by Skye Jordan
Keaton’s mouth dropped open. “Holy shit.”
“And to show we’re committed, we have to pay half up front.”
“Oh my God, Brooke…” Keaton had no words.
“I almost have it saved. I’m really close. A couple more paychecks and we’ll have half. The rest can be paid over the course of the treatment, which will still make life tight for us. But after that year, Tammy will be out of school. She’ll get a well-paying job with benefits, and she’ll be able to stand on her own the rest of her life. She’ll be able to provide for Justin until he can provide for himself. But I have to get them there. And if that means putting up with Jillian twelve more months, then I cross every day off on a calendar with a big black sharpie and suck it up.”
“Jesus.” He exhaled the word and sagged on the bed until he pressed his forehead to her foot. “I can’t even imagine.”
“So, now you know why I did what I did today,” she said, her voice soft and sad. “And why we can’t keep seeing each other.”
He lifted his head. “What?”
“You’re right. If we keep doing this behind her back, Jillian will eventually figure it out. We should have ended things this morning anyway. It’s temporary, and our friendship—even if we only see each other occasionally—does mean a lot to me.”
“Whoa. Slow down. Back up.” His gut tightened. “When did we decide this was temporary?”
“What do you mean?” She stared at him with a confused look. “Temporary is all you do.”
He pushed upright. “That’s all I did.”
She shook her head. “Did you hear any of what I just said?”
“Did you just hear me say I don’t want to let you go?”
Anger and fear pushed his voice up a few octaves, and his words continued to ring in the silence. Their gazes held, and for the length of two extended heartbeats, Keaton wasn’t sure who was more stunned by his admission—Brooke or himself.
Fear burned a circuit through his body, then vanished, mellowing instantly into warmth. Yeah. He was sure. He pushed himself up and slid his hand around her neck. Her eyes were still shocked and now watering.
“Brooke, I didn’t mean to yell. I just… I’ve never, you know, done this before, so I’m probably not going to be very good at it for a while.”
She closed her eyes, and tears spilled over her lashes. Fucking perfect, he’d made her cry. But she leaned into him, pressed her face to his shoulder, and wrapped her arms around his neck. And now Keaton’s eyes stung. He pulled her onto his lap, rolling his eyes to the ceiling to banish the burn.
“Baby, you’re different. You’re special,” he said into her hair. “I care about you, and I don’t want to hurt either you or Justin. But, baby, I don’t want to just let you go without trying either.”
She sighed against his neck. Her body softened, and she melted against him. The feeling was so heavenly, Keaton moaned.
“How often do you get to Austin?” he asked her.
“This is our first trip.”
“Does Jillian have the next year scheduled yet?”
“Mostly.” She lifted her head and looked at him. Her dark lashes were clumped with wetness the way they had been in the shower and made her eyes look even bluer. “Where are you going to be?”
The fact that she asked shot a thrill through his heart. “Here until the other stunt guy comes back, then LA until they start filming here again, which will be about three months. In those three months, I’ll probably be working close to home. Then between here and LA for the following three to four months of filming. Rinse. Repeat.”
“I know Jillian’s going to be in LA a few times, but I’d have to look at her calendar to know when.” She sounded tired, but she was still talking. “I know we’re in Vegas in a few months. I think we’re filming somewhere in the Midwest in the winter…” She heaved a sigh, her shoulders sank, and she shook her head. “Keaton, this is so unrealistic…”
“Like you moving in with your sister and nephew, and paying all their bills to provide them with a place to live and the opportunity to live happy, successful lives? I bet that didn’t sound very realistic when the idea came up either. But I know you’re doing it, and I know it works. You don’t plan to do it long-term, right? But it works for now.”
When she didn’t argue, he said, “Tell me this.” He paused, mentally preparing himself for an answer he didn’t want to hear. “Do you care about me enough to want something beyond temporary?”
Her eyes fell closed in a look of pain, and Keaton’s protective wall started to crumble. But when she looked at him again, so much affection floated in her eyes, his heart flipped a somersault. “I have been crazy about you for a very, very long time There is nothing temporary about my feelings for you.”
That made Keaton’s lungs release a breath he hadn’t known he’d been holding. Made a shaky smile ease the tension in his face. Filled his chest with joy and sent a calming warmth into his belly. He gathered her close, and rocked her, releasing a relieved breath.
Then fell back on the bed with her, stroked her hair off her forehead, and kissed her. “Then let’s not worry about the rest right now.” He ran his fingers over her cheek, twined his legs with hers, and just enjoyed looking at her beautiful face without a stitch of makeup. So fresh and real and honest. “We’ll just have to manage as many rendezvous as necessary to keep us going until our situation changes.”
8
The parking lot’s disintegrating asphalt crunched beneath Brooke’s sandals as she crossed the yard housing the actors’ trailers.
She headed toward Jillian’s trailer with her cell at her ear, her sister’s groggy voice answering, “Hello.”
“Oh my God, I’m sorry,” Brooke said. “I didn’t realize you’d be sleeping. I’ll call back.”
“No, it’s fine.” Tammy yawned. “I was up with Justin. How’s the she-devil treating you?
“Same as always, but I have a little reprieve. She’s got meetings all morning.” Brooke glanced at her watch. She had at least three more hours before Jillian would be back. “I talked to Justin last night, and he sounded awful. That’s why I was calling. I wanted to find out what the doctors figured out. He told me they were changing his medications? Trying something new? But he couldn’t say what. Told me I had to ask you. And, God, Tammy, he sounded awful. It broke my heart to hear him like that again.”
“I know. It’s a hard transition.”
“Transition to what?”
“That’s the good news. I heard sooner than I expected. He was accepted into the first stage of the children’s program for the bronchial thermoplasty. In anticipation of that, the doctors changed his medication, and that always throws him.”
Brooke’s feet stopped dead in the shadow of the trailer. She gasped, and a balloon of excitement instantly filled her chest. “Oh my God. He got in? Tammy, that’s fantastic.” In the next breath, she said, “Why don’t you sound more excited?”
“Probably because I’m exhausted. And because when I looked over the final documentation for the study, I discovered just how strict the guidelines are. He has to pass every segment of the study to continue on and get all three procedures.”
When Tammy outlined all the hurdles, Brooke’s excitement waned a little too. “You medical people,” she teased. “You’re all Debbie Downers, you know that?”
Tammy laughed again. “More like Realist Rosies. It’s just part of the program—literally. And Justin’s been through so much already. I don’t want to get his hopes up with such high chances that he might not make it through—especially when he has no control over whether he makes it or doesn’t.”
“How frustrating,” Brooke said. “This is supposed to be exciting.”
“It is exciting. They’re only taking fifty kids into this study, so the fact that he got in is all very exciting.”
Brooke smiled and climbed the stairs to the trailer. “Yeah, I guess it is.”
She pulled the door open, took the l
ast two steps into the luxurious space—far nicer than the house Brooke rented with Tammy and Justin—and her gaze immediately drifted to a vase of vivid red roses on the granite counter in the kitchenette.
“Justin told me about the science fair project you helped him figure out,” Tammy said. “Thank you for doing that. You have been such a lifesaver this year. You know when you leave, he’s going to want to move with you, right? I think he’s forgotten which one of us is his mom.”
Brooke almost ignored the flowers but then saw a tall cardboard coffee cup and a pastry bag sitting in front of the crystal vase. Flowers for Jillian were common. Coffee and pastry were not. In fact, that was downright odd.
“Oh, stop. I’m the one who keeps leaving him for all these stupid trips. You’re the one who’s there with him every day. That’s what really matters.”
Brooke tucked the phone between her shoulder and cheek and peeked into the pastry bag. A note blocked the view of the pastry. She pulled it out, and even before she read the note, she recognized the handwriting from the night before when Keaton had scribbled on the Four Seasons tablet.
For an extra sweet start to your day.
Her heart swelled and ached. Brooke laughed softly. Extra was right. He’d already started her day off as sweetly as possible by showing her just how many different kinds of sex he specialized in, and made sweet love to her before he’d disappeared from her room at daybreak.
“Brooke?”
“Hmm?” she said, tuning in to her sister’s voice. “Listen, I’d better go. Lots of work to finish before the She Wolf returns to the den—”
“Not before you tell me about the stunt guy.”
Brooke froze and thought back, wondering if she’d said something aloud to tip Tammy off about Keaton. “Uuuuh…?”
“Man, your head is really somewhere else.” Tammy laughed. “The stunt guy you said Justin could call for help? He is so pumped over that. And I know you wouldn’t give him just anyone’s number, so what’s the scoop?”
Brooke slid the note into the pocket of her jean shorts, then leaned in to smell the roses. Their rich scent instantly improved her mood. “Do you remember that guy I told you about from LA?”
“The one who’s friends with Ellie’s guy. The one you were hoping to hook up with before you moved?”
Brooke had told her sister about Keaton months after her move during one of those late nights, long after Justin had fallen asleep and the two of them had polished off a bottle of wine.
“Yeah, him. He’s here. The project idea for Justin was actually his. So if Justin runs into problems, Keaton’s happy to talk him through as much as he can. And if Justin gets stuck with any programming problems, we’ve got Rubi on call.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Tammy said. “We’ll get to Rubi in a minute. Let’s go back to Keaton. What’s going on there?”
Brooke exhaled, nervous to talk about it, almost as if it would jinx their possibility at happiness. She also didn’t like having to put everything into concrete words, because then it all became so unrealistic again. “I’m not sure. We’re both interested, but there are a lot of roadblocks. The biggest of those right now being Jillian.”
“Jillian? How is that bitch a roadblock?”
Brooke winced and closed her eyes. “She slept with Keaton once upon a time.”
“Ew.”
“It was a long time ago.”
“Okay. I’ll give him a pass on one ding. How is that creating a problem now?”
“She still wants him.”
“God, that woman…” Tammy took an audible breath and let it out slowly. “Well, on the upside, that means he’s über hot, or she would pretend he doesn’t exist like she does with everyone she has no use for. But, yes, that could be a real problem.”
Brooke heard the underlying guilt in her sister’s voice and purposely forced herself to be positive. “But not your problem, because we’re handling it. Keaton and I are on the same page. He doesn’t want to do anything that could hurt Justin, so we’re keeping things between us quiet. And to be honest, Tammy, I don’t even really know what’s between us. He’s not a serious kind of guy, if you know what I mean. He’s always been a typical breed in this industry.”
“So were Jax and Wes and Troy—until they found the right woman. And not so typical if he’s willing to hide in the shadows to protect a kid he’s never met.”
That was a good point. “One day at a time,” Brooke told her sister. “Hug Justin for me, and keep me posted.”
“If you’ll give Keaton your all.”
Brooke grinned. “I’ll take that deal.”
Before she’d said good-bye, the door to the trailer swung open, and Jillian stepped in, startling Brooke. She turned her back on the flowers, coffee, and pastry with a streak of fear shooting up her spine.
“Oh my God, Jillian.” She pressed her phone to her heart, frowning at her boss’s sudden appearance. “What are you doing here? You should be in a meeting with Phil Shriver.”
“Phil canceled,” Jillian said, her distracted gaze roaming the space. “Something about a sick brat at home. And Copalli wants to add in a shoot this afternoon.”
Shit. Anxious to get her out of the trailer, Brooke turned her attention to her phone. “Let me call Jeannette and see when she and Percy can get you into hair and makeup—”
“The security guard said Keaton brought something in here earlier today
Fire filled Brooke’s belly. Her mouth fell open to lie, but Jillian took the last step into the trailer and Brooke knew she’d never be able to hide the gifts from her boss.
While Brooke was still trying to figure out how she was going to spin this, Jillian pointed at the table behind Brooke. “What’s that?”
Fuck.
Brooke pushed her mouth into a smile, stepped aside, and did her best Vanna White impression. “Your surprise.”
Jillian ’s eyes sparked to life. But as she approached the table her expression slowly soured. She propped a hand on her hip. “Is that it?”
“What do you mean?”
Jillian made an air circle around the gift. “That. Is that all he left?”
All? Brooke wasn’t sure if she wanted to laugh or slap Jillian. She shrugged. “I just got here.”
“Was there a card?”
“No. No card.”
Jillian pursed her lips in one of those how-disappointing expressions. “Men.” She shook her head. “Oh well. He’ll make up for it in bed. He always does.”
That grated along Brooke’s already exposed nerves. “Oh, yeah? I’ve never had a guy like that.”
At least not until Keaton. And she wondered for a distracted moment if she’d ever find another.
“Oh, honey.” She gave Brooke a condescending, pitying look. “They’re the only kind of guy worth spreading your legs for.”
The image of Jillian spreading her legs for Keaton made Brooke’s breakfast roll toward her throat. She shook it from her head and tapped into her phone. “If you say so. Let me give Jeannette a call—”
“I’ve already talked to her,” Jillian said. The edge in her voice exposed her annoyance with Brooke’s dismissal of a topic her boss obviously wasn’t done talking about. “Keaton may not look like much in the grubby clothes he wears on the set. But, oh”—her voice turned dreamy and dripped with lust—“that man is a dark Adonis in a tux. Hair cut and styled, clean-shaven, smiling, those perfect teeth contrasting against his skin , those dark eyes of his twinkling with mischief…”
Jillian put a hand over her abdomen and sighed a moan. “The man is irresistible.” She tilted her head and smiled at Brooke. “I may not be the only woman who thinks so, but I’m determined to be the woman keeping his off-hours occupied during the next eight weeks. I’ll have to talk to Copalli about holding him on the movie.” Her gaze went distant as she pulled the top off the coffee meant for Brooke and lifted it toward her mouth. “The real trick will be keeping the other sluts’ hands off him.”
&nb
sp; Brooke’s stomach twisted tighter. “You don’t think he can be a one-woman man?”
Jillian sipped from the coffee, made a disgusted face. “Godawful. That man is going to have to become my sexual slave to make up for this. She dumped the coffee in the sink, and Brooke fisted her hands in anger. “As for being a one-woman man, I couldn’t care less. I only want him to distract me during this shoot. Besides, he’s in his prime. And I mean prime. He’s young, he has plenty of money, no responsibilities, and an exciting career. He travels everywhere, rubs elbows with all the most famous and wealthy, and the most beautiful women all over the world want to sleep with him—because he is truly a hell of a fuck. And unlike in the movies, that’s a lot harder to find than you think. Oh, yes, he’s the whole package.” She met Brooke’s gaze. “If you were him, would you want to settle for one woman? I wouldn’t.”
Brooke didn’t know. She’d seen the uglier side of that beautiful fast life, and it didn’t suit everyone. She and Ellie were perfect examples. Of course, they were also women. After so many years on the road with Ellie, behind the scenes in the music world, Brooke thought she’d seen a lot. Then she’d been introduced to Hollywood and realized she hadn’t seen the half of it.
Now she wondered if she was being naïve by letting Keaton sweet-talk her into investing too much of her heart, when he really didn’t know what it took to make a relationship work. When he himself admitted he’d never done anything but temporary before. Who was to say that in one of the millions of lonely moments they would spend apart, he wouldn’t simply say yes to one of those hundreds of beautiful women who hit on him? And who was Brooke to ask him not to? These were the best years of his life. He should be out doing everything he ever wanted to do, not struggling to fit in a sketchy rendezvous with a part-time girlfriend on the fly.
“Is that what went wrong between you two?” Now Brooke’s gut burned. She opened her iPad and clicked into Jillian’s schedule to keep her hands busy and hide the emotions rising to the surface. ”Why it didn’t work out? Because he was always looking for the next woman?”