Sweet Little Lies: An LA Candy Novel

Her mom was right—she did need a break from all this stuff. Five days in Cabo hadn’t done the trick, after all. Seeing her family was a lot harder than she thought it would be. Not to mention seeing them watch the show.

She hadn’t had much time to herself since driving up to Santa Barbara in the middle of the night two nights ago. Her parents had been so happy and relieved to see her, but they had a lot of questions: Was she okay? Where did she disappear to? Had any reporters followed her from L.A.? Later, after dinner (their family had a tradition of making a Swedish feast together on Christmas Eve, because her mom was half Swedish), her dad had called her aside and asked her if she was having second thoughts about being on the show. Jane hadn’t had a good answer. All she’d managed was, “I don’t know, Dad. Maybe?”

Which was the truth.

The second Jane got to her bedroom, she closed the door and flopped down on the bed, which she’d forgotten to make this morning. The breeze through the open window was pleasantly cool and carried with it the sounds of the surf outside. Her cell was on her nightstand, with a full mailbox. She used to love her phone; now she hated it. Over the last couple of days, she’d somehow managed to listen to all thirty-one messages that had accumulated during her time in Cabo, as well as a few more that she had received since then. They were basically variations on the same theme: her parents, Trevor, Fiona, Scar, and others asking her where she was and if she was okay and could she please call them immediately? There had been some messages from Diego among the bunch, saying he was so, so, so sorry that he hadn’t known about the photos of Jane and Braden being leaked to the magazine until it was too late. D worked as Veronica Bliss’s assistant at Gossip, and from the sound of it, she wasn’t a very nice boss. Or, Jane could now attest, a very nice person.

Reporters had called, too, offering her the chance to tell her side of the story. Yeah, right. Likely they just wanted to trick her into saying too much about Jesse and/ or Braden, then twisting her words and printing more crazy headlines.

In addition to her daily “where/how are you” messages, Scar left a few confusing ones about Madison. Jane remembered the note Scar had left at their apartment, saying, I have to talk to you about Madison ASAP. What was that about, anyway? Jane figured she would find out soon enough. She planned to return to L.A. the day after tomorrow. Maybe Scar would be back from Aspen by then, and they could talk in person? They were long overdue for a heart-to-heart.

There were no messages from Jesse. Or Braden. None. Jane had checked and double-checked, and bitten back her disappointment each time. Why hadn’t they tried to contact her? On the other hand, why was she so surprised?

She wasn’t sure how she felt about either guy these days. She missed Jesse, missed the way things were before everything fell apart. But she couldn’t deny that she was also attracted to Braden.

Not that she was in a position to choose one or the other. Jesse was likely never going to speak to her again. And Braden’s silence spoke volumes. He was a low-key person who valued his privacy. Why would he want to be friends with—much less date—a publicity magnet like her, especially after what had happened?

Jane glared at her phone. She knew she was being kinda (well, definitely) irresponsible, not returning anyone’s calls (although she had sent Scar that one text message). But she wasn’t ready. She would be soon. Just not today.

As if on cue, her phone began ringing. “Go away!” Jane said out loud, as she looked at the screen to see which friend, producer, boss, coworker, or reporter was hounding her now.

Jane stopped when she recognized the number, which was still familiar to her after seven months of not seeing it appear on her screen.

It was Caleb. Caleb Hunt.

Caleb had been her first love and her first real boyfriend. They’d dated for a couple of years in high school. When he left to go to Yale the summer before last, they’d decided to try a long-distance relationship. She had been fine with it. He hadn’t. At the end of his freshman year, he’d told her that he wanted to take a break. He’d spent the summer volunteering in New Orleans while she prepared to move to L.A. with Scar—and while she tried to get over him. Which hadn’t been easy, although meeting Braden, then Jesse, had certainly helped.

Jane hadn’t seen—or heard from—Caleb since their breakup back in May. Why was he calling her now?

Don’t pick up, Jane told herself. Just let it go to voice mail. But then she remembered her mailbox was full. She grabbed the phone on the fifth ring and pressed Talk. “Hello?”

“Janie?” Caleb was the only person who ever called her that, besides Scar. “Hey. Am I catching you at a bad time?”

“Oh, hi, Caleb,” Jane said casually. Although casual was the last thing she was feeling. The sound of his voice could still make her heart race, after all this time. “Nope, I’m just hanging out.”

“You home for the holidays?”

“Yeah. Are you?”

“For now. I’m leaving tomorrow morning for Vail, though.”

“Sounds fun.”

“Hope so. Listen, Janie,” Caleb said. “I’m calling because I’d heard some stuff, and I was worried about you. Are you doing okay?”

Jane realized that Caleb had seen the Gossip pictures. Along with everyone who had internet access or a TV set or who stood in grocery store checkout lines. “Oh, thanks, Caleb,” she said, meaning it. “Yeah, I’m doing okay.”

“You want me to beat anybody up?”

Jane laughed. “Yeah, maybe.”

“Just say the word.”

“Thanks. How’s Yale?”

There was a pause. “It’s…you know,” Caleb said after a moment.

What does that even mean? Jane thought.

“How’s Hollywood?” Caleb asked her.

“It’s…you know,” Jane mimicked him.

Caleb laughed. “Yeah, funny. So I guess you’re with this Braden guy now?”

Why was he asking her this? “No, we’re not together.”

“Oh. So you’re still with that Jesse guy?”

“Um, not exactly. It’s kinda complicated.”

“It always is with you, Roberts.”

“You seeing anybody?” Jane asked him, wondering why they were quizzing each other on their love lives.

“Not exactly. It’s kinda complicated.” This time Caleb was mimicking her.

“Ha, ha.”

Someone banged on her door. “Helllooooo?” It was Nora. “Everyone’s waiting for you! We’re gonna watch Twilight on Blu-ray!”

“Be there in a sec!” Jane called out. “I gotta go,” she said into the phone.

“Nora-Bora’s being a pain in the butt, huh?”

“Yeah, kinda. I haven’t seen them in a while.”

“No worries. I’ll talk to you soon, okay? Call me if you need anything. Merry Christmas, Janie.”

“Merry Christmas, Caleb.”

As Jane clicked off and put her phone back on her nightstand, she wondered about his parting words: I’ll talk to you soon. They hadn’t talked at all in seven whole months. Why would they be talking anytime soon? And why was she supposed to call him if she “needed anything”? Had something changed? Of course, she was on TV now, but Caleb didn’t care about that kind of stuff. He wasn’t the type to track down an old girlfriend for a chance to be closer to a so-called celebrity.

Forget “kinda complicated”; everything in Jane’s life was downright confusing.

8 YOU’RE TWO OF MY BEST FRIENDS (#ulink_b228925d-ab11-5db2-9e7e-6500f7037a0d)

Scarlett sat cross-legged on her bed, clicking through channels, wondering what to do with the rest of her evening. She’d always hated Sundays. Sundays meant weekend over, back to school, back to work. These days, Sundays also meant receiving the upcoming week’s shooting schedule from Dana. This week, Scarlett was scheduled to meet Gaby for lunch at La Crêperie…and at Kinara for a spa day…and at the Standard for a launch party for the Marley twins’ new perfume.