“No,youleft your shoes on the porch—mine are the Saint Laurents!”
Hudson’s voice followed, calm and unbothered: “Maybe if you didn’t own five pairs that look exactly the same?—”
“Blasphemy,” Luca interrupted. “And they don’t! They each have a unique spirit.”
A knock sounded at the door and Asa stuck his head in. “Car’s coming in twenty. I’m begging you both to be ready on time.”
“I just need to get dressed,” I told Asa, finishing off the last curl. I glanced at Nina. “You don’t mind if I use your bedroom to get changed, do you?”
She barely glanced at me, too focused on her makeup. “Go ahead.”
Asa disappeared down the hallway, probably to go yell at the boys to hurry up as well, and I went into Nina’s bedroom. It occurred to me as I grabbed my dress that I could have just insisted on staying with Nina once I found out about the one bed situation with Tino. Sharing a bed with my sister would have been infinitely less uncomfortable than sharing it with my fake boyfriend. Sure, it might have raised a few questions about our relationship, but that wouldn’t be a big deal—it wasn’t the band we were trying to convince about us, after all.
But despite that, I felt strangely glad that I hadn’t thought of asking before.
“Lilah?” Tino called from the hall.
“I’m in Nina’s room!” I called back. “Just getting dressed. I’ll be out in a sec!”
I stepped into my dress, smoothing the fabric over my hips. The soft blue shimmered faintly when it caught the light, and for a second I just… stared at myself in the mirror. It was understated but elegant, and I looked almost… grown-up. I put on my earrings and perfume, grabbed my clutch, and looked one more time in the mirror. Then I took a deep breath and opened the door.
“Okay, I’m ready—well, mostly ready, don’t laugh?—”
The words tripped out of my mouth, but they stopped dead when I saw the look on his face.
Tino was standing near the bed in a perfectly fitted black suit, tie undone around his neck, hair falling slightly into his eyes. He looked… good. Too good.
And he was staring at me like he’d forgotten what air was.
“You’re staring,” I said automatically, cheeks warming.
“Yeah,” he said, voice a little rough. “I mean—no. You just—uh—look nice.”
“Nice?” I raised an eyebrow.
“Okay,” he said, clearing his throat. “You look amazing.”
I fought the smile tugging at my lips. “That’s better.”
There was something about the way he said it—like he hadn’t even meant to out loud—that made it hard to breathe for a second.
“You clean up fine yourself, Valentine,” I said, because it felt safer to tease.
The moment hung there for a beat—soft, fragile, like it would shatter if either of us moved. Then he blinked, stepping back. “We should get downstairs before Luca wonders where we are.”
Right. My brother. The reason we were here.
I nodded. “Yeah. Let’s go.”
I smiled, small and a little shaky, and picked up my clutch.
As we walked downstairs together, his hand brushed mine—barely there, gone in an instant—but it sent a tiny, traitorous spark up my arm.
CHAPTER 25
tino
I didn’t remembera single moment on the way. Nothing from the moment that Lilah stepped out wearingthatdress until we were sitting in some banquet hall, Take Five was winning an award, and Lilah glowed so hard beside me it was a wonder the cameras didn’t pick her up as her own star. She clapped and cheered and half-hid her face when the camera panned her way, and the whole time I just sat there, pretending to be part of the background while trying not to stare.
