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“I begged her not to get you in trouble.” The sincerity in Austin’s retort made my breath catch.
I knew that at the time, but the reminder… “The AD made us keychains out of the bottle caps. To remind us not to be idiots again. I still have mine.” For far smarter reasons than nostalgia.
“No.” Austin sounded like he didn’t believe me.
“Yes. To remind me your schemes never worked out, and to not be an idiot again. It hangs on the inside of my briefcase.”
“That’s kind of sweet,” Kandace said.
Austin scoffed. “That’s kind of unbelievable.”
I wouldnotbe called a liar. Especially not by him. I finished my beer and let the alcohol settle in enough to numb the bad parts of the past. “Do you want to see? It’s back at the hotel.”
“Did you just invite me back to your room?” Austin teased.
“You really did.” Kandace didn’t look like she minded.
Pft. Whatever. “Is that anoon seeing proof?”
“I didn’t say that.”
I looked at Kandace. “You wouldn’t leave the two of us alone, would you?” I had no idea how this roller coaster was careening out of control, but I wanted her with me on it.
“Hell no, I wouldn’t.” Kandace grinned. “This story is too good for me to walk away now.”
This was ridiculous. But also… a little fun? Austin had to know I wasn’t lying about the keychain, but we were all going to trek back to my temporary home regardless, to stare at a tiny little object from our past?
The part of my sayingsure, why not? Must be way more drunk than the rest of me.
We finished up our dinner, thanked Gage for the meal and the privacy, and thanked him again when he let us out the back, so we could avoid the crowds. I almost felt like a kid again, sneaking behind buildings with Austin, to get away. Back then it could have been from the fans, or from the set, or any other number of ridiculous things.
And tonight, Kandace seemed to be enjoying the ride along with us. Her smile and light laugh were infectious.
We decided to walk, as I was only staying a few blocks away and going on foot might be faster and easier than trying to get back to the car.
“Is this where you grew up?” Austin asked Kandace as we strolled down the street.
An odd sort of envy spiked through me that he had a reason to ask her that question. I hadn’t done so because I knew the answer, from Andrew. When she shook her head, I realized she was going to tell the story in a very different way.
“No,” she said. “The place we actually grew up is nearly an hour away. It looked a lot like this, though. Maybe more run-down.” She scrunched up her face. “Definitelymore run down. But they didn’t want to be associated with his name, and this place has a… more flexible city council.”
“Your hometown didn’t want to be known asThe Town that Birthed Internet Porn?” Austin spread his hands across the air in front of him.
Kandace laughed. “Pretty sure that’s a type of porn itself. Rule 34, right?”
“That’s kind of meta.” Now I was trying to wrap my brain around an actual location giving birth and… I needed to stop that.
“And I hate to break it to both of you, but Andrew didn’t invent internet porn, he just figured out how to make money from it. Nude photos have been online longer than AOL.”
The look of confusion that crossed Austin’s face was the same kind of exaggerated expression he would feed the camera when we were kids. One of those looks that made his TV parents, and fans, and everyone goOh, Donovan,with thewah-wahsound implied. “AO-what?”
“Donotmake me feel old like that.” Kandace managed both teasing and warning in the same tone.
“He’s yanking your chain. We used to play on AOL all the time. They sponsored the show.” Was this me being the hero? I had no idea anymore. Could I possibly stop overthinking the situation long enough to have fun? Did I want to let my guard down like that around Austin? For Kandace I did.
“So the episode where Eli—your character—was addicted to computer games, was that based on reality?” Kandace glanced at me.
She knew our episodes.
