“That’s not your fault,” I said, angry on her behalf.
“Rick says his parents think it’s ‘convenient’ that Gideon is so rich now,” she muttered.
“Convenient? They think it’s convenient?”
“Angel.”
I turned around at the sound of Gideon’s voice, not having realized he’d come up behind me. “What?”
He just stared at me. I was irritated enough that it took me a minute to note the hint of a smile on his face.
“Don’t start,” I told him, narrowing my gaze in warning. I turned back to Ireland. “Tell Rick’s parents to look up the Crossroads Foundation.”
“If you’re done being offended for my sake,” Gideon said, coming up so close behind me that he brushed up against me, “they’re about five minutes from starting the video.”
My gaze searched out Brett, who’d rejoined the crowd, and found him waving me over.
I looked at Cary.
“Go on,” he said with a jerk of his chin. “I’ll hang here with Ireland and Cross.”
I headed over to the band, smiling when I saw how excited they were. “Big moment, guys,” I said to them.
“Ah, well.” Darrin grinned. “This whole event was set up just to get us on this TV show and Internet simulcast. It was the only way Vidal could get them to give us any coverage. Let’s hope it pays off, because f**kin’ A, it’s hot as hell out here.”
The host announced the exclusive premiere of the video, and then the screen switched from showing the logo of the show to the start of the video and the first chords of the song began.
The black screen suddenly lit up, revealing Brett sitting on a stool in front of a mic in a puddle of light, just as he’d been at the concert. He began to sing, his voice deep and rough. Crazy sexy. The effect his voice had on me was powerful and immediate, just as it’d always been.
The camera slowly backed away from Brett, revealing a dance floor in front of the stage where he sang. There was a crowd dancing, but they were cast in black and white while a lone blonde was strikingly colored.
I stilled as shock spread through me. The camera was careful to film only her backside and profile, but the girl was undeniably meant to be me. She was my height, with the same hair color and style as mine before I’d recently cut it. She had my curvy butt and hips, and her profile was similar enough to mine to understand immediately who she was meant to be.
The next three minutes of my life passed in a horrified daze. “Golden” was a sexually charged song and the actress did all the things Brett sang about—dropping to her knees for a Brett lookalike, making out with him in a bar restroom, and straddling his lap in the back of a classic ’67 Mustang just like the one Brett owned. Those intimate memories were intercut with shots of the real Brett still singing onstage with the rest of the guys in the band.
The fact that actors were playing us helped me deal with it a little better, but one glance at Gideon’s stony face told me it didn’t matter to him. He was seeing one of the wildest times in my life relived before his eyes and it was very real to him.
The video ended with a shot of Brett looking soulful and tormented, a single tear sliding down his cheek.
I pulled away and faced him.
His smile slowly faded when he got a good look at my expression.
I couldn’t believe how personal the video was. I was freaking out that millions of people were going to see it.
“Wow,” the host said, leaning into the band with mic in hand. “Brett, you really put yourself out there with this. Was it the song that brought you and Eva back together?”
“In a roundabout way, yeah.”
“And Eva, did you play yourself in the video?”
I blinked, realizing he was outing me as the Eva on national television. “No, that’s not me.”
“How do you feel about ‘Golden’?”
I licked my dry lips. “It’s an amazing song by an amazing band.”
“About an amazing love story.” The host smiled into the camera and rambled on, but I tuned him out, my gaze searching for Gideon. I couldn’t spot him anywhere.