Page 42 of Stone Rules

“There’s always a price to pay when you become famous,” I tell him. “I guess that was yours.”

He and Ethan share a look and then Chad’s eyes fall to the ground. “No, that wasn’t mine.” He quickly recovers and hands me a glass of bubbly. “But hey, let’s not talk about shit in the past we can’t change. Let’s enjoy tonight. To new friends.” He holds up his drink in a toast.

“To new friends,” the rest of us say in harmony.

“You know, I’m familiar with you, too,” Chad says. “A little more familiar than my brother here would want me to be.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Ethan shoots him a venomous stare.

“Oh, come on,” he says. “You know—herMMcenterfold.”

Ethan slowly turns his head until our eyes meet. “You were anMMcenterfold?”

I shrug and take a sip of expensive champagne. “Had to pay the bills,” I say.

He chugs his drink and holds it out for more. Chad laughs and then tries to fill Ethan’s glass without spilling now that we’re winding through the streets of the city.

“I met your mom once,” Chad says.

I was wondering if he would make the connection. All those Hollywood types seem to know one another.

“Splendid,” I say, sarcastically.

“She was a grade-A bitch,” he says, and I about snort my drink out my nose.

“Chad!” Ethan reprimands him. “Jesus, have a little compassion. The woman died not too long ago.”

Chad’s eyes go wide with regret. “Shit,” he says to me. “I forgot all about that. I’m really sorry.”

I try not to smile. He has no idea my initial impression of him just got a whole lot better.

“Thad, what’s in the bag?” Nikki asks, eyeing it hopefully.

Nikki must not be a long-time friend of his. Either that, or he wants people to call him by his stage name.

“That’s for Charlie,” he says, handing it to me. “Ethan said there wouldn’t be time for you to change so I picked up this shirt and had the guys sign it. It’s probably way too big for you, but I didn’t want to assume anything.”

I smile. I’m actually impressed he didn’t expect me to be a stick figure. More points for that. “The guys?” I ask, pulling a White Poison shirt out of the bag. Upon inspection, it has five signatures on the back. I don’t recognize all of them, but you’d have to be dead not to recognize the name Adam Stuart, the lead singer. “You know them?” I ask, then roll my eyes at myself for sounding too fangirl. “Of course you do.”

I unbutton my work shirt and take it off, revealing a skin-tight tank top underneath. I pull the t-shirt over my head, ignoring the stares I’m getting from everyone in the car. Then I expertly remove my tank top from underneath the oversized shirt without so much as a flash of my black lacy bra.

Chad raises his glass. “I like your date, bro. She’s got spunk.”

“This isn’t a date,” I tell him, gathering the extra material of the shirt and using my hair band to tie it off behind me, showing a small sliver of skin between the shirt and my pants. It’ll have to do. “More like an obligation.”

Ethan leans over and rubs my shoulder with his. “I prefer ‘promise’.”

“Whatever,” I say.

“Oh my God, I loooooove your hair,” Nikki declares, now that it’s free from the bun I had it in. “Men must drool all over you with that gorgeous red color. Is it real?”

“It’s real,” Ethan says, sharing a fist bump with his brother that I wasn’t meant to see.

“Toddler,” I say.

“How much longer, Thad?” Nikki asks. “I have to pee.”

“Just a few more minutes, Nik.”

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