So I do.
Oh my god, I do.
“Jonas! What are you doing back here already?” I hear myself say, and then I’m flinging myself at my childhood idol, who laughs as he catches me in a hug that feels so awkward I want to retreat back into the sea lion pool—yes, into the actual pool, under the water, and I don’t even care if I have a snorkel or scuba gear—and I want to stay there gripping Hayes’s hand for the rest of the night.
Confronting a boyfriend’s ex-girlfriend and bully of a former best friend?
I’m your woman.
Being normal around his movie star brother?
Why am I such a freaking freak?
“So good to see you again,” Jonas says, much more convincingly than I am.
He’s lanky and reasonably solid, and he smells pleasantly enough, and looking at him is like looking at a god, though I’d expect a god to be like seventeen feet tall, and he’s merely a little under six feet, as you’d expect of a Hollywood hunk, and he is truly a Hollywood hunk, but as a man—blech.
No offense, Jonas.
But there’s still the Hollywood hunk factor short-circuiting my brain.
“Kindly remove your hands from my girlfriend,” Hayes says mildly behind us.
“But she gives the best hugs,” Jonas replies.
“You’re decent, but you’re no Hayes,” I tell him, which, yes, is a variation on another of the most popular lines ever used in Razzle Dazzle films, and yes, it’s the first thing that comes to mind, and yes, I am cringing so hard to myself right now. My chin is hanging on his shoulder, and my voice is a little croaky with the strain.
I am the biggest goober known to gooberdom.
This is where I will actually die of mortification, and I do not embarrass easily.
I’m attacking my fake boyfriend’s movie star brother, and he’s letting me, because it makes it look like we’re besties, even though we’ve never met, which means he knows.
He pats me on the back and releases me, giving nothing away, because he’s a freaking actor. Of course he’s giving nothing away.
Maybe he doesn’t know.
Maybe he’s playing along with Hayes dating a middle-class, suburban nobody because it amuses him and he likes to irritate his mother.
Maybe he’s a good brother.
Hayes slips his hand to the small of my back, his body close enough to make up for all the heat that’s left my body as my blood cells flow to my brain to make sense of all of this. “You’re back early,” he says to Jonas.
“Peyton loves the sea lions.”
“Who wouldn’t? They’re such cute bundles of flub.” They’re such cute bundles of flub? Shut up, Begonia. Shut up, shut up, shut up.
Hayes rubs my back. “Not nearly so much as you, bluebell. Minus the flub, though you’d be absolutely perfect with or without it.”
His eyes are twinkling.
Hayes.
Hayes Rutherford.
Grump supreme. Hater of people. Bigger hater of peopling with people.
And his eyes are twinkling as if he knows he’s genuinely funny.
“Are you enjoying this?” I whisper to him while Jonas turns to take another glass of champagne from a passing server.
“I enjoy everything about you, Begonia,” he murmurs back. “Everything.”
I glance behind me, where Sturgis and Mrs. Sturgis are eyeballing us, and a wave of utter gratitude washes over me.
Hayes is safe here.
Even with the freaking sharks circling.
Jonas is here and has his back.
I have his back.
“Begonia.”
Amelia’s saying my name.
Shit. Shit, shit, shit. I forgot she was there, and it’s making me cuss in my head now.
Also? Amelia would have Hayes’s back, I’m pretty sure.
“Amelia!” I leap for her and hug her too, trying for a dainty socialite hug, and instead, our jeweled necklaces get caught up together and our faces are stuck mere inches apart like we’re debating kissing each other.
“Um, good to see you,” I say.
She smirks. It might actually be a warm smirk. I can’t tell, because I’m a little out of my league has just changed to Hayes will never take me out in public again, which means I’m useless as his fake girlfriend, and this is all over. He has to dump me now, because I got his family’s jewels tangled with Amelia’s.
“You’re quite the breath of fresh air,” she murmurs while she reaches behind herself, bringing her face closer to mine while she fiddles with the clasp on her necklace. “These events are rarely so entertaining.”