“Rafe, tell your father that’s only because nobody’s thought of it yet!” Lorenna insisted.
As much as I hated to agree with my dad on principle, he was totally right. Still, I hesitated. “Ms. Pepper, now maybe you could repeat the ideayouwere working on?”
Jonquil Pepper, my old kindergarten teacher, sat forward, glancing at Lorenna warily. “Well. Um. It wasn’t nearly as exciting. I was thinking… stars?”
Dad nodded approvingly.
“Stars,” I repeated, relieved. “Right, okay. So, like…”
“Um, star garlands strung back and forth across the street like a big canopy? And a star-shaped archway you’d pass under to get to the parking lot where all the food trucks will be? And maybe one of those booths that prints out the star chart from the day you were born or got married? And star T-shirts for all the volunteers that show what the skies over Whispering Key will look like the weekend of the festival? We should still have time to make them up, if we can get a design done fast.”
“Rafael could help you out with that,” Dad volunteered. “He was all about stargazing when he was a youngster, weren’t you, Rafe?”
I nodded reluctantly. “Not so much anymore, though. I’ve forgotten all of it,” I lied.
“Ah. We’ll figure something out. I was also thinking twinkle lights on all the food trucks that would turn on when the sun went down? And lights on the trees? And foil stars suspended over the dance floor over by the gazebo?” Jonquil looked exponentially more confident as she warmed to her topic.
“Wow.” That idea reallywasmesmerizing. I could imagine the lights swaying in the warm breeze off the water. It was beautiful. Perfect, really. “What else?”
“Well,” she said excitedly, “we’ll also need a big ol’ banner behind the stage where Jayd Rollins will be playing his concert on the last evening of the festival, of course! Something with the album cover forConstellationson it, since that’s where I got the idea for the stars—”
I inhaled sharply as his name hit my stomach like a rock—Jayd. Stupid, affected stage name. He wouldneverbe Jayd to me.Ever—and I turned to Lorenna with a smile. “On second thought, tell me more about the dicks.”
“Rafael!” Dad narrowed his eyes at me. “Jayd’s concert is the keystone of the whole Extravaganza. It makes sense to—”
“Oooh, that’s gonna be a hard no.” I folded my arms over my chest. “There is no way that we are theming our decorations after the name of that sellout’s overproduced, meaningless, bubblegum album. The label chose that name, you know. Jay couldn’t find the Big Dipper if you drew him a map. And furthermore, half the lyrics of those songs don’t make sense. ‘Drowning in the light of the truth of you and me; I’m forever locked tight, ’cause you hold the key’??Total bullshit. It’s like he was left unsupervised with a bottle of grain alcohol and a rhyming dictionary.”
“You hate it that much… but also listened to it enough times to recite the lyrics from memory?” Toby tilted his head to one side. “Hmm.”
I changed my mind. I really didnotlike that guy.
“Look,” I told my dad, “I didn’t say anything when you invited myformerfriend to perform a concert here without considering my feelings—”
“Ehhh. Is that accurate, though?” Fenn demanded. “’Cause I feel like you said some things.”
“Lots of things,” Beale the traitor agreed.
“—but I draw the line at this,” I concluded.
“Jayd is the reason most folks will be attending, which is good enough reason to theme the decorations after him,” my dad said reasonably.
“You know what? I concur.” I smiled with no humor. “Which means we’ll go with Lorenna’s idea, since a giant dick really captures who Jay is as a person.”
“Oh, Lord,” Dale Jennings muttered. “Here we go.”
Dad shook his head at me like I was the ridiculous one. “You have got to get over your petty squabbles, Rafe. It’s been years since that mess with Aimee.”
Years?No.
Yes, it had been over three years since Jay had gotten too famous to remember who his friends were, that was true… assuming our friendship had ever been real for him to begin with.
But had only been sixteen months since the last time I saw him. Sixteen months since Aimee had left me a note informing me that our marriage was over. Sixteen months since I’d followed her to Tampa, where Jay was staying after a show. Sixteen months since I’d gone to his hotel suite and demanded to talk to her… and he’d told me off at the door with words that had destroyed the last dregs of our friendship.
Fuck.
Remembering how I’d smashed my hand into his jaw in retaliation should have been more satisfying than it was, but honest to God, I just wished I’d hit him harder.
Hard enough to forget the look of his face in the sunlight, his hands on his guitar, the freckles on his shoulders, and the countless hours I’d spent reminding my teenaged self that Jay wasstraightand therefore didn’t want me.
