It’s been worth it.
I think…
“Well, it was a huge success last year, so it would be stupid not to.”
Stupid. Right… “You’ll be back in town by then, won’t you? You said September?”
“Did I? I think I meant November.”
My eyes crinkle as a hint of a smile tugs at my lips. “Too late, Hen. Can’t back out now. And just think of all the couples’ costumes you can come as! Oh, what about Guinevere and Lancelot?”
“Hard pass.”
“Bacon and eggs?”
“What the fuck? No.”
“I bet if Zara asked you to dress up like an egg, you would totally do it.”
“Uh, no. ’Cause I’m obviously the bacon. Duh.”
I snort out a laugh. “I miss you, Hen.”
“Miss you too, Pres. I didn’t realize just how much I’d miss you guys being out on the road. Our time in LA was so brief, and with Zara getting sick, I didn’t get to see you as much as I had hoped.”
“Well, that couldn’t be helped. You were needed elsewhere.”
“Yeah, I was.” That sugary-sweet tone is back in his voice, and I am almost one hundred percent sure Zara is close enough that he is either staring at her or has her in his arms.
An ache forms in my chest.
Things with Jace have deteriorated quickly. I thought he might quit after I broke up with him at my parents’ house, but he didn’t.
Instead, he’s been on time for a month straight.
He completely ignores me, but acts like employee of the month in front of everyone else. It’s fucking weird. I’d love to fire him, but I feel that doing so right after I dumped him would look bad.
“And you were apparently catching up with old friends?”
“What?” I try to pull myself out of my thoughts and focus on my brother.
“Hollis,” he says, making my heart race at the sound of his name. I still haven’t told him—or my brother—about mybreakup, and I’m pretty sure the rise in my pulse when I hear his name has something to do with why. “Mom said he called out of the blue that night after the concert?”
That was the line my mom told the family when she strode into the living room, holding my phone and with Hollis on speaker. But not before she shot me a look over her shoulder that said,We’ll talk about this later.
I’m not sure what she wanted to say because whatever talk she planned hasn’t happened yet, and it has been weeks.
Maybe she felt a hint of betrayal finding out that Hollis and I had been talking for a week and I hadn’t told her, but if so, she didn’t show it that night when she waltzed into the living room with unshed tears in her eyes.
She and my dad talked to him for what seemed like hours.
Even Mercury and Myles joined in.
If Hollis felt overwhelmed by the sudden reunion, he never let it show in his voice. He joked about feeling old when Mercury told him about her job at the recording studio. He asked questions about Myles’s acting gigs and where he’d traveled, and he indulged my parents by telling them all about his life in Nashville.
I pretended not to notice how he hadn’t mentioned a woman in his life. He’s never talked about anyone in our conversations, so I assume he is single, but I’ve been too afraid to ask.
Why? Well, I’m too afraid to ask myself that as well. Especially now that my relationship status has officially changed.
