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Hallie sighed. “I don’t know. I think it would be lovely. A summer romance. I know it’s spring, but summer makes it sound more sexy.”
“Don’t listen to her. She married her first boyfriend and wouldn’t go back for anything,” Sylvie countered. “Is this all because of your job? A lot of people make long-distance relationships work. I don’t see why he couldn’t come to see you, or you could come back to Papillon to visit if you really like each other.”
“I pretty much work all the time,” she admitted.
“Why?” Sera asked.
“Because she’s a Hollywood star.” Hallie made the pronouncement like it should have been obvious to anyone with half a brain. “She’s in demand, and everyone wants to book her for their movies. It’s glamorous.”
“It sounds exhausting.” Sylvie poured herself another drink. “I am a public figure, a small-town mayor, and that’s about all the attention I think I can stand right now. I want to spend time with my baby and my husband. I used to work seven days a week and I had to set boundaries. I had to find a balance between my career and my family and myself. That’s the hardest part—working yourself in there.”
“That’s what girlfriends are for.” Sera clinked glasses with Sylvie.
“My momma thinks the world is going to fall apart because once a week I meet with my friends and leave the babies with Johnny, but that’s only because my daddy actually let us start a fire once because he was too busy watching LSU play Alabama,” Hallie said. “Mom was at a church function and the firefighters had to haul my dad out because the game was in overtime. I taught Johnny better than that. Also, he can pause our TV, so that helps. But she still considers our weekly girls’ nights a slow slide into chaos. I swear she comes over the next day to make sure my house didn’t explode. It’s insulting.”
“Well, at least your mom is always around for babysitting,” Sylvie pointed out. “Mine and Seraphina’s are in Vegas right now. They are out there living their best lives and drinking martinis and playing as much blackjack as they can.”
Sera grinned. “They’re my role models. One day we’re going to have raised our babies and the three of us are going to go on crazy cruises and drink fruity drinks and get massages and say anything that comes into our heads.”
Sylvie nodded in agreement. “Yes, and embarrass our kids. Fun.”
Hallie turned to Brynn. “So now you know what a girls’ night looks like here in Papillon. Though sometimes we go out to Guidry’s. It depends. Seraphina had a bunch of barbecue left over, so we’re here tonight. I bet your girls’ nights are way more fun.”
She didn’t have girls’ nights. “Not really.”
“Come on,” Hallie prompted. “You live in LA. You must get all dressed up with your squad and go to fabulous restaurants and then on to dance at a club with one of those red carpets and a big guy who only lets in the best people.”
“Hey, we have clubs,” Sylvie pointed out.
“We had Gators and they let everyone in, even teenagers, and that’s why it got shut down. And don’t let the pastor tell you that his Friday night youth group is as good as a night club. There’s no drinking, and he says Jesus is his bouncer,” Hallie argued. “I think Jesus is supposed to let everyone in, too. I want a club where some massive guy looks at the long line of people trying to get in and points at me because I’m obviously the one who should be let in.”
“Hallie has some very specific fantasies.” Sera chuckled. “But it must be fun to be in such a big city. Lots of options.”
“Yeah, almost too many,” Brynn murmured. The truth was she didn’t do girls’ nights. She looked forward to nights when she and Ally got to sit in the house, order pizza, and watch a movie. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d slept in. “I don’t go out much, and I don’t have a lot of friends. I have people I hang with when we’re filming, but then they go to another set and I go to another set.”
“Well, what about the friends you grew up with?” Sera asked.
“I was one of two kids on set from the time I was five until I was a teen and I switched TV shows,” Brynn explained. “Then there were four regulars and a bunch of part-timers and guest stars. We hung out. I was closest to a guy named Stephen.”
Hallie slapped her hand on the table. “She’s talking about Stephen Cane like he’s a regular person.”
“He is. Well, as regular as you get in our business. He’s a weirdo nerd. That’s why we get along.” Brynn talked to her old costar on a regular basis. “We used to do our homework together and play board games.”
