Page 21 of The Fangirl and the Playboy

“Okay,” repeats back to me through the phone’s speakers. “The press will be following you both closely now, so make sure you do nothing to raise their suspicion tonight. I’ll set up a press conference in the morning to officially announce your relationship.”

“Sounds good,” Julia says, clearing the emotion from her throat and wiping the last of her tears from her cheeks.

I end the call, and when Julia tries to apologize again, I hold up a palm to stop the flow of words. “I have to be on set in five.”

“Okay, then. I’ll let you get ready,” she says quietly, then shuffles toward the door. Pausing with her fingers on the handle, she turns back to me. “She’ll understand, Gavin. She’s a smart girl, and she loves you.”

“I hope you’re right,” I mutter, acid churning in my gut at the thought of explaining this to my girl.

I hope Julia’s right, but alarm bells are clanging in my head. Alarms telling me this is the beginning of the end for Willow and me, and there’s not much I can do about it.

ChapterEleven

Willow

The smile on my face is practically painful as I hand over the coffee and thank the customer for coming in. I’ve been trying not to think about the text I got from Bram bright and early this morning, but I’m failing miserably at forgetting. As soon as the door closes behind the customer, I pull my phone from my back pocket and read it again.

Bram:Had an interesting chat with Gavin last night. You should talk to him and really listen to what he has to say.

Of course, I wanted to text him back immediately and demand to know what was said. I barely managed to stop myself. If I show too much concern over the matter, then Bram will assume whatever Gavin told him is true. And without knowing what he actually said, I don’t want to reinforce it by overreacting.

But shit, it’s hard. Iwantto know.

And I don’t want to have to talk to Gavin to get the truth.

Growling under my breath, I exit the texting app and slide my phone back into my pocket. Bram is one of my best friends. He’s always looked out for me like an older brother, and he wouldn’t suggest I talk to Gavin unless he really thought I’d benefit from it in some way.

The problem is, Gavin is a liar. I know that from first-hand experience. And he could’ve told Bramanythingto gain his sympathy.

But that theory only leads me to more questions.

Why would he lie to Bram just to get me to talk to him? Is he just feeling guilty and in need of absolution? Or is there really more to what went down with us all those years ago?

“Fuck,” I grunt, then pull my phone back out to text Bram back.

Me:Oh really? What did the movie star have to say, and why should I be interested?

There. Blasé. Slightly disinterested. Enough to get an answer but not too much to raise suspicion.

Bram:You know I can’t tell you that. Bartender-patron privilege is sacred. I debated even texting you at all, but I was trying to do you both a solid.

Shit.

Why did Gavin talk to Bram? Did he tell him about our past? As far as I know, he’s never told anyone about us. And I hadn’t either, until Keegan and Pressley forced it out of me.

Will Bram tell Trace? He better not. You know, bartender-patron privilege and all.

It’s not that I’m scared of making Trace angry or anything––I’m a grown-ass adult––but I don’t want someone else revealing to my brother that I’ve been keeping this secret from him for more than a decade. If anyone lets that cat out of the bag, it should be me.

I blow out a long breath that rattles my lips. I’m going to have to talk to Gavin. Not about the past or what went wrong between us––I know all I need to know on that front––but about the present and his big mouth. Loose lips sink ships, and all that jazz.

Pulling up my contact list, I scroll through to find his number. At least, the number I had for him over a decade ago. I’m not sure if it’s still his, but there’s only one way to find out.

Ah, there it is. Stored under the initials “FP.”

“Fuckface Playboy,” I whisper as I stab a finger at the contact to pull up a new text thread.

Me:We need to talk.

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