Page 19 of The Wild Card
I suddenly feel like someone’s pressing a cattle prod directly to the center of my chest. It’s painful, but the jolt is more than I’ve felt in a long time for anything.
Which is concerning when I consider the fact that this isn’t real and that I’m here at all because Molly lied.
“Are you Collin’s girlfriend?” Jo asks, and the cattle prod’s voltage increases ten-fold.
When my family finds out the truth, they’ll shake their heads and tell me I’m an idiot. A lie to Jo feels like a whole other thing.
But amidst the panic there’s also a surprising longing for the lie to be true.
Because I realize the moment Jo asks that I’d like to confidently say,Yes—Molly is my girlfriend.
My hesitation stems directly from the giant red flag of her lie, which brought me here in the first place and should have made me run instead.
Given what I’ve been through recently, running should have been the logical choice. Liza did enough lying to leave me with permanent trust issues.
So … why is my knee-jerk reaction to lie to Jo and claim Molly?
Maybe it’s because I sense something more in Molly. She flat-out said she’s desperate, but it’s deeper than her words. There’s a sadness, a sort of longing I recognize. Because I feel it too. Molly has a vulnerability that no one—not even an actress, since that’s the job she’s trying to get here—can fake. The vulnerability goes a long way toward balancing out the lie.
Plus, I reallylikeher. Before, there was a sense of attraction based solely on the fact that she’s gorgeous, seems nice, and is vetted through her association with Chase.
But now, after even this little bit of time together, it’s growing quickly into something more. She’s feisty and fun, easy to spar with. And her hand fits so perfectly in mine.
In a weird way, Molly and I have morphed into our own tiny team of two in the last hour.
So, when I glance at her and see the clear conflict on her face about lying to a six-year-old, I decide to take one for the team—ourteam.
“Yup,” I tell Jo, slinging an arm around Molly’s shoulders, pulling her close, where it already feels like she belongs. “She’s mine.”
Molly is quiet through the rest of lunch. Or, quieter.
After Tank signs autographs and takes a few photos, he gives me a look I know well and then manages to wrangle the whole family out. I’m not looking forward to the conversations I’ll be having later with my dad or Chase, but I’ve got a little time to figure out what to say.
First, though, I need to figure out why Molly stopped talking. I have my suspicions, but since I barely know her, I’m shooting in the dark.
We head out after saying our goodbyes to the studio execs, the staff, and a handful of other actors not big enough for me to recognize. Everyone seems thrilled with Molly. Or with us? Hard to say now that we’re a package deal. But she’s the one several ask to take photos with for social media. I remember Chase saying she was some kind of influencer.
I avoid social media like the plague. Until lately, as Liza has been dragging my name all over it. I shouldn’t keep watching. I shouldn’t have an alert set up on my phone to send notifications when my name is mentioned.
But, like I’m driving by a smoking wreck, I can’t seem to look away.
I sling an arm across Molly’s shoulders as we head toward my truck. “Everything okay?”
She doesn’t pull away, but her answering nod is too quick. “Yeah.”
“But are yougood?”
I stop on the sidewalk, refusing to look away until Molly meets my gaze. Her expression guts me, and without pausing to question it, I pull her into a hug. She wraps her arms around me and squeezes tight, like this is exactly the thing she needed.
My lips brush her cheek as I murmur, “Because if I had to hazard a guess, I’d say you’re struggling with how the lie got away from you.”
“It just … got very real,” she says, holding me even tighter. I bet she’s thinking of Jo.
Because I am too.
I swallow. “Maybe I should have explained to my family rather than …”
I want to saygiving Jo the wrong impression, but those words aren’t accurate. Ilied. Plain and simple.
