Page 82 of Just Friends Forever
“So, you’re performing at the high school reunion?” I ask.
“Yeah,” he says. “My manager thinks it’s good to do some of these smaller, more intimate venues here and there. And honestly, I am kind of excited to do it. I’m going to see if some of my old band buddies will come perform with me, maybe try out one of the songs I’m writing.”
I smile. It was seeing Austin up on the school stage when I was a freshman that really ramped up my crush on him in high school. Something about a young man with a guitar in his arms singing about love is catnip for angsty teenage girls. I was dripping with enough angst, I might as well have been swimming in it.
“Do you do most of your own writing?” I ask.
He grips the wheel. “Not as much as I used to. My producer usually has a bunch of stuff he wants me to record, so there’s not a ton of time for my own stuff.”
I grimace sympathetically. “The glamorous life of fame.”
He glances at me. “Yeah, I guess you’d understand how it goes.”
“I mean, I didn’t write songs or scripts, but I can sympathize with feeling like your path is kind of mapped out for you already by other people.”
“Yeah, exactly,” he says as we pull in to the parking lot, his voice full of pleasant surprise.
We go inside and get seated, and I can’t decide how to feel. It’s strange to live a dream when it’s no longer your dream. I’ve recently acquired new ones, and this date feels like a step backward from those. But maybe that’s the point—dreams aren’t real. Maybe if Troy and I did somehow get together, it would end in failure like my last marriage. I don’t know if I could handle that.
“So,” Austin says once we’ve ordered, “how’s being back in town?”
I scrunch my nose. “I don’t know, honestly. I haven’t spent much time outside of your apartment. Thanks, by the way, for unknowingly letting me stay there.”
He laughs, and I get a quick view of the smile that I literally drooled over at one point in my life. I appreciate that Austin is a handsome and talented man, but he’s not Troy.
“My pleasure,” he says. “If I’d been asked, I would have said yes. But my brother knew that.”
“That’s because you guys have the best, most supportive family in the world. You’re so lucky. You both know that, right?”
He shrugs. “They’re all right.” He winks before taking a sip of his drink. “So, you’ve been dating while you’ve been back?”
“Just two dates. Casual ones with people I’d never met.”And then with you.
“And?”
I suck in a big breath and let it out in a gush.
He laughs. “That good, huh?”
“They were both really great guys. I just…” I spin my glass around and around.
“Your heart is already taken?”
My gaze jumps to his. He meets mine with a knowing but serious glint in his eyes. What does he think he knows? Is he talking about Curtis? About himself? Or does he know the only person I can imagine myself with is Troy?
I swallow.
“I suspected as much.” He clenches his teeth and lets out a hiss. “Really regretting my promise right now.”
My brows pull together. “What promise?”
“That I wouldn’t say his name during our date. He threatened to pull a Will Smith at the Oscars.”
I let that sink in for a second. Troy made Austin promise not to say his name during our date? Why in the world…? “Why would he make you promise that?” I’m so lost, but my heart is beating fast. I don’t know if the reason is bad or good, but I want to know it. Ineedto know.
Austin taps a finger on the edge of the table, looking at me. “How about this?” He leans forward, clasping his hands together on the table. “Let’s talk about a couple of friends of mine. We’ll call them… Roy and Evie.”
My lip twitches. “Roy and Evie. Got it.”
