Free Famous in Love by Rebecca Serle Page A

there’s a playpen jammed up against the glass. Joanna wanted to be a massage therapist, and a while back she started to get her training. We all thought it would be a good idea because she could make her own hours and get pretty decent pay, but it never worked out. She ended up blowing off class, saying she missed Annabelle, and went instead to stock produce at our local Whole Foods. She works more hours now than she ever did in school.
    That’s the thing about my family: No one wound up where they wanted to go.
    My mom didn’t end up an actress; my dad didn’t end up an architect. Both my brothers keep ending up nowhere, and half the time I don’t think my sister even knows where she is.
    It’s not like our story is tragic or anything. Nothing that terrible has ever happened to us. Which I guess, actually, is the point. People are always saying the pendulumswings both ways—greatness and tragedy—but my family’s seems to be stuck in the center.
    I think about Cassandra and Jake. Jake will be great, and not because he’s destined for it but because he knows what he thinks and isn’t afraid of hard work. He was volunteering at the animal shelter and starting a garden at five. He’s wanted to help in whatever way he can since as long as I can remember and sometimes that drives me crazy (like when Saturday nights are spent pulling up non-indigenous weeds), but it also means he’s committed to something. And Cassandra? She’s passionate about everything, but especially the people she cares about. There hasn’t been one of Jake’s Saturday sit-ins she’s missed, or one bio assignment she hasn’t talked me through. They’re both extraordinary because they care. About the world and the people around them. About me.
    They have to come visit. If they do, this experience will be everything it’s supposed to be. I just know it.

CHAPTER 8
    “I can’t believe this. Are you sure you heard him right?” Rainer is pacing the length of his condo, his hands knotted by his sides.
    I tuck my knees up to my chest on the couch. “That’s what he said. Jordan Wilder.”
    “Why would they hire Jordan? I thought they wanted an unknown.” Rainer stops and looks at me.
    I lift up my shoulders. “I have no idea. You should ask your dad.” I think about Wyatt’s words earlier: “He’s the producer’s son.”
    Rainer’s eyes fire up. “You think he knew about this?”
    “I mean, he’s the producer, right?” I stick my thumbnail in my mouth and snap off the end. It’s a nervous habitI have. Lillianna keeps yelling at me about it. I tried to explain to her that if August is on a deserted island with some tribe possibly intent on killing her, she’s definitely biting her nails, too, but she didn’t buy it.
    “He wouldn’t do that to me. He knows about Jordan.”
    “What happened?” I ask.
    Rainer is unraveling right before my eyes. He asked me to come over to have dinner, and I was just catching him up on my morning, telling him about Wyatt coming over, when Jordan’s name slipped out.
    I’ve never seen Rainer like this. Usually he’s so calm and cool and collected and together. The mere mention of this guy’s name has completely unhinged him.
    I know there are those rumors about Jordan and Britney but Rainer told me himself he isn’t even with her anymore. And anyway, Rainer’s not the kind of guy to go into a tailspin about rumors. Unless they’re not just rumors.
    He looks at me like he’s forgotten I’m there. “Nothing,” he says. “We used to be on a TV show together. It’s not important.”
    “From the way you’re pacing your living room, it
seems
kind of important.”
    “I’d just rather he not bog this movie down with his bullshit, that’s all.”
    “
What
bullshit?”
    Rainer’s eyes flash and then fade out, like they’ve blown a fuse, and he flops down onto the couch next to me. “I’m sorry,” he says. “I just really hate the guy.”
    He lifts his head up, and he’s wearing