She said good night to Emma before leading Charlie away from the campfire.
“The wagons are over there,” Charlie pointed out. “Also, I should probably go alone. Since the two of you just met—”
“We’re going back to the house.”
“What? Why?”
“Because then your dad will think you did what he wanted.”
“Mugsy, I don’t have anything to say to Adriana.”
“I know, Charlie. That’s why I’m going to talk to her for you.”
“And I can sneak back to the wagons?” He glanced behind them, calculating the stealthiest route.
“Absolutely not. You’re going to hide in your room, so no one sees younothanging out with Adri.” Mugsy shoved him in the arm. “And you can get your alone time. You’re welcome.”
She picked up the pace, putting a conversation-ending gap between them.
Lost WeekendEP: Anatomy of a Heartbreak?
Liner Notes: Behind the Charts
While there’s been no official word from Adriana Asebedo’s camp, fans agree that the surprise midnight release of a four-song EP was inspired by the dissolution of her relationship with reclusive beer heir Charlie Pike.
Will this be Adriana’sthank u, nextor a blip on her chart-topping career?
Time will tell.
Chapter 21
Jean pressed her fingers over her eye sockets. What a strange night, and not just because Charlie had been dressed in watermelon-pink satin, like a cross between a children’s TV host and a very niche stripper.
Fucking Smithson, that little shit. And he hadn’t even recognized her!
On some totally irrational but hard-to-shake level, it felt like Jean was being punished—as if telling Charlie the story had somehow manifested Smithson’s reappearance. She should have kept a lid on all of it. Her past, her feelings, her very short list of People to Trust. Her life had been perfectly fine before Charlie bumbled onto the scene.
Fine-ish.
Her stomach cramped. Jean couldn’t blame the beans because she’d left without eating any. Maybe there was something fundamentally wrong with her, hence the pathological attraction to dishonest sons of beverage magnates. Not that her teenage crush on Smithson bore any resemblance to what she’d had—correction,thoughtshe had—with Charlie. With Smithson, at least fifty percent of the pull had been his status. Her fling with Charlie was purely about wantinghim. Or rather, the person he’d pretended to be.
Speaking of lying, Adriana Freaking Asebedo was about to roll up in her blingin’ bus with her perfect skin and those mile-long eyelashes and her dance moves and her millions. The tiny part of Jean still holding out hope that the Charlie/Adriana story was a tabloid rumor had officially shriveled up and died. Therewas no way a star of her magnitude would play a beer festival in the back of beyond if she didn’t have a personal connection to the Pike family, not even speaking of the guilty-as-sin look on Charlie’s face.
Jean kicked her legs up and let them land like bricks. That felt pretty good, so she pummeled the bed with her bare heels a few more times. Then she added a groan, with a little growl in it, flopping back and forth on the squeaky mattress.
This was way more fun than analyzing feelings.
Scratch, scratch, scratch.
The noise was coming from just outside her wagon.
Did they have bears here? Wolves? Mountain lions? Was she about to be eaten, on top of everything else? What a perfect chaser to a fabulous evening!
Although it was really more of a tapping sound, now that she thought about it, so unless it was a weirdly polite bobcat, odds were her visitor was human.
A little voice inside her whisperedCharlie, and Jean didn’t care to scrutinize whether it was coming from her head or her heart. Was he back to perv on her shoes while conveniently forgetting to mention that his other girlfriend and hisotherother girlfriend were coming to this party? Because Jean had no doubt Charlie was still attracted to her, on a purely physical level. It was a low bar, but it pleased her to know she still held some sway over him. Power was power. You could use it.
“Come in,” she called, in her sultriest voice. He could try giving her the puppy-dog eyes, but Jean would stay strong. While also taunting him with a glimpse of what he couldn’t have.
