“Don’t apologize for loving me,” Elle whispered.
“I have to.” Troy shook his head. “I pushed too hard. I didn’t want to see the truth.”
Elle placed her hand on Troy’s cheek, brushing his olive skin with the tips of her fingers. “But you loved me just the same. Don’t apologize for that. I’m honored that you loved me, Troy. Honored.”
Troy cupped her face with his hands, and placed a gentle kiss on her lips. The last kiss they would ever share.
“Should I take you home?”
“After the song ends, okay? I want one last dance with you.”
And there, under the twinkling lights hanging above the dance floor, Elle and Troy finished the song, holding one another close, purging themselves of their mistakes, their anger, their pain.
And it was there, under those lights, that Elle was finally free.
Elle watched from her front porch as Troy climbed into his car and backed out of her driveway. She clutched her Golden Globe. The award was much heavier than she’d anticipated, just like the night on which she’d won it. The idea of never seeing Troy Saladino again was a painful one, but she knew a friendship couldn’t be forced. He needed to heal and move on. And so did she.
Elle watched his car’s taillights as they drifted away from her house. Quickly, she unlocked her door, placing the Globe on her mantel. Poor Linus was begging to go outside, so she slid open her back door, allowing him relief. She sent Luke a text while she waited.
By the time she changed out of her gown, and wrangled her warmest coat and favorite pair of fuzzy boots, there was still no text from Luke. She sent another.
When she reached her car, she checked her phone again. No replies. She drove to Luke’s new home in the Pacific Palisades. She rang his doorbell five times.
“Come on,” she muttered. “Be home, be home.”
Finally, after the sixth ring, she accepted he wasn’t. Suppressing the questions popping up in her brain wondering where he was, she opened his gate and retreated to his deck, making herself comfortable on the hammock until he returned.
The stars were bright, and as she stared up at the vast sky she continued to text the man she was crazy for, hoping he’d respond, hoping he’d come home, hoping she’d figure out the perfect thing to say to reclaim his love.
“Elle?” The bright sunlight pierced her eyelids as a warm hand pressed her cheek. The distinct smell of coffee permeated her senses. “Elle, baby, what are you doing here?”
Groggy and cold, Elle opened her eyes, blinking roughly at the merciless sun as it streamed down from the cloudless morning sky.
Then she remembered where she was. The memories came together like a brightly colored mosaic and she remembered everything. Now Luke was greeting her with a cup of coffee in hand and a worried expression affixed to his chiseled face. He perched himself next to her on the makeshift bed, sweat dripping from his brow. He must’ve just finished his morning run along the beach.
“I—I came to see you, after the party. I must’ve fallen asleep.”
“Did you ring the bell? I was here.” Luke’s brow wrinkled as she studied him.
“Yes, many times.” Elle rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand and yawned. “Where were you?”
“Sorry, I guess I was out like a light. Or my ears were still ringing and couldn’t process the sound waves.” Luke chuckled and ran his fingers through his wavy locks as the morning breeze fought to press his unruly hair to his forehead. “Are you all right? Did something happen?”
“I—I’m fine.” Elle gripped the hammock with her hands, swinging her legs to land on the wooden deck. She was now sitting shoulder to shoulder with Luke and her heart began to pound. She couldn’t ignore the voice screaming it was too late. That voice poisoned her past with Troy. She was constantly questioning herself and acting out of fear. She couldn’t do that with Luke and was determined to finally silence that horrible voice for good. She breathed in, preparing to profess her love to Luke. She also knew he deserved a sincere apology for the way she had handled herself since Troy reentered her life.
“Coffee?” Luke offered her his cup. Elle took a sip of the steaming, slightly bitter yet sweet drink of the gods. She closed her eyes and enjoyed the soothing sip, knowing it would help her to organize her thoughts properly. She stole one last sip before handing the cup back to Luke.
“I said good-bye to him,” Elle said, searching Luke’s expression for a response, but his face was guarded. Elle knew she needed to elaborate. “For good.”
The corner of his mouth perked into a half smile. “Is that so?”
“Yes. This is where I belong.”
Luke’s furrowed brow returned, causing a crease to form above his nose. Elle hated that she’d put him through so much with her indecision.
“At first, when you didn’t answer your door, my gut reaction was to go home, to chicken out, to sleep it off and see you at work. But then I remembered what you said.”
Luke licked his lips. “About what?”
“This hammock. You and me on this hammock—this is what’s real, this is what’s true.”
Luke ran his fingers through her wild, disheveled hair. “I did say that, didn’t I?”
“And suddenly, there was nowhere else I could handle being. I had to be here . . . right here, in this spot.”
“Well, that’s nice.” Luke’s lack of expression was worrying Elle. He promised he’d fight for her and she hoped he still would.
“I couldn’t see it then.” Elle, filled with anxiety, rubbed her legs with her palms as she spoke. “I mean, I wanted to, but something held me back. Does that make any sense?”
“You didn’t trust me,” Luke said softly.
“I was an idiot. Deep down, I knew you were telling the truth, I just . . .”
Her words trailed off as she watched Luke scratch the back of his neck. She was messing this up completely. She needed to be bold, daring. She needed to prove herself to him once and for all.
“If this is going to work, you’ll have to trust me, Elle.”
“I know. I promise. I let my past dictate how I treated you and that will never happen again.” Elle peered into Luke’s eyes, but he had broken their eye contact and was looking down at her lap. “Luke? What’s wrong?”
He said nothing in response. In fact, he was blatantly ignoring her as he took her hand in his. He squeezed her fingertips in his grip, and just as he did months ago on their very first date, he raised it to his lips and placed a kiss inside her palm.
“Forgiven,” he said.
Stunned, Elle lost her breath as she stared into the eyes of the man she loved. She couldn’t believe how forgiving, how trusting Luke Kingston was. And despite knowing he was sincere in his sentiment, she still had so much to say.
“I mean, I was insecure, confused. I didn’t know what the hell I was thinking half the time, and—”
Luke laughed, taking her chin between his fingertips. “Elle, did you hear me? It’s all in the past.”
“As simple as that? I was horrible to you, Luke.”
“Horrible? Far from it.” He brushed her bangs from her eyes. “You never expected to see him again, especially just as we were getting to know each other. You didn’t plan any of this, you just did the best with the cards you’d been dealt. And I’m glad you took the time to figure this out. You were drowning.”
“I was?”
“Your entire life—your career, the show, it was all based on the hell you went through. It was your story, Elle.”
“Was,” Elle said with newfound confidence. “It was my story.”
“Exactly.” Luke wrapped his arms around Elle, pulling her close.
“Thanks for not giving up on me. When I thought you had, it crushed me.”
“It crushed me, too.”
“There’s more, though. There’s more you need to know.”
Luke shifted his body to face Elle on the hammock. He rubbed her back with his hand and she sighed
at his gentle touch.
“I never slept with Troy.” Elle quickly caught her poor choice of words. “I mean, since he came back into my life.”
Luke shook his head, closing his eyes and holding his hand out in front of him as if to stop her. “That’s not my business. You’re a grown woman, and we weren’t exclusive. It’s fine, really.”
“No, you need to hear me because it’s the truth. We were taking it slow. We’d get close to it, and then I couldn’t go through with it. My feelings for you kept me from being completely intimate with him.”
Luke bit down on his lower lip before giving Elle a coy smile. “So . . . these feelings you mentioned.”
Elle returned the smile, realizing she hadn’t yet said the words. Weeks ago, he told her in this exact spot how he felt. But Elle hadn’t reciprocated the words. Not exactly. She’d held back. But Elle was done holding back her feelings for Luke.
“I’m in love with you, Luke. Only you.”
For just a moment, they were quiet before Luke pulled her in for a kiss. His strong lips brushed against hers with an urgency that drove her wild. “Only you.” She whispered it again and again between each kiss.
“And I love you. I’ve loved you since the moment we first met.”
“You have?”
“Mmm-hmm. I told you, I’ve never felt like this before. And when you experience something at thirty-five years old that you’ve never felt before, you know it’s time to pay attention. I’ve never stopped paying attention to how you make me feel.”
“And you fought for me,” Elle murmured with a smile. “I’m sorry I didn’t do the same.”
Luke recoiled, placing his hands on her thighs. “Sure you did.”
Elle scanned her memories, looking for a time when she’d fought for Luke, but she came up short. Clearly, he was just giving her the benefit of the doubt.
“I seem to remember a very hot session in my dressing room where you took what you wanted.”
“That was just jealousy.” Elle shrugged it off.
“I disagree. Every time you would get upset, every time you came crashing into my dressing room demanding answers over Paris Hilton or my supposed showmance with Gina, you were fighting for me, Elle. For us.”
“Perez.”
“Hmm?”
“Perez Hilton.”
“Oh, that’s right.” He chuckled, rising to his feet and pulling her with him. “What did I say again?”
“It doesn’t matter,” she said with a smile.
“The point is, we fought for each other—both of us. And it all worked out, didn’t it?”
“Focus on the good,” she repeated his words from backstage the night before, “and everything will work itself out.”
“Exactly.”
And just as he did the night before, he grabbed her by the waist and lifted her into the air. The California breeze danced in her hair as he spun her around the deck. And for the very first time, she let go of his shoulders, and her arms reached toward the clouds. She was letting go, learning to be free, and enjoying every second with the man she loved so very much.
Luke returned her to the deck, placing a kiss on her forehead. And then, without warning, he stripped himself of his shirt and shorts, tossing them onto the hammock.
Elle scanned the neighbors’ houses, wondering if anyone could see her naked boyfriend. “What are you doing?”
Luke wiggled his eyebrows. “C’mon. Let’s go for a swim.”
SEVEN MONTHS LATER . . .
Elle relaxed into the cool leather of the limousine seat, her hands interlocked with Luke’s. His foot was tapping relentlessly against the floor of the car and he was fixing his bow tie . . . again.
“First nominations can be nerve-racking. But you’ve got this in the bag. You have to know that.”
Luke grunted in response and Elle couldn’t help but giggle.
It was Luke’s first time attending the Primetime Emmy Awards, and unlike at the Golden Globes, they were proudly attending this show together. Follow the Sun was nominated for Best Drama Series, and Luke was nominated for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series. Elle couldn’t help but celebrate when Gina failed to receive a nomination. It was business as usual at the studio, only now Luke and Elle were able to ignore Gina and her antics, knowing she was a severely unhappy person who was going to ride out her contract.
“Easy for you to say, Miss Golden Globe winner.” Luke smiled, wiping his brow. “I bet next year, you’ll be nominated for both shows.”
“That would be incredible, wouldn’t it?”
Once the filming of season four had wrapped, Elle quickly started writing her new show, Give Me Shelter, a drama revolving around a woman in the witness protection program, struggling to make a new life for herself. Whitney was recruited for casting, and a pilot was shot. During that time, Luke was filming an independent movie in Vancouver. Elle split her time between California and Canada. It was exciting for her to sit on the sidelines, watching Luke portray a character who was nothing like David McKenzie. He pushed his limits with the role, pouring himself into the character, and the result was phenomenal. Yes, Elle was biased, but she watched in awe as Luke dazzled his director and fellow cast mates with his talent. The film was still in the editing process, but Elle was confident it would garner him much-deserved attention.
And now, it was the end of August and they were just minutes away from arriving at the Nokia Theatre. And because she’d never seen him like this, Elle was starting to worry about Luke’s nervous state.
His cheeks were flushed, his palms were sweaty, and he wouldn’t make eye contact with her. Granted, they hadn’t attended the Globes together, but she couldn’t imagine he had been this nervous. Something was wrong.
“Are you feeling okay? You look like you’re coming down with something.” Elle shifted in her seat, pressing the back of her hand to his forehead. He felt warm, but not feverish, which left her even more confused.
Luke shook his head abruptly. “No, I—I’m great. Better than great, actually.”
Elle shifted in her seat and her chiffon dress, the color of daffodils, tickled her knees as she moved. “Maybe you need a drink. The driver said there’s champagne in the fridge.”
“I know. I ordered it.”
“So have a glass.”
Luke shook his head, clearing his throat. “No, I ordered it for a reason.”
Elle tilted her head in confusion, placing her hand on Luke’s thigh. “What are you talking about?”
“To celebrate.”
“Feeling awfully confident, huh?” Elle laughed. She wished she could join in his confidence regarding their chances at a win. “That was a quick change. Two minutes ago, you looked like you might puke.”
“No,” Luke said with a laugh. “I mean, yes. But . . . aw, hell. Here goes . . .” He turned his body to face Elle and then continued. “I’ve revised my five-year plan.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I can’t wait that long.” Luke pursed his lips and shook his head. “I want you to have this now.”
Elle watched as Luke reached into his pocket, removing a small velvet box. Butterflies swarmed her belly as she looked at the box, then into Luke’s beaming eyes, then back again at the box. “Oh my God, Luke!”
Luke slipped off the leather seat, kneeling in front of Elle with the box perched in his hands. “When you asked about where I see myself in five years, what did I say?”
“You saw yourself with me.” Her breath caught as she remembered that night on the hammock. “With a ring on my finger and a baby in my belly.”
“Exactly.” He opened the box to reveal an exquisite solitary diamond on a platinum band. He removed the ring from its velvet case. “My beautiful Elle, I’ve waited thirty-five years to feel this way about another person. To feel like I can’t breathe without you near me. To feel like I’d do anything in the world to make you smile, to make you feel happy, content and loved. Yes, we’re very different,
and of course we don’t always see things the same way, but we strengthen one another, we make each other better people.”
“Yin and yang.”
“Yes,” Luke agreed. “Exactly.”
“I feel the same way about you, Luke. I love you so much.”
“Then I have something very important to ask you.”
“Okay.” Elle sniffed. “I’m ready.”
Luke laughed, his eyes watering and beaming with pride. “I want to spend the rest of my life with you, Elle Riley. Will you please wear my ring, be my wife, and make my life complete?”
“Yes!” Elle shrieked inside the limousine, holding out her trembling hand. Luke slid the ring on her finger before taking her hand in his and kissing the inside of her palm. Elle sank to her knees opposite Luke, and wrapped her arms around his shoulders.
“I love you, Luke,” she whispered through her tears. “Only you.”
They remained on their knees, locked in a comforting embrace, as the limousine came to a stop in front of the theater.
“Are you ready for this?” Luke asked, wiping the moisture from her cheeks just as the door to the car was opened.
“Let’s do it.”
Luke took her hand and guided her out of the limousine. Hand in hand, they walked the red carpet, smiling for the flashing cameras and stopping to give brief interviews. Just as they were about to enter the theater, Luke turned to Elle.
“Are you sure you wanna go in there? I mean, we could just jump back in the limo and celebrate in style.”
“Don’t be silly. I don’t want to miss your first win.”
“I’ve already won, Elle.” Luke kissed her, the red carpet beneath their feet. “I’ve already won.”
Acknowledgments
Thank you so much to my editor, Maria Gomez, for believing in this story from the very start and for all of your support during the writing and editing process. I feel so lucky to work with you!
Red Carpet Kiss Page 27