Carter had the nerve to look disappointed they couldn’t do that, and Jeff’s heart made a noise like a rubber chicken. “Should’ve gotten one big enough for two.”
Now there was a mental image. Jeff grinned. “All right. Let’s try this again, eh? Don’t try to answer any questions, it just encourages them.”
“This feels so rude,” Carter grumbled.
“Taking flash photographs of someone without their permission is rude,” Jeff pointed out. “Don’t flip them the bird, though, you’re not Chris Pine.”
“Mom would disown me.” He huffed as he wheeled back up to the door. “All right, let’s do this.”
Jeff stayed just in front. The tabloids already knew his face; a shot would be useless to the photographers unless they could see both of them.
“Jeff, is it true—”
“Over here, Jeff—”
“Can you confirm—”
“—rumors of an underground sex club—”
Oh, dammit. Jeff didn’t need eyes in the back of his head to know that would get Carter to turn around. Sure enough, by the time Jeff caught his wrist, the photographer already had a shot of his face and a quote of Carter saying, in a deeply disparaging tone, “Really?”
Frankly after the past week, Jeff wouldn’t be all that surprised to find out Carter belonged to an underground sex club—though hewouldbe impressed if you could find one in Willow Sound. “Come on, in the car.” He urged Carter in front of him.
Carter must have realized his mistake, because he got in the car first without argument. Jeff left the scooter for the driver to deal with and climbed in after Carter. When he closed the door on the paparazzi, thechunkof it seemed very loud, punctuated by a sudden cessation of noise from outside.
“Sorry,” Carter said after a tense half second. “That was pretty obvious bait, right?”
Jeff shrugged. “Yeah, but I could’ve warned you. Should’ve, even. You didn’t give them anything they could use, except maybe a shot of your pretty face.”
“Ugh.” Carter slumped in his seat as the car started to move. He was sullen for a moment and then cracked, “I knew I should’ve gotten my brows waxed.”
Thank God for Carter’s even keel. Still. “I should probably call my publicist,” Jeff said apologetically. “Release a statement.” He’d been hoping for a little more time to settle things with Carter before he had to do something so practical and unromantic, but he didn’t see a good way out of it.
He didn’t even want to think about what would happen if they broke up. Everyone would know how serious he’d been, wouldn’t they? People would find out Jeff and Carter had known each other forever and put two and two together. If they broke up after that….
But he was being stupid. Cart before horse. If they broke up, people talking about it would be the least of Jeff’s problems.
“Sorry,” Carter said again. “It’s weird. It’s not like I didn’t know you were famous, right? Except that it’s not how I think of you. I keep forgetting.” He smiled. “I’ll get used to it.”
Jeff wasn’t convinced, but that was his own problem. “I hate that they ruined our date night—the first night we got to spend together where webothknew it was a date.”
Carter slid across the seat until their shoulders touched. “Hey.” He jostled into Jeff’s side and gave a lopsided grin when Jeff looked up. “Night’s not over yet.”
Jeff was going to have to start eating his Wheaties to keep up once Carter’s foot healed.
Whatever. It’d be worth it. “You say the sweetest things.”
“Of course,” Carter said, mock serious. His eyes turned dark and heated. “I have to dosomethingto make up for all the nasty things I’m going to do to you.”
“Hmm.” Jeff grabbed Carter’s hand before it could elaborate on what Carter meant bynasty things. “What if I want to do the nasty things toyouthis time?”
Carter squeezed his fingers. “I think we can work out a schedule.”
THE NEXTday marked the official start of the album-writing-and-planning session. Somehow everyone had figured out Jeff and Carter had the biggest room, which led to Joe, Max, and Trix showing up at the door around ten thirty.
They were lucky Carter had already started his workday, citing a request from Emily to track down some data from one of the other parks.
“You couldn’t call first?” Jeff asked as he stepped aside to let them in.
