It wasn’t only her physical look, though, that had been very deliberately cultivated and marketed, but also her personality. Part of the Juliet Jacobs image that had been decided – and, in her hunger tomake it, she’d agreed without hesitation – was her agreeableness.
Not to have strong opinions when it came to anything that held weight, because Copper Canyon Records wanted her as their ideal country woman, to appeal to their biggest demographic. Be positive. Be likeable. Be pretty and desirable, but not sexy and sultry. Be supportive. Be kind. Be relatable, but nottoorelatable.
The image remained unchanged nine years later, in spite of the fact that she was now very much an adult.
And in spite of the fact that she was sometimes kind of a bitch. Self-owned.
But how could someone – man, woman, everyone who identified in between – actually thrive in this industry if they weren’t a little bit of a bitch sometimes?
Fame, she’d learned very early on, would eat you up and spit you out if you didn’t cut its tongue with something sharp to make it spit you back out first.
But Copper Canyon was still steadfast in the pursuit of Juliet being the girl-turned-woman-next-door.
And Juliet didn’t always hate it; sometimes it was good to have a schtick, to beknownfor something.
It just occasionally sucked to have to live up to that persona.
Robbie tilted his head to the side. “Your answer was kinda… interesting.”
Juliet had her eyes closed as she sighed. “Yes, I’m currently giving in to the fact that I’m going to be on the phone with Talia first thing in the morning.”
Her publicist was not going to be pleased. Especially because she was about to begin her forty-show national tour next week; this was not the ideal time for her to be going off-book. All eyes were going to be on her.
“Well, yeah,” Robbie agreed, slowly. “But, Serena asked how you felt about We, The Romantics.”
She snapped her eyes open at him, arching an eyebrow. “Yes, and I told her very directly.”
“You didn’t, actually.” He rubbed his hand over his chiseled, stubbly jaw. “You didn’t talk about how you feel aboutWe,The Romantics. You talked about how you feel about Darcy.”
“DarcyisWe, The Romantics,” she scoffed. Serena had known what she was talking about, and so would everyone else.
“If you say so.” Robbie obviously didn’t agree.
But Juliet didn’t need him to agree.
Robbie served a very specific purpose in her life, much as she did in his. And that purpose tonight had been during all of the red-carpet interviews before the show, when they’d been dutifully seen together, just as they’d be photographed entering the afterparty they were currently heading to. Their arrangement of appearing to be together served them very well.
Juliet Jacobs, the brand, was straight. Juliet Jacobs, the public image, was implicitly in a relationship with Robbie Calder – who was also definitelynotgay as far as the public knew.
Behind closed doors, Juliet could have sex whomever she wanted.
She turned to look out the tinted window as their car started to inch into traffic. Her eyes unintentionally but unavoidably landed on Darcy again.
Behind closed doors, she could also fucking hate whomever she wanted.
Chapter Two
Darcy was fumingas she paced in front of her sister.
They’d just won Best Country Album of the Year earlier this week; she should be thrilled. Sheshouldbe on cloud nine right now. They were waiting in the green room, about to be guests on The Stanton Show (with Miles Stanton), the most-watched program on late night right now.
Shewasthrilled. Mostly.
Other than how the stress was really starting to eat at her. How this feeling of pressure had started weighing on her shoulders, growing a little heavier every day. She just… she couldn’t kick the need to keep proving herself, to show that shedeservedthis, especially now that she’d finally reached this level.
Other thanthat, Darcy really was on cloud nine.
This time last year, she’d had thirty-eight dollars to her name, scraping by while working at Stardust Lanes, the same place she’d been employed for the last ten years, since she’d been sixteen. She’d shared the two-bedroom apartment above it with her sister and her sister’s fiancé, Colton.
