Page 111 of The Irresistible Distraction

“What I mean is that Brody seems calm.”

“If this is Brody calm—” I start, ready to play this off as a joke, but Vi cuts me off.

“He clearly cares about you.” She gestures to all the people still in the diner. “Particularly given that he hates all of this.”

Because I’m still waiting for whatever trap might be coming, I try to hedge a little. “Brody likes . . . attention, being the life of a party.”

“Yes, but small ones. Caltech has fewer than a thousand undergraduates at any given time, did you know that? When I think of it that way, it makes perfect sense that despite the world Brody grew up in, he’d find peace in a place like Lake Arrowhead, where he can go back to knowing everyone’s name.” She sighs, delicate fingers rubbing against each other in small circles. “It was the Instagram life he hated. The massively parasocial loose networks with thousands or even millions of people constantly posing and then filtering. Brody doesn’t enjoy . . . filtering.”

“Or is incapable of filtering.” I pause, because I’ve known this woman for a hot minute. “It’s nice you’ve stayed friends.”

“Brody’s friends with all his exes. He likes to sell it as that’s just how affable of a guy he is, but . . .” She lifts her shoulders delicately. It’s like watching a butterfly. “Before Brody, I used to think I hated jealous, possessive boyfriends, but with Brody? It got to the point where I’d actively try to make him react, see how far I could push, and even then . . . nothing.”

“That has not been my experience with Brody.” I’m positive my face is already openly displaying my shock, and at Vi’s questioning look I decide, Fuck it. Neither Maggie nor Vera is here, and I can’t exactly gossip about Brody to Sebastian or Brody’s assistant. “One of the reasons I’m so hesitant about the Brody thing—besides the fact that I’ve known him for a fraction of a lifetime—is that I’m scared to follow you. Vi Shindler, America’s sweetheart.”

Vi’s eyes are surprisingly warm. “Even Brody wouldn’t have let you believe he was still hung up on me. I mean, I know everything’s a joke with him⁠—”

“Not everything,” I say quickly.

“Please. That man’s never been able to take anything seriously. At our wedding⁠—”

“That’s not true.” Even though I’m quick to defend Brody, I can’t help but feel my cheeks warm when Vi says our wedding, a not-so-subtle reminder of what Vi meant to Brody, once upon a time.

“It’s lovely of you to defend him, but you must feel that even with people Brody claims to care about, it’s as though he just doesn’t care enough.”

“If anything, Brody cares too much. It’s why—” I bite off the words, because Vi is smiling at me like a cat does after eating an entire canary. “You tricked me.”

“I was just curious to see if, now that Brody’s finally fallen, it was reciprocated. Will you forgive me?” She has such a winsome-little-girl way to her that it’s difficult to stay upset.

“You aren’t jealous?”

“Honestly? That man was never really mine. Also—” Vi looks around at my mostly transformed diner. “I love this for him. I love you for him. All these models, socialites, and pop stars falling over themselves to try to attract his attention, but of course Brody’s got to thwart expectations and lose his cool over a single mother from Lake Arrowhead. No offense—which, I know, that’s the worst thing to say after you say something insulting, but I promise I didn’t mean it that way, truly. It’s just—Brody is used to having to fend women off, and even with me . . . He never told you I tricked him into the engagement, did he?”

From across the diner, where it’s not possible Khloe heard, I see Vi’s twin jerk her head in our direction. “No,” I say slowly, eyes wide, watching as Vi turns toward Khloe and the two exchange some kind of twin-telepathy. A few moments pass before Vi turns back to me, and I’m careful, trying to pick out appropriate words around what’s obviously a sensitive topic. “Brody’s admitted to having had a variety of serious as well as some less than serious relationships.”

Vi gives a throaty chuckle, because of course even her laugh is sexy. “That’s a very PG-13 way to describe it. Look, I have to go or apparently Khloe’s going to kill me, but do me a favor, tell Brody I’m absolutely okay with him telling you the true reasons he and I were engaged if it might make any difference at all, with”—she swirls her finger in the air—“whatever this is that’s happening. I owe him . . . a lot more than a few Instagram posts at a small-town diner.”

34

HERE WE ARE, IN BETWEEN

It hasn’t been a week, because that was always arbitrary, and also with Brody, time moves at a different pace.

Brody obviously hoped for an immediate answer. I thought I needed . . . at least a week.

And here we are, in between.

His smile is tentative, blue-green eyes bright with joy as he lets me in.

“Did you see the numbers?”

He means the followers, of course. Though we have no way of knowing how much of this (if any) translates to repeat business, we have an intimidatingly large backlog of orders for blankets, cookies, and popcorn—and I suspect we’ll get a secondary bump when I process the pictures I’ve taken and post them officially over the next week or so.

I nod; I’ll thank him later. “Where’s Sebastian?”

Brody tilts his head to the side to indicate the guest bedroom, whose door is closed. “Another lesson with Lorelai. He won’t start on C++ until after Eric and his family return to New England.”

“Thank you for that.” I walk over to Vera’s couch and stand next to it. “So I had a really interesting talk with Vi.”