Chapter 4 Summary: Key Plot Points, Character Moments, and Discussion Questions

⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.

Summary

The chapter opens with Fox reflecting on the weeks since his intervention with Brendan. He has spent much of that time out on the water, trying to clear his head about Hannah's upcoming stay. He tells himself it will be no problem—she'll sleep in the guest room, he'll be in the other room, with no expectation of sex. But he admits to himself that casual sex was easier than this.

Fox's thoughts drift to his past. His one serious relationship in college had only been serious to him; his girlfriend saw it differently. He learned the hard way that he couldn't escape the assumptions people made about him—that he was temporary entertainment. Growing up, he'd ached to escape his town and the role his face and actions had carved out for him, but those expectations followed him everywhere. So he stopped trying. His philosophy became: if you're laughing with them, they can't laugh at you.

As Fox walks Hannah toward his apartment, he's painfully aware of the townspeople watching from Blow the Man Down, the local bar. He can practically hear the stools swiveling, the jokes being made, the speculation. He knows he can't blame them—most of the time, he's the one making jokes about himself. He feels like the Big Bad Wolf escorting Little Red Riding Hood across the street.

When they stop at his building, Fox notices Hannah glancing back, hoping to catch a glimpse of her director, Sergei. Fox admits he's never been jealous over a girl before—except for this one. When he'd seen Sergei bundling Hannah down the bus stairs, his first impulse had been to break the guy's nose. He tries to rationalize it as friendly jealousy, since Hannah is his first female friend. He feels like a scale with hope on one side and fear on the other: hope that he could be more than a hookup to her, fear that he'd fail and be exposed.

Inside his apartment, Hannah teases him about hiding his Baywatch posters. Fox asks what's bothering her, and she deflects with the head-injury joke, but he insists that's not what's bugging her. He lifts her onto the kitchen counter and retrieves his blue metal first-aid kit. As he cleans the cut on her forehead with antiseptic, he distracts himself by asking about the soundtrack opportunity.

Hannah explains that she's essentially a glorified serf at the production company—when a task arises and no one wants to do it, they summon her. She wanted to learn the industry and work her way up on her own merit. She'd been about to ask Sergei and Brinley if she could observe the soundtrack process when she fell and hit her head. She wonders if it was a sign she's not ready. Fox insists she was born ready for making soundtracks, citing their seven months of text messages as proof.

Hannah then reveals her deeper insecurity. She describes Brinley, the music coordinator, as a