“So where is she?”
I’m trying to figure out how he learnedabout this, considering this isn’t even something I shared with Jordan. And ifI would have shared it with anyone, it would’ve been him.
“She has a place in Kentucky,” Isay. “She’s living a very happy life right now, and we all still talk. Shecomes to family get-togethers when we have them.”
That’s the last in his line ofquestions about my mom, but the interview becomes a blur for me. I continueanswering his questions, but I feel disconnected from it. Now I’m justrepeating lines I’ve rehearsed with Debra.
“So Bryce,” he says. “You in lovewith this guy?”
Another curve ball. We didn’t rehearsethis, and I fear that Bryce is about to royally fuck up what I’ve managed tosave. He doesn’t know how to handle a question on the fly, and I could see itmaking him say something snarky or insincere, and then the press’ll have afield day.
“I am,” Bryce says.
Even though I know it’s an act, I getgoosebumps. My cheeks fill with heat. I can’t even look at him because I’m soflustered by how authentic it sounded.
“When was the moment that you knewyou were in love with Tad?” Henry asks.
Now’s when he’ll slip up, but Ijust have to let him do this on his own. If I try to interrupt, Henry willfigure that I’m up to something and push even harder…likely call us out on it.
Bryce grins. “We have these late nightswhere we’ll put on a crappy horror movie and eat Chinese. One night, he fell asleepin my arms and tucked his little face into my chest, and I needed to go to thebathroom, but I wouldn’t get up because I didn’t want to disturb him. So I justkept watching TV and he moved around a little bit. And then opened his eyes fora moment and looked at me, and he had the most at-ease, sincere look in hiseyes when he looked at me. There are only a few moments in your life that youwish you could freeze so that you could keep anything from ruining how specialit is, and that was one of those moments. Because I didn’t see Tad as thisbig-shot celebrity or as the ass that he can sometimes be when he’s awake,which he definitely can be. I just saw this great guy I knew I wanted to spendthe rest of my life with.”
“Look at Tad over here. You’ve gothim all watery-eyed.”
I didn’t realize I’d startedcrying, but the tears are rushing down my cheeks. For a moment, just a moment,he totally made me forget about all that shit about Mom. The only things Icould think about were his sweet words. I let myself imagine that we could besomething more. What that would be like. What that would feel like. I don’tthink it’s about Bryce as much as the idea of having someone who feels that wayabout me.
I recall a night when I woke up onhim, and I imagine if he had been thinking about me as something more than atrick. As if he was considering that maybe there could be something between us.
As Bryce turns to me, I lookdirectly at Henry, hoping Bryce won’t see my vulnerability.
This guy’s an ass, remember?
I shake it off, but as I look at Bryceagain, he’s looking at me with a sincere gaze, and I don’t know how to processit. Considering what an ass I’ve been to him the past few days, this has to bea part of the act, but I don’t know how to respond to it.
***
“Are you okay?” Bryce asks.
We’re on the way to our transportSUV that will take us back to the hotel.
As I turn to him, I see sincereconcern in his eyes. I’m not okay. And I could tell that Kiernan picked up onjust how not okay I was when we entered the green room after the interview.
“I’ll be fine,” I say. I just don’tever want to talk to him or anyone else about it again.
“That was incredible,” Debra saysas we get into the SUV. She told us we shouldn’t talk about specifics until wegot to the vehicle—to keep anyone from overhearing anything we might say andreporting back to Henry, which is something that has happened on his showfrequently.
“Bryce, I’m totally impressed,”she says. “I knew that you must have been good with this kind of stuffconsidering your undercover work, but when he asked if you loved him, I wassure you were going to fuck that up, but hell, you convinced me. I about burstinto tears.”
He grins like he’s pleased withhimself for how well it went. And he should be.
“I was completely blown away,”Kiernan says as he buckles up in the seat beside hers. He keeps eyeing meuneasily, and I can tell it’s because he’s wondering what I’m thinking aboutthe part of the interview about Mom. “What did you think, Darren?” he asks.
“Totally,” Darren says as hescrolls on his phone. “And Twitter seems to be agreeing with us.”
“Right?” Debra says, beaming asshe scrolls on her iPad. “Oh, this is all looking very good.”
As I make eye contact with Bryce,he looks away quickly. Like he’s embarrassed to look at me after what he said.
I just have to keep reminding myselfthat he’d never actually say something like that about me. It was as much of aperformance as when I talked about Mom with Henry Mason.
