River slid out first, and Lacey slid over to her old seat, waiting an extra second before she climbed out and stood next to her girlfriend. They both looked up at the house, but neither said anything for a moment.
“A lot bigger than your apartment, huh?” Lacey finally spoke.
River chuckled and said, “I bet this one has air-conditioning, too.”
Lacey laughed and looked over at Jessie, who gave her a thumbs-up. Then, she felt River’s hand in her own, and they walked up the sidewalk to the door of the house. Her heart was pounding. Lacey hadn’t met anyone famous before. She had rich clients, yes, but no one famous in or around Anaheim had enlisted her massage services, so this would be the first time for her, and she was pretty sure for River, too. The door was opened for them, and Lacey expected to see two celebrities standing there, probably holding hands, too, but the foyer was empty, save a side table and yet another camera, which was aimed at them.
“Wow,” River said. “It’s massive. This is just for us? I mean, the four of us?”
“Pretend I’m not here, River,” Jessie replied.
“Right. Sorry.”
“Just one second,” Jessie added before she walked by the camera that was still on the two of them while the two behindthem moved to basically surround them in the foyer, which Lacey wasn’t a big fan of. “Cam!”
“What?”
Lacey heard a voice that sounded a lot like the voice of a woman she’d just seen in a movie, coming from beyond a wall in what was probably a living room or something.
“Where’s Kennedy?”
“Kitchen, I think.”
“Get up and greet them.”
“Shit. Sorry. I was waiting for Ken,” Cameron said.
Lacey swallowed hard, and River let go of her hand to run her hand over her nicest jeans.
“Clammy,” River whispered to her.
“I’m nervous. Sorry,” she replied softly.
Lacey looked forward just as Cameron Levine walked around that wall and stood about five feet in front of her. She was wearing a pair of skinny jeans, some black-and-white Vans, a black scoop-neck T-shirt, and she had her blonde hair kind of tossed around as if she hadn’t cared at all to do anything with it that morning, but damn it, it was sexy.
“Hey. I’m Cam. Nice to meet you both.” She held out her hand for Lacey to shake. “You’re Lacey, right?”
Lacey nodded and shook her hand, probably a little too hard. Why was she this damn nervous? This was just another person. Cameron Levine, or Cam, as she had introduced herself, was human, just like Lacey. Her blue eyes were intense, though, and they were on Lacey, and she highly doubted that her own brown ones were as penetrating.
‘That’s a weird word to use in this context,’she thought as she finally let go of Cameron’s hand.
Cameron was still looking at her, and she had a small smile on her face that almost looked nervous, too. That could not be right. Shy; it was probably a shy smile. Lacey knew that a lotof actors and famous people were introverts at heart, so maybe Cameron was one and was nervous around new people. That sounded like a possibility.
“I’m River.”
“Oh, shit.” Cameron looked over at River and offered her a hand to shake as well. “Sorry. I’m clearly great at this, huh?” she joked.
Lacey laughed, but River didn’t seem to like the joke.
“Don’t you do this all the time?” River asked.
“What? Double date with people? Not really, no,” Cameron replied and took a step back from both of them. “This is the first double date like this I’ve ever been on. Kennedy, too.” She hooked her thumb behind her. “She’ll be right out, probably. She had to take a call and was grabbing some coffee.”
“So, we’ll cut here, and I’ll show you two around since Kennedy… needs a minute,” Jessie said when she reemerged from wherever she’d gone off to. “How about the bedrooms first? We can skip the reaction shots for now and just get to the fun part of the weekend: the food, the drinks, the beach. Cameron, do you maybe want to go check on that phone call Kennedy is on?”
“I can give them the tour, if you want. I’m sure Ken is fine. It’s just… her agent.”
Lacey tilted her head because she could tell. She didn’t knowhowshe could tell, but she could tell that Cameron Levine had just told a lie. Lacey wondered why, but she didn’t say anything because she figured it wasn’t her place.
