Page 17 of The Hollywood Billionaire's Fangirl Wife

Jilly:I kissed someone.

Jack:I'm not jealous.

"YOU DID WHAT?"Star and Poppy gasped at the same time.

Jilly felt absolutely defensive, and so she hastily tried to defend herself with statistics. "I blocked his number," she repeated stonily, adjusting her grandmother-style glasses while her jade eyes darted between her two friends, who were both staring at her like she'd just announced she was planning to join a convent.

The converted barnhouse that served as Wynd and Star's home was the kind of place that whispered understated luxury in every carefully chosen detail, but right now it felt more like an interrogation chamber, the way Jilly's two friends were looking at her with identical expressions of horrified disbelief.

"B-But...he's your crush," Poppy finally stammered out.

"No, he's not."

Star rolled her eyes. "Oh, please. Need I remind you of that secret little fan club you founded—"

"Because I admire his work—"

"Andabs."

"And abs—"Wait.What did she just end up repeating?

Star burst into laughter, and Jilly glared at the other woman.Grrr!Star used to be her colleague at Luntian Financial Forensics International, and even then, the other woman loved teasing her about her being a fangirl of Guy. Star had always refused to believe she didn't have a crush on Guy, but ever since falling in love with one of Texas' most intimidating billionaires, it had gotten even worse, with Star now also taking the side of their hopeless romantic friend.

This time, she had both PoppyandStar insisting it was love at first sight between Guy and her...but it was not.

Truly!

Poppy was still shaking her head, sending her soft curls bouncing. "I just don't get it. I really thought it was God making things happen. I mean, what are the chances?"

Jilly saw Star actually frown as if she was about to seriously compute the probability of a fangirl being friends with someone who was friends with the celebrity they admired.

Seriously?

Jilly glared at her former-officemate-turned-unsupportive-friend. "Don't you even dare."

Poppy, meanwhile, was still unable to get over thewasteof what seemed like a divinely appointed match. "I've always been too shy to ask for favors from Valerian. But I somehow found it so easy to do so that night. Don't you think that means something?"

"I appreciate everything you did to make that night happen," Jilly was keen to emphasize. "I really do. But..." She lifted herchin. "Numbers don't lie. I've never even been kissed in forty years of existence, and the first time he walked inside my house, I let him..."

Her two friends looked at her blankly, and Jilly squirmed against the butter-soft leather of the oversized couch.

"I mean...you know." Jilly started fanning her cheeks. Should someone check if the A/C was working?

"He kissed you?" Star guessed, leaning forward eagerly.

"More?"

"He touched you?" Poppy ventured, her voice dropping to a whisper.

Jilly's face was flaming by now, heat spreading from her cheeks all the way down her chest. "Let's just say the only thing I haven't given him was my...you know."

"Oh."

Star and Poppy were doing their best not to snicker this time, and Jilly glared at her so-called friends. "There's nothing funny about this! Research shows that seventy-three percent of physical relationships escalate within the first three encounters, and by the fourth date there's an eighty-five percent chance we'll do things that will make me forget my own name, and by the eighth date, depending on timing, there's a ninety-six percent probability that he would have broken my heart..." She broke off at the way Poppy was shaking her head. "What?"

"You know you're overthinking this, don't you?"

Yes, Jilly did know, but overthinking was what had kept her safe for forty years.

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