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“So Brian,” Tony said, pulling my gaze to his open grinning face. “What was that last movie I saw you in? On an island somewhere or something? Weren’t there like zombie islanders?”
I gritted my teeth, reminding myself that I was being filmed. I had to be nice. Or at least I could not leap across the table, remove the bright red apple from the pig’s mouth and shove it into Tony’s. “Pacific Pandemic,” I said.
“Ho, ho, yeah,” Tony said, laughing and shaking his head of too-shaggy dark hair. “That’s destined to be a cult classic, right man? Like way over the top stupid silly.”
“It was a horror thriller,” I said through my teeth. “The studio’s answer toWorld War Z.”
Tony guffawed some more and stuffed some corn in his mouth. Then he continued to insult my career. “Brian, man,” he leaned in conspiratorially. “So when you’re in the middle of making a flop like that, do the actors know it? Or do you like, think things are going really well? Like you know you’re standing in a pile of shit, right? But you sign a contract or whatever, so you have to do it, right?” Juliet squeezed my hand, which helped slow down the angry rushing blood that was about to send me over the table to strangle Tony.
Tess was staring at Tony with her own mouth hanging open slightly, and she punched him in the upper arm as he finished this question. I opened my mouth to answer, but Juliet saved me.
“Tony,” Juliet said sweetly. “Hollywood is complicated, and sometimes we do movies we know won’t be blockbusters for strategic reasons. To get to know a director, or to be connected to another actor. It’s hard to explain. And it’s not Brian. It’s Ryan. Ryan McDonnell is going to be a household name pretty soon. He’s moving on to much bigger things,” she added. “Right, babe?”
Juliet held my hand tightly and she leaned close, clearly wanting me to kiss her now, to make this good for the ever-vigilant cameras. I appreciated her help with the d-bag, but my mind was a whir. My whole body was reaching for Tess, and her wide hazel eyes were so sad I felt like my heart was dissolving inside my chest. Had I done that to her?
I felt like whatever I did here was a choice laid out in front of me: Continue to go along with this charade, watching Tess being groped by some moronic redneck ex-boyfriend from her past, or stand up right here and tell her what I wanted, what I hoped, what I knew we could have.
But before I could make my choice, Tess abruptly stood. “Excuse me.” She turned and left the tent without another word, and Tony shrugged, returning his attention to the mountain of shredded pork on his plate.
I nearly stood to go after her, but then the DJ turned up the volume and Juliet pulled me out of my seat. “We’d better dance, put on a good show.”
Sadness floated inside me as I followed her to the dance floor, every cell in my body screaming to head the other way, to follow Tess from that tent.
Tony must’ve heard my body’s message because a few minutes later, he wiped his mouth, stood, and headed out the door of the tent, as my mind darkened.
Chapter Twenty
Tess
It wasn’t the mature thing to do. It wasn’t the right thing, considering this was Gran’s party. It wasn’t an even vaguely advisable thing to do, but I left the party. I stood up and walked out.
I couldn’t take one more second of watching Juliet and Ryan fawn over one another like the happy couple they were pretending to be. Were they even pretending? How could I trust a man who lied for a living when he told me it was all for show? How could I trust my sister’s words when her job was exactly the same? They were both too good at it, and I’d seen the way men fell for my sister for far too long. And that kiss on the lawn. That hadn’t been pretend. No one was that good an actor.
And then I’d seen them coming out of his room earlier.
I didn’t know Ryan McDonnell at all. He was an actor, and evidently a much better one than I’d realized. He was playing me, having both the Manchester sisters. I wondered if he and Juliet had a much more complicated deal than the one they’d told me about.
Even if Ryan had felt something for me—and honestly, that was unlikely given the amount of time he’d known me, and considering the Juliet-Manchester effect—it was probable that Juliet was the only Manchester girl in his heart now. She charmed everyone. Without even meaning to.
What started out as pretending might have evolved. She had that effect on people. On men. And it looked like Ryan had fallen under the spell. Just like every man who’d ever been interested in me—but then met my sister—besides Tony. A flat acceptance landed with a thud in my gut. I’d end up with Tony. He loved me, at least. But could I ever find even a spark of what I’d felt for Ryan with him?
I couldn’t think about it now.
I knew I’d have to go back inside. There were speeches to be made. I had to present the cake we’d made to Gran. She deserved everything and I needed to get over my own issues and go celebrate the woman who was parent and best friend to me now.
But I needed a few minutes of fresh air—even if the humidity that suffused Maryland’s signature evening atmosphere was pretty far from refreshing. I stood on the riverbank and looked out across the water.
This was home. This was grounding for me. This water, this land. This was where I belonged and what I was made of. And I’d forgotten it for a while in the grip of a wildly intoxicating fantasy. But I remembered it now.
Ryan McDonnell and Juliet would go back to Hollywood tomorrow, and I could go back to kayaks and calm. But I was pretty sure I’d never be settling down with Tony, no matter what everyone seemed to expect. He didn’t deserve a woman who didn’t love him.
I’d opened my mind for the evening, tried to give him a chance. But there was just nothing there, no more than there had been in seventh grade. We were not meant to be together any more than Buffy and Angel were—though we had a lot less of the star-crossed love thing going on. And a lot less blood sucking and general badassery, too.
“Hey there,” Tony’s voice came from behind me and I turned in the increasing darkness to see his tall form moving in next to me on the shore of the river. His presence was both comforting and depressing, if that was even possible. I was a mess.
“Hey,” I returned softly.
Twinkle lights were starting to glow in the trees around us, and the atmosphere would have been romantic, if only … but no, I needed to stop thinking that way.
