Chapter 16
Present day
Norman had let them all off at the edge of town, with Julia assuring them that it wasn’t a long walk from one end of Main Street to the other.
Ethan had, blessedly, gotten the seat closest to the window, while Noah and Katy sat in the back of Norman’s beat-up quad cab and Julia took the middle spot between Ethan and Norman, her ankle boot resting in Ethan’s leg space, her right thigh and calf flush with his left.
He had offered to let her sit on the passenger side while he took the middle—despite his reticence to receive a front-row seat to Norman’s tales, he wasn’t a total cretin—but she had insisted.
The drive was almost exactly as short as Julia had said—maybe five minutes with traffic lights—and before he knew it, they had arrived.
As they all piled out and said their thank-yous and goodbyes, Ethan turned around just in time to see Julia still struggling to get out of the truck, the height making it difficult to maneuver with her leg.
“Oh, shit, here—”
He reached out to help her, but Noah got there first, placing his hands around Julia’s waist and effortlessly lifting her from the cab of the truck before placing her gently onto the pavement.
“Er, thank you,” Julia said, her cheeks reddening as she smoothed down her shirt where Noah’s hands had been. “You didn’t have to—”
“My pleasure,” Noah said, flashing her a sparkling-white million-dollar smile before turning and putting his arm around Katy. “All right, let’s Hallmark this bitch up.”
“Hallmark…this…?” Ethan trailed off, dumbfounded at Noah’s expression and also a bit salty about the way he’d just manhandled Julia.
Ethan might not have any claim on her anymore, but he felt almost protective—no, he felt really protective.
That feeling had clearly not abated despite the years between seeing each other.
And seeing Noah touch her like that soured his mood quickly and effectively.
“We won’t be Hallmarking any bitches,” he said eventually, tone flat and unamused, “but we will be exploring the town, going into shops, and generally making ourselves look cute and affectionate with one another.” Catching the look all three of them gave him, he hastily added, “You two. You two making yourselves look cute and affectionate with each other. And we’re going to ensure a few pictures leak, just enough to trigger people’s interest in what’s happening. ”
“Isn’t it going to be so obvious, though, if a PR firm posts them?” Julia asked dryly, though her tone seemed more amused by all of this than his.
“Not a PR firm, my innocent, chronically offline observer,” he said, feeling himself slowly transition back into professional Ethan, whose focus was the job and the job alone, in conjunction with a dry, cutting wit that he liked to amuse himself with, “but social media plants.”
“Plants…?” She looked confused now, as though unsure if she was catching his meaning of the word.
“Yeah, plants. Like Maria from Rochester, who frequents certain pop culture subreddits, including a fan page for our friend Noah over here. Just a few posts here and there, but enough to be taken seriously.” Julia deduced that he was making references to some type of social media site, but couldn’t for the life of her say which one.
“And she’s about to see them walking through that candle shop over there”—he gestured down the main street, since he knew there was a candle shop somewhere—“sniffing candles and talking about getting a ‘new place’ together. And she’s going to take that picture, and she’s going to post it, and then our bots are going to upvote the shit out of it, and hopefully someone who’s an actual, real person will catch it, and they’ll post it somewhere else, and it’s off to the races. ”
Julia looked at him incredulously, mouth agape. “And where is this Maria…?”
“Oh, Maria’s not real.” Katy let out her tinkling laugh, jumping into the conversation.
“That’s what he’s saying. Social media plant.
Maria is Ethan, or one of his lackeys. Being sent the picture, writing the post. Doing that for every celebrity couple or news story that needs attention that day. Maria is the job.”
It was silent for a few beats while Julia processed all of this. Then: “That’s demented.”
“That’s showbiz, baby,” Ethan quipped, the words coming out in a humorless monotone, without any of the jazzy inflection that phrase usually warranted. “Okay, you two.” He gestured to Noah and Katy. “Let’s go break the internet.”
* * *
After about an hour wandering down Main Street in Highbury Hollow, Ethan had to admit it wasn’t as bad as he’d braced himself for.
He’d worried that without the careful artifice of a film set—no glossy Christmas garlands, no curated window displays—it would be difficult to find the right kind of small-town charm for his shots.
But there it was, in the uneven sidewalks, the antique lampposts, the worn-in shop fronts that seemed to hum with memory.
After all these years, it felt like stepping back in time, the memories coming with an old, familiar ache in his chest.
Highbury Hollow had been the backdrop of so many of his childhood summers, his time with Julia.
He knew he had to capture it honestly, without slickness or pretense, without looking like he’d snapped it with a telephoto lens from another county, so that maybe someone else could see what he was remembering, too.
He looked down at Julia, hobbling along beside him, looking to be in relatively good spirits as she took in the sights and sounds of the town on the crisp fall day.
Her dark blonde waves blew back from her face in a moderate tumble from an errant wind, exposing her high cheekbones and the delicate line of her neck.
He was once again struck by the thought of how fragile she looked.
Her complexion was not as sun-kissed as it had once been, the wanness of her face emphasized by the darker tone of her hair, and those dark circles under her eyes made the stormy blue of her irises appear more prevalent.
He knew he was in no position to worry about her anymore, but damn it, he still did.
His heart juddered again, pesky and admonishing all at once. It felt like his fault, somehow, this state she was in. Not just somehow—it was. He knew it was. And he wished there were something he could do to erase the past, but he just didn’t know—
“Hot chocolate!”
Katy’s elated shout came from a few yards ahead of them.
Ethan watched like an ultra-observant movie director as Katy and Noah approached the vendor, an unfamiliar character in this town where Ethan was merely a guest, waiting to see both how they acted and also how the hot chocolate seller reacted to seeing two famous movie stars at his tiny stand.
Although friendly, he didn’t appear overly awestruck, taking their orders and their money and offering them their warm, chocolatey drinks in return.
His eyes wandered around as he counted their change, the way they would had he been helping any other person on the street, with that polite, customer-service gaze that avoided maintaining constant, uncomfortable eye contact for the duration of the exchange.
As the vendor’s eyes swept over them, they snagged on Ethan and Julia, a few paces behind, and a genuine smile broke out on his face.
He looked more excited to see Julia than he was to serve the two celebrities in his midst. He raised a hand to wave, and she waved back, a return smile on her face.
Katy and Noah turned to glance over their shoulders, and Ethan took the opportunity to snap a quick shot with his phone, knowing the quality would more than suffice and also add to the natural look he was going for.
He took a few more, then immediately scrolled through to study the images, satisfied with the level of candidness they exuded.
In one of the shots, Katy was looking back at them, but her gaze was directed away from the camera, and Noah, in the act of turning back around, appeared to be looking right at Katy.
Perfect.
The two movie stars continued to walk, virtually unnoticed by the moderate-size crowd in the square, and Ethan rethought his earlier concerns around crowd control.
As they passed by the same hot chocolate vendor that Katy and Noah had just visited, he watched as Julia and the owner exchanged pleasantries.
“Hot chocolate?” Ethan asked quietly, looking down at her before they fully passed the stand. She glanced up at him, surprised, as though she’d forgotten he was even there.
“Oh—no, that’s okay.” She gave him a smile that didn’t reach her eyes, and he found himself hating, for the millionth time, this fake version of her that he was getting now.
“Really? Why not? I insist.” He turned to who he presumed was the owner.
“What do you recommend?” The words were out before he realized that the stand only had a single offering on the menu: hot chocolate.
The only additional item was whipped cream, which could be added to said hot chocolate for a fee.
Which must have been why the man looked at him, nonplussed, before responding, “The hot chocolate?”
“Perfect! I’ll take two of those.” Ethan pulled out his wallet to pay. “Whipped cream?” he asked Julia before looking for somewhere to tap his credit card.
“Aren’t you going to follow your babysitting charges?” she asked dryly, gesturing toward Noah’s and Katy’s disappearing forms. “Or at least learn how to read?” She leaned forward and tapped the sign on the counter that said Cash Only, and Ethan looked at the vendor, who shrugged apologetically.
“Crap—” Did he have cash? Who carried cash?
Rolling her eyes so far back it could be considered a seismic event, Julia shouldered past him.
“I got it.”