“So does every room here have a hawk?” Rachel asked.
Roman didn’t answer. He was staring through—and not at—theglossy pages of the magazine she’d just handed him. When his best friendnoticed his fugue state, her expression turned worried. She gently tugged thecopy ofPeoplefrom his weak grip and looked down at the photo spreadas if there was something unflattering in the images she’d missed.
“What’s wrong, sweetie? You look great in these. I thoughtyou’d be thrilled.”
The headline read,Peyton Princess Has SundrenchedWorkout with Sexy Trainer During Broadway Break. The pictures were a fewmonths old, taken during one of her brief visits home during rehearsals. In allof them, they were working out on the sand in front of the Castle by the Sea,but in the close-up shot he had a muscular arm curved around her shoulders ashe laughed at one of her jokes. They almost looked like lovers. It wasn’t thefirst time they’d appeared in paparazzi shots together, but still, he wasrattled.
“It is kinda weird we didn’t even know they were there.”Roman’s voice had a little shake to it. He grabbed a handful of mixed nuts fromthe ramekin Ethan had left nearby and chewed. “I mean, whenever they followedus shopping, we knew they were there, right?”
“Mom knew. She set the whole thing up. But seriously, thisis good for you. Your name and social media’s down in the copy. I mean, you’llget a bump from this, right? And all I had to do was get a sunburn while youforced me to do six thousand crunches.”
Rachel smiled. Roman tried to smile back. His face didn’trespond.
“Are you okay?” she asked, setting the magazine aside.
“No. No, I’m not, Rache.”
She swung her legs to the floor and reached across thedistance between them. It was painful—maybe too painful, in this moment—thather primary concern was for him, and that she’d taken one of his hands gentlyinto her own. “What’s wrong, sweetie?”
“I don’t know how to say this, but…Scott hit on me. Hard.”
Her eyebrows went up. “Hiton you?” she asked, asif she’d never heard the term.
Roman nodded and swallowed. “I didn’t say yes. I threw a glassof water in his face.”
“Oh.”
Oh?Roman thought. She hadn’t let go of his hand oreven lightened her grip. Maybe she didn’t believe him. But wouldn’t herdisbelief have made her angry too? Was she in shock?
“Is Scott okay?” she asked gently.
These were the last words he’d expected to hear. “Um, I kindof don’t care,” Roman whispered.
“I mean, his face. Like, is his face okay because if he’sgoing to make any of his own money, it’s not going to be from anything else.”
“His face looked…wet. What’s going on right now?”
At the very moment he assumed she’d be throwing plates andscreaming, she brought her other hand up to caress the outside of Roman’s. “Isthat all? He hit on you, and you turned him down?”
“No. It’s not at all. Your mom… She wanted me to do it.”
He figured this news would go off like a bomb. Instead,Rachel rolled her eyes and shook her head and made a small sound like she’djust remembered she had a dentist appointment early the next morning.
“She said he was cheating all over, and she was worriedabout it ending up in the press, so she wanted him to keep it in the house.Withme.”
Rachel nodded and looked to the floor, but she didn’trelease his hands or withdraw. “I’m sorry you had to go through that, sweetie.I know things in that house can get…intense.”
“Me? What aboutyou?”
She gave him a sheepish smile. “Oh, Romy. I kind of wantedyou to believe this whole wedding was real because you seemed so excited forme.”
Roman felt like he was breathing through a straw, and whenhe spoke again, it sounded like it. “Wait. It’s not real?”
She grimaced. “Not really, no.”
“So…you don’t care about Scott and you’re just marrying himbecause your mom picked him out for you?”
Still grimacing, Rachel nodded. “Basically.”