All-American Princess - Maggie Dallen Page 0,54

face of a weepy Tess, and she was my own sister. Half-sister. Whatever.

Brandon squeezed my arms. “Lila, I need to get out of here. Can you make that happen?”

I nodded. “Yes. Of course. If that’s what you want—”

He slumped a bit in relief and started to back away. “It is. I need to go.”

I opened my mouth, trying to find the right way to say that I needed to stay.

“I need you with me,” he said softly. The pleading in his eyes was too much to bear. For the first time since I’d arrived, I got it—the reason that Jack and Amber worked so hard to protect him. There was a vulnerability in his eyes that was frightening. It wasn’t weakness exactly, just something innocent. Kind. Something that ought to be protected.

“Of course,” I said. I was already imagining him alone in Los Angeles, and it made me anxious on his behalf. He’d need someone to make introductions and show him the ropes. He’d need an insider to help him navigate the shark-infested waters that was my father’s production company and the social-climbing bottom dwellers who’d seek him out and try to use him.

He let out a loud exhale of relief, and his forehead dropped to mine. “I know your father wants us to be a couple—I know that’s what you want.”

I opened my mouth to explain that I’d changed my mind, but he was too quick.

“I want that too.”

I let out a short, humorless laugh. “No, you don’t.” I shook my head, and he lifted his, but his hands gripped my arms tighter. “You don’t want me,” I said in a gentler voice. “Not like that. I know you don’t, remember?”

I gave him a prodding look because for a second, I thought maybe he’d forgotten our conversation earlier today. Maybe it somehow slipped his mind that we’d already firmly established the fact that he didn’t want me… or any girl.

His brows drew down, and he shook his head. “I know. I know, but—” He shook his head a bit in frustration. “I’m not ready to… to come out.”

I drew in a quick breath because I had a feeling I knew where this was going.

And I had a feeling I couldn’t possibly say no.

“I need someone to…”

“To pretend,” I said, my tone bland and bored as though a guy asking me to be his beard was a common occurrence. And not just any beard—a high-profile beard splashed on the cover of magazines and gracing the checkout aisle stands in supermarkets everywhere.

Brandon’s gaze met mine. “I know it’s a big ask.”

I nodded. But then again… “It’s not so different from what I was asking of you.”

He gave me a pale imitation of his normal smile. “Will you do it? Not forever, obviously. Just… just until I can figure out how to tell my mother and my friends the truth. I need to tell them before I tell the world.”

I hesitated.

“Please, Lila.”

I swallowed thickly at the sight of his pleading eyes. This guy—this honest-to-God nice guy needed me. No one ever needed me, or if they did, they didn’t come to me for help. They didn’t seek me out to solve their problems.

But Brandon did.

I knew Jack was getting close, and everything in me wanted to say no. To say to hell with Hollywood and my father and my old life. But Brandon was watching me. Waiting. He was hoping for me to be kind and selfless.

He might’ve been an idiot for expecting me to be selfless, but a sweet idiot.

I nodded. I couldn’t quite force the words out, but apparently, the nod was enough because relief flooded his features and he started to back away. His eyes caught on someone over my shoulder, and a flicker of emotions passed over his features, replacing that temporary relief.

Hurt, anger, maybe even fear. “Don’t tell Jack,” he said suddenly, his voice sharper than it had been.

“But—”

Brandon’s eyes cut back to mine, and his glare was intense. “Please, Lila. Don’t tell him.”

I shook my head, not sure if he meant about him being gay or about his decision to leave, but either way he was so insistent I had to agree. “I won’t. But why?”

“I can’t trust him,” Brandon said. “I can’t trust any of them.”

“What do you—”

But he was already gone, heading back toward the exit and disappearing just as Jack reached my side. “Where’d Brandon go?”

“I, uh…”

But he seemed to forget the question instantly, his gaze raking over me as he gave me