“What?” Quinlan asks, clearly catching my eye movement. She turns her head. “Oh, I didn’t see Rhett and Max come in. Have you met them before? The band is super cool. They opened for Bent last year.”
“That’s cool.” I internally am yet again amused by how everyone knows everyone here. Kate used to say this about the political world too. It’s like celebrities are all part of one giant famous people’s club.
Quinlan pulls me away from Will, who’s chatting with Trevor about some professor at the film school. “So, what’s up with you and Grady?”
My eyes widen at her question. “I’m sorry, what?”
“I’ve seen you two staring at each other all night. What did he say to you?”
I laugh off her presumption so that she doesn’t know I’ve been mentally undressing the asshole all night. “Nothing. He’s actually kind of a dick.” I cover my mouth with my hand because I don’t know if calling Grady, a dick is a no-no in front of my mentor.
She shrugs and nods. “Yeah”—she looks over her shoulder—“but a hot dick. I should introduce you to some more people.” She looks around the room to see if there’s anyone I haven’t met.
I smile at her. Quinlan has been great at helping me network since Will and I arrived. I’m thankful to Dr. Stevens for setting her up as my mentor. In addition to showing me the ropes, she also seems like someone that I would genuinely want to be friends with outside of school. I glance back over to Grady and shiver, remembering the heat of his body against mine as we sat on the beach and his shoulder brushed mine.
I look over to see Will is glancing in my direction. He gives me a smile.
Hawke comes up behind Quinlan and kisses her shoulder. She glances behind her and grins as he lays a kiss on her lips.
“You two are ridiculously adorable,” I groan.
Quinlan giggles. “Come on, you want to play pool?”
I shrug. “Why not?”
I tell Will, who’s still deep in conversation with Trevor. He says he’ll come to find me in a minute.
I sort of like that he’s not super alpha and up my grill about going to other parts of the house. My mind momentarily wanders to my last boyfriend who had to know my whereabouts at all times as I follow Quinlan into a game room that has me wanting to move into the house.
It’s a giant room with a cathedral ceiling. There’s a billiard table, foosball table, a card table, and two other game tables set up in corners. There are shelves of board games. A small chess table sits in a snug corner by the window and it looks like it’s being played as it is set up and pieces have been moved.
“Wow!” I manage to say.
There are already people at the pool table.
“How about a game of Monopoly?” Quinlan suggests as she runs her fingers over the board game boxes.
“Really? That game takes a while,” I point out to her. She glances over at me. I’m momentarily jealous of the comfy shirt and shorts she changed into at some point this evening.
“You should change into something comfortable.”
“I didn’t bring any clothes,” I reply as I straighten out the skirt of my dress.
“Come on, let’s get you something to wear first.” She takes my hand and leads me down a hallway, knocking on a door before opening it.
It’s a bedroom. She leads me to a walk-in closet. It’s stuffed full of promotional t-shirts, shorts, running shoes, sweatshirts. She twirls around, throwing her hands up in the air.
“Help yourself,” she says with a grin.
“Wait. What?”
She picks up a t-shirt with a logo of some company on it. “Here. Blythe gets tons of free clothes from companies she works with and she keeps some here for her guests and she donates the others.”
“Oh.” I grab a pair of shorts and a sweatshirt. “Are you sure? I don’t know.”
“It’s not a big deal. I’ve known Blythe my whole life. She’s an old family friend and she would want you, her guest, to be comfortable. Trust me on this. I’ll set up the game while you change,” Quinlan says as she leaves me alone to change.
I make quick work of getting out of my shoes and dress. There are even little sports bags. So, I grab one of those and put all my stuff into it, leaving it in the closet for safekeeping. I shake my head at the fact that I’m digging through the closet of one of the world’s most famous leading actresses.
When I arrive back in the game room, the sound of laughter draws my attention to the game table in the far corner. I freeze. My game just got hijacked by Monumental Mistake. The entire band sits around the table as does Quinlan and Hawke and some other girl sits next to Rhett. If I had to guess, it’s his girlfriend because her legs are swung over his lap and they are chatting with everyone as though their seated position is the most normal in the world.
“Hey! I grabbed some more players,” Quinlan says, waving her hand to beckon me over to them.
Grady pats the seat next to him. “Saved you a seat,” he says with a devilish grin.
I raise an eyebrow as I slowly sink into it.
“Great, I gave you the shoe. Hope that’s OK,” Quinlan says. I shrug, and we begin to play.
Chapter Eight
Grady
Yeah, so I weaseled my way into the game. When I saw her sitting alone on the beach tonight, I knew she was someone worth getting to know. How many people show up at a movie star’s house and then leave the party to be by themselves? And not to cry or have a private phone conversation, just be by themselves. Of course, I’d already shown her my stage persona, the guy I am to most people, the jerk. Winning her over was going to be twice as hard as it could have been, but I’m not a quitter when it comes to the ladies. Now, other things in my life, well, I don’t want to think about them tonight.
I roll the dice and make my move. Everyone is talking smack and chatting in small clusters around the table. I purposefully chose the love seat when Quinlan said Emma was joining us, knowing she’d be stuck next to me.
“So, enjoying the party?” I ask her.
She shrugs. “Your mom’s house is very nice.”
“I see you found the extra-clothes stash.” I nod toward her attire.
She blushes and I want to run my hands over her heated skin. The pink hue contrasts so starkly against her pale skin and blonde hair. “Quinlan said—”
I put up a hand. “It’s totally cool. Most of the overnight party visitors will be raiding that closet at some point this evening unless they came prepared with their own stuff. I mean, who wants to stay in their formal wear all night?”
The pink slowly goes away as she nods her agreement. My turn comes around again and I buy a property. Emma rolls and lands on it and I smirk.
She groans and pays the rent on my property.
“You’re really enjoying this, aren’t you?” she asks with a raised eyebrow.
Shrugging, I run a hand through my hair. “I like this game. Do you?” I know my words are intentionally vague and that’s why I chose them, so I could see the pink on her skin again. I don’t know why my immature mind always goes to slapping a woman’s ass when I see her blush, but dammit if that’s not where it goes, and I can’t stop it. I drop my arm in my lap to hide my dick that’s decided to pay attention to my conversation.