Sunset Boulevard (20 page)

wanted a taste of the ordinary. "Yeah, we should," Amelie said dismissively, wishing he'd

leave so she could stew in the anger of years of disillusionment.

Hunter swigged the last sip from his coffee cup. "I'm so glad you met up with me. I feel a

hundred times better," he said, his eyes lingering on her exposed shoulder. "I'm about to hit a

pre-party at Social, some
Us Weekly
/Ray-Ban thing. Want to come?"

Amelie shook her head politely. "I have to get back to the set," she lied, without an iota of

regret. "But thanks."

"Okay, maybe next time," Hunter said, standing up and leaning over to kiss her on the cheek.

He threw down some money for the check and was off.

Amelie brushed the side of her face with her fingertips, realizing that the last time Hunter had

kissed her cheek like that, she'd nearly fainted with joy. Last time, too, he'd invited her to meet

him at Lewis Buford's party, and she'd felt like a rocket-guided missile, determined to get to the

event no matter the consequences. This time, she didn't yearn to go with Hunter.

Amelie felt all her nerves come to life as her mind drew the face of the guy she wanted.

Jake?

THE BIG PAYBACK

U
nreal. Fictional. Fake. Phony. Make-believe. Imagined. Pretend.

Unreal.

Jake cycled through every synonym he knew for
this can't be happening
and kept landing on

unreal
.

Because that was what this was. Kady Parker, she of the glossy black hair, pixielike face, and

mesmerizing blue eyes, was sitting so close to him, he could smell the delicate top notes of her

raspberry-scented perfume.

Kady bit lightly on the tip of her finger, the crumbs of their shared pretzel croissant dusted

across the place mat between them. The bakery's crowd was changing. Instead of bored

Hollywood wives picking at their salads, the place had filled with businessmen on late lunches.

Some of them made no effort to hide the fact that they were checking Kady out. Jake himself

felt pervy; he couldn't tear his gaze away from her lips. But it was almost like she was pointing

at them.

"So, um, what should we do while we wait?" Jake said, extracting his script from his new

Kenneth Cole messenger bag. "Should we go over our scene?"

"I wouldn't mind another croissant," Kady said, her voice a breathless whisper. She reached

out a hand and pulled him up from his seat. The momentum of the movement forced their

bodies to knock together, and Jake felt every one of his muscles clench as Kady's body collided

with his. She stepped back, but only by an inch, and giggled. "We can share. Outside."

Jake didn't need anyone to tell him Kady was beautiful. But he couldn't help but puff his chest,

imagining BHH guys like Rod and Lewis Buford if they could see him with Kady right now.

Her eyes twinkled up at him as they waited in front of the glass bakery case. She paid for her

order, clasped Jake's hand, and dragged him out of the restaurant.

They were sitting at a table at the center of the Brentwood Country Mart's courtyard, just

outside the City Bakery. The crew was positioning mics for their outdoor shot as customers

filed around them, used to seeing movie shoots as part of their daily routine. A group of cute

UCLA girls in workout gear filed past, swinging bags from the Mart's James Perse store,

gossiping. Their chatter trailed off as they saw Kady Parker sitting with Jake. They paused,

their eyes flickering over him as if he'd become more interesting with Kady's seal of approval.

"Have another bite," Kady said, offering up yet another piece of pastry. Jake really couldn't eat

any more, but it was impossible to refuse Kady's pleading, fluttering eyelashes. Or that fact that

she was feeding him, letting her fingers linger a little longer by his lips each time she did so.

It was starting to sink in. Kady liked him. Not just liked him, but
liked him
liked him. The

notion felt foreign to his body. He was used to unrequited crushes. Just an hour ago, when

Amelie had departed to meet Hunter, he'd even felt the twinge of a reopened wound. He'd been

successfully putting her out of his head for the whole shoot, even if it meant ignoring her a

little. But her mentioning Hunter had brought Jake back to the humiliation of Lewis Buford's

party. Amelie was more sweet and innocent than some of her Hollywood peers, and yet he'd

still been taken advantage of. Right now, though, Kady was coming on to him. And Jake

couldn't come up with a reason for her to play him. She was beautiful, cool, and in demand.

And she certainly didn't need him to add excitement to her life.

Kady sipped her Pellegrino with a straw, a smirk turning up the corners of her lips. "Look over

there," she said, faintly gesturing with her chin. Jake turned.

"Don't look right at them," she said. "Stay casual...."

Jake pretended to be stretching and craned his neck back. Several guys with cameras were

attempting to hide behind the neatly shorn hedges that ran along the courtyard's edge.

Paparazzi? Whoa. He thanked whatever deity had made this possible. He was about to have his

first run-in with the paparazzi as he flirted with a gorgeous girl. Justin Klatch would be proud.

"Let's give them a proper photo op," Kady said, pushing the croissant aside as she leaned

forward. Her eyes looked a darker shade of blue in the sun. Then she closed them, and the

cherry lips that he'd been staring at for what felt like centuries were on his.

He kissed her back, twirling a strand of her dark hair in what he hoped was a Justin Klatchsanctioned way. Her lips were cool from the frosty water, but her breath was warm. He was

kissing a girl who made movies. Kissing a girl who had no fewer than six hundred thousand

hits on Google. Kissing a girl who hadn't been dared, and who wasn't one of his mom's

friends' daughters willing to kiss anyone at her bat mitzvah just to get it out of the way.

His eyes closed as he added a little extra pressure to the kiss. At the height of Jake's Amelie

obsession, Miles had torn a tip from
Details
about the proper amount of kissing force:
You

should always give her a fraction more pressure than she's giving you.
Thankfully, Jake was

good at fractions. And he seemed to be doing something right, as Kady's fingers languidly

feathered against the back of his neck. Jake could hear cameras whirring, and sense eyes on

him as a hushed collective whisper flitted around the courtyard.

Yeah, world, you're looking at Jake Porter-Goldsmith kissing Kady Parker,
he thought to

himself.

Talk about getting the star treatment.

WAX ON, WAX OFF

"This looks like crap on me," Myla said. "I don't know if I should wear orange. Ever. I think it

would work on you, though." She tossed a Tang-colored Alexander Wang tank dress over the

dressing room wall as though it was nothing more than toilet paper she was handing Jojo in a

public bathroom.

They were at Barneys New York on Wilshire, and Jojo had amassed a pile of things to buy, all

of them Myla-approved. Shopping with her sister was even better than shopping with her

mom, or with Willa. Myla made funny comments about the other shoppers, like Willa did, but

her taste was impeccable, so it was like being with a friend and an authority figure all in one.

Jojo pulled the orange tank dress over her head. Flowy and looking like tropical fruit, it seemed

like something Tucker would like, Jojo realized. Ever since Ash had suggested Tucker for her,

Jojo had made a point to notice him at school. With his surfer tan, and a lean Michael Phelpsish body visible through his tight T-shirts, there was nothing to complain about. He had a good

laugh, too, one that gave her a little tingle. A sense of humor was important to her in a potential

boyfriend.

"I'm going to go pay," Myla said, her voice wafting over the wall. "Meet you out there."

"Okay," Jojo chirped happily. Being tormented for her BarfBarf incident was the best thing that

had ever happened to her, because it had prompted Myla to spend time with her. Even if her

stepsister did seem a little harsh at times, Jojo felt closer than she'd thought possible to Myla.

Her phone trilled out the Ting Tings song from last week's
Gossip Girl
, and she dug beneath

her to-buy pile to find it. Willa's sassy tongue-out face popped up on the screen. "Hey," Jojo

answered. "What's up?" Willa was her best friend from Sacramento, and Jojo had more than

ten years of homemade friendship bracelets, photographs, and passed notes to prove it.

"Hey, Miss Thang," Willa said, speaking loudly enough to be heard over the high-pitched

voices on her little brother Damian's cartoon. Willa was the de facto babysitter for him any time

her mom had to work late. "You didn't answer my e-mail about the invitational."

Jojo had totally forgotten that Willa had e-mailed her about JFK's annual soccer invitational.

"Oh God! I'm so sorry, it's been crazy around here." Though she'd spent her first few weeks in

L.A. frequently trading IMs and texts with Willa, all Jojo's time with Myla had put her way

behind on her correspondence. She flopped down on the changing bench.

"But you're coming, right?" Willa sounded hopeful, like she half-expected Jojo to say no.

"Justin even asked about you."

Jojo was surprised--not so much that Justin had mentioned her, but that his name caused no

tickle to run through her body. Instead, she thought,
What Would Justin Klatch Do?
and a

vision of Jake's smiling face popped into her head.

"Well, who cares about him?" Jojo said, realizing that she meant it, even if it was flattering that

her new, tabloid-worthy adoption story had gotten her former dream guy's attention. Maybe

absence did make the heart grow fonder after all. "I'd be coming to see you."

Willa chuckled. "Yeah, right, like you won't be salivating when he takes his shirt off after the

game."
Maybe he'll be salivating when he sees me in this dress,
Jojo thought, twirling one of

the narrow straps around her index finger.

"Maybe a little." Jojo wondered if her crush on Justin would return as soon as she saw him

again. Even Myla would probably be impressed by Justin's toned physique. Jake's body was

equally sculpted, though, and he was an NFW boy, so maybe not.

"So you're coming?"

"Yeah, definitely. It feels like so long since I've been there. Like Sacramento will be future

Sacramento, all silvery with flying cars when I get there," Jojo said, not really meaning it.

Beverly Hills was a shiny, glittery wonderland compared to her old hometown, and she knew

that Sacramento would probably seem duller than ever now that she'd had a taste of the good

life.

"Nah, still the same old dump," Willa said cheerfully. "But it'll be so much fun. Coach said you

can sit on the bench by the team, which is perfect, 'cause we are so dumping the water cooler

on his head when we win. And if you come down early, we'll teach you the dance we made up

for the boys' game. We're using that song you picked, 'Kick It' by Peaches. You'll have to slap

my ass, though."

Jojo wrinkled her nose involuntarily. A few months ago, Jojo had been the ringleader, planning

all the goofy stuff they'd do during the invitational. She'd even run a fake summit about it at

Sadie's Pizza. Now she was almost nostalgic, thinking about how simple her life had been. But

as she held a sexy Robert Cavalli chiffon halter dress up to her creamy shoulders, she was also