Page 17 of Lance

“I know. He’s a very bigstar.”

“And he was just standing there. Three feet away. I could have reached out and touchedhim.”

“Well, that wouldn’t have been weird at all. If you want I can get James to introduce you to Cash and Reed,too.”

She shudders a little, looking an awful lot like that girl who was too scared to go to the dorm party freshman year. “I think I need to get a few drinks in me first. Speaking of which…” We hit the bar, each ordering a vodka and cranberry juice. This situation is well beyond the beer I’ve been nursing all night. “I’m assuming from the way you looked like you wanted to crawl out of your skin when I walked over that things didn’t go quite as planned with Mr.Foster.”

“Oh, Nia, it was awful.” Then I think of the way his hand had felt on mine, the way it sounded when he called me beautiful. “Andwonderful.”

“Awfulandwonderful, huh?” She looks down at the drink in my hand. “Maybe we should have made that adouble.”

So I tell her all about it, about how I saw him at the bar and my first reaction was to run away, to hide the way I always do when faced with the prospect of social interaction. But then something happened. I realized how tired I was of hiding. And just like that I was opening my mouth to talk to him and he was talking back, flirting even. How shocked and elated I was when he pulled me away from the bar to a more secluded place to talk, how he had said I was beautiful and touched myhand.

“And then he kissed me, Ni, just like, out of nowhereand—”

“He kissed you?” She practically shouts it and I slap a hand over her mouth. The last thing I need is for my brother to hearthat.

“It was hardly a kiss,” I continue. “Just a little fleeting thing. But, God,Nia.”

She pries my hand away from her mouth to reveal a grin. “Fireworks,huh?”

“Fireworks and a symphony. Maybe even Frenchhorns.”

She shakes her head. “I’m not seeing where the terrible part comes in. Was it just that Haylee interrupted you before things could gofurther?”

I glance at her, wondering how she knew that detail, and she shrugs. “I was watching you from over there. Sueme.”

“So you knew about the kiss?” A new worry is worming its way into my thoughts. Who else saw us? Is that why he looked sofreaked?

But Nia is shaking her head. “It’s dark in here, Wills. I could tell you guys were over there together but I couldn’t see anythingelse.”

I breathe out, feeling slightlybetter.

“Well?” she demands. “What was terrible about it? Too muchtongue?”

I choke on my vodka cranberry and she pounds on my back. “There was no tongue. We’re in public, for God’ssake.”

She rolls her eyes. “One of these days I’m going to loosen you up. So what happened? Haylee killed themood?”

“It was before that.” I take another sip of my drink for courage. “After he kissed me, he asked me what my namewas.”

She frowns, looking confused. “He askedyou—”

“He didn’t know who I was, Nia. That whole time we were flirting and hanging out, he had no idea who Iwas.”

Her eyes widen in realization. “Oh, Willa, that’snot—”

“Don’t you tell me it’s not a big deal,” I interrupt. “I was sitting there thinking how amazing it was, that he was seeing me in a different light, that he actually liked me and noticed me. And there he was, assuming he was about to hook up with some randomgroupie.”

“I’m sure he wasn’t thinkingthat.”

“He was. You should have seen his face when Haylee came over and called meMinnie.”

She grimaces. “We have got to get them to stop calling you that. It soundsridiculous.”

“Does it?” I snarl. “Does it really? I had nevernoticed.”

“Okay, okay,” she soothes, patting my shoulder like I’m a toddler on the verge of a tantrum. And maybe I am. “Everything isfine.”