Princess of Hollywood (The Glitterati Files #2) - Maggie Dallen Page 0,9
been there when I’d negotiated the deal that got Amber what she wanted, kept Brandon’s secret safe, and left me with nothing.
My father hadn’t cared. He’d been the one to send Amber, after all. He’d just been disappointed in me for losing. He hadn’t tried to hide his disgust at having a loser for his daughter and…
Well, it really wasn’t the best way for Brandon to meet my father. He probably would have been intimidated by Daddy on the best of days, but seeing him lose his temper like that?
It wasn’t for the faint of heart.
But my father hadn’t been wrong. Really, I was the big loser here. I’d lost the starring role to Amber, and after all those weeks in Pinedale, all I had to show for it was a gay fake boyfriend.
And what I’d left behind…
I shoved aside the thought.
I had a Daddy dinner to prepare for, and now was so not the time to get all weepy about what might have been.
A honk behind me had me glancing over to see Tess waving from her BMW convertible. By the looks of it, she was talking on the phone with someone with her earbuds in.
“What time should I be there?” Brandon asked.
I gave him a little smile. This was why Brandon was such a good friend… and why he just might make it in this town after all. He was kind and a little too innocent, but he was brave. Despite his fear of my dad, he would show up tonight and have my back if I asked him to.
I shook my head and patted his knee. “You’ve done enough acting for one day. Take the night off.”
He frowned. “Are you sure?”
I nodded.
He pressed his lips together as he studied me, like he was making sure I was being truthful. “Come over after if you need to, yeah?”
I nodded, reaching for my bag. Brandon had definitely made out the best with this new deal. He was the next big Hollywood hero, he had his privacy while he came to grips with his sexuality and time to figure out how he was going to break it to his mom and the rest of the world. And on top of that, he had a place of his own that the studio had let for him and his tuition fully paid to my exclusive school.
Really, he’d made out like a bandit while I was still going back and forth between my dad’s mansion in the hills and my mother’s beach bungalow that she shared with her new boyfriend.
I sighed as I stood up and headed toward the stairs leading to the parking lot. “Wish me luck.”
“Good luck,” he said. “And try not to kill your sister.”
I didn’t turn back, but held up my hand and wiggled my fingers, a little laugh escaping at his teasing.
Well, he was mostly teasing about me and Tess. We’d forged some sort of unspoken truce back in Pinedale, and even though she still annoyed the crap out of me at times, I now knew she wasn’t my enemy. Or even my competition.
I was still pissed she hadn’t clued me in about Amber, though. Always so secretive, my sister had just referred to having ‘sources’ in Pinedale, but she hadn’t told me enough that I could have protected myself and Brandon against Amber’s scheming.
Although, I believed Tess that she hadn’t realized what Amber was up to… but I still liked to throw it in her face and make her feel guilty. Did this make me a bad half-sister? Probably. But considering her failure to keep me in the loop had cost me the guy of my dreams, I was okay with that.
As I climbed into the passenger side, Tess eyed my prep school uniform… well, my version of it. The plaid navy skirt that I’d had hemmed so it showed off my killer thighs and the top that barely grazed my navel, thanks to my adjustments.
“I can’t believe they let you get away with that,” Tess said with a shake of her head.
I rolled my eyes. So typical Tess.
“You look like you’re heading to a strip club.”
I rolled my head against the back of the seat to look at her over the top of my sunglasses. “And you look like you’re heading to a funeral. What’s your point?”
She arched her brows as she put the car in drive. “What will Daddy say?”
I held her gaze evenly. “Let’s find out, shall we?”