Home > Laurel's Bright Idea(5)

Laurel's Bright Idea(5)
Author: Jasinda Wilder

“Mine is downstairs trying like hell to hide his inner nerd around Titus Bright and Seven’s boxing buddies.” Lizzy glanced at me. “And I happen to have it from a reliable source that Titus Bright likes you.”

“Not likely,” I said, working at sounding even-keeled and cool and casual, even as my giblets shivered at the very sound of his name. “I didn’t know Titus Bright did private events.” Hey, I even sounded casual.

Kat wasn’t fooled. She just smirked at me.

Lizzy had Autumn’s dress off the hanger and was unbuttoning the ninety-five hundred million tiny little buttons running down the back so Autumn could step into the gown, which, apparently had been custom-made for Autumn by a designer Seven had met at one of the many galas he’d attended.

“Titus Bright doesn’t do private events,” Autumn said. “He barely does events, period. You don’t book or hire Titus, he doesn’t do stadiums, or concerts. He’s actually very elusive and almost impossible to get ahold of, according to Seven.”

“So…how is he here?” I asked. “I went to a Bright Bones concert back in the day with one of Mom’s pool boy toys. It was crazy fun. They could seriously rock, man.”

Everyone stared at me.

“I have so many questions about that statement,” Lizzy said. “You…went to a Bright Bones show? With one of your mother’s pool boy side pieces? And you liked it? Bright Bones was, like, heavy metal.”

I huffed. “When will you guys stop being so shocked at this stuff? Yes, I went with Javier. He was Mom’s newest pool boy, which meant she hadn’t gotten to him yet. He didn’t know the rules or anything yet, so he didn’t know any better than to go out with me.”

“Wait, rules?” Teddy asked.

“Yes, rules. Once Mom found out I was dipping into her fund of hot boys before she got to them, she put the kibosh on it. Made sure all new pool boys knew I was off-limits. I mean, I was seventeen at the time, so I should have been off-limits anyway, but hey, I didn’t look seventeen, and most of them were twenty or under anyway.” I waved a hand. “Point is, Javier was hot. Columbian, had this sexy as all fuck accent, he was ripped, and he was super nice. I honestly don’t think he had any clue what he’d hired into, with my mom. He didn’t last long anyway—I think he quit when he realized fucking Mom was part of the gig. Which, good for him, right? And as for Bright Bones, yes, I liked it. They were technically heavy metal, but not every second of every song was like rah-rah-rah—” here she did an imitation of a metal singer angrily shout-singing, “and angry guitars and all that. It was…artistic. There was anger to it, sure, and it was heavy, but when he actually sang? Oh man, his voice was like…rough, but beautiful.”

Shit. I’d just given myself away.

“Yes, fine, I did also have a minor crush on Titus Bright at the time,” I said, defensive. “But who didn’t? He was the brand-new big thing. He was everywhere, opening for Metallica and Sevendust and Deftones and every major name in hard rock. He was on magazines and MTV and all that.”

Lizzy just laughed, shaking her head. “I would never in a million years be able to picture you at a heavy metal show.”

Kat snickered, and then burst out laughing and had to put her champagne flute aside to bend over and let the laughter out. “Oh my god, you guys, she’s nuts for this guy!”

“Katja Evan Spears!” I shot to my feet, sloshing champagne over onto my fingers. “I told you to keep it between us.”

She was breathless with laughter. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, but this is too good to keep to myself, honey.”

All eyes were on Kat.

“Spill already, Kat,” Autumn said, as Lizzy began fastening the buttons, now that Autumn had managed to wedge her long, lithe body into the tiny little white wedding gown. “What happened?”

“I met Titus outside, okay?” I cut in before Kat could turn it into something it wasn’t. “He made some crude, offensive, sexist remarks, and I’m going to avoid him during the wedding.”

Kat’s eyes twinkled, literally twinkled, as she slowed her breathing. “You are such a shitty liar, Laurel Evita McGillis.”

Teddy was watching the exchange. “Wait, wait, wait. Kat, your middle name is Evan?”

“Evan, like Evans but no S,” Kat answered. “Yes. My dad had been sure I was going to be a boy, and if I had been, my name would have been Evan. He was devastated when I was a girl, the asshole, so my mom coddled his baby little ego by saddling me with Evan as a middle name.”

Teddy snorted a laugh. “And you, Laurel, your middle name is Evita?”

I rolled my eyes. “Yes, it is. After the musical, obviously, and as far as I know, there’s no funny, pithy little story about it, except that they chose the name for me well before it had the mega popularity and well before the movie was ever made.”

Teddy eyed me. “I feel like you’re lying about what happened with Titus.”

Kat pointed at me with her half-empty flute. “He told her, and I quote—according to this one here—‘you’re mine, Laurel. You may not know it yet, but you will soon enough.’”

Teddy pretended to swoon. “Oh my gawd, that’s hot.”

“I’m not a steak or a sports car to be owned,” I snapped. “I belong to no one, least of all some scruffy, self-absorbed, egotistical jackass rock star. No matter how fucking delicious he is.”

Kat shrugged, grinning at Teddy. “See?”

Lizzy was finished with the buttons by now, and Autumn was twisting in the full-length mirror.

“I look hot,” Autumn said. “I’m not sure Seven is going to make it until tomorrow night.”

“I still think the whole thing is fucking strange and unnatural,” Zoe said.

Autumn and Seven had decided that, instead of a typical wedding week where bride and groom have separate bachelor/bachelorette parties and then a honeymoon, there would be a wedding and then instead of a reception, the after-party would be one big party that ended with Autumn and us partying here, and Seven and the boys somewhere else. And then the following day, Autumn and Seven would rejoin each other and head out on a honeymoon, which for them meant two full months in a secluded beachside estate somewhere in the Caribbean that Seven had leased.

The idea being, neither was interested in a typical bachelor/bachelorette party. The lead up to the wedding was stressful enough without adding that in, so why not just have one big party, hang out with friends in the backyard, and then Seven, a married man, has one last night to cut loose with his friends before heading off with his new bride. It’s not like anyone actually ever had sex on their wedding night anyway—you’re always too tired from the spectacle of the wedding. Not to mention, they’d been living together for months at this point, so the wedding night sex thing wasn’t the same deal it used to be when that tradition was started, so there didn’t seem much point in following a tradition that was useless to them both.

“Can we go back to Laurel and her weirdly defensive freak-out about Titus Bright?” Kat said. “I mean, Autumn babe, you look incredible. Seven is going to have a chubby the whole wedding and if you two disappear for a minute afterward, no one is going to be at all surprised.”

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