Free Famous in Love by Rebecca Serle Page B

a small smile now. I realize, suddenly, that this is the first time I’ve ever seen Rainer angry. It’s a weird realization. Like he’s becoming human or something. Not so perfect. But it’s not off-putting at all—instead, it’s totally attractive. I like that he’s let me into a part of him other people don’t see. That he has his own demons. And apparently, Jordan Wilder is one of them.
    “Hey,” I say. I reach for his shoulder and place my hand there. “If this is so important to you, why don’t we do something about it?”
    He looks at me. His eyes narrow. “What do you mean?”
    I suck in my bottom lip. I can’t believe I’m about to say this, but I think about Rainer telling me yesterday we were in this together. Sitting on that couch, I think, I
know
, I’d already do anything for him.
    “I’ll flub my read with him,” I say.
    Rainer opens his mouth to say something and then closes it again. He looks at me, and a beat passes between us so long I think I might scream. But then he shakes hishead, his mouth pulling into a smile. “I can’t ask you to do that,” he says.
    “You’re not asking.”
    He makes a noise somewhere between a laugh and an exhale. “But you’re not going to,” he says. “I can’t let you. Not with how you feel about your current relationship with Wyatt.”
    I think about our talk this morning. Rainer puts a hand on my shoulder and glides it down my arm. I’m sure he can feel the goose bumps that prick up where his fingers trail. We’ve touched so much on set but so little, I realize, off. I’ve been anticipating August and Noah’s kiss since we got here—I know it’s coming. I guess at least they’ll get there, even if we never do. “I’ll just have to trust that Jordan’s general assholery will speak for itself.”
    “Okay.” I nod. Then, to change the subject: “Hey, I think my friends might come to visit next weekend.”
    “Jake and Cassandra?” Rainer eyes me, and I feel something rise in my chest. I don’t even remember talking about them a lot. “That’s great.”
    “Will you be here?” I pick at the edge of a pillow.
    “Yes,” Rainer says. His voice is soft. “And I’d love to meet them.”
    I look up at him. He’s smiling. “I didn’t ask,” I say.
    He cocks his head to the side. “But you want to.”
    I’m annoyed at myself. At how I can feel my blood heating up in my veins. “They’re great,” I say, because I don’t know what else to say. “Cassandra and I have been friends forever, and Jake…”
    Rainer picks up on the pause. “You haven’t really clarified that one. Is he an ex?”
    “No,” I say hastily. “It’s just strange being away from them. They’ve known everything about me up until now.”
    “It’s hard,” he says. “It’s not easy to maintain relationships in this world.”
    “Yeah. And Cassandra is just—she saw those stupid tabloid shots.” I already told Rainer about Wyatt’s confrontation, but before I could gauge his reaction I brought up Jordan’s name. I now really want to know: How does he feel about those pictures? About the world thinking we might really be together?
    Rainer laughs. “All press is good press, right?”
    “Isn’t it ‘not all press is good press’?”
    He shrugs. “I forget. Was she upset or something?”
    I glance downward. I can feel my cheeks flush. “She thought I didn’t tell her everything.”
    I look up and see Rainer’s eyes fixed on me. His smile has slackened a little, and he seems intent. “Did you?”
    “You know those pictures were taken out of context,” I say. “I mean, Wyatt totally overreacted. You were just being nice about the sweatshirt, and that hand-holding was…”
    He unhooks his hand from the back of the couch and places it over mine, where it’s resting in my lap. “I like you,” he says.
    I look at his hand and then up at him. All the hairs on my body feel like they stand up at once. When the words come out, they feel small,