Page 30 of Stuck with a Billionaire Rockstar

“God, that sounds awful,” Mallory says, snorting at my embarrassment. Honestly, now that I’ve spent all this time with Brent it makes me chuckle too. She takes a deep breath and frowns after a few minutes, then asks, “But, what does that have to do with anything?”

“He offered to help me, give me lessons on being with guys.” I wave my hand at her phone and shrug. “That’s what this is. Nothing more.” If only I believed that myself, but maybe if I say it enough times in this conversation it will be true.

“And you agreed?”

“I didn’t at first, thought it was ridiculous. You’re the reason I ended up changing my mind.”

“Why me?” She asks softly.

“I’m sick of you making jokes about me, Mal,” I tell her honestly. This is what I’ve needed to do for a long time, but I’ve been too much of a coward to do it until now. “You’re always saying something about the way I am, and I wanted to prove I could be more than a joke to you.”

She gasps and immediately reaches over, placing her hand on my bare thigh, and lets a tear fall down her cheek this time. “Jules, I didn’t know it was hurting you.”

I give her a small smile and shrug. “I know, probably should’ve said something sooner. That’s all this is, though,” I reiterate, as if she’s going to think it’s something more, and that causes her to wrinkle her nose at me curiously.

“That’s it?”

“What, you think I could actually fall in love with your brother? That’s crazy!” My voice reaches an octave higher than necessary, and that really has Mallory looking at me weird, but she nods as if she understands.

“Uh, yeah, okay. I just don’t want him to hurt you, we both know the kind of guy he is.”

I wave a hand at her and chuckle. “I’m a big girl, Mal. I’ve got it handled.”

If by handled, I mean I’m trying to keep my heart from falling further and further down the cliff before landing at Brent’s feet.

“On that note,” Mallory says, clearing her throat. “Why don’t we sit in tonight, maybe watch a marathon on TV or something?”

“What? Don’t have a fancy hot date to go be with?”

She shrugs. “I probably could.” That gains an eye roll from me, and she shoves my shoulder with a child-like giggle. “Hush,” she says, then sighs. “We haven’t been spending as much time on this trip as I would’ve liked, and we fought yesterday, so I believe that entails a girls' night tonight.”

I hum in response and dart my eyes to the TV, then back to her with a smirk. “Do I get to pick the marathon?”

“Fine,” she mutters, then points a finger at me accusingly. “But under no circumstances are we doing another one of your sci-fi marathons. I’ve had enough of those to last me a lifetime.”

“You’re just scared to admit how much you love Star Wars,” I say, earning a pillow to the face in response.

“Just find a damn movie to start watching, then we can talk more about this thing you got going on with my brother.”

“Is it weird?” I ask, trying to sound curious, but I’m worried she can sense the hope in my voice as well. My hope is that she’ll tell me it’s not weird, that way when she eventually falls asleep in the middle of the movie – like she always does – I’ll be able to sneak up to Brent’s room and get what I really want.

If he even wants it anymore now that Mallory found everything out.

As if reading my mind, my phone pings with a text and I catch sight of Brent’s name quickly before the phone is tugged away from me. Mallory glances at the message, then tosses the phone back at me while shivering and her head shaking frantically. “I did not need to read that.” She sighs. “It is a little weird, but maybe just keep any details away from me, and everything will be fine.”

“Really? You aren’t pissed off or anything going to demand I stop what we’re doing?”

She smiles. “According to you, I don’t let you do your own thing. Figured now is the best time to let you.”

This is exactly what I wanted, so why does my stomach sink at her answer?. Things are getting out of control for me with Brent, that’s why – at least I’d be able to put distance between us if she told me it was weird..

Is there a chance I’m not the only one things are getting out of control for, though?

My mind goes back to the text I got, but I shake my head and tell myself I’ll message him back later. Tonight is about Mallory and me. We need this girl on girl time after the small fight we got into yesterday. I owe her this after sneaking around with Brent and only coming clean about it after she saw a picture of us together.

When did anyone take a picture of us anyway?

My first thought is that Brent scheduled the entire thing and used me for a PR stunt, but is that something he would do? I’d like to think if it were, he would’ve warned me about it beforehand. Am I okay with him doing that, though?

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