Page 44 of Hot Nights in Morocco
“We haven’t.” She tucks a strand of blond hair behind her ear. It’s a self-conscious gesture. “I fell for the wrong brother, really.” She reaches out to take a cautious sip of her tea and winces at the heat. “Max is far too unattainable for the likes of me.”
Seriously?
I start twirling my silver teaspoon around my fingers like a marching band’s baton. In my opinion, Max is the opposite. He’s fartooattainable. It would be the holding onto him afterward that would cause the real heartache.
“Not that Jake would ever be interested,” I hear her say. “He’s my boss, and anyway, he’s far too hooked on Cassie. But you probably guessed that already.”
I stop twirling immediately. I drop the teaspoon and hide my shaking hands under the table. “But I thought they ended months ago?”
“This time, perhaps. It’s been hot and cold for years.”
As if on cue, my cell phone beeps.
Jake:Time to put all your Fifty Shades fantasies into practice.
Not when the revelations about you are coming thick and fast.
“Who was that?” asks Rachel.
“My mother,” I lie.
My phone beeps again and she raises her eyebrows at me.
I shrug. “What can I say? She’s persistent.” I turn my phone face down on the table.
Rachel nods in sympathy. “Kinda like mine, then. Do you think there’s some secret prenatal training school we don’t know about? Maybe it’s a two-for-one deal? You get knocked up and learn how to be super oppressive all at the same time…”
“If so, then my mom graduated with honors. Are you sure about Jake?” I’m displaying a persistence of my own now. “He and Cassie seem so…incompatible?”Is there a pattern emerging here?
“Wow, you reallydon’tfollow celebrity gossip, do you?” There’s no judgment in Rachel’s eyes, just a mild interest in how someone’s got so far in life without binging on Hollywood exclusives. “Jake and Cassie are fuck-buddy boomerangs. They can’t leave each other alone for longer than a few weeks. They mess around in-between, but it’s all meaningless.” She’s mistaking my stunned silence for rabid curiosity. “Why do you think he okayed her for this movie? They could have easily spent the last month on separate continents.”
My phone beeps once more, making us both jump.
“Is that your mother again?”
“I’ll call her back later.”
She studies me for a moment. “Are you feeling okay? You look kinda green.”
“Bad indigestion.” Another lie. “How long have they, err, been carrying on like this?”
“Three years. They have quite the backlist. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s with her right now.”
Oh. Shit.
Rachel takes another sip of her tea. “I know this celeb stuff is all new to you, Charlie, but you must have felt the chemistry between them. Cassie’s a pain in the butt, but she’s skinny and beautiful. And as for Jake… Well, Jake’s Jake, I guess.” She shrugs, silently acknowledging his physical perfection. “I’m amazed he hasn’t asked me to ditch her hotel booking yet. Why pay for two expensive suites when only one bed is being used?”
The pain I feel takes my breath away. Iknewthey were unfinished business from the moment I first saw them together. I’m Jake’s consolation prize until they can finally figure things out again.
This is a perfect excuse to end it, so why are my fingers suddenly allergic to my phone?
“Tell me about their father,” I say, rushing to change the subject before Rachel gets wind of my emotional turbulence. “I read somewhere that he died not so long ago.”
“Robert Dalton. Self-made billionaire.” Rachel slides her empty cup into the middle of the table. “He took over Global Studios for next to nothing during the industry recession in the sixties and made a killing in the seventies. The guy was a movie virtuoso.”
I stare at her with renewed respect. “How do you know all this stuff?”
She flicks a strand of blond hair away from her face again. “Max told me.”
