“And the questions, Mom—the questions!” London pressed her pillow over her face for a minute and faked a scream. “I have no idea how this interview is going to come out, but I can’t imagine that it’s going to be good. They asked about Dad, and they asked if I was going to stay in law school. Apparently, because I changed my major from fashion, they think I’m too flighty for the law.”
“You’ll just have to prove them wrong, won’t you?” Evelyn finished smearing her avocado facial cream under her eyes and held the tub out toward London. She shook her head. She could probably use it, but it felt like too much work.
“Listen, honey. You’ve always risen above your circumstances, and I have no doubt that you will this time too. Now, I need to turn in—I have another meeting in the morning.”
London held back a sigh. She was starting to wonder why her mother had even come to stay with her in the hotel—London could have roomed with Chelsea, if it was a matter of not being alone. Evelyn hadn’t been there much at all so far, and hadn’t done any supervising or chaperoning or whatever one might expect from one’s mother when one was in a pageant and facing one’s old nemesis and scary, mean newspaper reporters.
“I think I’ll go for a swim,” London said, and Evelyn nodded. She looked like a dish of guacamole.
London changed into her royal blue one-piece suit, put on a robe and grabbed a towel, then headed for the pool. It was late enough that she had it all to herself. The night sky was twinkling overhead as she lowered herself into the water, and she floated on her back and tried to pick out her favorite constellations. After a few minutes, she flipped over and started to swim laps, not stopping until she needed a breather.
When she came out of the water, she saw Kade sitting on one of the poolside chairs, watching her.
“You don’t take no for an answer, do you?” She pulled her robe off another chair and put it on, then began toweling her hair. “You can’t tell me that you being here is a coincidence.”
“No, I saw you come in here and I followed you.”
“An honest stalker. That’s refreshing.” She sat down and motioned for him to go ahead. “And why did you follow me?”
He leaned forward and put his elbows on his knees. “I just wanted to make sure you were all right.”
“I’m very all right. I had a good dinner, I didn’t cry—I’m not unbalanced in any way.”
His lips twitched. “Good. I’m glad to hear it.”
London wrapped her towel around her head like a turban. “How was your date with Chelsea?”
“She’s a really nice girl. Pretty, fun—there just wasn’t a spark there, you know? It was like hanging out with my sister or a friend. I’m glad I met her, though. She seems cool.”
“She is. She’s my one friend on the pageant circuit.”
Kade looked curious. “Don’t you know any of the other contestants?”
London laughed. “Oh, I know most of them. But that doesn’t mean we’re friends. There’s too much emotional competition as well as what goes on during the actual pageant.”
“Takes the fun out of it, I bet.”
“Big time.” London unwrapped the towel and ran her fingers through her hair. They must have used extra chlorine in the pool—she could really smell it. “Listen. What I said earlier, about the rumors—the other girls are starting to talk about us. They’ve noticed how much we’ve been chatting.”
Kade held up both hands. “I don’t mean to get in the middle of any of the drama—that’s not my thing. But we really haven’t talked that much. What, ten minutes last night and a few minutes today?”
It had been longer than that, but London wasn’t going to argue the point. “Be that as it may, have you spent that much time with any of the other girls?”
“Just Chelsea. I really don’t mean to make things awkward for you, London. If you’d rather not talk to me anymore, I’ll understand.”
That sort of sounded like he’d planned on talking to her more, but he was willing to change those plans. Was he seeking her out? Aside from following her to the pool, of course, because that was pretty blatant. But what did he want?
“I think we’d better go our separate ways,” she said at last. It was so hard to know how to handle this when she didn’t even know what he was up to. He had to be hatching up some sort of plan to totally humiliate her—that was all he did when it came to her.
“Okay. I can respect that. No more following you to the pool.”
“Thank you.” She stood up. “Goodnight. I’ll see you tomorrow at the judges’ interviews.”
He rose when she did. “’Night, London. Sleep well.”
***
Almost as soon as London closed her door, there was a knock on it. She flung it back open in exasperation. “Honestly, if you keep hounding me—” Then she realized it was Chelsea standing there and not Kade.
“Hi,” she said, feeling sheepish. “Come in. Mom’s asleep, but she wears earplugs, so as long as we’re quiet, we can talk.”
“Are you sure? You sounded a little upset just now when you opened the door.”
“Um, that was something totally unrelated.” London stepped aside so Chelsea could come in. They each took a chair over by the window, and London glanced at her mother to make sure she was still asleep. Good.
“So, tell me how it went with Kade,” London said.
“He’s amazing. He’s so good-looking, a perfect gentleman, interesting, funny . . . and there’s just nothing there.” Chelsea sighed. “He reached out to take my hand as I was sliding out of the booth, and it was just a hand.”
“What were you expecting it to be?” London asked with a chuckle.
“Well, a hand, of course, but there was no chemistry at all. And then he kissed my cheek as we were saying goodnight, and again, nothing. I was so disappointed.”
London was relieved. After hearing Kade’s report, she was worried that Chelsea would come in all starry-eyed and in love, and that her feelings would be crushed. “But you had fun?”
“We had a lot of fun. It just wasn’t romantic fun.”
“I’m sorry.” Even though London was glad that her friend was safe from the terror of Kade, she did wish that she’d been able to do something nice for her as a thank you for not being insane. “If I think of any other super-hot football players I know, I’ll be sure to introduce you.”
“Just make sure they aren’t gaga about you first.”
London blinked. “What are you talking about?”
Chelsea gave her a “you’ve got to be kidding me” look. “Kade. You. You and Kade. Come on, London.”
“I honestly don’t know what you mean.”
“That guy is totally hung up on you.”
London couldn’t help it—her jaw literally dropped. “You read that very, very wrong,” she said at last. “We don’t like each other. Not at all. We can’t even be frenemies because there’s not enough ‘fre’ in there. He’s not hung up on me. Trust me.”
“Then why did he bring you up every other sentence all through dinner?”
“He did?”
Chelsea nodded.
London was beyond flabbergasted. “Uh . . . maybe he was looking for something the two of you have in common,” she said at last. It was the only explanation she could come up with, the only thing that made sense.
“If you say so.” The look on Chelsea’s face said she absolutely did not believe her. “Hey, I heard that the reporters were kind of rough on you today. Is everything all right?”
Oh, great. Another rumor being circulated. Well, maybe this one would drown out the other ones because it was true. “It was nothing, really. One of them asked about my dad, and I just told them the truth.”
Chelsea winced. “I would have burst into tears.”
London thought about that for a second. “You know, I guess I’ve just had to deal with it for so long that it’s a part of my life. I was rattled, definitely, that they even knew about it—I don’t like it when people are nosy. But it wasn’t as terrible as it sounds.”
“You’re awesome, London.” Chelsea glanced at her watch. “Oh, and I’d better go. See you in the morning!”
“See ya.”
London washed her face and put on her pajamas, then decided to go ahead and use some of her mother’s green face goop. It couldn’t hurt, and it might even help. The problem was, though, that it made her want a giant bowl of tortilla chips.
And what on earth was all that about Kade? Chelsea must have been exaggerating—he did not spend their whole date talking about her. That was just crazy.