Star-Crossed Letters (Falling for Famous #1)(91)

“You’re being dramatic, Chase. The tabloids don’t care about her anymore. You made sure they’re too busy chasing Chassidy. And I doubt the fire investigator is wrong. Olivia is a full-grown adult and could leave, so she left. She wasn’t kidnapped and held in a house full of celebrities,” Emma says.

“Ha!” Sebastian says. “That would make an awesome script.”

“I saw her on her way out. She looked pretty upset,” Emma says.

“What did she say?” My stomach drops.

Emma shakes her head. “Nothing. Just said she was sorry she had to go, but it was for the best.”

Sebastian slaps his hand against the counter in triumph. “I told you. Bad sex.”

“It wasn’t bad!” I snarl.

“I knew it! You had sex!” Daisy cries, pointing an accusing finger at me.

“No! We didn’t. Not that.” I cross my arms over my chest. “This is none of your business.”

“Well, you made it our business when your little bedroom antics led to my friend bolting for the airport,” Daisy retorts.

“Dude, we’re not dumb,” Sebastian says. “She had a massive crush on you. Anyone could see it. If you didn’t bang her, then what happened? Did you turn her down? Shatter her dreams?”

“I didn’t turn her down.” I close my eyes. “Well, kind of. But I was trying to protect her.”

“Did you tell her the truth? Is that why she left?” Daisy chews her lip. “Was she mad? At both of us?”

“I told her, but that’s not why she left. She didn’t understand why it could never work between us.”

“Chase, you are a first-class idiot sometimes,” Daisy says. “You have this false belief that you have to protect people from being in your life. You don’t let anyone get close. Yes, you have a fucked-up life. Fame does that. Plenty of people are fighting all kinds of obstacles but still find love.”

“Hey, I’m famous, but I’m not fucked up,” Sebastian says.

“You are so fucked up,” Emma says. “But Daisy has a point.”

“I love you, Chase,” Daisy continues. “I’m so grateful to have you as a brother. But if it weren’t for the stalker, I wouldn’t be here with you because you wouldn’t let me be. You call me. You support me. But you keep me at arm’s length. You’re so afraid of what happened that summer happening again, but it won’t. I was young and hurting. You weren’t to blame. And neither was your fame.”

Guilt twists in my gut, churning up black memories of how unresponsive she’d been. Waiting in the hospital, not knowing if she’d survive. The pain of possibly losing someone else I dared to love.

“I was supposed to protect you that summer, be your safe haven, and you were trashed in public and almost died.”

“It. Is. Not. Your. Fault,” Daisy enunciates. “And you shouldn’t have kept me at a distance for so long because of it. Don’t you see? You’re doing the same thing to Olivia that you’ve been doing to me all these years.”

“Well, I hope not the exact same things.” Sebastian snickers.

“Shut it, Sebastian,” Daisy says, then turns back to me.

“You need to let the people who care about you make up their own minds about whether they want to be in your life,” Daisy says. “If you like Olivia like I think you do, let her decide. She’s not a child. And if she believes she can handle your fame and all that comes with it, let her have that choice.” She tilts her head. “Unless that’s just an excuse, and you don’t want to be with her. In which case, you’re even more idiotic than I thought.”

“Of course I want her,” I say. “But it’s not that easy. Look, maybe the fire wasn’t started by a stalker. This time. But those people are out there. What about that chick who broke into the cottage six months ago?”

“That was an isolated incident. We fired the security team.”

“It’s happened before. It’s going to happen again. I can’t count the number of times I’ve come back to a hotel room with a fan inside.”

“That’s what I call a perk,” Sebastian says.

I shoot him a dirty look. “What can I give her? She wants a normal life. I can’t do normal. This life would never work for her.”

“Did she tell you that?” Sebastian asks.

“She didn’t need to tell me. I can’t tear her apart like that. Even on a low-key day with bodyguards following us, we couldn’t have a peaceful afternoon. If she were different, I’d think about it. I’m not pretending I don’t have a lot to offer a girl who wants an A-list life. But that’s not Olivia. It wouldn’t make her happy.”

“So what do you want? It doesn’t seem like that A-list life is making you happy either,” Daisy retorts. “This is an intervention, Chase. This isn’t only about Olivia. It’s about how you want to live, because right now, it seems to me that you aren’t in control of anything.”

I shake my head. “If this were all ending with this last movie, it would be different. But it’s not. My life is going to be even crazier.” I snap my mouth shut. I haven’t told them about the offer yet. I just got it myself.