Page 61 of (Not So) Famous in Paradise

By the time she sits, she’s gone again. She stares blankly at me before turning her gaze back to the TV.

She doesn’t say another word. We sit through the whole movie in silence. When it ends, her eyes stay glued to the screen. The rest of the house is filling with the noises of my brothers preparing our weekly family dinner, but Mom stays still.

I move from the chair I’ve been sitting in to a spot next to her and push play. The last thing I want to do is watch the same three-hour musical again. Within seconds of the movie starting, I’m texting Georgia to see how she’s doing.

But I don’t leave Mom’s side, just in case she comes back again.

She doesn’t.

But when I leave for the night, I know she’s said everything I needed to hear.

Chapter 25

Georgia

For most of Sunday, I stay off my foot to make sure my ankle will be better by Monday (a girl can dream right?). So, it’s basically the longest day ever.

Studying Monday’s script keeps me distracted for a little while, but reading Ike’s comments only makes me restless. He’s made about a million notes in the script about where I can “let my feelings really show.” He’s written it so many times that I wonder if he knows how I really feel about Zach. Is that what he expects to see from me? My real feelings?

Because he’s not getting that.

Somehow, I’ve got to hide the fact that I think I’m in love with Zach while also pretending to be falling in love with him. Is that even possible?

In about twelve hours, I’ll be putting that query to the test.

I know one thing: Zach’s texts throughout the day are not making it easier tonotfall in love with him. He offers to come by when he leaves his parents’ house to bring me food or help me with anything else. I turn him down. Not because I’m not dying to see him again, but because he doesn’t need to add me to the list of people he takes care of.

Plus, he’s probably just looking for a way to keep his mind off Carly. And I don’t think I can listen to him talk about her right now. My ankle hurts enough. I don’t need my heart hurting too.

Still, when my doorbell rings close to eight o’clock, I can’t help but hope Zach ignored my insistence that I didn’t need him to come by. When Evie pops her head in the door, I have a moment of disappointment. But it quickly passes.

“Hey, Georgy!” She walks in, and I’m relieved she’s alone.

I love Adam, but the last thing I need right now is Zach’s identical twin sitting across from me when I’m trying not to think about Zach.

“I’m in here!” I raise my arm so she can see where I am from the front door. “Please tell me you brought tacos.”

Evie comes around the sofa and stands in front of me. “Was I supposed to? Zach said you turned him down when he offered.”

I close my eyes and groan. Sometimes my independent-woman mentality really gets in my way. It’s especially annoying now when it has come between me and good tacos. Zach said he’d bring me some of the carnitas Adam was cooking up for the family dinner. You’d think it was my brain I hurt instead of my ankle, because I told him no thanks.

“You of all people should have known that was a lie.” I lift my feet to let Evie sit, then rest them on her lap.

“Let me see what you’ve done to yourself.” She lifts the blanket off my feet and examines my ankle. “Explain to me why you haven’t let a doctor look at this?”

I toss the blanket back over my feet. “Because he’d just tell me to stay off it, and that’s what I’ve been doing. I don’t need to pay money for that.”

“Or he might tell you that you need to be in a brace or a cast. Or that you’ve torn some tendons or something really serious. He’d definitely tell you not to wear any shoes someone over eighty wouldn’t wear.” Evie ends by raising her eyebrow, like she needed to emphasize her points any more.

“Unless you come bearing tacos, I don’t have to listen to your lectures.” I raise my own eyebrow, hoping it conveys how guilty she should feel for not feeding me.

“Georgy, if you want something, you’ve got to be honest about it. I would have brought you all the tacos if you hadn’t told Zach you didn’t need anything.” Now her other eyebrow joins the first, and I’m the one feeling guilty. Which is not how this is supposed to work.

“Or, you could have texted me that you were a big liar and you really did want some of Adam’s famous carnitas tacos because you know they are the most delicious tacos ever,” she continues.

That’s when I have to close my eyes, because I know she’s right. “You’re my best friend. You should just know these things.”

Evie laughs. “Maybe I do, and I’m just trying to teach you a lesson about letting people help you.”

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