“Deal? What kind of a deal?” Jessie asked.
“Cam, I’m sorry. I was joking. I didn’t mean that you’d actually do it.”
“Yeah, I know.” Cameron stood. “I’m going to take a shower and get some sleep.”
“What the hell happened just now?” Jessie asked.
“Jessie, can you please give us the rest of the night? It’s after eleven. We’re both exhausted. We’ll be camera-ready tomorrow morning at breakfast,” Kennedy told her.
“And have your A-games ready, too, because that’s the whole point of this.”
When Cameron heard Jessie say that, she walked into the bathroom without another word, closing the door behind her, and Kennedy sighed.
“We get it, Jessie. Trust me, we get it.”
CHAPTER 15
Lacey
She hadn’t slept well. She’d given up around sunrise and just lay there staring up at the ceiling before she rolled over and took in her sleeping girlfriend. River was facing her and had a little drool on her pillow, which made her smile. They hadn’t talked much yesterday after arriving at the house, and Lacey had expected them to spend all their time together here, but they’d separated and had come back together for dinner, which had been awkward, but also not. It was hard to explain. It had been four people sitting around a table, enjoying delicious food made just for them. Two of those people were celebrities. The other two were Lacey and River. She had sat down next to River, with Cameron on her other side at the round table in the informal dining room, as Jessie had called it since the formal dining room still had the snack and drinks out. Lacey had felt guilty at first for talking more to Cameron than River, but it had seemed like River had been doing the same with Kennedy, who’d been on River’s other side, so she hadn’t worried too much about it.
Every so often, they’d end up in the same conversation, but sometimes, when they hadn’t, Jessie, from off camera, had interjected with a topic for them to discuss. Once, it had been Cameron’s most recent movie, which River and Lacey had both seen. Another time, it had been Kennedy’s hit TV show from along time ago, and River had watched it all the way through, but Lacey had only seen sporadic episodes of it at best and couldn’t recall much about it. Cameron had met her eye when Lacey had gotten quiet then, and she’d given her a little smile. Lacey had been grateful for that smile because, with Kennedy there, she had felt a little more nervous.
Kennedy seemed to be orderly and liked things a certain way. Lacey hadn’t known the woman long, of course, but that part had been easy to tell. When Kennedy had started talking about the house they’d bought together, it had been clear to Lacey that she’d been the one in charge of planning and decorating it, and that kind of take-charge attitude was intimidating and sometimes off-putting to Lacey when it meant that someone else didn’t get the game room they wanted in their own house. Lacey had tried to put all of that out of her mind, though, and acted as normally as she could.
After dinner, they’d gone outside briefly but had really only looked out at the water for a few minutes before Jessie had yelled something about not having the right lights for this and had asked them to go back inside. They’d sat around the living room then, with Cameron and Kennedy on the couch and River and Lacey on the other sofa. What had struck Lacey as odd was that Cameron and Kennedy hadn’t been touching. They had sat about a foot or so apart from one another and hadn’t even held hands at all since they’d arrived, from what she’d seen. Lacey had looked over at River, who’d also been about a foot away from her, and she hadn’t been surethey’dtouched all that much or at all, either.
They hadn’t been out there all that long before Jessie had suggested that they all get settled into their rooms, and they’d obeyed like she was their chaperone for the prom, asking them to stay in the ballroom and not run around the hotel. After that, things had gotten stranger somehow. They’d essentially beendropped off, and Lacey had watched after Cameron as she’d disappeared into her own room with Kennedy. Lacey’s stomach had churned thinking about how she hated the idea of Cameron going to bed with Kennedy, and it had been even worse becauseshehadn’t really wanted to go to bed with River,she’dbeen the one to tell River how much she’d wanted them to reconnect on this trip, and thenshehadn’t been able to even think about having sex with her own girlfriend because she’d been wondering if Kennedy and Cameron would be doing the same thing.
“Kennedy was all about the fudge I brought with me,” River had said excitedly as she’d stripped out of her clothes to take a shower, letting them fall on the floor, but only temporarily until she’d picked everything up and put it in the trash bag she always brought with her when she traveled in order to keep her dirty laundry separate from her clean stuff. “She asked me about my rum fudge, too, and I think I got in some good comments about the shop when the cameras were on me. Do you think they’ll cut that stuff out or leave it in? Cal said it would be a good idea to bring it up to try to get some publicity.”
“Camsaid that?” she had asked as she’d kicked off her shoes.
“No,Cal.” River had turned to Lacey, naked and clearly excited about something, but Lacey had known it hadn’t been about the prospect of them having sex. “Cal, my business partner and best friend. Since when do you call Cameron LevineCam?”
“She told me to,” Lacey had defended and decided to ask, “Want to shower together? It’ll be quicker.”
“Um…” River had taken a long moment to respond, and, to Lacey, it had seemed like she had needed to process a lot of information or maybe even feelings at once. “Sure,” she’d finally said.
Lacey had stripped, but she would’ve been lying to herself had she thought that this would help them reconnect as a couple. She’d only asked to change the subject off Cameron whom she’d just called Cam like they’d known one another long enough to use nicknames.
They had climbed into the shower, which wasn’t overly large but still bigger than either of their own, and had washed themselves. At some point, she’d thought that River had been reaching for her waist to pull her in, but River had only been going for the shampoo behind Lacey, and that had been the closest they’d gotten in that shower. They’d dried off after, changed into pajamas, and climbed into bed. River had continued to talk excitedly about her business and how she had hoped this thing helped both little kids with cancer and her candy shop, which, Lacey supposed, had been… interesting.
“Hey.”
Lacey realized she’d been zoning out. River must have woken up when she’d been thinking about Cameron’s arms being raised in the air after scoring a goal, and specifically, that glimpse of skin Lacey had gotten between her jeans and shirt when Cameron had done so.
“Oh, hey. Did I wake you?”
“No. What time is it?” River asked, rolling over to reach for her phone. “I slept until eight? Damn. I never sleep in.”
“I like that you think eight in the morning is sleeping in,” Lacey replied with a smile.
“It is for me.”
River’s phone ended up on her stomach, and she rubbed her hands over her face.
“Did you sleep well?” Lacey asked.
