She groaned but her smile never faltered. “Don’t remind me.”
The silence between them was comfortable…until it wasn’t. Something shifted and grew, like it always seemed to do when they were alone together. The air between them seemed to grow thicker and their connection grew intimate.
It was always this way with them—it always had been and it likely always would be.
“I can’t believe this is our first time having a sleepover,” she said. “We’ve been best friends for years.”
He let out a snort of disbelief. Was she really that innocent or just that sure that he only saw her as a friend? He knew she’d gotten past her crush easily enough—he knew it every time she punched his arm or gave him one of those excruciating hugs that made him itch to pull her closer into his arms.
She’d gotten over it, like he’d known she would.
He was the only idiot still pining over the girl he could never have.
She seemed to be waiting for some more of a response and he kept his voice droll. “I’ve never been one for slumber parties, doll.”
She giggled at that. “You haven’t called me ‘doll’ in forever.”
His smile faded as memories crept in. He used to call her doll all the time…that summer. It had started as a silly nickname that had turned into one of their “things” but it was one of those “things” that he’d made a point of abandoning.
Things like hanging out alone at night in the stables. Things like taking long walks in the moonlight. Things like holding hands and cuddling up under the stars.
Things that friends didn’t do.
He stared up at a water stain in the ceiling and gave it all of his attention. He closed his eyes again and waited until he heard her shift onto her back before opening them again.
So much time passed in silence that he was almost certain she’d fallen asleep even though one of the bedside lights was still on and the icemaker outside the door kept making a clanging noise that was hard to ignore.
“Hey, James?” Her voice was little more than a whisper in the dark. “Do you think I’m crazy for leaving?”
He smiled up at the ceiling even though his heart hurt to think of her leaving. “Of course not.”
He waited for the questions he knew were coming—the same ones he’d already answered in the car but would happily answer again because that was what she needed. Reassurance. Someone to lean on and remind her how amazing she was.
He could be that for her.
That’s what he was prepared to do again, so her next question caught him by surprise. “Do you ever think about leaving Twilight?”
He frowned at the ceiling. “What?”
She moved on the bed and he heard the sheets rustling as she rolled over. Next thing he knew her face hovered over his once more and she looked for all the world like an angel sent from above, especially with the white sheet draped over her shoulders like that.
He blinked to get that idea out of his head.
She looked concerned and he knew without a doubt she wouldn’t let up until he answered. “Have you ever thought about leaving Lulu?”
He shook his head. “Of course not.”
A little smile flickered across her lips and then faded just as quickly. “Of course not,” she repeated in an absurdly low voice—what he had to assume was her imitation of him. Her voice returned to normal. “Why ‘of course not’?”
“What are you talking about?”
She shifted again until she was sitting upright, frowning down at him. “Before you said ‘of course’ when I asked you about whether I should leave, and then it was ‘of course not’ when it came to you leaving and…” She threw her hands wide. “How are you so certain?”
He sat up too. “You’re not still having second thoughts, are you? This is the kind of opportunity you’ve been talking about for ages.”
“I know,” she said, irritation clear in her voice. “But I’m not talking about me.” She huffed. “Well, I am, but not just me. I’m talking about you, too. I’m talking about us.”
He froze, his whole body going rigid at her use of the word ‘us.’
She froze, too.
They sat there for one interminably long second before she let out a long, loud exhale. “That’s not what I meant. I meant I’m talking about you.”
He ran a hand through his hair and straightened his T-shirt with more attention than was absolutely necessary. “What about me?”
“Why won’t you even consider leaving Twilight?”
He stared at his hands, at his shirt. “Where would I go? There’s no better ranch in Lulu.”
She growled and the sound had him looking up at her. She met his gaze evenly. “So why not leave Lulu then?”
He met her stare and scowled, hating the way her words tugged at him—no, they scraped at him like she was picking at an old scab. “And go where?”
She held her hands up as she shrugged. “I don’t know, somewhere else?”
Even she looked flustered by that question and he felt his frown shift into a bitter smirk. “Like Los Angeles?”
She blinked rapidly. “No, of course I didn’t mean that.”
“Of course not,” he repeated dully. She wanted him to leave Twilight, but there was no place for him in a big city, no place for him with her. So why leave? Twilight was his home. Lulu was all he’d ever known. “I fit in there,” he said quietly, hoping to smooth over the earlier edge in his tone.
“And I don’t?” The hint of teasing in her voice told him that she was doing the same.
They were two old friends who knew how to defuse tension like it was second nature. They should, they’d been doing it for five years. He reached up, intending to tug on her hair that was dangling over him but his hand seemed to have a mind of its own and he wound up caressing her cheek with his knuckles. “You fit in everywhere.”
Her lips parted and her eyes lost their mirth as they met his.
He couldn’t have looked away if he’d tried. He’d stopped breathing and he was fairly certain she had too by the way she’d grown so still.
He dropped his hand and she ducked her chin, and the moment passed.
“Yeah, well,” she muttered. “You’d fit in anywhere too if you stopped wearing cowboy hats all the time.”
He grinned at her attempt to tease and lighten the moment. “Hey now,” he said. “I’ve been told I look good in my hat.”
She peeked up at him through her eyelashes. “Oh yeah? And who told you that. One of your rodeo groupies?”
He grinned but didn’t immediately respond. This wasn’t the first time she’d teased him about the women who hung around the stables, and just like every other time he found himself hopefully searching for some sign of jealousy where there was none.
He let out a long exhale at his own idiocy. He should be glad she wasn’t jealous. If she hadn’t moved on from her crush like she had they’d have been in a world of trouble. It was hard enough to keep his distance now, but if she’d returned his feelings? Letting her go would have been impossible.
“I guess we should get some sleep,” she said. Her tone and her expression looked resigned and not at all pleased.
“Not the slumber party of your dreams, huh?” he teased.
She grinned down at him. “Not exactly, but you can make it up to me.” The glint in her eyes was dangerous.
“Oh yeah, and how’s that?”
Her expression grew coy. “I’ll let you know.”
He opened his mouth to respond but slammed it shut just as quickly. They were treading into dangerous territory here. Flirtation.
The urge to continue was strong but he clamped it down like a vise. No flirting. That could only lead to trouble.
So instead of playing along, he lay back and focused on that ceiling again. He was going to have nightmares about that stupid ceiling.
“Goodnight, Alice,” he said.
He thought he heard her sigh before she clicked off the bedside lam
p.
“Goodnight, James.”
Chapter Five
Alice had never been so glad to have James at her side as she was when she let herself into Katy’s condo in downtown Los Angeles. The place was totally Katy, with its elegance and its charm. It was comfortable yet chic…
But it’s not home.
That’s what Alice thought as she stood in the middle of the quiet living room and set down her purse.
But then James filed in behind her and dropped one of her suitcases. He took in his surroundings like he did everything—with a quiet, laid-back ease. Alice teased him that a bomb could go off and he wouldn’t so much as jump. He took life as it came, one day at a time.
Like she often did, Alice tried to absorb some of that coolness like a sponge.
It didn’t work.
She found herself bouncing on the balls of her feet, torn between excitement to explore and nervous energy that begged her to turn back and head home.
James placed a hand on her shoulder. “You’ve got this.”
She wished he’d call her doll again. It was silly but it had made her feel all warm and fuzzy the night before.
She couldn’t say that, though, because the moment she tried to get too close, he’d shut down. Like clockwork he backed away from her, politely ending any teasing when it bordered on flirting, like he was worried one misstep into flirtation and she’d kiss him again.
She stepped away from his hand. Well, he had nothing to worry about. Lesson learned. She’d happily move on with some handsome California guy just as soon as James left.
They’d barely gotten all of her things into the apartment when there was a knock on the door. They exchanged a look.
“The welcoming committee?” he joked.
She gave him a smile and a roll of her eyes before throwing open the door.
“Hi,” she said to the man standing before her.
Metrosexual was the first word that came to mind. She’d never truly known what it meant until now.
Now she knew. It was this guy. His short dirty-blonde hair was perfectly trimmed and styled, his face clean-shaven, and if he didn’t get facials she needed to know what over-the-counter products he used because his skin was perfect, as were his teeth and his eyebrows, and—
“Is Katy here?”
The young guy at the door didn’t do greetings, apparently. He took one look at her, sizing her up from her cowboy boots to her mussed hair and then flicked his gaze past her.
She held up a hand to block his path when he started to ease his way in, but James stepped next to her effectively blocking this guy’s path. “Who are you?”
James could be intimidating when he chose to be, and right now? Well, right now he chose to be.
The guy in the doorway didn’t look scared but he definitely stopped trying to wedge his way in. Instead, he sighed wearily like he was dealing with children. “I was told Katy was coming back today.”
Alice exchanged a look with James. “Told? By whom? And also…who are you?”
The stranger rubbed at his forehead and she could have sworn she heard him mutter something about God granting him patience.
She pressed her lips together to hold back a laugh. Whatever this guy was about, he needed all the patience he could get. She’d say a prayer for him too.
“Drake Lloyd said that Hannah’s event planner was due in town today.”
Ah, well that explained part of it. She glanced at James with hitched brows before turning back to the man. “And who is Drake Lloyd?”
The man looked stunned, like she’d just asked who the president was. “Who is Drake Lloyd?” He shook his head. “He’s Hannah’s agent.”
“I see,” she said, ignoring his tone that made it sound like she was a moron for not knowing who this Drake Lloyd guy was. “And you are?”
He let out an exasperated sigh. “I don’t have time for this.”
James’s voice was a growl the likes of which Alice had never heard before. “Answer the lady.”
The stranger’s eyes widened and Alice didn’t have to glance up to know that James was doing his best angry face. He rarely used it and when he did, it usually made her laugh, one of many reasons she didn’t look up at him now. Laughing would totally kill the angry-face effect.
“I’m Liam,” he said, as if that explained anything.
Alice crossed her arms. “So…what? Are you this Drake guy’s assistant or something?”
He jerked back like she’d struck him. “I’m Hannah’s manager.”
“Oh.” She flashed him her biggest, most charming smile as she held out a hand. “And I’m her new event planner, Alice.”
“I don’t like him,” James said a few minutes later as he followed her into the open kitchen to help rummage for whatever snacks they might be able to find in a kitchen neither of them had been in before.
“Give him a break,” she said. “He seems stressed.”
“Well he shouldn’t have taken it out on you,” James grumbled.
She couldn’t bring herself to argue that. But, at the same time, she felt kind of bad for the guy. Despite his good looks, he had the air of an overworked and exhausted underling. He might be a big-wig manager but she got the impression that he hustled for his money.
“What do we know about him, anyway?”
Alice shrugged. “Not much. Katy told me about her clients, the biggest of whom is obviously Hannah. But she didn’t tell me much about Hannah’s…” Alice waved an arm as she searched for a term. “Entourage.”
They scrounged up some unopened peanuts and a few cans of club soda and headed back. But Liam wasn’t sitting in the seat she’d offered, he was pacing as he talked on his cell phone, hanging up as they came in.
“Care for a pop?” Alice asked, extending a can with a smile.
Liam stared at it with a frown.
Okay, then. She lowered her arm slowly and shared a look with James.
She wasn’t sure Liam could have gotten more high-strung in the short time they’d slipped off to the kitchen, but that was how it seemed.
The guy practically vibrated with intensity.
He needed a massage or something. “Uh, do you want to take a seat or—”
“She’s missing.” Liam’s harsh voice cut through her offer and Alice was left blinking in confusion.
“What? Who?”
“Hannah Bailey.” Liam drew her name out like the answer was obvious. He might as well have added ‘duh’ to the end.
Her brow creased in confusion and she saw James eyeing him with the same look. “What do you mean missing? I mean...are you sure?”
“She’s been MIA for days now,” Liam said, his attention once more back on the phone in his hand as he tapped at the screen. “Not answering her phone. Not returning my emails—”
“Is she in danger?” James asked.
“I don’t think so.” Liam sighed loudly. “She sent a text last Friday. I need space.” The tone of his voice made it clear that Liam found this ludicrous.
“Well…” Alice cast James a quick look. “Maybe she does.”
Liam glanced up at that, his blue eyes fixed on her like he was just now seeing her. “Hannah Bailey doesn’t have a life that can accommodate space.”
She wrinkled her nose at his condescending tone.
“Hannah Bailey has openings to attend and press to meet and functions where she’s expected and—”
“She’s busy, I get it.” Alice crossed her arms. “Maybe it got to be too much. The poor girl deserves a day off. If you honestly don’t believe she’s in danger, then I don’t know what you expect—”
“You don’t understand,” he said, rolling his eyes up to the ceiling like he was once more begging for patience. “She’s never done this before.”
Alice glanced at James, whose eyes were fixed on her, just waiting to see how she wanted to handle this.
She rubbed at her temple. This was so not how she’d anticipated her very first day on the
new job. Part of her wanted to call Katy and see what she thought she should do, but then again…
“Um, no offense, Liam, but…” She bit her lip. Being apathetic didn’t come easily to her. “I’m just her event planner. If she’s playing hooky to take a little me-time I’m not sure how this is my problem—”
“It will be if the wedding is canceled,” he snapped.
She blinked, her gut sinking as his words registered. Hannah’s wedding...it was everything. It was what the future success of her family’s guest business hinged on. They were counting on this wedding, and the payday and buzz that came with it, to launch this new business and save their land.
“What do you...why would—”
His phone was unceremoniously thrust under her nose as she stumbled over her words. She gasped as she snatched it out of his hands. James moved closer to her side.
“What is it?” he asked.
She stared down at the tabloid image before her. “That’s Eduardo Vargas, Hannah’s fiancé,” she said quietly. “And that…” She pointed at the woman he was kissing in the candid shot. “That is not Hannah.”
James made a hissing sound as he winced and she cringed at the thought of how Hannah must be feeling right about now.
When she glanced up at Liam and handed back his phone, she caught her first flicker of real, human emotion in his eyes.
He was worried.
Not just exasperated and frazzled and on edge, he was concerned about Hannah.
“We’ll help you find her.” She turned to James, realizing that she’d just roped him into staying longer than intended, no doubt, and not wanting to think about why.
Masochist, that was her.
The longer they spent together, the harder it would be. But honestly, she just needed a little more time with him. And besides, he’d be more useful to her than Liam, of that she was certain.
Her eyes filled with hope and just a little apology for dragging him into her new career drama but he didn’t hesitate.
“Of course we’ll help.”
Chapter Six
There was absolutely no reason for this guy to be sitting so close to Alice.
Promise Me Forever (Sweet Beginnings Book 3) Page 5