Page 26 of Rebel Romeo

Jill hooks her arm in mine and practically drags me out our front door, pulling me toward the elevator.

Without letting go of me, she punches the button for the first floor and the doors slide shut, locking us inside. She knows. She knows that given the opportunity, I will one hundred percent about face and run back to our apartment. “Remember the Kate Middleton tour?”

The ancient elevator groans and clanks as it descends toward the ground floor.

“Kate Middleton went on tour?”

Jill’s striking green eyes roll to the back of her head. “No. When Prince William broke up with her, she didn’t sit around in her apartment wallowing. She put on the sexiest outfits she had and went out every night. She was photographed in every magazine ‘moving on’ and reminding him what an idiot he was to dump her.”

The elevator gives a sickly ding and the doors fight to glide open. Jill drags me out the front door, onto the sidewalk

“So … this is my comeback tour?” I ask, still trying to understand.

“Exactly.” Jill pokes my cheek playfully.

Instead of turning the corner on 12th street and walking the four blocks to the subway station, Jill stops in front of a black, unmarked town car parked in front of our building.

“What the hell is that?” I ask.

We might not be in the red now that Holden covered our rent for the year, but we definitely weren’t private car service level rich or anything.

“Reinforcements,” Jill whispers.

Just then the window rolls down and Nolan pops his head out of the window. “Your chariot, m’lady.”

Jill clears her throat and Nolan’s gaze snaps to her, doing a double take. His eyes skim appreciatively down her body, then back to her face pausing an uncomfortably long time at her lips. “Sorry,” he says, clearing his throat. “M’ladies.”

Jill doesn’t seem to notice his lingering gaze and instead she plants her hand on her hip. With an assertive nod of her head, her red curls bounce around her shoulders. “Better.”

I gape at my friend. Is something going on between them? Or rather, does Jill realize that Nolan clearly thinks she’s a hottie? “You called Nolan?”

“I told you, we needed reinforcements! Kate Middleton had a man on her arm every night. She wasn’t making out with them or anything, but it added pressure to Prince William that she wasn’t going to be a free agent for long.”

My brows dip as Nolan scoots over in the backseat and Jill climbs in beside him. With a sigh, I follow her inside the car. “Wow, you’re really going all in on this Princess Kate plan, aren’t you?”

“I’m telling you,” Jill says, reaching across me to shut the door. “It’ll work. Men are nothing if not predictable.”

I snort. “Holden is hardly predictable.”

“He is when it comes to being jealous of you,” Jill says, giving me a side eye.

I gulp. Well, she isn’t wrong there. I lean around her to look at Nolan. “And you’re okay with this? Me using you to make Holden jealous?”

Nolan gives a playful shrug. “I have my own reasons.”

Missy. His ex. I scrunch my nose. “Please tell me you’re not trying to win Missy back. If you start dating her, I highly doubt you and I will be able to remain friends.”

He scoffs and with a shake of his head, his eyes dart briefly to Jill once more. “No. God, no. I don’t want her back. But I also don’t want her to get what she wants either.”

“What she wants… as in, my part in the show?”

“That. And…” His lips press together and an exhale hisses through his nose as he says, “Holden.”

Holden. Of course. “But she’s already got Holden.”

“Does she?” Nolan asks.

I fall back on the plush leather of the seat and click my seatbelt into place. “Fine. So where are we going?”

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