“Thanks, Zo!”
“He said thank you!”
“You’re welcome!” Quieter, she tells Lexi, “I thought there was a burglar!”
“No, just me,” my sister jokes.
I grin as I gather tissues. “Tell me all about it. Every slash, glide, punch—every detail!”
“Have you heard anything?”
“Not yet, but you just got the call?”
“Yeah.”
“This late?”
“I called you right away.”
“Better have!” I run into our kitchen to toss sadness into an overflowing trashcan under our messy sink. “How’d you do it? How’d you win the role?”
“Ms. Galloway gave me the steps with that guy watching.”
“Rogess, the Broadway producer?”
“Yeah, and his bug-eyed assistant.”
“He was bug-eyed!”
Zoe yawns and waves as she heads back to her bedroom.
But Lexi is curious so she joins me back on the couch while Logan laughs, “He was totally bug-eyed. Just stared. No expression. The whole time I was there! She took me through the steps and Rogess sat back while Kelly played the song. All the guy needed was an evil mustache twirling in his fingers.”
“Oh my God, totally.”
“I did the number. And then they sprung dialogue on me.”
Sally Ashes bounds onto Lexi’s lap as I freak out, “They didn’t give you the lines ahead of time?”
“Nope. Galloway handed me three sheets and said I had to do it cold.”
“Three pages of dialogue? How did you do that?”
“I read as I went. Looked up to deliver the lines. Truth is, the character is kind of like me. At least, now he is!” Logan laughs and adds, “I guess they saw what they needed to.”
“Hey Logan, I’ve got something to tell you. Are you going to be up later?”
“Probably for another hour. Ring me back.”
“Okay. Talk soon.” I hang up and Lexi rises from the couch. “You didn’t stay over?”
My hero, my sister, my need for novocaine, freezes before adopting a casual stance. “I wanted to sleep in my own bed.”
I should let that lie slide, but I’m so wired from Logan’s news that I blurt, “Why didn’t he want you staying the night?”
Her shoulders go tight as she locks the deadbolt. I catch the even worse rear view of her sexed-up hair as she mutters, “He has to work in the morning.”
“That’s been his excuse for—”
“I know, Sam!”
“Was it fun at least?”
“We fucked three times. Three!”
“Did he help you forget? Did you tell him Caden left?”
The freckles on her nose scrunch up. “We never talk about that kind of stuff.”
I tilt my head. “Family stuff?”
“Yeah, I keep that stuff for me. But that’s on purpose.” Leaning against the wall, she stares off. Her mouth and chin are completely red from his stubble-covered jaw as she teaches me, “Never let a guy get too close or he’ll become bored of you.” A slow grin spreads and she meets my eyes. “We had the best time.”
Bundling Sally onto my lap, I smile, “I’m glad it’s going better for you guys.”
“Better? Oh, you mean that stunt he pulled, calling the police?1 That was just his way of playing the game. Our fight lasted about a minute and then he was all over me. Look, he tore my zipper.” We check out her jeans together.
“Those were expensive.”
She sings, “Worth the repair!”
I don’t need to ask what the fight was about. They’re always battling about something, no matter what she says.
“Did he help you forget?”
Smudged eyes flicker at the reminder. “When you have the kind of chemistry Brad and I have, it erases every bad little thing.” Quieter, Lexi adds, “For a little while anyway. Hunter drive you back here from the airport?”
“You know he did.”
“How was he?”
“Ask me if he spoke.”
We stare at each other, and Lexi returns to her favorite subject. “You’ve never had this feeling, Sam, but when you finally do, trust me!”
“I don’t have the stomach for the ups and downs you guys have. I would puke and ask to get off the ride.”
Shaking her head, she cocks her raw chin. “You don’t understand. Sometimes when I’m with Brad, my heart is pounding so hard it feels like I might die. I don’t let him see that, of course!”
“No, you're always cool around him.”
“Exactly! You have to play it! You don’t show them how much you care. Because guys get scared, you know? They’ve got all these ideas about freedom and independence and how women just want to tie them down. You have to play within the confines of those parameters. It’s like math. This behavior adds to his fear. That one subtracts, getting him to open up. And if you show him that your feelings are serious, that multiplies all the stupid ideas he has about you, in an instant.” She snaps her fingers. “Boom, he’s gone.”
I reach for my water. Turning the empty cup upside down I grumble, “I cried myself to dehydration.”
“What they’re scared of is that maybe you want to marry them just so you’re not single anymore. Just to officially say you’re married to someone, anyone! Then, whoops, you have his babies and lock him in hell for all eternity.”
My eyebrows fly up. “Sounds awful. Is that what they’re thinking?”
“It’s like Shelby. Did you see her at Caden’s? I wanted to strangle her!”
“She looked nervous, not mean.”
“From what Sofia said—”
“—Sofia is very dramatic.”
“No Sam, she’s direct, and maybe a little dark, but she’s protective of Ben because you have to remember how much time they spent together when they were kids! Their dads are best friends, and Ben and Soph are the only cousins in our family who are both ‘only-children.’ All the rest of us have siblings. They were that for each other, since they didn’t have brothers and sisters, right?”
“I forgot about that.”
“Sofia loves him so much! You remember what she told us about when she confronted him! That is what men are afraid of. Being trapped like that. Most men don’t want to settle down—”
“I don’t know if that’s true. They seem to have no problem doing it when they find the right person.”
Lexi overlaps my argument, “—Brad’s been married before. Unhappily, right? He’s like a
