at least.”
Lakshmi produced a pad of paper, getting the meeting back on track. “We can start amplifying and flooding every possible Twitter thread with basically the same message Jia’s going to spread. Use bots for good instead of evil. Turn the narrative so it’s no longer about who you are, but how wrong this is.”
“I don’t want to sic a mob on these three, though.” Ross might have the power to urge the world to dox her by virtue of the current spotlight on him, but she had her money, Jia’s reach, Rhiannon’s ruthlessness, and Lakshmi’s . . .
Well. She had Lakshmi.
Becca, Ross, and Alan were outgunned, outmanned, outnumbered, and outplanned, but they’d never know it until it was too late.
“Define mob,” Lakshmi said.
“I don’t want them run off the internet or hurt.” Katrina twisted her fingers together. “They’re people, too.”
Lakshmi turned her head, but her whisper to Rhiannon was picked up by the computer’s excellent mic. “How is she so nice?”
“It’s not about being nice. I’ve seen them in person, they aren’t some nameless faceless usernames.”
“Look,” Rhiannon said, with her typical matter-of-factness. “Sometimes to disarm people and keep them from hurting you, to keep them from doing the wrong thing, you gotta put pressure on them.”
Lakshmi perked up. “Physical pressure? ’Cause I know a guy—”
Even Jia looked alarmed at that offer. “No!” Katrina yelped.
“Okay.” Lakshmi rolled her eyes. “Fine.”
“Katrina?”
She glanced up at Jas’s raised voice from outside, and Jia let out a singsong Ooooh. “How’s things going with you and Captain Chesticles?”
Katrina stabbed at the volume button on her laptop, her cheeks on fire, though Jas wouldn’t be able to hear the girl. She didn’t want a repeat of the text about his hotness! “I have to go now, good talk, I’ll call you later, bye-bye.”
Jia howled, Rhiannon snorted, and Lakshmi cracked a grin before the screen went dark. Katrina pressed her palms over her cheeks, hoping she hadn’t given herself away. She didn’t want her friends to know about her and Jas yet. One, because it was too new, and two, because . . . well, she was a little worried it wasn’t real. Like this was a simulation, an illusion that would vanish when they returned to Santa Barbara.
Jia and Rhiannon, and to a lesser extent Lakshmi, didn’t need to get emotionally entangled with her and Jas being a thing if it wasn’t going to happen.
“Katrina?” Jas yelled again.
She came to her feet in a rush. “Yes?” she called out, and made it to the door just as he bounded up the porch stairs.
His jeans had lost their city creases, and the sleeves of his flannel shirt were rolled up. His hair was disheveled, and he hadn’t trimmed his beard. He wasn’t her perfectly groomed bodyguard today. “What’s up?” she asked, trying not to think of Jia’s new nickname for him.
Her gaze flicked to his chest, then back up to his eyes.
Jas beamed at her, sensing nothing amiss. “Come with me.”
She checked her watch. “It’s almost three. I have to check in on the pizza dough if we want it ready in time for dinner.”
“I’ll help you with that later. There’s something I want to show you. Grab your sweater.”
“It’s warm out today, though.”
“Trust me, grab it.”
She arched an eyebrow at him but complied, pulling her big comfy sweater from the hall closet before returning to the door.
He stopped before they rounded the house. “Close your eyes.”
She gave him a quizzical look, but shut them. “This better not be a prank of some kind,” she warned. “I don’t want to stick my hand into something gross.”
“No prank. Who would ever prank you like that?” He took hold of her arm and led her about a dozen steps. “Okay, look.”
She opened her eyes. “Oh.”
“Well?”
She walked forward a few feet and stopped. “It’s, um . . . hay?” She ended it with a question, because she had honestly only ever seen hay in movies. But this looked like the movie hay, tightly bundled in small bales. Piles upon piles of hay.
“You said you wanted a snowball fight. Well, I tried to get a snow machine, but I guess it’s not cold enough for fake snow and also we’re not a ski resort.”
“So you got . . . hay?”
“Yeah. I mean, I know it’s not the same as snow, but I figured it was really the only thing you can bunch up and toss at someone. And not injure them. So . . .” He spread his arms wide. “I