And I couldn’t be that stupid again.
“I can’t,” I gasped.
“Blaire, wait…”
But I didn’t let him finish. I fled, and I didn’t look back.
Part III
Rooftop Nights
14
Campbell
I wanted to rush after her.
I wanted to apologize for kissing her. I hadn’t intended to do it at all. In fact, I promised myself that I’d give her as much space as she needed. Then, as she stood there on the rooftop, everything flooded back. She gave me a song about my mom, and in a matter of seconds, with her dark hair flying from the rooftop wind, I knew that another was brewing about a girl on a rooftop at night. And I hadn’t been able to stop myself from kissing her.
So, I couldn’t regret it.
Even if I had royally fucked it all up.
“Stop looking so glum,” Hollin said, dropping another drink in front of me.
It was Thursday night and the band had arrived that morning. They promised to drive out to the winery for a drink and to discuss our next move. I figured I should give them as much room as they needed since I was the one who had dragged them out to West Texas for this shit.
“Sorry,” I muttered, taking a sip of my bourbon.
“Yeah, why are you so down?” Julian asked. He slid into the seat next to me, carrying a glass of their award-winning wine.
“Is this about Blaire?” Hollin asked intuitively.
I grimaced. “Might have fucked that one up.”
Julian shot me a sympathetic look. “Yeah, well, if you have trouble with women, then I think the rest of us are fucked.”
Hollin snorted. “Isn’t Jen moving in with you this weekend?”
“She is,” he said with a secret smile.
I rolled my eyes at the lot of them. “I have just as much bad luck with women as the rest of the world.”
“Maybe more,” Hollin said. “You have to deal with being a celebrity on top of it all.”
“Did you really date Nini Verona?” Julian asked.
I blew out a breath. “Why does everyone always ask me that?”
“Because she’s smoking hot,” Hollin said. “Objectively.”
“We’re friends, but no, we never dated.”
Hollin leaned forward on the bar and arched an eyebrow. “But Blaire?”
Julian looked at me expectantly. “We’ve all noticed.”
“Yeah. All right,” I said with a sigh.
“You finally going to tell us what happened with y’all in the past?”
I gave him a wary look. “Does Piper know?”
“No, we’ve both been wondering for months.”
“I guess we weren’t as subtle as I thought.”
Julian laughed and clapped me on the back. “It’s hard not to notice when neither of you says a word to the other, and Blaire stiffens every time you walk into a room.”
I winced at that. Fuck. I’d noticed her reaction, but I hated that everyone else had, too.
“Yeah, so we met in high school right after Mom died.” I looked up at Hollin meaningfully. He knew exactly who I’d been at that time. Reckless, headstrong, and hurting. “The high school was big, so I didn’t know everyone, and Blaire didn’t want to be noticed. But once we were in each other’s orbit, everything else just disappeared. It ended when I left for LA. She never forgave me for leaving her like that.”
“Ouch,” Julian said.
“But that was so long ago,” Hollin said. “Maybe she’s gotten over it.”
“Yeah. Well, I kissed her on the Fourth of July, and then she ran away.”
Hollin blew out a harsh breath. “Well, fuck.”
“Or not,” Julian muttered.
“Yeah, so don’t tell your girlfriends because no one else knows about our past.”
“But why?” Julian asked. “No one in the high school knew?”
I met my cousin’s eyes. He was seeing it all as a rational person would, eight years in the future. Nothing about it had felt rational at the time. “We were young and stupid. It felt like the only place I could be myself after all that terrible shit with Mom went down. Then, I didn’t tell anyone because I wanted to respect her privacy.”
“Privacy?” Hollin asked. “Because of your fame? Kind of fucked that one up with that video, huh?”
“No. Because ‘I See the Real You’ is about Blaire.”
Julian’s jaw dropped. Hollin’s face had a dawning recognition. As if everything in the last eighteen months suddenly made sense.
“Fuck,” I muttered. A weight had just been lifted off my shoulders. “I haven’t told anyone that before.”
“Well, no wonder she hates you,” Hollin said. “That was the most popular song in the world for an entire year, and it’s still huge.”
“And it explains the way she looked at you in that video,” Julian said.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, she looked like she was in love with you.”
Hollin nodded. I glanced between them in confusion. I’d seen sadness in her gaze. She’d actually cried afterward. I’d thought I’d fucked it all up. That maybe I’d pushed her too hard on the Fourth.
“Seriously, dude?” Hollin asked with a laugh. “All that fame, and you’re no better at figuring out when someone is into you?”