Sienna bit her lip. She really hated the idea of having to tell this story multiple times. It was embarrassing and painful, and Sienna would have much preferred ripping it off once like a Band-Aid. But she couldn’t wait. Audrey needed to know.
She bounced on the balls of her feet. “Listen. I made Bruce mad.”
“What?”
Sienna hurried to explain everything—how Bruce had pulled her aside and asked for her help, how she’d been caught on camera talking to Fox, and the way Bruce had threatened Sienna with, well, she didn’t know exactly, but it couldn’t be good, could it?
The only thing she left out was the drama with Lila.
When Sienna was done, her sister stared at her with an unnatural calm. All the air seemed to drain out of Sienna’s lungs. The lack of emotion on Audrey’s face was worse than if she was yelling at her.
“This is great.” Audrey threw up her hands and plopped down on her bed. “Just great. As if things could get any worse.”
Get any worse?
Sienna thought everyone was having fun competing against the boys and being out in the mountains. It had been a welcome break from the stress of her life in New York until the craziness of today had thrown everything off-kilter.
But maybe she wasn’t the only one hiding her worries behind a fake smile.
She took a step closer to Audrey. “Is everything okay?”
Audrey dropped head into her hands and sighed. “No. Everything isn’t okay. Eli and I had a huge fight.”
A fight didn’t sound too bad. “I’m so sorry, but I’m sure it’s just nerves. When you’re not used to being ‘on’ all the time, it can be draining for people.”
Audrey glared at her. “You don’t have to bring up your acting career in every conversation, Sienna. Not everything is about you.”
Ouch. That stung. Sienna took a deep breath and brought her focus back to her reason for coming: warning Audrey that the whole wedding may be in danger. This wasn’t about her, this was about everyone. But first, Audrey clearly was dealing with something, and Sienna wanted to help.
“What happened with Eli?”
Her sister shook her head. “I don’t want to talk about it. I just want to go to bed.”
Another deep breath kept Sienna from saying something rude. She was exhausted and looking for comfort, too, and had thought she’d be getting it from her sister. Now she had to deal with two crises.
“You don’t have to tell me about Eli, but what should we do about Bruce?”
Audrey’s face went scarlet. “We? I’ve been doing everything right, Sienna. You’re the one that went rogue and decided to make this the Sienna and Fox show.”
“But you said that he…” Sienna swallowed hard to keep the tears prickling at her eyes from falling. “You and Harper and Reagan made me think that…” She shook her head.
“If I had known you’d blow up the entire show because of some silly crush, then I wouldn’t have teased you so much about him. Or told you all that personal stuff.”
“It’s not a silly crush, I—” Sienna stopped. What, exactly, did she feel for Fox?
Audrey sighed, long and deep and tired, and rubbed her temples. Sienna’s heart dropped. That was the classic end-of-her-rope Audrey move. Even her students knew when the temple rubbing started, that they were really in for it.
“Look, we’re both tired,” said Audrey. “If you could just try to make it through the next few days without adding more drama or making this somehow about you, that would be great.”
Sienna opened her mouth to say something, but the words never came.
“Why don’t you go back to your room and try to stay out of trouble. I’ll see you at breakfast.” Audrey walked over to the door and opened it. She stood standing next to it in silence waiting for Sienna to leave.
“Yeah, okay,” Sienna said as she walked out into the hall.
The door immediately closed behind her.
How had everything gone so terribly wrong so quickly? This morning, Sienna had a place to live, was looking forward to her sister’s wedding, and was eager to see what would happen with the thing building between her and Fox.
