As if reading her mind, Blythe mouthed to heris this going to happen EVERY TIME?
Darcy could only shrug back, impatiently. Who cared? Who cared about the plants in the green room?
What they needed to all care about was staying focused on putting their best foot forward.
“I think Miles can afford a new ficus if need be,” Darcy asserted. “Not that they’re going to need it. Because you are going to be fine.”
Everything was going to be perfectly fine.
And,for the most part, itwasperfectly fine.
Miles hadn’t played the dating game with them this time, so things had gone smoothly for Blythe.
Emerson, as she typically did, settled in once the cameras were rolling. She was never going to be more talkative than Darcy or Blythe, but she didn’t usually panic when they were in the thick of the interviews.
Miles drummed his hands on his desk. Darcy was sandwiched on the couch adjacent to the desk between Blythe and Emerson, and was most frequently targeted with questions.
That had been decided by the group during their very first interview, because Darcy simply had the most to say… much to the chagrin of Eliana, their public relations manager who’d been working very hard to give them media training in the last six months.
Because Darcy was also – by far – the most likely to speak her mind. Emerson barely wanted to talk at all, and Blythe had always been the queen of equivocation.
So, when Miles’ eyes settled on her, she wasn’t surprised.
“I’ve let us get far too deep into this gab session without bringing up yourincrediblewin at the North American Music Awards last week.” He started a round of applause, and the audience joined in.
Darcy grinned back at him, that livewire feeling sparking through her that she was still getting used to.
She was used to being watched, being scrutinized, while she was singing and performing. It was a very different thing when people weren’t watching her perform but were just watchingher.
“I mean, that must feel… well, you’re the winners, you tell me how it feels,” he encouraged.
Technically, he was asking the group, but he was still looking at her.
Blythe softly, imperceptibly, nudged her with her arm, signaling that she was also ready for Darcy to take over the answer.
“It’s surreal. That’s the best way to describe it for all of us. It really doesn’t seem like this is actually happening.” It might sound like a line, but Darcy meant it. Shecouldn’tbelieve it was all so real.
“I mean, an independently produced album taking the cake – it doesn’t happen often.” He rubbed his hands together in an excited way that immediately made her stomach clench. “And, you know, Imustbring up Juliet Jacobs.”
Darcy felt the smile freeze on her face.
She could also feel the tension immediately slide through both Blythe and Emerson on either side of her.
“Must you?” Blythe jumped in, glibly. Offering a musical little chuckle with it.
“I’m dying to know what the history is, there,” Miles said, leaning in. “I mean, Juliet is usually such a sweetheart.”
Her smile was still glued in place, and she felt that heated anger start in the pit of her stomach all over again. Re-ignited. Not the fucking sweetheart angleagain. Being said right to her face, about the woman that had talked backhanded shit about her. Seriously?
But she did her best to keep her temper at bay. Did her best to think about Eliana’s advice.
“We have no history, actually,” she informed him, tightly. “I’ve never spoken to her in my life.”
The surprise was evident on his face – as well as the excitement. “No kidding?”
She felt the back of Blythe’s hand tap her thigh. A silent reminder.
Darcy tried.
