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Chapter Fourteen
Tess
As I made dinner, I spent the evening trying to understand what was happening. With me, with Ryan.
With Juliet. She kept disappearing and reappearing, looking confused and distraught and honestly nothing like herself. Dinner was a strange affair, and after the day I’d had with Ryan I just wanted to go to bed and think about things. Tomorrow was Gran’s party and the press would be back, and so would half of Southern Maryland. I needed to be ready.
“I’ll get these,” Ryan said, clearing plates from in front of us.
“So polite,” Juliet said, smiling up at him.
I stared at the look that passed between them, trying to see whether there was something there, whether they were keeping something from me. But why would they lie about being together if they really were getting together? It made no sense. I swung my gaze to Gran, who was sitting smugly at the head of the table, rolling a joint like that was something all ninety-year-old women did at the dinner table.
“Gran, at the table?” I sighed.
She shrugged and winked at me. “Big raid in an hour.”
That game was going to be the death of me.
“Get it out of your system tonight. Tomorrow you have to dress up and be the center of attention and act like a proper old lady.”
She sighed deeply. “I had kind of hoped I’d keel over before then. I guess there’s still tonight … sometimes wishes come true, right? You got to kiss your Hollywood crush, after all.”
It was like the room had just caved in on my head. I cringed and my blood turned to sludge as I swung my head to look at Juliet. What would she think? She’d just told me this afternoon that she and Ryan were pretending. What if she thought I’d been kissing him when I believed they were together and I just didn’t care?
“Jules,” I whispered, about to explain.
Ryan had just walked back into the dining room in time to hear this proclamation and he looked at me, wide-eyed.
Juliet’s head snapped to me. “You kissed Ryan?” She looked angry.
Shit. This was all getting too complicated. “What? No,” I lied, not sure why I was lying now. “I mean … no, he’s your boyfriend, right?” After all, we were still playing that game for Gran, weren’t we? I nodded my head toward Gran in an exaggerated kind of don’t-forget-Gran-doesn’t-know motion.
Of course Gran knew more than any of us ever gave her credit for, but as far as Juliet knew, the ruse was still going on.
“I mean, he was in your room last night,” I went on babbling, feeling a little out of control. One of the security team in the hallway stepped around the other door and stood behind Juliet, listening more intently than I thought he should have been. “Moaning huskily, right Gran?”
“I wasn’t eavesdropping,” Gran said quickly. Too quickly. Then she flushed and looked ashamed of herself, slumping slightly. “I couldn’t help it,” she said. “You were so loud. I haven’t heard those noises in this house since I quit watching Erika Lust films.” She shot a defiant look at Juliet and then rose. “I’m expected elsewhere.” She picked up her joint and walked slowly from the room past the guard who had slipped back around the corner.
“What the hell is going on?” Juliet asked, looking between Ryan and me. “Are you two hooking up?”
“No,” I said.
“Yes,” Ryan said.
Oh God. Why couldn’t he just go be gorgeous and perfect in Hollywood and let me pine away for him when I watched his movies? Why was this happening in real life? I stared at my sister, whose mouth had dropped open slightly as she turned to look at Ryan. “Seriously?” Her voice was an accusation.
Ryan stood at the end of the table where Gran had been. His mouth opened and then closed, and then I watched as something seemed to solidify in his eyes, his expression steeling. “Jules,” he said. “I didn’t plan it. It’s just … I think there’s something here.” He gestured toward me.
It was the same thing he’d been saying in the car, and while I knew it was crazy, a warm certainty bubbled up inside me before my very rational thoughts forced it back down. This was not a thing. It couldn’t be anything.
“Yeah, something’s here,” Juliet said. “My little sister’s here. And she doesn’t need you barreling into her life and screwing everything up, just to leave when your next movie role takes you to Timbuktu.”
“What are the odds there’ll be another movie in Timbuktu?” Ryan said. “I think it was just that one—”
“No,” Juliet said, standing up. “You don’t get to charm your way out of this one, you … you …” Juliet seemed to be searching for a scathing word to blast him with as her hands balled into fists and her lips formed a tight line. In the end I found myself wishing she’d reached out for help in the creative slur department because she finished up with: “Man!” She hissed the word at him, but it fell a little flat. I sensed that Juliet was unleashing her own anger at men in general at Ryan on my behalf, and I realized we still hadn’t really talked. I had no idea what was actually going on with my sister, but it couldn’t be good.
“Not much of a burn,” I muttered, shaking my head. This entire thing was ridiculous. “Listen, guys,” I said, wanting to run away, to stick my head beneath the comforting pillow of my normal life. I forced myself not to look at Ryan, keeping my eyes on Juliet. “Let’s just pretend none of this happened,” I suggested. “If you’re hooking up, that’s perfect. That’s what you want everyone to think anyway, right? And you’ll be gone in a couple days, and Gran and I can go back to our regular lives. Whatever happened between me and Ryan, which was pretty much nothing, was just a lighthearted fling. It was nothing.” I glanced at him, the pain and disappointment on his face more pronounced than I would have expected. A little ache developed in my chest and I pressed a hand against it.
