Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 75142 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 376(@200wpm)___ 301(@250wpm)___ 250(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75142 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 376(@200wpm)___ 301(@250wpm)___ 250(@300wpm)
“I know that. None of it changes how I feel about you.”
“It didn’t work freshman year. I’m still a party girl, and you’re still the introvert.”
“Who cares?” he said with the first hint of a smile. “It’s one date. If you hate it, then we can go back to being professional.”
He said that as if it were a real possibility. But Maddox Nelson had been in love with me since we had been kids. One date would change everything. It was dangerous, especially considering how it had all fallen apart freshman year, just like Marley had warned me. But I couldn’t deny that I wanted him. I’d always wanted him despite our differences.
“You know it’d never be that easy.”
He reached across the table and took my hand, drawing circles on my palm. “And I want to try anyway. Jump with me, Josie.”
So, I jumped.
11
SAVANNAH
PRESENT
Two weeks into filming Academy, and everything was rolling smoothly. I was used to the long days. At first, I’d missed them, and now, it just felt like work again. Amazing work that I desperately wanted to be doing, but work nonetheless.
When I wasn’t needed on set, I’d lounge in my trailer and pull out my mother’s book. It was taking me forever to get through. Not because it wasn’t interesting, but because I had to come up for air a lot. My mother sounded like … me.
In the first quarter of the book, it was page after page about how she’d met my dad and she was so in love. Even some sexy passages that I would have rather gouged my eyes out than read, but here we were. There was a brief mention of my mother’s husband, Edward. It was more of an after thought than anything. Just something that said he was one of my dad’s friends, which I’d never known. Nor had I known that they’d both been Holy Cross boys.
I yawned and turned to the next page. My fingers stilled on the page. Well, well, well, Edward Montgomery had officially made his appearance. I skimmed the next two pages. All about how my dad had gone out of town on a family vacation to Florida and my mom spent the week with Edward while bored. Except it was clear, at least from my estimation, that Edward was both in love with her and jealous that his best friend had gotten there first.
My eyebrows rose, and I closed the book. Maybe I’d finish those salacious details later.
I pulled out my phone as I popped a gummy bear in my mouth and shot a text to my dad. I’d told him last week that I was reading my mother’s journal. He’d told me to take it all with a grain of salt—it was my mother, so obviously. But he’d never told me Edward was his best friend.
Excuse me, sir! Edward was your best friend?
I could practically hear my dad sighing as he read the message.
That didn’t seem relevant.
Pretty relevant. Mom married your best friend! What the fuck?
Maybe you don’t need to read that journal after all.
Mom said she had nothing to hide.
The past is in the past, Jos. I love you, but I’ve left it where it belongs. So should you, and so should your mother.
Fine. Fine.
I love you too.
I took a sip of water. Neither my mom nor my dad ever talked about what had gone down. It was kind of nice to get details about it, but maybe I should leave my dad out of it. It sounded like he had gotten the short end of the stick. I didn’t want to hurt him by bringing it up.
I reached for the journal again to keep reading just as my computer started ringing. I pressed to answer the incoming video chat. Marley’s face appeared on the screen.
“Josie!” she said cheerfully, her dark curls bouncing with excitement.
“Hey, Mars. What’s up?”
“I wanted to check in on the movie. My movie-star friend.” Mars rolled her eyes. She loved my celebrity status as much as she found it ostentatious. I’d always be the Josie who had crashed in her bedroom on the weekends.
“It’s going great. Two weeks in. Four more to go and then reshoots if we need them.”
“That’s good to hear. Derek and I are going to come into town next weekend for the holiday. He’s actually taking Memorial Day off. So, we’ll be free.”
Derek’s face appeared behind her, looking exasperated. “I take time off all the time.”
Marley made a face at him. “You’re a workaholic.”
“Who are you talking to? Pot, meet kettle,” he argued.
“Don’t argue with my lawyer, Mars,” I said with a laugh.
He grinned and gestured to me. “Listen to your friend.”
“Arguing with him is the greatest pleasure of my life.”
I snorted. Man, she wasn’t wrong. And honestly, Derek liked it anyway. He rolled his eyes and went back off the screen.