I barely watch the rest of the premiere, mostly disinterested in what Scott edited. Lily stays buried beneath my shirt, and she clings tighter when they switch to a series of interview questions cut together.
“Do you think Daisy is as sexually active as Lily?” Savannah asks me, Ryke, and Connor the same question but at different times.
I clench my teeth. They keep trying to paint her sister as a sex addict too—or at least a girl that could become one. Lily’s breath catches like she’s trying not to cry again.
This sucks. This whole fucking thing. Shame. Guilt. What more do they want to throw at her?
I stand up, the leather chair rolling backwards. “I’m done with this sh*t.”
“What the f**k kind of question is that?” Ryke asks. He rises and throws a pillow.
“No, she’s not,” Connor says, with more force than usual. He stands and buttons his suit jacket. “That’s enough for the day.”
Daisy, who was texting on the ground, slowly rises to her feet. She avoids my gaze.
My brother’s.
Connor’s.
“You okay?” I ask her. I realize we’ve all been checking each other throughout the show. If something can rip friendships and family apart, it’s airing dirty laundry.
“Perfect,” she murmurs, eyeing the emergency exit door.
My brother leans close to me and whispers, “She’s going to bolt.”
I tilt my head towards him. “You wanna go after her?” Daisy terrifies me. But so does the idea of my brother being with her.
Ryke frowns and turns to look at me, studying my expression. “No. I want to stay with you.”
I’ve been too paranoid about his intentions with Daisy. And I’ve been an ass to him all night. He’s just looking out for that girl. That’s it. “You can go if you—”
“No,” he says forcefully. “I’m not leaving you.”
His weighted words hit me hard. He stares at me like they mean more than just this single moment. I’ve been abandoned by family before. A birth mother—who didn’t want to acknowledge me as a kid or an adult. By his mother, someone I believed was mine for too long.
It’d be easy for him to just leave. At any second. I’m not the nicest person to be around. I’d have given up on me within a few minutes.
But Ryke is still here.
This guy…he’s too good for me. I don’t deserve someone like that in my life.
*
After some minutes with the cameras creeping up on us, Daisy is gone. Disappeared within the masses of people.
We’re in the last portion of the show, where it focuses on the fake love triangle between Scott, Rose, and Connor. When Lily unburies herself from her hiding place—my shirt—I wipe away her remaining tears.
She sniffs and holds onto my belt loops. “That was bad.”
“Yeah,” I agree. “They didn’t even show me flipping off the camera. Not once. Those assholes.”
She laughs and rubs her cheeks with the back of her hand. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be,” I say. “You didn’t pull me into the bathroom or the car, Lil.” You stayed strong. I kiss her lightly on the lips, but it turns into something more desperate. Her body curves into mine, and my hand clutches the back of her head.
“I think about her all the time.”
Scott’s voice echoes through the ballroom, causing us to break apart and turn to the screens.
Scott wears a longing smile. “She’s a firestorm that I won’t ever smother. I’m the one who inflames her, who riles her to a new confounding degree. She’s my perfect match.”
That sounds like something Connor would say. Right beside Rose, Connor actually pales, his lips parted in shock.
“I hate this guy,” Ryke says softly.
“You want to do something about it?” I hope he’s reached the point I have—ready to fight back, something more than just saying fuck off.
Ryke inhales deeply. “What can we do? We signed a fucking contract.”
“Plenty,” I retort.
“Don’t go down that road again, Lo. You need to bury those demons.”
I thought I’d never attack a guy after I apologized to Aaron Wells and shut the door on that feud. But isn’t this different?
Scott is waiting for us to explode. For ratings. He won’t stop until the show does. And Lily and I care too much about Rose to do that to her company. So Princesses of Philly has to continue.
Ending it isn’t an option.
“I’m still in love with her,” Scott says. “And I can’t help what I feel, but it’s there. I love Rose the way she deserves to be loved. I just…I just don’t see Connor being the best thing for her. He’s too self-absorbed to care for that girl the way I do. And I hope, over the course of living with her again, she’ll realize that we’re meant to be.”