“Yes, Lacey.”
Cameron laughed and handed Lacey her coffee.
Lacey reached for the cream and poured in a generous amount before she replied, “Sue. Lacey Sue. I hate it.”
“What? Why?”
“I don’t know. It sounds like something people would yell at a county fair to get their pigs to listen.”
Cameron laughed louder and said, “No, it doesn’t.”
“Yes, it does. I mean, Cameron Meadow? That’s beautiful. Even River has a great middle name. She’s River Rain. Her parents were raised by hippies, I think.”
“Thatisnice, but there’s nothing wrong with your name, Lacey Sue.”
“Oh, I shouldn’t have told you that… Don’t weaponize it, please. I had to hear my mom and dad call me Lacey Sue for most of my life whenever I got in trouble.”
“I won’t. Hey, if it makes you feel any better, Kennedy has a fun one. She doesn’t admit it and tells people that she doesn’t have one at all, but she does. Well, she did until she legally changed it.”
“What was it?” Lacey asked, feeling like she was about to be let in on some big industry secret.
“Eudula.”
“I’m sorry; what?”
“Yeah. And it’s spelled wrong, too. It was supposed to be Eudola, after her great-grandmother, but the person typing up the birth certificate spelled it wrong, and they didn’t catch it until later. Kennedy hates it. She changed it when she was twenty – just deleted it, really, so she doesn’t have one legallyanymore – but every now and then, I like to toss it out at her just to watch her glare back at me.”
“Cameron!” Jessie yelled from the other side of the wall.
“Shit,” Cameron said. “Showtime, I guess.”
“Preparing to fake smile,” Lacey replied, holding up her coffee cup.
CHAPTER 16
River
“And that’s why we need your help,” Cameron said into the camera.
River was beside Lacey, with her hand on Lacey’s lower back as she’d been instructed to do, while Cameron and Kennedy did some kind of social media post thing into the cameras, talking about the charity they were supporting and the kids they were helping. Jessie had told them earlier that she would use this one with some video Kennedy and Cameron had taken when they’d been at the hospital, visiting the kids in the cancer unit, and all River and Lacey had to do was stand there a little off to the side and smile.
“Thanks, ladies. I think we’re good here. I appreciate you two putting up with all of this. We want you to have your prize, but we also want to make sure we make as much as we can in donations.”
“We understand,” Lacey said before she reached for the water bottle on the coffee table, and as she was taking a long drink, River dropped her hand from her back.
Things had been, yet again, weird between the two of them. Breakfast had been fine, she supposed, but Lacey had spent more time laughing at how Cameron had bit into her bacon like she’d never had it before in her life and was now madly in lovewith it, rather than talking toher. River wanted to be annoyed, but Cameron was famous and beautiful, so she couldn’t really blame her girlfriend for being a little nervous and giddy around her. And River wasn’t blameless, either. She had spent a lot of time looking at another beautiful celebrity since they’d arrived.
“Hey, want to go swimming?” Cameron asked once the cameras were all angled toward the floor, maybe to recalibrate or whatever it was cameras needed to do when they finished with something.
“In the ocean?” River asked.
“Yeah. Why not?” Cameron said. “I can throw my suit on real quick. Ken?”
“No, thanks. I’d prefer to relax. Maybe I’ll lie out later, but not right now.”
Kennedy squeezed Cameron’s forearm and walked over to the sofa, where she sat back down.
“Okay. Well, Lace?” Cameron asked, causing River to glare at her, because Cameron was now calling her girlfriend by her nickname, and Lacey was calling her Cam.
