The change in temperature hits me in the face as soon as I step into the kitchen. “Fuck, it’s like an inferno in here.” It’s only the end of June. Why the hell does it have to be this hot already?
Dismissing my complaint with a wave of his hand, Brenden leans against one of the prep tables and says, “I totally understand if you hate using the dating apps. They all suck. Do you want me to ask around town if anyone knows any gay single women?”
“I most certainly do not,” I tell him sternly before he can take off running with that terrible idea.
Sam, one of the new members of my kitchen staff, is standing behind the other prep table, and it looks like he’s already gotten started working on some of my dinner instructions. I make my way over to check that he’s chopping the vegetables the way I want them.
“Looks good,” I comment.
He smiles gratefully and gives me a rundown of what he’s done so far. A throat clears after I thank him, but I purposefully keep my gaze focused on the perfect half-moons of zucchini.
“You might think if you ignore me, I’ll go away, but you’d be wrong,” Brenden says loudly.
I reluctantly glance up at him. “Oh, believe me, I don’t think that. I know you too well now. But I’m going to ignore you anyway. I’ve got work to do. And I’m already behind, because you had me doing other people’s jobs.”
Brenden sighs. “Okay, fine. You did me a favor, so I’ll drop the dating subject.For now.”
“How generous of you,” I deadpan.
“I know,” he says earnestly. Then he makes as if he’s going to leave, but he pauses at the doors and spins back around, staring at me sort of pitifully.
“What?” I ask.
He shifts his weight from one foot to the other and runs a hand through the back of his hair. “So I know I said I wouldn’t ask you to make me food, but... if you have time after your dinner prep, would you pretty please feed me something? I’m stressed and starving.”
I glare at him, then remind myself that this man is my boss, and also my friend, I guess. Although I didn’t really get much of a say in that second one. He was persistent. “I’ll heat up some of yesterday’s chicken pot pie in the oven for you.”
“You are the absolute best,” he says, holding a hand to his heart. “Have I mentioned that you’re my hero?”
Rolling my eyes, I tell him, “Save the weird sweet-talk for your boyfriend.”
His face lights up at the mention of Travis before he finally leaves the kitchen, allowing me to get ready for the dinner service in peace with Sam, who is typically fairly quiet.
Unfortunately, my peace only lasts until I remember that I’ll have to worry about keeping a fussy celebrity happy all summer.
I slam the oven closed a little too hard after sliding Brenden’s meal inside, wishing I could get a restart on this entire day.
CHAPTER TWO
RILEY
Well,hereIam.
It felt strange waking up this morning in my hometown but not in the home I grew up in, even though I haven’t woken up in that house for a very long time. My parents sold it when we moved to Nashville. Since then, my brother Andrew comes to visit all of us there more often than we come back to Massachusetts to visit him. It’s easier that way.
But now I’ve come here to hide out in Mayweather like some kind of fugitive.
You’d think I really was one for as much as people seem to hate me lately. I’ve always known how fickle the music industry can be. But this is the first time it’s turned on me, and clearly, I’m not handling it well.
While I see what I’m doing as running away, my manager still considers it “laying low.” He says it’s a smart idea to give people some time. That eventually they’ll forget about the Skyler stuff, forget about the lesbian rumors, and move on to someone else’s scandal.
He thinks they’ll forgive me and go right back to loving my music, but I’m not so sure. And even if my fans do forgive and forget... what about me? I don’t know if I can simply forgive and forget the way I’ve been treated.
Maybe we all would’ve moved on more easily if I hadn’t gotten caught drunkenly kissing a random woman in a bar.
I was already on thin ice with the world finding out that my relationship with Skyler had been fake. But once those photos someone took of me on that stupid night came out, my problems went from people being mad at me for using Skyler for publicity to people accusing me of being a lesbian. They’re claiming that my songs about my relationships with different men—the songs I built my whole career out of—are all lies.
I’m not sure which is worse in the eyes of my fans—the idea that the songs I write don’t come from my genuine feelings, or simply the idea of me being a lesbian.
