Page 89 of Lance

I should have known this was a bad idea. It doesn’t seem like Layla actually knows anything, but I had forgotten how good she is at weaseling information out ofyou.

When I don’t answer she points at me, a disbelieving look on her face. “Lance Foster. Are you messing around with thatgirl?”

“Oh, God,” I mutter, burying my head in my hands. That took about threeseconds.

“Shit,” Dylan says, his voice almost awed. “James is going tokillyou.”

I glare up at him. “You think I don’t knowthat?”

“But…why?” Layla asks, looking almost shocked. And it’s pretty damn hard to shock Layla Perry. “You have girls hanging off of you all thetime.”

“Not lately,” Dylan says, scrunching up his face in thought. “I mean, I can’t remember the last time I saw you hitting onsomeone.”

“I’ve been dealing with a lot of shit lately, Dylan. Groupies are kind of the last thing on my mind rightnow.”

Layla’s eyes narrow. “So you decided you’d get some closer tohome?”

“It’s not likethat.”

“What’s it like then?” she asks, and she looks pissed now. “I like Willa, Lance. She’s a good girl. She doesn’t need to be jerked aroundlike—”

“I’m in love with her, Layla,” I say, and she shuts her mouth with an audiblesnap.

“You…what?” Dylan asks, eyeswide.

I should not have said that out loud. I haven’t even let myself think it. And now I told the biggest gossip in our band. There’s no way this doesn’t get back to Haylee before the end of the night. And it’s pretty much guaranteed that if Haylee knows, James will know eventually. They tell each othereverything.

Layla stares at me, looking shell-shocked. “Fuck, Lance,” she finally mutters, and Ilaugh.

“Iknow.”

“When did thishappen?”

I shrug. “We were flirting at Sway, after the taping,” I explain, figuring there’s no point in keeping it a secret now. “I, uh, actually didn’t recognize her thatnight.”

Layla rolls her eyes, looking a little more like herself. “Typical. A girl puts on a short skirt and you completely lose yourbrain.”

“Yeah, well…things got messed up after that. Simon came along and she’s been…you know. Helping me out and stuff.” I swallow. I am so not good at talking about this kind of thing. “We spent a lot of time together and it just…happened.”

“That night at the club opening,” Dylan says, eyes wide. “I thought you were just pissed atJames.”

“Iwaspissed at James,” I mutter. “He’s always treating her like a little kid. And she’s not. She’s…she’samazing.”

They’re both staring at me like they’ve never seen me before. “Youarein love with her,” Dylansays.

“Yeah, well, it doesn’t really matter anymore,” I say, before downing the rest of mywhiskey.

“Because of James?” Dylan asks. “Maybe you should just talk to him. I mean, you know he’d be pissed if he heard you were screwing around with her. But if he knows how you feel, maybe he’ll be okay withit.”

“No he won’t,” Layla and I say at the sametime.

“I don’t really care about James, to be honest,” I continue. “It’s Willa. When I told her about Angie’s mom she lost it.” I think of that expression on her face, the way that she looked at me like she didn’t even know me. “I wasn’t kidding when I said she thinks I’m a piece of shit. She was like…disgusted byme.”

“She thinks you should keep him,” Dylansurmises.

“Yeah.”

Neither of them says anything for a moment. Finally Layla clears her throat. “Maybe she’s right. I mean…she knows the kid pretty well,right?”