Page 28 of Knot Their Starlet

“Wait, what?” I blink, the lack of sleep and sudden change in attitude from Everett give me whiplash. “That seems super serious.”

My head moves on a swivel, glancing at Leo and Eli.

“That sounds super serious, right?”

“Serious is the point. At least the image of it.” Everett nods. “You don’t actually have to show her any of your music if you don’t want to. But if we’re doing this, we need to actually do this in a way that will still protect you, Beck.”

“So making him seem super off the market has a similar effect to him having the image of not being on the market at all?” Leo asks.

“Exactly,” Everett answers.

“I don’t like this,” Eli mutters.

“You don’t have to,” I huff. “I don’t know what’s going on with you, but this is happening.”

The courage to look him in the eye has to be dragged up from the very depths of my gut. When I do meet his gaze, I’m struck by the elegant curve of his thick, dark lashes and the subtle change in his expression that I’m pretty sure only I can read.

He’s hurt.

God dammit, we seriously do have to talk.

You’d think we’d talk to each other more about this sort of thing, considering we’ve been best friends since we were kids. But maybe it’s because we’ve seen each other grow up that we don’t talk about shit.

I can’t help but feel like Eli knows too much, he’s seen too much, knows too many of the past versions of myself I’d prefer to stay dead and buried. I know it’s the same with him.

“We’ll talk about this later,” I say, my hand clenching into a fist on my lap to prevent myself from reaching over and grabbing his. The six inches between our two chairs feels like the Grand fucking Canyon.

Eli just offers me a shrug.

My eyes fall shut before I grab my sunglasses and shove them back onto my face. I have no hope of actually hiding my feelings—my disappointment and frustration and desperation to figure out how to make things go back to normal between us—because of my scent. But I need as many barriers between the people around me and my heart right now.

“I think I could probably get her number from her team,” Leo says, flicking a business card onto the table in front of Everett.

“How’d you get that?”

“The PR manager gave me his card after you said maybe,” he shrugs. “Thought it could come in handy.”

“Let me call legal and have them start drafting up contracts,” Everett nods.

“I want to be the one to tell her,” I cut in.

“I mean, her mom’s team is probably going to be the one to tell her—” Leo’s head is tilted as he watches me.

“No,” I say, interrupting Leo. “I want to be the one to tell her. Write that into the first contract or something if you have to. Get me her number. I’ll do it.”

She asked me. So I want to be the one to give her my answer.

“I’ll try to get her number for you before we tell her mom’s team that we agree,” Leo nods.

“Thanks, man.”

For the first time since Andi, bloody and bruised, collapsed into my arms, I relax. It’s like all the stabilizing muscles in my torso lose their ability to hold me up and I slump down into the leather chair behind me.

“You have a big heart, Beck,” Everett says, his eyes going soft as he looks at me.

“You say that like that’s a bad thing.”

“Bad? No. But a big heart means more opportunity for you to get hurt.”