“Could you domea favor?” I asked.
“Sure. What is it?”
“Have fun tonight.” I gave her a warm smile. “You deserve it.”
She returned my smile. “So do you. See you later.”
Ninety seconds later, I heard a car driving away. A car that didn’t sound like it was on the edge of a breakdown, fortunately.
But that meant it was just me, Brady, Cole, and Gideon for the rest of the afternoon and the evening.
I couldn’t even begin to imagine all the things that could go wrong with that setup.
24
LILA
Tap. Tap. Tap.
It was a half an hour after Penny left, and even though I probably could’ve slipped into her room and used her laptop, I was back at the typewriter again.
After my conversation with Penny yesterday, I’d been thinking about some new directions to take my brand. Now, for some reason, I was trying to type up my plans on this ancient machine.
Why?
I wasn’t exactly sure. Maybe because it was slow going. Each key depressed much further than a laptop key. I had to type slowly and carefully, and that gave me time to think.
“Hey there.”
I jumped when I heard a voice behind me and then relaxed when I realized it was Brady.
He put his hand on my shoulder and gave me a smile. “You’re getting good at that. And now I know what to get you for Christmas.”
I laughed and advanced the paper so that I could eventually pluck it out of the machine. “I don't know why, but I like it.”
He clucked his tongue. “Lila James, going for the low-tech option voluntarily. Who would’ve thought?”
“It does seem rather unlikely. Anyway, what’s up?”
“We thought we could shoot some video this afternoon.”
I frowned. “Penny’s not here.”
“And that would be a problem if she were the only one who knew how to use a camera phone.” I rolled my eyes for form, but he did have a point. “Besides, I thought we could mostly do some live streams.”
“We?” Usually, when I recorded live it was just me.
“If you trust us to be on our best behavior,” Brady said.
Except for the occasional cameo, the last time we’d all live streamed together was the day of the fake massage. But I did trust them, or at least I trusted Brady. I put my hand on his as I looked up at him. “My audience might be disappointed if you all behaved too well.”
He grinned. “Trust me, despite our best intentions, I doubt there’s much danger of that. Come on, the guys are waiting downstairs.”
For the rest of the afternoon, we broadcast a series of live streams based around a common theme: competition. I played pool against Cole. Darts against Gideon.
And Brady and I participated in a very bizarre and an extremely loud competition out in the old smokehouse they were fixing up. It involved seeing who could hammer a nail into a board the quickest. Spoiler alert: Brady could. But I wiped the floor with the other two in pool and in darts.
All in all, it was a surprisingly fun afternoon. I was even polite with Gideon, and he with me—either on his own accord or because Brady had told him to be.