t return to Houston and stay in a basic hotel. Cameras are following me for a reality show. My comeback has to be big. I can afford this splurge.”

“Those two ladies were your hire too?”

She stamped her foot lightly. “I needed a wardrobe and makeup team.”

“For one show?” I shook my head and headed toward the door.

Janae blocked me. “How does it look to my fans if I’m doing my own makeup and styling myself before one of the biggest concerts in the very city that I’m from? Huh? It’s hard enough that Del managed to convince me to perform without my dancers and background. I can’t go down looking like that. Like I’m the loser everyone believes I am.”

I turned the knob. “It makes you look real, Janae. You are a fallen star trying to soar again. Show them how hard it is in this industry, not this fake image. Then you know who really rides for you. But hey, if you prefer quantity over quality, that’s on you.”

“Stop judging me,” she admonished me.

After I walked through the door, I said over my shoulder, “Youmademeyour moral compass.”

“Ten minutes, tops.” Janae turned around to face me at the door to the suite. “The camera crew isn’t back until tonight, so you can chill while I get ready.”

My stomach growled again. “Or we can order room service, because nothing in me believes it will take you ten minutes. It already was a thirty-minute ride here.”

Her beautiful eyes shone hopefully as she slowly kissed my cheek. “I want to be outside with you.”

The heat rose between us again, and I stepped back before I succumbed to her allure. “Not happening, Janae.”

“What’s not happening?” She pouted prettily.

Drawing an impatient breath, I asked, “What’s the code? I’m starving.”

She punched in a code and waltzed inside.

I slowly entered her luxurious temporary living space as she hurried past the formal dining and comfy living areas to her bedroom. This would have cost her a pretty penny. If she spent money like this all the time for her image with the lawsuits and lack of recent hits plaguing her, how long would her money last? Maybe this was why she was so insistent on making a record, doing this tour, and destroying three years of sobriety like it meant nothing. She needed cash.

“If you want a snack or something, you can request anything, and the chef will prepare it. But you better not get full, Landon,” she called from the bedroom before she turned on the shower. She peeked her head around the door, and her shoulders were bare. “I want to go to a nice restaurant and have virgin mimosas and eggs Benedict with crab.”

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