Remembering that he gave me something, I look down at my hand and see that I have my engagement and wedding rings. I need these? I suck in a breath, faintly remembering a conversation we had several months ago. Holy crap, he wouldn’t, would he?
Yes, yes he would.
“Wow,” he says, his voice clear and strong in the huge theater. “I have a lot of people to thank.” Drew lists everyone who helped to make this tiny independent film into such a huge success. He mentions his parents and his sister and how their support means everything to him.
Holy fuck, no way! Am I going to throw up?
“And finally, I’d like to thank someone very important to me. Someone … who has put up with a lot of crap to be with me. Things that would break most people and send them running.” His eyes find mine in the front row, “Not my girl. Instead of running away, she married me. To my gorgeous wife Sydney, this win is for you.”
He holds up his Oscar and I see his ring, the dark gray band of tungsten that he had custom made by Harry Winston, in its place on his left hand. Laughing through my tears of joy, I slide mine onto my finger.
The theater erupts in applause, people clapping and cheering for Drew, for us. My first thought is that our parents are going to kill us. He announced our marriage on TV without telling them about it first. My second thought is how in the heck are we going to make it out of this theater without getting mobbed?
They cut to a commercial break so Drew can get back to his seat before they announce Best Picture. When he re-enters the theater, the crowd goes crazy, congratulating us and cheering.
I know I must turn bright red when he steps up to me and give me a passionate kiss in front of all of these people, but I can’t help but smile. He is so freaking happy right now, I wouldn’t ruin it for anything.
When his film wins Best Picture, he has to go right back onstage, joined this time by the other executives and cast members. Drew lets the other producers make the acceptance speech, stepping back to give them their moment in the spotlight.
Finally, we get to leave and as predicted, it’s a mess. It seems as if every single person in the theater wants to personally congratulate us. Either on Drew’s wins or the news of our marriage. Then there are the reporters backstage who are all vying to get the coveted first interview with Drew after dropping that massive mushroom cloud on live television.
By the time we get into our limo, I’m exhausted but elated.
“Bruce, take us to Chad’s house in Brentwood please,” Drew says to our driver.
I whip my head to stare at Drew. “What? We’re not going back to the hotel?”
“No babe, it’s Oscar night. There’s always a party.” Drew is grinning ear to ear.
I lean in and run my teeth lightly up his neck. “I had been hoping for a private party, Mr. Forrester.”
He shivers and turns to me. I can see the tortured lust in his eyes. “Syd, we have to be there. I promised. But I’ll take you up on your offer as soon as we can leave.”
Crap. I guess I’m going to an Oscar party.
We pull into the long drive and up to Chad’s mansion, memories of our afternoon here and the fallout from that day flood my mind. I swallow nervously and decide that I won’t let that crap ruin our night.
It looks as though the party has already started. The house is lit up all over and I can hear music playing from somewhere. Drew brings me through the kitchen toward the familiar patio where the infamous Nakedgate went down.
As we step outside, everyone turns to watch us join the party. I scan the crowd and realize that I know every single one of these people. I see my Dad, my Mom holding hands with Chad, I knew it! Leah, Ryker, Allie, Dex, Drew’s parents, Jane, Bruce, Drew’s A Soldier’s Burden cast mates and crew, Bethany Williams, Damien, Drew’s friend Bobby from the gym, even Sal, Evan and Steve are here.
“What’s going on?” I ask Drew.
“It’s our wedding reception of course.”
I stare at him, gaping like an idiot. “You … you planned this?”
He shrugs casually, as if it’s no big deal to plan a huge surprise party behind my back. “Even if I didn’t win Syd, I wanted to tell our family. I figured this would be a good way to do it.”
I throw my arms around him and pull his head down to my level. “It’s not a good way Drew, it’s a great way.”
He laughs and dips me back for a dramatic, Hollywood-style kiss and for once, I don’t care who’s watching.
Life doesn’t get any better than this.
EPILOGUE
Five years later.
Drew
I’m so ready to be home. After being gone the last two weeks to film on location in Hawaii, all I can think of is my family. Traffic from Logan is a bitch, as usual, so my agitation is increasing with each frustratingly slow mile.
I pull out my phone for the hundredth time since yesterday and look at the picture that Sydney sent to me. God, they mean everything to me, my wife and kids. She took a photo of herself with the twins on her lap and all three of them are laughing.
I can tell that our son, Beck, is trying to get away from Sydney. He probably wants nothing to do with having his picture taken, thinking a game of tag is a better idea. Our daughter Sage is doing what she always does, smiling and giggling and being the perfect kid, content to sit on Syd’s lap.
I touch the screen with my finger, eager to get home and see them. They change so much at this age, they’ll be three in just a few weeks. It seems as if every time I go away, something is different about them when I get back; they’re talking more, playing games, eating new foods. I hate being gone.
After we found out Syd was expecting, I cut back on any work that requires a lot of travel. Otherwise, they come with me on location. She still does some design work, but only locally and only small projects when I’m not filming.
We left New York and bought a house near my parents in Brookline just before the twins were born. I didn’t want to worry about the paparazzi jumping on Sydney or the kids every time we left the brownstone. There’s no way I could stay calm if one of those assholes got anywhere near my children. Sydney just about had a nervous breakdown when she was pregnant and had to go out in public, she never would have been able to go out with the kids without freaking out.
“We’re here,” Bruce says as he comes up to our gated drive, waving at Steve who is walking the perimeter.
“Thank God. It’s about time, I was going crazy back here.”
Bruce no sooner stops the limo and I’m flinging open the door, hurrying inside to see my family.
“Syd?” I call out as I open the front door.
“In here!”
I follow the sound of her voice and find them in the sunroom off of the kitchen.
“Daddy! Daddy!” Beck and Sage run over to get their hugs. This is the best part about being gone, whenever I get back the kids climb all over me.
“Hey guys! Did you miss me?” I grab a kid in each arm and lift them up as they squeal with joy.
“Yes Daddy!” Sage says as she gives me a big kiss. She’s so much like Syd, affectionate and loving, long dark hair and adorable little freckles.
“What about you buddy?” I ask my son.
“You were gone forever,” he pouts. Yep, just like me. He wants everything in its proper place, including me. He even looks exactly like me, green eyes and messy brown hair.
“I know buddy, I’m sorry. I’m home now for a while. Are we good?”
He thinks about it for a second and then nods. “Yeah, we’re good Daddy,” he says seriously.
“Awesome.” I put them both down and they run off to play.
“Hey you,” I say to my gorgeous wife, who’s been watching quietly from the other side of the room.
“I missed you,” she says as she walks over to me.
God, she’s so fucking beautiful. Even more now than when I met her six years ago. She’s finally been able to work through all of that horrible shit that happened to h
er as a kid, but there are still setbacks. She went through a pretty dark time right before the twins were born, afraid that they would end up having a childhood like hers. Afraid that a crazy fan would attack her and hurt or steal the babies.
I promised her that we wouldn’t let that happen, that I would never let that happen. It took leaving the city to get her to understand that our kids weren’t going to be exposed to all that shit. That I would make sure they were safe no matter what. Of course, having the SEALS in charge of our security helps quite a bit.
“Come here sexy girl.” I reach out and pull her perfect body against mine. Two weeks without her and my dick twitches just from her leaning on me.
Fuck. I really hope the kids go to bed on time tonight.
“Mmmm, I can tell that you missed me,” she says in the raspy voice she gets when she’s thinking about sex. She rubs against me suggestively and I get hard in a half a second.
“Jesus Syd, you’re going to kill me. We still have,” I check my watch, “four hours until bedtime.”
“Plenty of time for you to think of all the ways you’re going to take me,” she whispers.
I groan and attack her mouth, running my tongue over the seam of her lips until she lets me in. Fuck, she tastes so good. I grip her tight ass and pull her closer, letting her feel how fucking hard she’s made me.
“Mommy, I’m hungry,” Sage says as she comes into the sunroom, completely killing my hard on. I drop my head onto Sydney’s shoulder in frustration.
Reluctantly, I release Sydney. “I’ll get you something Sage, let’s go to the kitchen.” I reach down and she puts her little hand in mine.
“Wait for me, I’m hungry too Daddy!” Beck cries from the other room.
“We won’t start without you buddy, come on.”
Sydney scoops him up and puts him in his chair at the table while I lift Sage and set her next to him.
“I made roasted chicken and vegetables,” Sydney says as she circles the table and pulls out some plates. “It’s in the oven, we were just waiting for you.”
She’s come a long way since burning spaghetti.
We sit down to dinner and the kids tell me about everything that happened over the last two weeks. My eyes find Syd across the table and she smiles.
I know. I’m the luckiest fucking bastard in the entire world.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Once again, I have to thank my husband, Brian, who gave up a lot of hot dinners so I could obsess over my books. He believed in me wholeheartedly, not thinking twice about my crazy plan to write a series of books, when I’d never written a thing before in my life. Not even a grocery list.
I also want to thank my friends and family, especially my mom, who I finally allowed to read my book. I mean, how embarrassing is it to have your mom read sex scenes that you wrote? Thankfully, she loved it and tried to help me fix all of my “spelling errors” which turned out to be Drew speaking in his Boston accent!
Once again, I have to thank my three awesome Betas; Heather DeLuca, Amy Woods, and Krystal Wiles-Austin. If I had to pick between you and the Sox winning the series again… well, I would choose the Sox, but I still love you guys!
Next, I have to thank the REVelers from the Georgia Romance Writers. Our critiquing sessions, and the advice you gave me at our GRW meeting were invaluable to my work.
Finally, I want to thank the wonderful bloggers out there who have helped me more than they know. Milasy at The Rock Stars of Romance, Erin at MeReadALot, Jennifer at Love Between the Sheets, Shannon at Cocktails and Books, and last but in no way least, DK at Book Lovin’ Junkie. All of you took a chance on an unknown author and put my book out there for your readers to enjoy.
H. Leigh
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
After growing up in New England, Heather Leigh currently lives just outside Atlanta, Georgia with her husband and two children. She enjoys traveling, anything made of chocolate (except white chocolate, which doesn’t count as actual chocolate), hanging with her French Bulldog and Pug, and of course, the Boston Red Sox.
Visit www.relativelyfamousseries.com , www.sphereofirony.com , or twitter https://twitter.com/HeatherLeigh_8 for updates on new releases.
On Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/relativelyfamous or at Goodreads at https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20816593-relatively-famous. and
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20978718-absolutely-famous
Famous Series
Book 1 - Relatively Famous
Book 2 - Absolutely Famous
Book 3 - Extremely Famous
Book 4 - Already Famous: coming soon
Sphere of Irony Series
Book 1 – Incite. Adam’s story: coming soon
Table of Contents
Copyright
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Epilogue
Acknowledgements
About the Author
Extremely Famous Page 29