I might have had too much to drink.
After Campbell had asked me out and then I had to sit around and pretend that his presence didn’t bother me all night, I’d maybe gone a bit overboard. I could drink like a tank even though I was only about five feet tall. My tolerance had always been high. I thought it was because I’d started drinking with my mom at a young age because she had all these psych reasons for avoiding binge drinking by not making alcohol taboo. It had mostly worked—I’d give her that.
Tonight was a different story.
Honey had left a half hour ago, and I was on Piper’s arm as I stumbled back to her Jeep.
“Do not throw up in my car,” Piper said. She was completely clearheaded. She’d only had one drink early in the night.
“I’m not going to…throw up,” I said with a hiccup. “I’m blackout girl, not throw-up girl.”
“Great,” Piper grumbled. “It’s been a few years since I’ve seen you this drunk.”
“Shh,” I said, putting a finger to her mouth. “It’s fine.”
Piper leaned me against the Jeep and then patted her pockets down for the key. She wasn’t carrying a purse. “Fuck. I gave the damn key to Hollin when I first got here. I’m need to run back inside.”
“I’ll be fine right here.”
She looked at me with pursed lips, as if she didn’t believe me. Then, her eyes darted around. “Hey, Abbey!”
I glanced up and saw that it was not in fact her boyfriend, but the other Abbey brother. Campbell’s head popped up at the sound of his last name. Piper waved him over, and he came forward almost reluctantly.
“I need to run in and get my key from Hollin. Can you make sure that Blaire doesn’t pass out or do anything really stupid?” Piper asked.
“I don’t need a babysitter.” I put my hands on my hips to try to look indignant but pitched forward. I would’ve fallen on my face if Piper hadn’t been there to catch me and leverage me back against the Jeep.
“She’s drunk. And she does need a babysitter.”
Campbell frowned. As if he’d just realized that I was a wasted mess. “Yeah. Sure. I’ll stay with Blaire.”
“Good. Be nice,” Piper growled. Then, she was stomping back inside with a huff.
“You don’t have to stay,” I told him. “You should just leave since it’s the only thing you’re really good at.”
Damn my drunk mouth.
Campbell winced slightly. “I’ll stay right here actually. If I left, I think Piper would hunt me down and kill me.”
I rolled my eyes dramatically. “At least my best friend can scare you into being a gentleman.”
Campbell took a step forward until he was nearly in my personal space. For a second, I couldn’t breathe. Not even a little. I was captivated by him. I could remember the smell and taste of him. The want of him. It clouded my already-addled brain.
It would be easy to want Campbell Abbey again. So easy.
“I want to apologize,” Campbell said evenly.
“What?” I asked, jolted out of my runaway thoughts. “Why?”
“For how I acted earlier. When I asked you out,” he clarified. “I know we have history. I know that you’re…seeing someone else. Though I suppose I didn’t know it was serious when I asked you. But I didn’t intend to make you uncomfortable.”
“I wasn’t uncomfortable. I was mad.”
“Then, I’m sorry for making you mad,” he said evenly. He stuffed his hands in the pockets of his ripped black jeans, as if it was the only way to keep himself from touching me.
“Well, it doesn’t matter anyway.”
“Why is that?”
“Because you’re leaving again. So, just run on back to LA. Go live your big, glamorous life. It’s what you always wanted.”
His face was like stone when I delivered that one-two punch. It had been eight years since I’d had to read Campbell’s expressions. And it should have been difficult to discern what he was thinking, but somehow, it wasn’t. Even tipsy, I could tell that he didn’t want to say whatever was about to come out of his mouth.
He glanced down at the ground and kicked a stray rock. “I’m not.”
“You’re not what?”
Our eyes met again.
“Leaving.”
My jaw dropped. “But your manager said…”
“Yeah, well, he doesn’t call the shots. They want me back in LA to record a new album, but I don’t have any songs worth recording right now. So, I decided to stay in town and try to relax.” He shrugged. “Find a way to get my music back.”
“No,” I whispered. His face darkened at the word. “Well, I guess it’ll just be like the last eighteen months then.”
A smirk crossed his lips. “Except that you’re speaking to me now.”
Damn it, he was right. If I’d just not talked to him, it would have been so much easier to continue. But now, we’d broken the dam, and I didn’t know how to stop. Already, we had been alone twice in one night. Only now, we were really alone. There was no one outside within a hundred yards of us. Piper should have been back, but something told me she was purposely taking her sweet time.
My eyes darted to his lips. Those perfect lips. God, I was too drunk to think coherently. There was no other explanation for why I was suddenly thinking about kissing Campbell Abbey.
“So?” I finally got out.
“So, I guess it will be different than the last eighteen months.”
“I spoke to you before.”
He chuckled and took another step in closer. “Oh, I remember. You said, ‘Got something to say?’ and looked at me as if the world could swallow me up and eat me whole.”
I flushed at that memory. It had been a few months ago, when all of us had flown to Dallas to see Cosmere perform. Campbell had given Hollin backstage passes and seats in the Owners Club. It had been incredible…until we went backstage at the end of the show to hang out with the band.
I hadn’t even wanted to go to that damn show. Piper insisted that I attend, and some part of me wanted to be there, doing cool things with my friends. The only problem was Campbell…and the fact that it was exactly what I’d thought it would be. Campbell, surrounded by gorgeous groupies, all vying for his attention. Then, he had the nerve to get upset when Santi, the drummer for Cosmere, put his arm around me. It was an actual joke—unlike the bullshit Campbell had pulled tonight. Santi was boisterous and overly friendly and ridiculous. He wasn’t hitting on me.
And the whole thing would have been funny, but as soon as Santi dropped his arm around my shoulders and asked me if I was taken, Campbell jumped to his feet. Santi was incredulous. Everyone in the room had looked at us. It was one thing for Campbell to get mad that someone was hitting on his little sister. It was quite another for him to be madder that they were hitting on me.
I’d spent the last eight years making sure not a damn person knew that I was the girl behind “I See the Real You.” Then, he had almost ruined the entire thing in one go. It was bad enough that Hollin and Piper had figured out that we had history. The last thing I wanted was for the entire world to know.
“Well, you were the idiot who jumped up, as if you were protecting my virtue,” I snapped at him.
He rocked back on his heels and nodded. “Yeah. I…wasn’t really thinking.”
“Whatever,” I groused.
Silence lingered between us. As if Campbell didn’t know what to say to not make me upset. And I had nothing left to say to him. I was beginning to sober up, and I just wanted Piper to hurry the hell up.
“We could…try to be friends.” He looked up at me under his long, dark lashes.
“Friends,” I said with a sardonic laugh. “In what world?”
“All of our friends are friends. It might be easier if we…acted like we were, too.”
“We’ve never been friends, Campbell.”
“That’s not true,” he said with a frustrated sigh. “We were friends in high school.”
I laughed right in his face at that. “You’re unbelievable. Please do not try to give me revisionist history. I was there. You were the most popular boy in school despite not giving a single fuck that you didn’t dress or act like any of the other popular kids and you played no sports. You just had it. You always have. And I was nobody.”
“You weren’t nobody.”
I glared at him now. The alcohol only fueling my rage. “Shut up. I was absolutely nobody. I was the weird smart kid. I wore giant glasses and had a bob haircut that my mom did herself. I was in chorus but was way too shy to ever audition for a solo. And I played soccer but not for the high school team because the girls were horrible to loser me.”
“And now, you have a million followers.”
“Three and a half million,” I corrected him.
He tilted his head at me. “Proof that it doesn’t matter who you were in high school.”
“That is a fact, but again, we were never friends. You weren’t friends with the loner girl.” I crossed my arms over my chest. “I was invisible to you…to everybody.”
“Until you weren’t.”
“Yes,” I whispered. “I was either invisible or everything to you, and I’m not going to be satisfied with a middle ground. So…just pretend you can’t see me anymore.”
Campbell was silent for a few seconds at my proclamation. Then, he said, “That sounds like a song.”
I groaned. “Fuck you, Campbell.”
He blinked at me in confusion, as if coming up from underwater. “What?”
“I’m tired of being the girl with a song.”
He opened his mouth to say something, but I didn’t want to hear it. I was tired of waiting on Piper. I didn’t want to stand here any longer and listen to Campbell’s bullshit. One thing was clear: we were never going to be friends.
So, I pushed off the Jeep and strode back toward the winery. And I was glad that Campbell didn’t follow me or try to change my mind. It made all of this easier.