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Honey swooned next to me. “That was incredible. He gets better every time.”
“Every time,” Jennifer agreed, dropping her camera around her neck. “Should we go find the guys?”
“Definitely,” Annie said.
“Like…backstage?” Honey whispered in awe.
Honey hadn’t been around when the winery started and Campbell performed. She hadn’t gotten any of the inside scoop yet. She was still too new in our circle.
It wasn’t weird for the rest of us. Annie was engaged to Jordan. Jennifer and Julian were talking about moving in together. And despite all of our shock, Hollin and Piper were actually happy. They were still at each other’s throats, but I was starting to suspect that it was foreplay.
“Yeah, like backstage,” Piper said. She nudged Honey. “That way.”
Honey squeaked. She looked back at me with wide eyes and then followed my friends through the crowd.
“Do you think I’ll meet Campbell?” Honey asked me. “Do you think…you could introduce me?”
“Me?” I looked at her to gauge whether or not she suspected the same thing as Piper. “Why me?”
“Well, you met him at the concert in Dallas. And I just thought…”
Piper grinned at me. “Weren’t we so lucky to meet him backstage at the Dallas show?”
I arched an eyebrow. “You were so lucky to see his tour bus.”
Piper’s cheeks heated. “I sure was.”
“Oh my God, backstage in Dallas,” Honey breathed. “I couldn’t imagine.”
“So, Blaire, are you going to introduce Honey or what?”
She was baiting me. She wanted me to decline. But I was done being freaked out by Campbell. I could do this. It wasn’t a big deal.
“Sure. I’ll introduce you.”
Piper’s eyebrows shot up. “Really?”
“Why not?”
“Why not indeed,” Piper muttered under her breath.
Honey glanced between us, as if just realizing that there was some undercurrent going on. “Is it okay if I meet him? I don’t have to.”
“It’s fine,” I lied.
Then we marched backstage.
The guys had beaten us there, lounging around a table, pouring bourbon straight from the bottle. They were selling the new award-winning wine hand over fist. The last couple years was finally paying off for them. They deserved to be celebrating.
But there was no Campbell in sight.
“Hey, where’s Campbell?” Piper asked as she slid onto Hollin’s lap.
He nuzzled her neck and gestured behind him to the closed door. She swatted at him to stop, but it was half-hearted. She liked when he was handsy.
“Changing,” he finally got out. “Why?”
“Blaire’s going to introduce Honey to him.”
Hollin extracted himself from Piper’s neck to look up at me. A smirk was on his lips. I didn’t want to know what he was going to say.
So, I brushed right past them, dragging Honey behind me, and raised my fist to knock on the door. But the second I reached the dressing room, the door opened, and I nearly fell forward inside.
Campbell reached out as swift as a viper and grabbed my waist. “Whoa there.”
Time froze as we stood, nearly crushed together in that doorframe. The liminal space between two worlds. One in the past, where I had always been allowed past that door, and the present, where I couldn’t imagine speaking to him, let alone having him touch me.
I cleared my throat and wrenched backward. “That was…unexpected.”
“Sorry. I didn’t know you were there,” he said, leaning against the doorframe and smiling down at me.
That was another thing I’d forgotten. He was so impossibly tall. Over six feet. And I’d always been a pixie of a thing. Just brushing five feet tall. I had on heels for the show, but still he towered over me. I swallowed. Fuck. Was this the reason I only wanted to date giant men?
“Can I…help you?” he finally asked.
“No. Wait, yes. My assistant wants to meet you.”
Campbell cocked his head. I hadn’t spoken to him since high school graduation, and now, I was introducing him to someone as if we were friends. Which we were not.
“I’m just so lucky to have met you at the show in Dallas,” I deadpanned, arching an eye to see if he’d contradict me.
“So lucky.” His lip quirked at our shared joke.
“This is Honey,” I said, gesturing to the girl standing behind me.
Still, he wasn’t famous for nothing. He knew how to handle fans. He turned up the charm to a hundred and looked toward my assistant. “Honey?” he asked. “Is that your real name, or are you just sweet?”
I tried not to gag at the stupid question.
Honey proceeded to melt into a puddle of goo at his feet. “It’s just…Honey. My friends all call me Honey.”
He held out his hand, and they shook. “It’s a pleasure to meet you. You’re a Cosmere fan?”
“The biggest,” she gushed.
And then he spent the next fifteen minutes discussing every point of interest with her. It was…genuine. He liked his fans. What guy wouldn’t? But he didn’t treat her like an annoyance he was desperate to be rid of. He was sincere about the entire interaction. It was better than I’d seen from most celebrities.
