Page 105 of With Stars in Her Eyes

“Courtney.” Okay, Demetrius might have been irritated before. Butnow, Demetrius was pissed. Very, very pissed, despite his deliberately calm exterior. “Tell me why you want to scrap the album.”

Because I don’t want to fail again, and if I say yes, Jeremiah will try to ruin you and you deserve to win all the Grammys you’ve been snubbed for over and over and over.

“I… can’t.”

“Tell me you’re making this choice because it’s whatyoureally want.”

I shifted my focus to the sliding glass door. Just beyond it was where Thea and I spent hours last night. “It’s… complicated.”

With a head shake, Demetrius’s expression shifted into his most charming smile, which was somehow a little scarier. “Samantha, nice woman that she is, offered me her guest room tonight so I could spend some time around this lovely town.”

“Demetrius, you cannot be serious.”

“If you won’t tell me what the big obstacle is to you living your dream, I’m going to have to figure it out myself. Because I saw you light up stage after stage after stage. You were brilliant in the taping just a few days ago. I know there’s something else going on. You love it too much not to try again if there wasn’t.”

I covered my face. “Why are you being so annoying?”

“Because you’ve been like family to me for ten years, and I’m not going to let you throw away your chance to finally get the success you deserve after staying out of the spotlight so much longer than I should have let you.” He narrowed his eyes. “And because if you won’t tell me the full story, I’m guessing it’s because that full story is going to make me really bloody angry once I figure it out.”

“I’m happy here. I’ve been so happy here. Isn’t that reason enough to take a break?”

“You know going on tour doesn’t mean you can’t come back, right?”

“You’re so stubborn.”

“Quite.” His eyebrow quirked upward. “All you have to do is explain why, if you’re physically well enough to work at a bookstore, and play like you did last week, you can’t release the record.” His tone had shifted back to the superconfident Demetrius I knew and loved…

“Because Ican’t.”

“Lovely. Well then, darling, I’m just going to have to stickaround and convince you.” He patted my shoulder and then walked toward the door. “I told Samantha I would meet her and her husband at the local pub for breakfast. I’ll send you the details. Cheers.”

“We’re not— Wait, what? You can’t just… You’re too famous now to—”

Before I could ask him any more questions, the front door slammed behind him.

I flopped back into the chair.

If one more person decided to flee a conversation with me through the nearest exit this morning, I would have to take it personally.

The front door popped open again, jolting me out of the chair to see his smugly grinning face appearing around it. “You should probably shower and then come meet us. Samantha’s going to show me around the neighborhood incognito. Then she said there’s some kind of book fair community event this afternoon that seems like a delightful way to experience the local scene.” He pulled a Royals hat over his hair and slid on a pair of sunglasses in the most cliché of all celebrity half-assed disguises. The door shut again.

The book fair.

Theawould be at the book fair. I was supposed to be setting up for the book fair in three hours.

Ohcrap.

Everything about last night played in my head right alongside the continuous torturous replay of the betrayed look on Thea’s face as she climbed out the window.

I was still staring outside at Demetrius walking down the sidewalk when my phone rang. Sam must have seen it sitting there dead and plugged it in. God, I didn’t deserve my best friend.

I sprinted across to the kitchen and answered without even looking at the screen. “Thea?”

“I warned you, you fucking lying bitch.”

“Shit.” I yanked the phone away from my ear and ended the call. It was an unknown number.

Jeremiah’s voice had been the same after he found out I had the abortion. He’d gone hoarse from screaming.