The Naked Truth (The Honeybrook Hamdens)

"You think?"

"I know. You're running the show. You've got this."

She considered him, the sincerity in his voice. The confidence he had in her. And for the first time all day long, she felt a smile tug at the corner of her mouth. "Thanks."

"No problem. You know, I sort of can't believe you lived out here."

"What do you mean?"

"The city is just...it's so dirty. It's not you."

"I liked it. It's fast-paced, you know? And I could work on my dreams. Eat weird food. I actually think you'd like the city."

"After living in Honeybrook, I'm not sure I could live anywhere else."

"Maybe one day."

"Maybe," he repeated, then this gaze turned toward the window again and Julie closed her eyes, waiting for the stop she dreaded most.

It wasn't long before it came. Only a few minor delays and then they rolled into the central terminal, right in the heart of the city. Chase bumped her shoulder with his. "You got this," he said again, and she nodded, trying her best to remember how she'd felt the first time he'd said it. Or even to remember what the smallest amount of confidence felt like.

They hustled onto the platform to find Trina waiting in the terminal with a sign that read "Julie Hamden" in her curly feminine font.

Julie smiled and rushed toward her friend, but the second she pulled away to get a better look at the other woman, panicked struck her deep and hard. Trina's normally flouncy black hair was wild, sticking out in all directions even though she'd tried to tame it with a tight pony tail. Her normally bright green eyes were dull and tired-looking and despite the rigorous beauty regimen the other woman kept, there were dark purple bags beneath each of her eyes.

"What's going on?" Julie asked, but Trina shook her head.

"Nothing. I'm just so glad to see you."

"Trina. Don't."

Trina let out a deep breath. "Angela is pregnant."

The company's star model, Angela, had been a favorite of Troy's for years, ever since her modeling debut with the company. To have her career essentially ended...

"Can she still do the show? Is she showing?"

"Not showing, but we're worried about the heels. If she falls..." Trina didn't bother finishing. She didn't need to.

"Okay, let's just see what we're working with," Julie said, then glanced back at Chase and made a quick introduction before the three of them started up the stairwell and into the bustling city streets.

The locale for the runway wasn't far from the train station, thankfully, and they made quick work of checking in at the security desk and bustling into the wide, reclaimed factory room. All the while, Julie held her breath, expecting to waltz into an empty room with cement flooring and cracked, bare brick walls.

Instead, the old abandoned factory practically shone with character. It was true that the floors were cinderblock and the walls were made of old, weathered cement, but all the details she'd been calling in from afar only made those features look glamorous--the long, exposed Edison lights dangling from the ceiling. The patchwork curtain behind the stage. The sea of worn wooden chairs.

It was all the perfect backdrop for her jacket designs.

It would have been the perfect debut.

She took a deep breath, then said, "Trina, wow, you've truly outdone yourself."

"I didn't do anything, really. I just made sure everything you put together got here."

"Oh, Trina, you don't give yourself enough credit." A new voice echoed from the far end of the room and Julie choked on her attempt to take another deep breath.

She'd known, hadn't she? That he would be here. That seeing him again would be part of the deal?

"Troy," she said, trying her best to keep her voice even. "You're here."