“Of course, of course.” Her smile didn’t fade, but I noticed a tightness in her face. I had a feeling she wasn’t too thrilled with us. I didn’t blame her—someone could have gotten hurt because I’d been too dumb to plan for this.
The security guards helped Stephanie lead us through the crowd—now bolstered by curious onlookers—toward the guest services building, where we were ushered into a private office. In the quiet of the room, I finally allowed myself a deep breath of relief.
“Your manager’s office called once you got into trouble,” Stephanie was saying as she gestured us into chairs. “I’m sorry I didn’t get there sooner.”
“It’s no problem,” Thomas said. “We’re sorry to be a hassle—”
“Nonsense.” She waved her hands dismissively. “We get celebrities on site quite often. It’s no hardship whatsoever. Now, are you both okay? That was quite a crowd. Should I call in someone from the medical staff?”
“Lizzie was elbowed rather hard.” Thomas turned to me, concern on his face. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” I said. “Promise. I just feel stupid that I didn’t plan better.”
“Lizzie—” he began, but Stephanie interrupted to hand us each a bottle of water.
“Let’s see what we can do to make sure you have a safe and enjoyable visit, shall we?” she asked.
I had to give it to her, Stephanie was efficient. Within minutes she had arranged a guide to take us around the other park for the rest of the afternoon. “Carter will see to it that you have everything you need. But you’re welcome to call me should any problems arise.”
She handed Thomas her business card, which he pocketed just as there was a knock on the door. “Ah, that will be Carter now.”
Carter was an enthusiastic, twenty-something tour guide dressed in khakis and a Disney polo shirt. He shook hands with both of us, seemingly totally unimpressed by Thomas’s celebrity. We both thanked Stephanie profusely before following Carter outside. “This is Walter,” Carter said, gesturing at a security guard. “He’ll be accompanying us.”
Thomas and Carter made small talk as we walked across the sidewalk towards the park entrance. I tried to keep up with what they were saying, but I was having a hard time. First I had failed to provide for security and nearly gotten Thomas trampled. Now, because of my mistake, Thomas had to spend his special day talking to a stranger. I felt terrible.
“Hey,” Thomas said, catching my hand. “You okay?”
“I just feel bad. I wasn't thinking when I planned this day, not at all.”
“Lizzie, you planned the day beautifully.”
“No, I didn't. You should have heard how pissed Heidi was.” His face tightened, so I hurried on, not wanting to be the cause of him getting angry at her. “And she was right. I’ve been working for her for how long, now? And I still failed to plan this day as a member of your team. And I jeopardized your safety.”
He stopped right there in the middle of the crowded walkway. When it was clear we weren’t following, Walter and Carter waited for us a few feet away. “Are you kidding me? Do you know how much I love it that you didn't plan this as a member of the team?”
“Thomas, it’s my job—”
“Lizzie, one of the best things about our relationship is the way that you think of me as a normal person—”
“You’re an extraordinary person.”
He grinned and tucked a strand of hair back behind my ear. “Thank you, love. But I appreciate that you never treat me like a movie star. You just think of me as me. I don’t want that to change, whether you work for Heidi or not. Okay?”
I looked into his familiar green eyes, so intent and serious, and I knew that he meant it. “Okay. I promise it won’t change. But we should make sure we think about things like security from now on.”
“Agreed.” He ran his fingertips down my neck, across my shoulder, and down my side, until they were resting right below my ribs. I winced involuntarily. “I thought so. She got you pretty good, didn’t she?”
I shrugged. “It was just an elbow.”
Thomas sighed and took my hand again. “You should let them give you an icepack.”
“No way. I want to ride Toy Story Mania.”
He laughed. “Toy Story Mania it is then.”
***
I was relieved to find that the addition of a security detail didn’t ruin our day. In fact, Carter was able to take us right up to the front of each line without any hassle. The first time that happened, at Toy Story Mania, I had been worried that Thomas was going to get upset. There was a ninety-minute line behind us, and special treatment like that usually made him uncomfortable. Instead, he grinned at me and whispered, “Lucky us. I guess there are some perks to this life, eh, Lizzie?”
I had smiled along with him and tried not to feel like an ass as we were taken past the line and shown to our ride vehicle.
California Adventure definitely had more of the thrill ride thing going. We rode a huge roller coaster that shot us upside down in a loop, raced each other in race cars on another Pixar-themed ride, and got soaking wet on a white water rapids boat ride. I tried hard not to let the events of earlier put a damper on things and had a feeling Thomas was trying to do the same. Where his excitement at Disneyland had been clearly genuine and overwhelming, his mood seemed ever so slightly forced as Carter guided us around the second park and the security guard stopped anyone from approaching us.
We ate dinner at a restaurant with great views of the nightly fireworks spectacular. Even there we were treated with kid gloves, being shown to a prime table directly next to the windows. “Wow,” I murmured, as the fireworks began out over the water. “This is an incredible view.”
Thomas was quiet, watching the fireworks, his food mostly forgotten on the table in front of him. I turned my attention to him, watching the way the lights from outside lit up his face in color, before casting it again into shadow. He eventually sensed my gaze, because he looked up and smiled at me sheepishly. “Sorry, Lizzie. I was zoning out.”
“No problem.” I paused. “Are you…okay?”
“Yeah,” he said quickly. Too quickly. When I didn’t drop my gaze he finally sighed. “I just keep thinking what this would have been like if we’d come here last year, you know? Before everything got so crazy. What it would be like if we were just two more people on a date at Disney.”
I debated whether or not to tell him that I’d been thinking the same thing ever since lunchtime. I didn’t want him to feel like he was imposing on me in any way, being who he was. “I get that,” I finally said carefully. “But at the same time, Thomas, we probably wouldn’t be here if it wasn't for everything getting so crazy. We certainly wouldn’t be living together in a house in Malibu, you know?”
“True.” He smiled faintly. “We’d be scuttling around freezing cold London under umbrellas.”
He said it to make us both feel better, but the thought struck me with an intense pang of homesickness. It must have been obvious on my face.
“I miss it too,” he said. “Funny, isn’t it? It’s so beautiful out here, and we have everything we could possibly want. So why do we miss it?”
“Because it’s home.” I reached out and took his hand. “L.A. is great, and I think we’ll miss it when we leave. But London is home.”
He nodded. “Sorry. I’ve been a bit morose since we sat down, haven't I?”
“You’ve been fine. I want you to talk to me when you’re feeling stuff like this. Isn’t that what we said last night?”
“You’re right. I just don't want to sound like I’m complaining all the time. I do know how lucky we are to be here.”
“Not just to be here,” I said, wanting to cheer him up a little. “To be here in style. We drove here in a convertible, Thomas.”
He finally grinned. “Not just any convertible. An Audi a5.”
I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, whatever. All I know is that tonight we’re going to drive that same car back home, to our
palatial, waterfront mansion, for God’s sake.”
“Where I will ravish you on our California king-sized bed.”
I laughed. “Exactly.”
He seemed better after that, though he didn’t want to stick around to ride any more rides. We thanked Carter at the gates, Thomas tipping him profusely, before another employee shuttled us back to the parking structure in a private car. The driver took us directly to the Audi. We thanked him and hopped out.
Thomas opened the passenger door for me but stopped me before I could climb in, pressing my back into the car as he kissed me, long and slow. “I love you,” he whispered. “Thank you for the best day I’ve had since we came out here.”
“You’re very welcome.”
He kissed me one last time before heading around to his side of the car. Then he drove through the gathering darkness back to Malibu. Back home.
Chapter Eighteen
The following Monday I was awakened by the shrill ringing of my cell phone. I looked at the clock and cursed. It was barely nine a.m.—a bit early after a late night of drinking wine on the deck with Thomas. Probably my mother, who always seemed to forget that there was a four-hour time difference between L.A. and Detroit. I fumbled for the phone on the nightstand as Thomas muttered, “Whozethat?” sleepily beside me.
“Not sure,” I whispered, finally grabbing the phone and bringing it to my ear. “Hello?”
“Lizzie? Is that you? This is Ellen Jacobs.”
I sat straight up in bed, my heart pounding. “Hi,” I said, trying my best not to sound as if I’d just been woken from a dead sleep. “How are you?”
“I’m so sorry,” she said. “You sound like you were sleeping. How rude of me.”
“Don’t worry about it,” I said, climbing out of bed so I wouldn’t disturb Thomas any more.
“Wonderful. So, listen. I have a bit of a proposition for you. I’m going to be in Los Angeles on Wednesday along with one of our senior editors. I showed him your manuscript, and we’d love to meet with you.”
I froze in the act of opening the fridge.
“Lizzie? You still there?”
“I am,” I managed to squeak out. “That…that would be wonderful, Ellen. I’d love to meet with you both.”
“He was impressed, Lizzie. Really impressed.”
“With my book?” I had a feeling my voice was higher pitched than was appropriate, but I was having trouble processing things like that. I felt like screaming out loud—was this really happening?
On the other end of the phone, Ellen chuckled. “Yes, with your book. I told you that you had something. So let’s have lunch on Wednesday, okay? We can have a nice chat about the book and go from there. Does that work?”
“Absolutely,” I said immediately. I was supposed to be arranging Heidi’s travel schedule on Wednesday, but I didn’t care. I’d stay late and do it, or handle it another day. There was no way I was passing up on this.
“Wonderful. I’ll have my assistant email you the details.”
“Thank you, Ellen. I really appreciate this.”
“Hey, I just passed-on the manuscript, you’re the one who wrote the great book. We’ll talk soon, okay? Go back to bed.”
I laughed. “I think I’m too excited to sleep.”
After we hung up, I stared at the phone for a long time. Was this really happening? I couldn’t believe it. A senior editor wanted to talk to me about my book. Ellen had called it great. Holy shit.
“Hey,” Thomas said, coming down the stairs. He looked deliciously rumpled in pajama bottoms and no shirt, his hair a mess and his face unshaven. Without another thought, I ran to him and threw my arms around his shoulders.
“Good morning to you, too,” he said, laughing a little. I felt his lips press into my hair. “Lizzie?”
“Ellen showed my book to a senior editor, Thomas,” I said, looking up at him. I felt like crying or screaming. “And they liked it. They want to meet with me on Wednesday.”
His sleepy face lit up. “Seriously?”
I nodded. “I can’t believe it.”
“I can!” He suddenly picked me up and swung me around. “Of course they loved it! It’s fantastic!”
I laughed in his arms. “This is so crazy!”
He set me back on my feet but squeezed me tight to his chest. “You deserve it, Lizzie. I’m so proud of you.”
I squeezed him back before pulling away. “I need to calm down. This is only one small step. A lot of things have to go right before I really have a right to be excited.”
“Bullshit,” he said, shaking his head. “You need to celebrate all the good things as they come, Lizzie. Creative industries break you down like nothing else. If you don’t enjoy yourself along the way, you’re in for some serious rough times, you know.”
I nodded. “I just don’t want to get ahead of myself.”
“Cautious optimism is what I would suggest.” He grinned at me. “Let’s have dinner tonight, and we can practice your pitch and have a glass of champagne.”
“Will you be able to get out of work?”
He nodded. “I should. I’m only scheduled for a short shoot today.”
“Okay.” I felt a little thrill of happiness; I was so glad I had Thomas to enjoy this with. I hugged him again. “Thank you.”
“What for?”
“I don’t know if I even would have finished the book without you. Seriously.”
“You would have, Lizzie.” He brushed my hair back from my shoulder. “I know you would have.”
I spent the day on a little cloud of excitement. I was so anxious to see what could come out of the meeting, but I was also starting to feel the first stirrings of nerves. I had never been very good at selling myself.
At five o’clock I got a text that dampened my mood somewhat. “What’s wrong?” Imogen asked, watching as I frowned at my phone.
“Nothing.” I slipped my phone into my desk, smiling at her. “Thomas had to cancel our dinner plans. The shoot went over.”
She made a face at me. “Sorry, Lizzie. I’d offer to take his place but I’m supposed to see Gage tonight.”
I raised my eyebrows. “Gage, eh? Isn’t that the assistant from the photo shoot last week?”
She nodded, then rolled her eyes. “He’s no great catch, but it’s nice to be asked.”
“I thought he was cute!”
“He is.” She sighed. “But he’s also full of himself. And totally career obsessed and over ambitious.”
I laughed. “Then why did you agree to see him?”
“Because I have this cute new dress and nowhere to wear it.”
I shook my head, smiling. “You’re a strange girl, Imogen.”
After she’d left for the day, I milled around the house, at a loss. I had been looking forward to talking through the pitch with Thomas, with someone who had experience meeting with scary, career-making executives. I briefly considered calling Annie, but realized she was probably stuck at the same shoot as Thomas. When my phone rang again, I grabbed it quickly, hopping it was Thomas saying he could make it after all.
It was my mother.
“Lizzie, how are you?”
The sound of her voice made me feel like crying, somehow. “I’m fine, Mama,” I said, squeezing my eyes shut. “Actually, I’m better than fine.”
“Better than fine? Did something nice happen?”
“Oh, Mama, the nicest thing. An editor read my book, and they want to meet with me on Wednesday.”
Her gasp of surprise brought a smile to my face. She’d been so excited and proud when she found out I was writing. “Mija, that’s wonderful! Who is this editor? Tell me everything.”
So I curled up on the couch and I did just that, explaining all about Charlie passing my book along to Ellen and our first meeting before Christmas. “And then, apparently, she passed it along to a senior editor at her publishing house and he liked it too.”
“Of course he did. It’s a wonderful book.”
“Th
anks, Mama. So I don’t know what will happen or if they’ll want to buy it, but it’s a good step.”
“Of course it is,” she said. “A very good first step. Now, what will you wear to the lunch? You want to look professional, but not stuffy. I would think they’d be looking for someone fresh and exciting, which fits you just perfectly. Maybe a nice dress, dear.”
I had a sudden wish that I had gotten the call from Ellen while home in Michigan, instead of out here. I wanted to be able to tell her in person, to jump up and down in our little kitchen together, to run up to my room arm in arm to go through all of my clothes.
I looked around the gorgeous living room with its high-end features and twenty-million-dollar view and all I could feel was sad. Not for the first time in the last few months, I wanted to be home.
***
Ellen had made reservations at a bistro in Brentwood. I wasn’t very familiar with the neighborhood and was paranoid about getting lost, so I ended up arriving a good fifteen minutes before we were supposed to meet.
I felt claustrophobic inside my car, so I decided to walk for a bit while I waited. It was another picture-perfect day in southern California, blue skies and seventy-five degrees. I wondered if the people here could properly appreciate such weather. Did you get immune to it after a while? I watched a woman about my age strolling down the street, talking on her phone. She was wearing jeans, a baggy, off-the-shoulder top, and large sunglasses. When she stopped at the corner for the light to change, her face seemed to tilt automatically toward the sky, as if soaking in the sun. I smiled to myself. Maybe they appreciated the weather just fine.
My own phone rang in my bag, startling me from my people watching. I pulled it out to see Callie’s name flashing on the screen. “Callie?”
“Hey,” she said. “Are you at the restaurant yet?”
“Yeah. I’m early.”
She laughed. “I had a feeling you might be. Are you also freaking out? ‘Cause I had a feeling about that as well.”
There was a bench down by the corner, so I decided to sit while we chatted. “You know me so well, Cal.”
“There is no reason to freak out,” she said, her voice soothing. “You’re going to be fantastic, Lizzie. I know you will. Besides, they obviously like the book, right? Otherwise they never would have called you.”
Lovestruck in Los Angeles Page 18