Page 79 of Fighting For You
Everyone chuckled and raised their glasses, repeating the last phrase. “Chips, guac, and book talk.”
But Winnie and Nikki shared a look, and Elise pointed her fork at them. “None of those sly looks from you two. Just because you have Grade A men on the hook doesn’t mean the rest of us don’t need… really good Mexican food.”
Jo chuckled, her smile overly blissful. She and Adam weren’t married but she probably didn’tneedGuac.
“Aren’t you and Callum together right now?” Jo asked Elise.
Elise’s head reared back and answered for her.
“Oh, dang. I’m sorry. I thought I saw you guys hugging before you opened the shop the other day,” Jo said, reaching out to squeeze Elise’s arm in apology.
It took a moment, but when Elise spoke, her voice was strained. “He wants to get back together. He seems to be having a hard time accepting that we’re done.”
My gaze sharpened and I could tell everyone else’s attention heightened, though it was Winnie who asked, “Is he being mean?”
Meanfor Callum, Elise’s on-again, off-again currently ex-boyfriend, meant something different than Beast’s mean. Even when I thought of him as Beast, Jude was only ever impatient and rude. He wasn’t physical, and he wasn’t dangerous.
Callum? We never got the full story, but we knew enough that whatever had happened to break them up this last time stemmed from something nasty.
Elise exhaled. “No. He was nice. Hence the hug.” She shook her head, frustration with him or herself or the whole situation brimming. “I’m just done with it. I need him to move on and just let me be.”
“I’ll talk to him,” I said, honey in my tone.
She and everyone else seemed to think this was funny.
“What? I’m great at getting people to see my side. He’ll walk away and stay gone.” I shrugged a shoulder.
Dove grinned Cheshire-cat wide. “I love you, Jess, but you’d probably end up terrifying him to death.”
“Would that be such a bad thing?” I asked, genuinelywondering if I was the only one who’d gotten the sense that this man had put his hands on our friend in an uninvited way.
Elise’s expression darkened and she studied her food and Dove grumbled a, “Maybe not.”
Before anyone else could follow her thought, a familiar voice interrupted us.
“Hey! Aren’t you Cookie’s friend? And oh my gosh, hey girl.”
We all glanced up to see averyfamiliar face smiling down at our table, then winking at me. I rose out of my seat and snuck around Dove’s to reach Jenna Halter, Hollywood rising star and all-around amazing human being.
“Hey! You’ve been so busy, I feel like I haven’t seen you when I could actually talk to you!” I may have squealed it a little. Jenna and I had become friends when I replaced Cookie after he came back stateside for some family issues.
She squeezed me tight, then pulled back to look at me and squinted. “We need to talk.”
I flushed because I had no idea how she could know I had news about anything, but the woman had clairvoyance because it felt like she could see straight through me. Then she leaned all the way back and dragged a young woman closer to the table. “Do you all know Cara Darling? I met her on my last trip here through Calla.”
Cara Darling was a high schooler, so normally I wouldn’t have any interaction with her, except she was our investor’s stepdaughter and a musical prodigy. She had played for some major events in town and was slated to head to Juilliard soon.
Everyone greeted Cara but Dove jumped up, her golden yellow dress twirling around her, and gave her asqueeze. “This girl is so patient with me when I stumble into Pluck.”
Cara grinned. “You’re literally the sweetest,” she said to Dove, then leaned into Jenna’s ear and mumbled, “Don’t you have that meeting with the creepy producer?”
Jenna’s face fell into a neutral mask. “I do.” Her gaze shifted to us. “I’m so sorry, but I have to run. Can we please try to hang out before the festival’s done? I head up to Snowberry Thursday, I think.” She checked her phone like it might give her the answer at a glance. “Bye, ladies.”
She swept away and her security team followed at a distance—I nodded to Kenny who winked at me and wiggled his brows at the others before slipping out in front of Jenna.
Dove, Elise, and Catherine were thoroughly starstruck.
“She’s so nice,” Dove said, staring after where she’d disappeared.
