Page 18 of Jack
“I think all he saw from that moment on was me with braces, twelve years old, my hair in pigtails.” Harper looked at Boo. “And now I have to walk down the aisle with the guy.”
“And . . . um, dance with him.” Boo made a face. “Sorry. I didn’t know about the laughing. Or the ghosting.”
“I tried very hard to never talk about it again.”
“Doyle just said that you two had sort of gotten close and that Jack had a crush on you.”
She stared at Boo. “What?”
“Yeah. And then Doyle said that he laughed at the prom joke and I thought . . . oh, Bee, I am so sorry. I didn’t realize it was so traumatic. I can see if we can switch things?—”
“No. It’ll only make it worse. People would ask why, and then the story would have to be told and . . . Let’s just leave it. I’m a big girl. I’ll make it work.” She drew in a breath. “Like you said—it was a misunderstanding, years ago.”
“Well, I can definitely say you’ve grown up since then,” Penelope said, and she waggled her eyebrows.
Harper threw a pillow at her but laughed. And maybe now, with the story out, it wasn’t so horrible. Maybe itwasfully in the past. And this was only for five days, and really just a few hours of bridal-party duty.
And then she never had to see him again.
“You can do this,” Penelope said, as if reading her mind. “Maybe even show the guy what he’s been missing.”
“Oh, please. Don’t go there. Jack is so far out of my league.”
“No one is out of your league,” Boo said. “Especially Jack. He lives in a school bus. You write for an international magazine.”
Which, by the way:“Boo, can I talk to you about something?”
“Sure. I mean—if you don’t want to do the dance?—”
“No. Of course I’ll do the dance. It won’t be pretty, however. But . . .” She glanced at Penelope, back at Boo. “So,PopMusemagazine fired me after the Bliss article.”
Boo’s eyebrows rose.
“Bliss is mad that I did research. Talked to her dad about the death of her mom and her relationship with Chase Sterling?—”
“I loved him inEclipse Protocol. I heard they’re coming out with a sequel.”
“Yeah, well, they were on and then they weren’t, and her publicist shut down all my queries—anyway, I might have dug too deep, and now I need a gig. A good gig. Something that will makePopMuseorInside Nashvegasbite.” She took a breath. Here went nothing. “Can I have the exclusive on your wedding story?”
Boo stared at her, then frowned?—
Oh no.
“What exclusive?”
“Oh . . .”
“Really?” Penelope said. “The one that the entire world is waiting for? Don’t tell me that you haven’t been approached byPeoplemagazine, orVanity Fair.”
“I have no idea. I’ve been head down, working on the wedding. And it’s way out of control, with all of Oaken’s country-music buddies showing up. Did you know that Benjamin King will be here?”
“Oh, I have all of his albums,” said Penelope. “I can’t wait.”
“Yeah, well, there are so many security requests that we had to hire our own crew out of Minneapolis. A recommendation from my cousin Ranger, so they gave us a discount, but—no. No exclusive.”
Oh. Harper drew in a breath.
Boo’s eyes widened. “I mean—not fromPeoplemagazine. I’ll talk to Oaken and see if he knows what you’re talking about. Maybe Goldie’s been handling all those requests. But yes, if it’s up to me, of course you can write about the wedding, Harp.” She stood up. “In fact, if there has to be an article, I want you to write it. I know this is crazy talk, but I’m trying to keep this wedding as tame as I can. We got the guest list to less than a hundred, and I’m hoping to keep it drama free.”