Page 88

“No, darling.” Evelyn grinned. “You still have a monopoly on that.”

Jo laughed and hugged her best friend. Jo’s eyes closed when Evelyn squeezed her tight. When she opened them, Emma, who was looking at her with some kind of frustration on her face, quickly looked away.

“I can’t believe you’re actually here,” Jo said.

“Of course you can,” Evelyn said.

“Of course I can,” Jo laughed. She already felt lighter than she had since Emma told her that her father was coming to visit. “I seeyou’ve already met my assistant? Emma, this is Evelyn. Evelyn, Emma.”

Jo could see Emma trying to figure out exactly who Evelyn was for a moment, before she put on a smile and offered her hand.

“Nice to meet you, Evelyn.”

Evelyn shook her hand, grinning. “Same to you. Sorry if I was too much trouble.”

“She’s not sorry at all,” Jo laughed.

Emma looked confused by the whole interaction, and Jo left her to it. She gestured Evelyn into her office.

“Hold any calls that aren’t urgent,” Jo told Emma, and she closed the door behind her.

A small part of Jo felt bad closing the door on an obviously perplexed Emma, but most of her didn’t care. She didn’t care, because her best friend had flown across the country for her with less than twenty-four hours’ notice. Jo hadn’t even asked her to, but she was here.

Evelyn squished Jo into a tight hug, then tugged her over to her couch.

“I can’t believe you’re here,” Jo said again.

“Start believing it,” Evelyn said. “Because you have to entertain me for six days.”

“Evelyn!”

Ev grinned at her. “I had some vacation to use.” She shrugged. “And your birthday’s coming up.”

Jo hugged her again.

It was Jo’s biggest problem with fame, the lack of sincerity in the way other people treated you. For almost all her life, she was never sure what people’s motives were in their interactions with her. Evelyn up and flying across the country to spend a week withher, though, had nothing behind it. Jo would say it meant more than Evelyn realized, but Ev knew her well enough that that was probably not true.

“You really do basically have a guard dog out there,” Evelyn said. “She wasbodilyblocking me from entering your office. I thought she was going to tackle me.”

“Be nice to her,” Jo said.

“Yes, of course I’ll be nice to your girlfriend.”

Jo’s face flushed immediately. She felt like she was a teenager. “If you’ll remember, according to the tabloids, we broke up months ago.”

“If I remember, according to our conversation last night, you almost kissed three days ago,” Evelyn said.

Jo gave her a pleading look, and Evelyn laughed but didn’t push.

“So, you going to give me a tour of this place, or what?”

“I can’t believe this is your first time visiting,” Jo said, making no move to get off the couch and start the tour.

“I’m a terrible friend, I know,” Evelyn said. That was categorically not true. Before Jo could refute it, Evelyn continued, “But let’s focus on this tour thing. I have to meet Tate and decide if I want to beat him up for giving you so much trouble or if I want to help him.”

“Oh God, if you’re going to team up with him, I’m not introducing the two of you.”

She did, of course. She showed Evelyn to set, kept her quiet while they watched filming for a while, and then introduced her around on a break.