“Only number seventy-five?”
I hummed. “Well, you can’t be number one. I’m trying to make you less interesting.”
“Right. My bad. Clearly there are at least seventy-four hypothetical criminals more fascinating than me.”
“Exactly—now you’re getting it.” I checked the time on my phone. “I’ve got some time before I need to get to the café. We can go shopping.”
“Sure,” he agreed. “I guess I could go to the nearest mall and—”
“Whoa, hold on there. The mall?” I wrinkled my nose. “InWoodsborough?”
“Uh, yeah?” Jake cocked his head. “Why do you sound so scandalized? You look like I just said a McDonald’s parking lot’s a great funeral venue and Ronald himself could give the eulogy.”
I blinked at him. He stared back, as if that was a completely normal thing to say.
“Okay, first of all, I’m more than a little weirded out that that’s the first example your mind jumped to—”
“You would not believe some of the things I’ve seen at my tour stops in Vegas.”
“Well, they should stay in Vegas. Secondly, the department stores are awful. No way are we going there. And they’re so expensive. They never even have any good discounts,” I exclaimed. Jake very likely did not have to wait for anything to go on sale, but this was a matter ofprinciple. “The thrift store over on Cardew is closer and it has an even better selection than you’ll find at the mall. We can pick out something there.”
Jake smirked. “We?”
Oh, I had instinctively saidwe, hadn’t I?
“Well,” I said, “someone’sgot to keep you from buying cowboy boots.”
Chapter Seven
“My job is to make sure each band member has their own distinctive look,” explains seasoned US stylist, Luna Thomas. “Phillip’s style is tailored, posh, and British. I buy him designer brands and classic pieces. Contrasting our Brit is Aspen, our extroverted All-American boy, and I put him in bold, trendy outfits. Leon’s the baby of the group and known for never making a fuss, so casual comfort you’d find on your boy next door’s key. And Jake? Well, everyone knows he’s the resident rebel. The eternally cool, mysterious one who talks the least in interviews, and who you might think twice about bringing home to your parents. He’s got the monopoly on dark colors, leather jackets, boots, studded belts, all of that. It’s limited, but it works.”
—Excerpt from aFire Fitsinterview
The Bargain Barn on Cardew Street had a decal of a cow wearing a tall black top hat on their front window. This was not the choice I would have gone with, but I wasn’t there to judge the fine proprietors of the Bargain Barn, who sold memany things at a low price, and made it possible to buy a pair of Jimmy Choos for prom without paying an amount that made my wallet feel Jimmy Ew.
“Are you sure I shouldn’t take an Uber to the mall in Woodsborough?” Jake asked, eyeing the well-dressed cow and the slogan under it that said,Come in, our deals are bovine!“A department store isn’t that evil, is it?”
“You’ve been in LA too long,” I admonished, pushing the door open, then glancing behind me, daring him to follow. “Get in here. Don’t mind the cow. Cows are good. You’re from Texas, remember? You’re used to them.”
Jake gave me an unimpressed look, but followed me in anyway. “What exactly do you think I did in Texas?”
“I don’t know. Played Texas Hold’em poker? Rode bulls in rodeos? Drank whiskey while you sat by the bonfire, watching for outlaw cattle rustlers?”
“Okay, one: I left when I waseleven—”
“So no poker and whiskey, then? You were more of a root beer and Crazy Eights kind of guy?”
“And two: I was also not a character in a sixties spaghetti Western.”
I knew that. He knew I knew that.
On Jake’s first day at my school, he’d made the mistake of sayingHowdyin his soft twang and got laughed at by the class.
“It’s not even something I say,” he’d confided to me later, banging his head against one of the café tables as the cats watched his mortification with rapt fascination. “I don’t know why I did. I guess I was trying to lean into the image I thought everyone expected of me.”
“Whatever you say,” I now replied, before gesturing at the racks upon racks of clothes surrounding us. “Go for it.”
I expected Jake to dive in with the same self-assuredness he had onstage, but instead, he held back.
