I groaned. “You’re impossible.”
“That’s what you like about me.”
“I didn’t say I liked anything about you.”
“Noted.” He stood up, stretching, then extended a hand toward me. “Come on. Ten minutes. We’ll do a quick photoshootand get it over with. We can cross to the other side of the river by the woods. Nobody will be there in November.”
The river ran on the far edge of campus, with a small grassy area and woods behind it, making up the true border of Hartwell Academy’s grounds. It was a gorgeous spot to sit in the early fall and in the spring, but he was right that at this time of year it would be pretty empty. I supposed that if we had to do a photoshoot, it would be better to do it where nobody could stare at us.
“We’re meeting Poppy and Bear in forty minutes,” I reminded him. It was the only legitimate excuse I could think of not to do this. I knew he was right that it would help the ruse, but I still wasn’t sure how I felt about the idea of giving into the frenzy like this.
“Then we’d better make it a short photoshoot,” Tino said. He swung his bag over his shoulder and held a hand out.
There was no winning against him. With a resigned sigh, I took his hand. His palm was warm against mine, steady and sure, and it sent tingles up my arm. I did my best to ignore it as we cut across the quad and past the stone buildings that were all dark since it was the weekend. A few students lounged on the grass, either chatting or working on their laptops, and almost every single one of them stared at us—and at our clasped hands—as we walked by.
And I still wasn’t used to it at all.
Granted, it had taken me a long time to get used to the semi-fame that I got from being Luca’s sister. I still remembered what it was like when my life was flipped upside down from his going onThe Next Great Boy Band—one day, I was just an average girl at school and the next, I was being invited to every hangout and birthday party in the hopes that he might come along with me. It wasn’t long before my so-called friends started demanding more and more from me, from his autographs to stealing his stuff forthem. That was where my ideas for selling his clothes had come from. I drew a line in the sand that I wouldn’t give anything away but if they were willing to pay, I was willing to give this stuff up. At least that made it easier to see who actually wanted to spend time with me and who just wanted to be connected to Take Five in some way.
I never thought I’d be thrown back into the deep end like that, starting to become scrutinized as Luca’s little sister more than I already was. Maybe I should have anticipated that becoming connected to the younger brother of the Valentine Brothers would cause this, but he and I had been in each other’s lives for years at this point without it turning into this. I guess it was something of a perfect storm—each of our brother’s bands just growing bigger and bigger, being spotted by somebody who had to be a massive enough fan to know what store they were hiding in, and everyone at school apparently already wondering if we would end up together given how excited they were when we supposedly did.
But I wasn’t in my comfort zone when we were doing this. Tino seemed perfectly happy with everything that was going on—if I was looking from the outside, I’d have no doubts that he was in love with me. Maybe it was built on the fact that he was actually interested in me and this was essentially like playing pretend at the relationship he did want, but I thought it went deeper than that. There was some part of Tino that made him enjoy being in the spotlight. It was the same piece of him that was excited at the idea of being a famous hockey player too. Meanwhile, I was happy to remain largely irrelevant. It had taken me long enough to get used to being Jude Turner’s little sister, and if this week had shown me anything, it was that I didn’t want to become any more famous than that. I didn’t want to be watched, I didn’t want people to speculate about my feelings, I didn’t want any of it.
I just wanted all of this to be behind us already.
As we crossed the bridge over the river, I looked around. This edge of campus was just as empty as Tino had assumed it was, thank goodness. I was already awkward enough trying to act as Tino’s girlfriend, I didn’t need an audience for a photoshoot on top of that.
He pulled his phone from his pocket, flipped to the camera, and handed it to me. “Here. You start.”
“Me?”
“Yeah. Take a picture of me looking off into the distance or whatever. Make it look candid. Girls love that brooding stuff.”
“You’re enjoying this way too much.”
“Obviously.”
I rolled my eyes but lifted the phone anyway. He leaned against a tree, squinting toward the sun, his hair catching the light in that annoyingly perfect way. I snapped a few shots, then lowered the phone. “Done.”
“That fast?”
“I don’t need twenty identical photos of your face.”
“You sure? My mom says it’s my best feature.”
I gave him a flat look. “Your mom’s biased.”
“True.”
“I’m also not sure how me having photos of you is going to help at all.”
“You’re going to make them your lock screen, duh.”
I raised my eyebrows. “I did not agree to that. And nobody is looking at my phone, anyway.”
“That’s what you think.”
“I—”
