Chet sighed happily and squeezed Chrissea tighter to his side. “Past twenty-four hours have been the weirdest, bestest day of my life.”
I knew exactly what he meant.
Chrissea stepped forward and pressed a kiss to Jay’s cheek. “I’ve been a huge fan of your music, but I had no idea you were sonice. You’re still my favorite singer… after my Chet here, of course.”
“She’s my biggest fan,” Chet said proudly.
“As I should be,” she agreed. “Since you’re my main squeeze.”
“That’s sweet,” Jay said gently. “And thank you.”
“Baby, we need to get downstairs to give Barbara my two-week notice.” Chrissea nudged Chet’s arm.
“Ah, that’s right. Anyway, nice seeing you again, Tom.” Chet offered me a hand to shake, and I realized no one had bothered sharingmyreal name, which was probably for the best.
“Same, Chet. Best of luck to you crazy kids.”
Chrissea headed for the door, but Chet dragged his toe over the patterned carpet. “I wanted to apologize. I maybe exaggerated a li’l bit yesterday when I said Jayd Rollins was my close personal friend.”
Jay smiled his genuine smile, the one that made my heart kick up a crazy rhythm. “You didn’t lie, Chet. You just didn’t know we were friends yet.” He clapped Chet on the arm, and Chet looked so happy he might cry.
“Wow,” he breathed. “Yeah. Okay.” He sniffled just a little. “Best of luck toy’all, too,” he offered. “You’re real fun together.”
Jay blinked, indecision plain on his face. He shot me a look that said he didn’t want to admit to anything… but he also didn’t want to hurt me.
“Together?” I huffed out a laugh. “Me and this guy? Nah. Now, if Ari Friedrich were around…”
Jay shot me a look that promised me an infinite number of demerits if I finished that sentence, so I didn’t.
“Jay and I are friends,” I told Chet instead, knowing I was speaking the truth, even if it wasn’t the whole truth. “Best friends.”
12
Jay
The next day, Rafe pulled the van into a shaded parking spot outside St. Vincent’s Hospital. I groaned tiredly and tilted my head back against the passenger’s seat.
The eight-hour drive through Nebraska had been both uneventful and tiring as fuck, sort of in the way that sitting in an airport terminal for long periods was tiring. Like the force of will required to hold yourself still leached the energy from your bones.
We’d ended up spending an extra night in Dry Hump the night before. As it turned out, Deputy Horowitz had needed us to sign some paperwork withdrawing our complaint, Chet had wanted to “gas up the van for my boys,” and Normandie had insisted that we get dinner and an upgraded room “on the house, so you can experience the true beauty and majesty of the Pleasure Emporium!”
This had been fine by me because the eveninghadbeen majestic and beautiful… in ways that had nothing to do with the room.
In fact, last night had been so great that if I didn’t know Rafe was fielding a dozen texts an hour from the Extravaganza Committee and his dad, wondering when the hell we’d be home, I’d have begged for more nights. Entire months of nights. Years and years of nights. Our stay in Dry Hump felt like a step out of time for us. A fairy tale set in a random midwestern Las Vegas, where trivial things like my career, the tabloids, my sister, my visceral reaction to “Jay and I are friends. Best friends,” and the looming question mark above our relationship felt like fiction… while important things like me and Rafe huddled in bed together with our arms around each other, dreaming up ways Rafe could see the world without getting on an airplane, felt like solid truth.
Fortunately-unfortunately, Rafe was way too responsible to let us stay there forever or even let us dilly-dally that morning. So there we were, already in Larindosa, while late-afternoon sunshine filtered through the sheltering tree branches overhead.
“You ready for this?” he asked softly.
“Very. And also… not at all.”
He brushed a hand lightly down my arm and toyed with my fingers. “You’ll probably feel better once you get it over with.”
“Yeah.” I sighed.
“Or, if you’d rather not do this, we can just go back to the hotel. Or to Florida.”
I cracked open one eye. “Just leave, huh? And have all this kidnapping be for nothing? Don’t youwanna see for yourself that Aimee’s fine?”
