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8
Rena
“Hello,this is the ‘my life sucks, I’m marrying a rock star’ hotline. How may we direct your call?” I answer the phoneSunday.
“Funny.” Haley’s laughter comes over theline.
“No, what’s funny is I just finished getting walked on by a bunch ofgoats.”
“Goats?”
I tug my still-shower-damp hair into a messy top knot as I talk into the speakerphone. “Kendall wanted to do goat yoga. I couldn’t put heroff.”
“I’m surprised they’re legal in New York when pet skunksaren’t.”
“Right?! They’re behind on the times.” I turn to see the guy in question sniffing at my heels as I go to makecoffee.
I bend to lift him into my arms and stroke his soft fur as the coffee brews. I didn’t know it was possible to love something as much as I love my skunk. Scrunch came to me a few years ago, and he’s still my most loyal friend. BesidesHaley.
“How ishe?”
“Lately he’s been trying to escape. I think the sounds and smells here have him on overdrive. I’m afraid he’ll make a run for the garbage disposal and I’ll never see him again.” I finish making coffee, pour it into a mug that says “DON’T EVEN” on the front, add cream—what the hell is coffee without cream?—and carry it across my apartment, which doesn’t take long given the place consists of an open-concept kitchen and living room, and drop into an armchair by the window. “So, tell me something nice. How’s the music industry? How’s weddingplanning?”
“Wedding planning…yeah.”
“You guys got engaged three months ago,” I remind her. “Don’t tell me you’re having secondthoughts.”
“No. Definitely not. But I don’t know what a wedding should look like. I want Jax, not the big party. Maybe we canelope.”
Scrunchie scrambles back from my fake fur pillow. He doesn’t like the pillow, no matter how many times I tell him it’s not real fur. Orskunk.
“The tabloids will find out,” I tell her. “There’ll be a helicopter over you in notime.”
“That’s what I’m terrifiedof.”
My friend isn’t into the spectacle, which is ironic given she’s marrying possibly the biggest rock star on theplanet.
“You’ve lived in the spotlight for a while now, Haley. How is thisdifferent?”
I can practically hear her giant brain working. “Because it’s personal. Jax and I have always had our special moments behind closed doors. I understand that fans feel they have a right to him—hell, I felt that way once—but I don’t want to let strangers intothis.”
The pleading in her voice works at myheart.
“I know what you need,” I decide. “Adress.”
“Well,eventually.”
“Not eventually. Soon. Now. Come here. I know all the best places. I’ll take youaround.”
“You’d dothat?”
“Of course.” I glance out the window, excited for the first time allweek.
“I figured you’d be too busy with guys of yourown.”
“I’m helping a friend of Jake’s with someresearch.”
I explain Wes’s program to her, and I can practically hear her lean in over thephone.
