Open Road Summer(71)

“The room in Pittsburgh?” Matt finishes, grinning. “I know. I thought that as soon as I walked in. I had flashbacks to that security guard.”

“ ‘Where are you kids supposed to be?’” Corinne’s voice is lowered into a growl, obviously impersonating someone. She starts laughing, and Matt picks up where she left off.

“ ‘Um, onstage . . . ,’” Matt quotes.

Dee’s smiling pleasantly at their inside-joke reenactment, but I can’t resist an eye roll. Matt sits down beside me, resting his arm on the back of the couch. For a split second, Corinne’s eyes follow his arm. She’s startled, like this gesture is unsettling proof of our closeness. She sits on the other side of Matt on the couch.

Dee’s politeness chimes in. “So, Corinne, you’ve toured with Matt before?”

She nods. “A few Finch Four shows the summer after freshman year of high school.”

I’ve been quiet for too long, and I don’t want to let on to my annoyance. “Are you a musician, too?”

“Oh, God, no,” Matt says. “She’s completely tone-deaf. It is physically painful.”

“Shut up!” Corinne grabs a pillow off the couch and smacks him with it. A corner of the pillow hits my side, which Matt doesn’t notice. “That’s a total exaggeration.”

He grabs another pillow and hits her back, which sends her into a giggle fit. Now I feel like I’m at a middle school sleepover, which I hated even when I was in middle school.

Glancing at Dee, I ask, “How soon do you have to get ready for your meet and greet?”

She takes the hint. “Now-ish. I wish I could hang out, but duty calls.”

Dee and I both stand. I can’t stay here and play tug-of-war with Corinne, not without Dee to keep me on my best behavior.

“Hey.” Matt encircles his arms around my waist. In my peripheral vision, I can see Corinne’s smile dissipate. “You don’t have to get ready. Stay awhile.”

I’ll be damned if I’m going to be the third wheel, and I’ll be damned if I’m going to let Corinne figure out that I feel tetchy and threatened. “Nah. I want you two to have some time to catch up.”

Matt looks completely enamored by my consideration for Corinne’s feelings. “Careful there, O’Neill. Corinne’s going to figure out how sweet you are underneath that hard-candy shell.”

“Ha-ha,” I say drily, but Dee laughs heartily. When I glance over at Corinne, there’s an obligatory smile on her face. It takes all my effort, but I force my own smile. “Nice to meet you.”

“You too.”

I step back out of Matt’s arms. I’m tempted to kiss him, to mark my territory, but it seems too possessive. Luckily, he catches me by the hand. “Come down before I go onstage, okay?”

“Okay.” Then he kisses my hand. Corinne looks horrified, but only for the briefest moment. I suppress a triumphant smile. “You’re embarrassing your friend.”

“I’m embarrassing you.” He plants one more smacking, overdramatic kiss on my hand. “Which is cute. Bye.”

I roll my eyes. “Bye.”

Before the door closes, Corinne and Matt start laughing about something—possibly me. Dee links her arm through mine as we walk across the hall to her dressing room, and I glance over at her. “Okay, that girl does not seem heartbroken about anything. Right?”

“She was kind of flirty with him . . . ,” Dee trails off, considering this. “I’m sure she’s just in the first phase of grieving the relationship.”

“The phase where you want to sleep with someone else to piss off your ex?”

“No. The desperate phase where you’re pretending to be happy, as if that could somehow actually make you feel happy.”

I sigh. “Maybe. But did you see the looks she was giving me?”

Even Dee, the nicest person on Earth, can’t deny it. “I mean, she gave you a few once-overs. But Matt’s her best friend. She’s probably protective of him.”

I get that. I even respect it. When it comes to my own best friend, my protective instinct belongs in a lion pride. But this is different. I’m not sure how, but it is.

“Besides, Matt is obsessed with you.” Dee is trying to disguise a little smirk, and she’s failing. “I’ve never seen you this jealous before. You like him.”

I glare at her. “I’m not jealous. I’m . . . annoyed. I know girls who are like her. As soon as Matt’s not around, the gloves will come off.”

Dee pushes her dressing room door open, and I follow her inside, feeling totally stripped of control. “I just don’t understand why she has to come running straight to Matt. Like, you’d think she’d have other friends, you know?”

“I guess,” Dee says, sighing. She sets her purse on the makeup counter and doesn’t meet my eyes.

I can’t seem to stop ranting, even though I’m only getting myself more worked up. “She couldn’t wait a little more than a week to see him? And why did he think this was, like, socially appropriate? He pursued me like an insane bloodhound, not the other way around, so I have no idea why he’d let her barge in.”

“You know what, Reagan?” Dee huffs. “I know you got burned, okay? But Matt is not Blake, so stop making him into the bad guy. He’s doing exactly what you would do for me. It’s what best friends do. They pick up the pieces. Give him a break.”