Shitagain.
She’s eaten stuff all over the world.
Goodstuff.
How do you impress a woman who can literally have anything flown in from anywhere at the drop of a hat?
I hear my grandfather’s parrot tell me I’m screwed while my mom’s voice echoes in my head too.Be your charming self, sweetheart. If she’s worth it, that’s all she needs.And that’s all she’s even asked for.
She wouldn’t say that if she knew I was talking about bringing Waverly Sweet home.
She’d tell me I was out of my league and I definitely need something better than a lobster dinner. She can get herself a lobster dinner.
What the hell can I get her that she can’t get herself?
Fun.
I can get her fun.
Can’t buy fun.
Not the Cooper Rock way.
That’s what she dug about me eight years ago. Let’s see if she’ll still dig it now.
8
Waverly
How isit that my aunt can be halfway across the country, working hard on projects that are good for the Waverly Sweet brand, making me feel happy because she’s my family and I love her, and still drive me up a flipping wall?
“No,” I say for the fourteenth time. At least. “I amnotgoing on a date withanyof the Mercy Brothers, I don’t care which one iscutest.”
“If you’re going to throw your own career away to help other young musicians—”
“I’m notthrowing my career away. And I’monlyinvested in helping Aspen. Aspen, who’s an amazing musician who simply needs a little boost, and then she’ll take over the rest of the world all on her own. She’s not a boy band who are already hitting the top of the charts becausethey’re cute. She’s the real deal.”
“Waverly, your video with Levi is dropping in a week, and we need—”
“Stop.” I pace my hotel suite and stifle an irritated growl while Hashtag, my black-and-white tuxedo cat, tries to trip me. It’s ten forty-three. The Fireballs game ended exactly nineteen minutes ago. Cooper will be here imminently if he’s any good at following directions, and I’m way more eager to see him than I should be. Some parts of me more than others.
Even though I was very firm with him that we need totalk.
“We need to put the focus onyoufor a while,” Aunt Zinnia says, gentler now, her words laced with innocence, which I used to believe but lately am starting to question.
Is she playing me?
Has she been manipulating my entire life and I never noticed?
“I don’tneedthis much focus on me. The song is good. The video is amazing. My fan base combined with Levi’s is massive beyond belief, and this is exactly the type of art my Braverlies want from me. Why don’t we let it do whatever it’s going to dowithoutbaiting the tabloids and gossips too? Let the music speak for itself?”
There’s a rare moment of silence on the other end of the phone that makes the hairs on my arm stand up.
“We can’t let them say that you’re involved with some second-rate, playboy baseball player.”
Now the hairs on the back of my neck are standing up too. My stomach rumbles. “Why not?”
“You’re Waverly Sweet. In the world of celebrities, you’re on top of the mountain, and—”
