I hold out my hands to show her I’ve only truth to offer. “I didn’t want to believe it either.”
“But you do now?!”
“I’m just being careful.” We stare at each other. “For you!”
She grabs her head. “Logan, that is crazy!” Running up to me, she demands, “What is wrong with you lately? Why do you hate him so much? Nobody would purposefully hurt someone like that just to forward the career of someone they like! He wouldn’t have done that for me. It’s just not possible. I can’t believe that about anyone!”
“Marion said she might have done it, had she been him.”
Sam blinks, first baffled, now disgusted. “I don’t want to hear this. That’s not a world I want to live in.”
“Me neither, Sam, but it’s the world we’re in.” Grabbing her hands so she’ll stop pacing, I tell her, “If we’re going to survive on Broadway, we have to get thicker skins. You can’t live in a bubble anymore. Some people are going to be vicious. You have to watch your back. A friend might stab you just because you become successful and they want what you have. Jealousy is rampant in the theater. You should have seen the look in Galloway’s eyes when she warned me that the higher you go, the more brutal it gets.”
Samantha yanks her hands away. “I don’t want that!”
“Then look at Asher with your eyes open, for your own safety.”
She slowly shakes her head. “He didn’t drop Marion on purpose. No way. I’ve looked into his soul on that stage, Logan. It’s not evil. I would be able to tell.” She passes me for the door.
I block it. “Sam, I love you.”
My heart stops.
I didn’t mean to say that.
I wish to God I could take it back.
From the look in her eyes…
She loves me, too.
As a friend.
“Logan!” she softens and wilts, touching my chest and retrieving her hand like she doesn’t want to lead me on. “Don’t say that. You don’t mean it.”
I laugh, “I don’t?”
“We’re like brother and sister, Logan. You’re just confused.”
Chewing my lip as anger grows, I sneer, “Go to him, then. Go to the guy who gave you your big break.” I emphasize the double entendre of the final word.
Sam shakes her head, tears gathering. “Don’t be like that. You’re hurting me.”
There’s a fist around my heart, twisting it as I turn my back on her. “Why are you still here?”
She meets my eyes in the reflection, fumbles with the old, silver doorknob and runs out.
I grab the vase of roses that Stuart Rogess sent me as congratulations. They crash against the wall, water and shards spinning through the air.
I grab a lamp from the antique dresser in the corner, and break that, too.
The table gets overturned.
The dresser, as I roar with fury.
A few singers fly into my doorway, “You alright, Logan?”
“Get out of here!”
Nobody hesitates.
Galloway walks in. “Does this mean you’re coming with us?”
I snarl at her, “Didn’t I say I was?”
She smiles, “You just did.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
SAMANTHA
I ’m shaking, not climbing, into Lexi’s car.
“What’s going on? Why are you trembling?”
“Can you please take me to the Four Seasons?”
As we pull out of the parking spot she asks, “I take it that’s where Asher is staying?” She sees my nod and mutters, “What are you going to do? Don’t tell me this is the night.”
“Please just drive.”
We’re silent for a few streets. “Sam, if you’re this freaked, you shouldn’t do it tonight.”
“Logan just told me he loves me.”
“What?!” She yanks the steering wheel over, causing cars behind us to honk like crazy. Putting the car in ‘park’ Lexi flips in her seat. “He told you he loves you!”
“And that Asher might have dropped Marion on purpose.”
Lexi stares at me, and explodes even louder, “What?!!”
“I need to find out if it’s true.” Covering my face, I start to cry. “Oh my God, Lexi. He said he loves me. I just lost my best friend!”
She reaches over and wraps me up in some big-sister love, murmuring against my hair as she holds my shaking shoulders. “First of all, I’m your best friend and you’re never losing me. Second, if he loves you…”
“If he loves me…what? I won’t lose him?”
“No, you will. Unless you love him, too.”
“Of course I love him!”
“Romantically?”
“No! He’s like my…”
We both say at the same time, “Brother,” and she nods, petting me. “But he loves you in a different way. So that won’t work, Sam.” Her voice softens more. “I’m sorry, but it can’t work. You would just hurt him.”
“I’m hurt, too! I’m losing my friend!”
“Oh Sammy, I wish I could make it go away.”
The sobs wrack through my body until I have nothing left. Finally, Lexi sits back with a forlorn sigh. “I have some tissues in the glove compartment. Let’s go to the Four Seasons.”
“I can’t go looking like this.” Snatching the traveler-size case, I tug some free and wipe my face.
Lexi asks, like she can read my mind, “Was he just saying that because he’s jealous?”
My voice is hoarse, throat tight. “I’m trying not to believe that! He wouldn’t do that.”
Looking in her rearview to merge with traffic, she nods, “No, he wouldn’t. So, you want to go home? I’m assuming you don’t want to go to the cast party in this condition.”
“Take me to the hotel.”
Trepidation hisses through her teeth. “Here we go.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
SAMANTHA
L exi is following me into the lobby.
I repeat, “Go home!”
“No chance.”
Our heels tap along slick marble floors. “I need to do this on my own.”
“Yeah right.”
I freeze beside an enormous floral centerpiece that must’ve cost my rent. “I’m serious.”
She lowers her voice. “Oh sure, I’ll let you go upstairs to the hotel room of the guy who might have broken a girl’s leg, so you can confront him about it, all alone. Because I’m sure he won’t want to hide that little secret that, were it to come out, would ruin his entire life.”
We stare for a beat. “You have a
