Chapter 26

The sound of keys rattling in my front door barely registered at first. I was warm, too warm, tangled in the cocoon of my sheets and the steady weight of Rowan pressed against me. Her arm had found its way around my waist sometime in the night, her face nestled into the crook of my shoulder.

The door clicked open.

“Celeste?” Simone’s voice rang out, bright and unmistakable.

My eyes shot open. Shit.

Before I could move, Simone’s footsteps padded down the hall.

“Celeste, it’s me your manager called, said you seemed… off, and ” Her words cut off as she stepped into my bedroom doorway.

I froze. Rowan stirred beside me, her lashes fluttering as she blinked awake, confusion melting into realization the second she saw Simone standing there.

Simone’s gaze ping-ponged between us the tousled sheets, Rowan’s hoodie, my wild bed hair. Her brows climbed toward her hairline.

“Well,” Simone said finally, her voice dripping with dramatic pause. “Care to explain?”

I bolted upright, nearly sending Rowan tumbling off the bed in my haste. “Simone it’s not what it looks like!”

Rowan pushed herself up slowly, rubbing her eyes, but she didn’t bother pretending she wasn’t exactly where she was. “Morning,” she mumbled, still half-asleep, which did not help.

“Morning?!” Simone threw her hands in the air. “Oh my god, Celeste.”

“Nothing happened,” I said quickly, my cheeks burning hot. “Seriously. We just… we couldn’t sleep after yesterday. That’s it.”

Simone’s eyes narrowed, skeptical and entertained all at once. “So, let me get this straight you two, who can’t stop looking at each other on set, ended up in the same bed, cuddling ” she gestured broadly, “because you couldn’t sleep?”

“Yes!” I insisted. “Exactly.”

Rowan lifted her hands in mock surrender, her voice calm but certain. “It’s the truth. No lines were crossed. Not last night.”

Simone arched a brow, lips twitching with a smirk. “Mm-hm. And I’m supposed to just… believe that?”

“Yes!” Rowan and I said at the same time.

The silence stretched, thick with Simone’s disbelief. Then, slowly, her smirk widened into something wicked.

“Oh, this is so good,” she said, already fishing her phone out of her pocket. “I can’t wait to tell Lila and Naomi.”

“Simone!” I groaned, burying my face in my hands.

Rowan chuckled beside me, low and warm, like she wasn’t the least bit rattled. “Guess the secret’s out.”

Simone tucked her phone away, shaking her head like she’d had her fun. Then her expression softened, her voice quieter. “But seriously… are you guys okay? I mean you kind of had to be pulled out of it yesterday. It was… intense.”

I looked at Rowan. She looked back at me. For once, the answer was easy, unpracticed.

“Yes,” we said in unison.

I added softly, “Last night helped… it separated the two. Work and… us.”

Rowan nodded, backing me up without hesitation. “She’s right. We’re good.”

Simone studied us for a beat, then finally smiled, real and reassuring. “Good. Because whatever this is, it’s working—for the film and for you. Just… don’t lose yourselves in it, okay?”

I nodded, grateful, though the weight in my chest told me it wasn’t going to be that simple.

By the time I walked onto set that afternoon, I could already feel it. The air was different.

Not from the crew everyone else was running cables, checking lights, setting props like any other day. It was from across the room, where Lila and Naomi sat with Simone, the three of them pretending to be casual as hell while obviously waiting for me.

Simone’s grin gave it away first. Naomi’s arched brow was a close second. And Lila? Lila didn’t even try to hide the protective storm brewing in her eyes.

I sighed, adjusting the lapel of my suit jacket. Here we go.

They didn’t wait long.

I slipped behind a set wall where they’d camped out, hoping to escape crew ears. Lila leaned in close, her voice dropping to a sharp whisper meant only for me.

“Celeste,” she hissed, “care to explain why Simone had to call us last night and then this morning she casually drops oh, by the way, I found Celeste cuddled in bed with Rowan Hart?”

Heat flooded my cheeks. At least no one else had heard.

Simone was already smirking. “Don’t look at me like that I said I’d tell them. And I did give you a chance to come clean first.”

Naomi sipped her tea calmly, but her eyes never left me. “So… was it just cuddling?”

“Yes!” I said, maybe too fast, too loud. “God, yes. We didn’t… it wasn’t like that. We just couldn’t sleep. That’s all.”

Lila folded her arms, still whispering low. “In bed, Celeste. That’s not nothing.”

“Lila,” I warned under my breath, my face hot.

She lifted her hands in mock surrender, but the look in her eyes told me she wasn’t letting this go anytime soon.

From across the stage, Rowan appeared already in wardrobe, her hair slicked back, her expression unreadable. She spotted us instantly, her gaze flicking from me to the trio and back again.

Simone leaned toward Naomi, grinning. “Called it. She’s got it bad.”

Naomi’s lips twitched, amused. “Both of them do.”

I groaned, dragging a hand down my face. “Can we not do this right before we shoot?”

But Rowan was already heading over, script tucked under her arm, that faint half-smile tugging at her lips like she knew exactly what was going on.

Rowan didn’t slow her pace. She walked straight into the middle of our little huddle like she belonged there, the kind of presence that drew attention without her even trying.

“Morning,” she said evenly, her voice low but firm. Her eyes swept over the three of them before settling squarely on me. “Everything okay here?”

Lila stiffened instantly, her protective instinct kicking in like a reflex. She glanced at me, then back at Rowan, her voice a whisper meant for our circle only. “We’re fine. Just… asking Celeste a few questions.”

Simone grinned, unbothered. “Translation: we were grilling her.”

Naomi added calmly, “We just want to make sure she’s okay. Yesterday was… a lot.”

Rowan tilted her head, unreadable. “Fair.” Then her eyes flicked back to me, steady, grounding. “But for the record Celeste doesn’t have to answer for me. Nothing happened last night except two people who couldn’t sleep, and I don’t think that’s a crime.”

My heart jolted. I hadn’t expected her to cut straight to it.

Simone, ever the instigator, smirked wider. “So you were in bed together.”

Rowan didn’t flinch. “Yes.” She said it so simply, so directly, that even Lila blinked. “And yes, it was just sleep. If it was anything more, I promise you’d already know.”

Her words were calm, but her eyes never left mine. It wasn’t a dare. It was reassurance directed only at me, even though she was answering them.

Lila looked between us, her whisper sharp again. “You two are playing with fire.”

Rowan finally allowed the faintest smile, a flicker of amusement breaking through her composure. “Maybe. But I’ve been in worse fires.”

The silence after that was heavy, all three of my friends watching us like hawks, waiting for me to say something, do something, prove something.

I swallowed hard, trying to breathe past the weight of it all. “We’re fine,” I said at last, steadying my voice. “We’re both fine.”

Rowan gave the smallest nod, as if that sealed it. She glanced at the crew moving around us, then back at me, her voice low. “You ready to work?”

I nodded, pulse racing. “Yeah. I’m ready.”

Her gaze lingered a second longer before she turned toward the set, leaving the four of us in her wake.

Simone leaned in the second Rowan was out of earshot. “Okay… tell me I wasn’t the only one who saw that.”

Lila groaned under her breath. Naomi just hummed. And me? My knees still felt like they’d forgotten how to hold me up.