Page 64 of Places I've Never Been

“I wish I’d been there to see his face.” Piper waved away whoever it was and wiped tears out of her eyes. “You know, hemust really like you. Most men would have run after you did that.”

“I still can’t believe I did that. I can’t believe I kissed him like that either, but I have to admit it was nice.Reallynice.”

Piper wiggled her eyebrows. “Nice as in superhot, or nice as in further exploration is needed before you decide?”

“Piper. You’re supposed to be talking me out of his bed, not into it.” She checked the time on her phone. “I have to go soon. I’m still covered in ocean and dinner is usually in about an hour.”

“You wantmeto talk you out of having fun with a scorching hot rock star? What have you been smoking? If you wanted someone to be sensible with you, you should have called Lizzie.”

“I did. She didn’t answer.” Mattie looked out the window at the trees that separated her villa from Adam’s. He was probably over there right now, getting ready for dinner. She had a feeling he’d be washing off the salt and sand in the outdoor shower. She pictured his bare chest, wet and glistening in the sunlight. It sent a little thrill through her. She remembered how his lips had felt on hers, and suddenly it was too warm in the room.

“Interesting.” Piper drew the word out in a know-it-all sisterly tone. “I haven’t seen that look on your face in years. You really like this guy. Okay, if you want sense talked at you, here it is. I know you’ve been avoiding any real relationship for a while now. You run every time a man gets close.”

“I do not,” Mattie interrupted. “I don’t run. The project ends and I move on. That’s a completely different thing.”

“You. Run,” Piper said with emphasis. “You flit away like a bee in search of a new flower. You’ve been doing that ever since Della broke us up, and while I get how damaging that was for you, I say maybe it’s time to work past that.”

Mattie frowned and waved away her sister’s concern. “I’m doing just fine.”

“Yeah, we all saw how fine you’renotdoing at brunch. You ditch guys before they have a chance to ditch you because you think they’ll behave just like Della, and I don’t think living that way for the past four years has made you happy.” Piper looked entirely too smug and satisfied with her assessment.

Mattie glared at her. “I suppose you ignoring men altogether and pretending Della doesn’t exist for the past four years makesyouhappy, does it?”

“This isn’t about me,” Piper said through gritted teeth. “And because I assume you didn’t call me to pick a fight I’m going to ignore that.”

Mattie winced as the worms of guilt burrowed into her heart and squeezed. Why did guilt always,alwaysfollow after she lashed out with her unvarnished thoughts? Piper clearly didn’t suffer that sort of reaction. Neither did Della. It wasn’t fair. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay.” Piper’s face softened. “It’s hard to keep feelings bottled up the way you do. You’ve been under a microscope lately, and you never liked standing in the spotlight to begin with. You were bound to pop your top eventually. To be honest, I’m proud of you. You finally told Della what you should have told her four years ago. That had to feel good.”

Mattie shook her head. “No. Not really.”

“Don’t worry, it gets better with practice.”

“Does it really?” Mattie had a feeling that brave face Piper wore was just that. Underneath, her sister was a pile of marshmallows.

“Well, it gets more satisfying anyway.” Piper looked a little distant, as if remembering something. “The more you let it out, the less traumatic it will be, that’s for sure.”

Mattie squeezed the pillow in her arms. “So you think I should go out with Adam?”

“No.” Piper gave her a wicked little smile. “I think you should have a fling with a sexy man on a tropical island and realize that not every relationship leads to a PR disaster, and not everyone out there is as selfish as Della.”

“I tried that with Brian, remember?” Mattie said. “I did that weekend in Vegas with him to celebrate the end of the project last year and now he’s using the photos as promo material for his new album.”

“Brian’s a tool, but what he’s doing actually boosted your visibility, which isn’t a bad thing. It’s not like you were naked.”

“I might as well have been. That was a sheer nightgown, and it was a private moment. He wasn’t supposed to share it with the entire world on Instagram.”

“Has Adam tried to get photos with you in a string bikini?”

“I don’t wear those, and no. He sent the staff photographer away when we first got here. The only photo that’s been taken this entire trip was today, when we got on the Jet Skis. The staff photographer, Don Something-or-Other, took a group shot since nobody had their phones with them.”

“See?” Piper leaned back. “You’re sequestered halfway around the world, away from prying eyes. Take advantage of it and live a little.”

The thought was so tempting it made her want to run straight over to Adam’s place and…what? She told Kat she wouldn’t do anything like that, for good reason. “You don’t get it. If I do that and word gets out, there’ll be tabloid headlines for the next six months, and everyone will think I did it to get credit for another song I didn’t write. They already don’t take me seriously as it is, especially after Devon’s Twitter rampage.”

“Anybody who knows you and your work takes youseriously, Mattie. Haven’t you seen how many people defend you every time he posts?”

She hadn’t looked. She’d been too afraid of what fans would say. She got up and fished in the closet for something to wear to dinner. “Sure they defend me now, but what happens when the next juicy photo hits? So far all they have is a shot of us shaking hands. I don’t want to put any more fuel on that fire. Devon would go absolutely nuts. I can just see the post now. Run, Brooks, run, before she spins her web on you too.”

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