Total pages in book: 120
Estimated words: 112917 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 565(@200wpm)___ 452(@250wpm)___ 376(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112917 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 565(@200wpm)___ 452(@250wpm)___ 376(@300wpm)
Bear—who, I’d noted with satisfaction, had eaten at least two helpings of cheesy grits and a huge plate of peach cobbler—reminded me to keep drinking water between songs and sent Boomer to bring me a fresh bottle. But even with all of that effort, the smoke eventually caused me to stop singing for a bit. I enjoyed having downtime to ask Dev and Tully about their new house in Majestic and how things were going with their daughter.
People wandered in and out of the house for bathroom visits and to grab a fresh bottle of beer or soda. Old stories from high school resurfaced, and people shared what they’d been up to more recently. More than once, someone asked me to invest in their business endeavors or give them some kind of access to my time, but my closest friends used old tried-and-true distraction methods if I started looking uncomfortable.
I’d gotten used to giving polite refusals, but it still took a lot out of me. I hated letting people down, especially people who’d been important to me at one time.
So I did what I always did and tried to make it up to them by being present with them in the moment and creating a good memory we could share. And maybe that’s why later, when everyone except my brotherhood, my closest cousins, and a couple of their friends had left, I ended up sharing more than I should have.
“I’ll bet you get so much ass,” JK said with a laugh after taking a swig of his millionth beer.
I felt my face heat even more than what the fire had already accomplished. Thank god the older generation had already gone to bed. “No, actually. I don’t,” I said truthfully. I didn’t want to pretend to be someone I wasn’t around my own family.
Pearl’s friend Grace, the one who played killer harmonica and had stayed later to ask me to sign it, looked disbelieving. “I’ve read about you online. You’ve hooked up with tons of guys. I heard you and Isaiah Harbin were a thing for a while—”
I frowned. “Who?”
“Football player,” Way explained. “One of the few out gay players in the NFL.”
“Ah.” I shook my head. “Sorry. Never met the man. Definitely not ‘a thing.’”
Grace shrugged. “I bet the scheduling would’ve been a nightmare anyway. And there are plenty of other fish in the sea. Speaking of which, my friend Jay from work is frantically checking Grindr all weekend in case you get on it.”
I felt Silas’s eyes on me. He and the others were fiercely protective, and I knew he’d step in and take over if I was too uncomfortable to speak. I shook my head again. “He can stop checking. I don’t, uh… I don’t use Grindr.”
Pearl was the only one of my cousins who seemed to take me seriously. She frowned and asked why not.
I shrugged and let out a nervous laugh. “My old publicist warned me never to put myself in a situation where I could accidentally wind up in a sex tape scandal. She told me horror stories about hidden cameras and stuff like that. So I don’t, uh… do the kind of stuff that would land me in a sex scandal.”
Landry muttered, “Noelle was good for one thing, I guess.”
Silas reached over and clinked Solo cups with him.
“Sure,” JK said, rolling his eyes. “You’re the hottest rock star on the planet right now next to Taylor Swift, and you’re not out there fucking roadies? No freaking way that’s true.”
“I swear,” I insisted before trying to laugh it off with a joke. “Believe me, I’ve thought about it. But I also don’t want people I’ve hooked up with posting online about me about my scrawny body and how shit I am at sex.”
Bear shifted behind me, but Grace distracted me with another question before I could think too much about it. “But you have a reputation for hookups.”
“Hookups can include heavy make-out sessions,” I reminded her. “I’m not saying I’ve never messed around with a guy. I just don’t… get naked, basically. With other people.”
Pearl blinked at me. “You… don’t have sex? Like… you’ve never had sex, or you have to really know and trust a guy before you do?”
I ground my back teeth together while I tried to figure out how honest to be. “I told you, I never put myself in a situation where someone could film me having sex.”
Now, JK looked confused. “So, who’ve you had sex with?”
I inhaled slowly through my nose and decided to be honest. There were impressionable people here, including Grace’s younger brother, who I’d caught blushing at me and my gay friends several times from across the fire. “No one. And if you tell that to the media or post it online, I will say I’ve never met you in my life, and I will absolutely sue you until you’re dead-ass broke and begging me to stop.”