Page 30 of With Stars in Her Eyes

Jeannie gave Samantha a shoulder squeeze, but her nod at Marshall included a wordless reproach.

“Anyone else gonna be mad at me tonight?” Marshall said under his breath. “Goddamn.”

“Call your dad, dude.” Samantha poked his chest once.

Marshall folded his arms over his chest. “He’s the one that flew out of town again without saying goodbye to me. I don’t even know what time zone he’s in right now—”

“Don’t care. Figure it out. And you’re driving her home, right? Abbott’s outside waiting to walk me home, but I can go grab my car if—”

“Yes. Of course I’m driving her home. Jesus .”

Samantha left the pub without another word.

Outside she wrapped her arms around a man who looked like he might be tall enough to make even Marshall seem normal.

He must be her husband. He had light brown skin and long curly hair.

When the man noticed my attention, he gave me a small thumbs-up as if to say I’m rooting for you .

My spinning head flopped forward onto the Formica table.

Did everyone in a five-block radius know I was a mess over Courtney?

“Marshall Greene, what in the Stars Hollow bullshit is this town?” I opened one eye.

Oddly, my best friend looked as emotionally wrecked as I was. “If you figure it out, I reckon you should let me know.” He reached over and stole a handful of fries before I could bat his hand away.

I was in bed, and my phone was ringing.

I was in bed, and my phone was ringing, and I might have thrown up at some point. I smelled my shirt.

I definitely threw up at some point.

It was still dark out.

I was in bed. And my phone was buzzing.

Why was my phone buzzing?

Oh my god, Courtney.

I sat up like a zombie erupting from the ground to hunt human brains.

Pain clanged through my head.

Vertical was very, very bad.

I managed to grab my phone but not without knocking over the stack of books on the nightstand. I could deal with that later. Standing would be… impossible.

My thumb fumbled trying to slide across the screen. Good job, me.

“Hey?” Courtney’s voice was soft crushed velvet on ears.

“Courtney?”

“Yeah. I’m sorry to call so late.”

“Whattimesitanyways?” There probably should have been spaces in that sentence. “Itstotallyfinelyfinestfine.”

“Eleven-thirty.” Even as fucked up as I was, I could hear that Courtney was smiling. “Heard you had a rough first book club.”

“I’m a lightweight.”

“Marshall got you back home safe?”

My “yup” in response was more hiccup than word. “Everyone’s mad at him. This town is weird. They all know about us too.”

Courtney laughed. “They aren’t mad mad at him. They just love him and his dad. But I guess they might want him to make some different choices, maybe. But… what do you mean they know about us?”

“Samantha’s husband gave me a thumbs-up.”

“Ah…”

“And I think Ms. Jeannie called the pub chef a fuckboy. It was all a little con-fuddling.”

“Con-fuddling?”

“I was torn between saying confusing and befuddling.”

“I like con-fuddling . Sounds a little like cuddling .” Courtney’s smiling voice was back. “Look, I wanted to say—”

“I want to cuddle you, I think. If you were into that.”

A few beats of silence passed, and time might not have existed until Courtney spoke again.

“Really?” Courtney said in a raspy whisper.

“I want to fuck you senseless too.”

Had an hour passed? Seconds? Was this conversation actually happening?

“Courtney?”

“I’m here. I—”

“I was sad you were gone today. I thought it was because of last night…”

“I’m so sorry. It wasn’t. I was trying to be all cool and cute and act like I wasn’t losing my damn mind over you, but I wanted to get home to clean my house and bake. But I know you saw me start to lose it a little. It wasn’t about you.”

“I didn’t make you cry because I kissed you badly?”

“No. I… it was the air purifier.”

“I never thought of air purifiers as being tragic.”

“You used it to help me… I never asked you to do that. And it just made me a little emotional in a way I wasn’t expecting.

Also, I really did want to get home and bake for you.

I bought a lot of frozen potatoes. But then some really shit news was literally waiting for me on my doorstep, and I went into crisis mode.

I think Denise is going to kill me when I get back because I left three messages with her too after I got off the plane. I didn’t want you to think…”

“That you didn’t like my move? Or that I made you cry?”

Courtney’s voice shook with more laughter. “Your move? So do you take all the girls’ aura photos?”

“No, but I thought I should step up my game. You’re, like, really, really pretty. I’m… I’m glad I didn’t make you cry.”

“I almost couldn’t talk to you when we first met because you are so beautiful and confident and scary.”

“ Scary ?” My bottom lip pushed into an overdramatic pout even though Courtney couldn’t see me. “No one has ever said I was scary… I’m a Libra, remember? Everyone thinks I’m too nice. Or too sweet. Or too boring.”

“You’re definitely too beautiful for me to think straight around. But like in a witchy sexy princess with a million dimples sort of way.”

“Are you drunk?”

Courtney snorted. “No.”

“Where are you?”

“Brooklyn.”

“Why?”

Courtney made a growly sound in her throat. “Contractual obligations and some other legal bullshit. Trying to figure out what to do. I had to go to a few events. Play for a bunch of things so I wouldn’t get sued. It’s a long story. But basically…”

The next thing I was aware of was hearing her name.

“ Thea ? You still there?”

I yawned. “Yep. Did you say sued ?”

Courtney sighed. “Yes, but it’s really going to be okay. You should go to sleep.” She yawned too. “I should too.”

“Can I hear you play soon?”

“Sure.”

“When are you coming back?”

“I’m going to find out tomorrow. I’ll text you when I know the plan.”