A-List Kiss: A Laugh-Out-Loud Romantic Comedy

by Brenda Lowder

  “Me too.” What the hell.

  He grinned and set the book down carefully on my bedside table. I closed my eyes, looking forward to the kiss that was coming, but just as his lips touched mine, there was a loud knock on my bedroom door, accompanied by thumps against the wall and arguing voices. I hopped off my bed and opened the door. Sophie and Corey were looking at each other in a panic.

  “What’s going on?”

  Sophie took my arm and propelled me out of my room and into the living room.

  “Maggie’s not home!” she said.

  “So? I’m sure she’ll come home later. She’s a big girl.”

  “No.” Corey gestured to the figure I hadn’t noticed standing awkwardly near the door. “Maggie’s not home, and Jonathan is.”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  I guess I should’ve been more concerned about Maggie’s absence. I probably would’ve been if I hadn’t found it so refreshing. Oh, what a mean thing for a sister to think. I’m sorry. I know. I love Maggie, really I do, but boy did she know how to make me mad. When she wasn’t around, well, that was sometimes a treat. But you sure can’t say that to the police when they show up and wonder why your sister is missing. You’d start looking like Murder Suspect #1 because having never met Maggie, the police would not know that anyone who’d ever met her would have motive. But the only reason my mind went to this dark place is that I knew that Maggie was fine with a capital “F” and that any absence on her part was due to an overabundance of drama and not to an actual crime having been committed against her person. As anyone who knew her could tell you, she was resourceful to a fault and a master of manipulation. Nothing happened without her wanting it to happen.

  “It’s not my fault!” Jonathan stepped farther into the room looking anxiously from me to Corey, Sophie, and Gavin, then back at me.

  “What’s not your fault?” Sophie asked, too loudly. “Where is she?”

  “What’s happening?” I asked Corey.

  “Jonathan showed up here without Maggie,” Corey said. “We came and got you right away. He won’t say where she is.”

  “That’s because I don’t know!” Jonathan wailed.

  Gavin walked up behind me and put his arm around me. “You lost your date?” Gavin was incredulous. No woman would ever run out on him.

  “Yeah, I did, and so would you! That girl is bat-shit crazy.” Jonathan waved his hands around helplessly in the air, chasing the invisible bats.

  “Whoa! Hey! Watch the language,” Corey said, giving Jonathan his tough guy impression. “Her sister is right here!”

  “I’ll allow it,” I said. “Here, Jonathan, everyone, sit down.” I motioned everyone toward the couch and chairs. Nothing was being solved by standing and posturing. For once everyone listened to me and moved to sit.

  “Jonathan, start from the beginning and tell us what happened. I don’t think that your first impulse would be to come here if you’d done my sister any harm.”

  Jonathan’s mouth fell open. “What? No, of course not!” His outrage was genuine. He took a deep breath and started his story. “Well, you all know I picked up Maggie so that we could hang out tonight. I was thinking we could get dinner and go to the movies. But then, you know, I got here and she didn’t want to leave. She told me she wasn’t going anywhere until she’d met Eden’s boyfriend—well, you, sir,” Jonathan gestured to Gavin. “She said she had to make sure you had honorable intentions toward her sister.”

  I snorted. “Like she cares. She just stuck around to piss me off.”

  “Eden, please! Go on, Jonathan.” Sophie waved for him to continue.

  “Well, we hung around an hour for you to show up.” Jonathan gestured at Gavin again.

  “Yeah, we know that part,” Corey said.

  “Yeah, so, after we met you, Maggie and I walked to my car—and she said that we had to follow you.”

  “What?” That part was new.

  “What?” Gavin asked. I was happy to see that we were on the same page on this.

  Jonathan swallowed hard and glanced from Gavin to me. “Yeah, I told her I wanted to take her to dinner and a movie, but she said, ‘Tough luck, Romeo. We’re doing some investigating instead.’ She took my car keys and we followed you guys—and your bodyguards—up PCH to Nobu.”

  “For heaven’s sake, why?” I was truly flummoxed by Maggie’s latest bit of insanity.

  “She said she thought it would be fun to spy on you,” Jonathan said miserably.

  “More fun than having a date of her own? That’s ridiculous.”

  “That’s what I said,” Jonathan agreed. “But she was insistent! And, well, she was driving my car.”

  “You could have stopped her,” Gavin said.

  “How?” Jonathan asked, visibly perplexed. “That girl is a force. I had no idea what to do with her. I’m sorry. She was more than I could handle.”

  “So, what happened? How did you get back here?” Sophie twirled her finger in the air as if she could unwind the thread of the story out of Jonathan faster.

  “Well, we followed Eden and Mr. Braddock—”

  “Call me Gavin.”

  “Right. We followed Eden and…Gavin to Nobu. We hung out in my car and watched them get their pictures taken by the paparazzi and stuff. Maggie said Eden thought she was so hot now that she was dating Gavin, that she thought she was some famous person, but she wasn’t.” Jonathan looked at me miserably. Corey patted his arm.

  “We get the picture. My sister was dissing me. Get on with it.”

  “Then we saw you guys go inside. We waited a while, then Maggie said that we should go in, too, and make sure you were having a good time. We just had to be sure we wouldn’t be seen.”

  “Did you not begin to distrust her motives at this point?” Seriously. Jonathan was some kind of doormat.

  “I didn’t know what to do! Maggie was going to do it whether I went along or not. I thought the best thing I could do was just go so I could tell you what happened.”

  “Yes, please,” Sophie said. “Do that.”

  “I’m trying,” Jonathan said. “So we went inside, but we only got as far as the bar. Maggie thought we’d be spotted if we went into the dining room. We each had a drink—which were really expensive, by the way, so thanks for the money for taking Maggie out, Eden.”

  Sophie and Corey looked at me. Yes, I paid people to date my sister. Deal with it.

  “Um, sure, no problem,” I mumbled. “Go on.”

  “Well, when you came running out of the restaurant after that guy, Maggie knew something was up, so we ran to my car and followed him.”

  “You followed him? Are you insane?”

  “What?” Gavin looked at me, not understanding my outrage. “You followed some guy out of the restaurant?”

  “Yeah!” I said. “A really bad guy! The guy that your brother is after, Jonathan.” Jonathan’s face paled. “I spotted him at the restaurant tonight, and I ran after him to get his license plate number. I called Matthew and told him. What did you guys do next?”

  “Well, Maggie must have taken a course in police pursuit because she followed that car like we were chained behind them. Maggie hung a couple of cars back from him like you see in the movies so he wouldn’t know we were following him or anything.”

  “She’d be a real asset in a life of crime,” I said.

  “Eden!” Sophie swatted my elbow and looked at Corey for help. He shrugged.

  “Sorry. Go on, Jonathan. What happened next?” I asked.

  “Then a cop car passed us and pulled the guy over. Maggie pulled over, too, but farther back. We watched the cop take the guy’s info and make him get out of the car. They stood there talking for a while. And that’s when she did it.”

  “Did what?” we demanded in unison.

  “Well, Maggie told me to stay in the car. But then she got out of my car and into his.”

  “Whose?” I hoped I’d misunderstood.

  “The bad guy, I guess?” Jonathan tugg
ed on his shirt. He looked a little green. “While the guy and the cop were talking, Maggie ran around to the other side of the guy’s car and got into the back seat. She must have hunched down on the floor because I didn’t see her once he got driving again.”

  “What?” I yelled, acid eating away at my stomach over my complete fool of a sister. What in the world did she think she was doing? She was insane. And I was willing to bet she’d done this all to mess with me somehow. Oh, she was crazy. The rest of the room exploded in similar outrage, and poor Jonathan physically retreated as far back into the couch cushions as he could get.

  “I followed them!” Jonathan said. “I didn’t ditch Maggie. I followed them, but I guess I’m not as good at following people as she is. I lost them when they made it through a red light on Sunset, and I had to stop. I drove around looking, but I never found them. I’m so sorry, but I didn’t know he was a dangerous guy. I know Maggie didn’t know either. In fact,”—Jonathan cleared his throat—“I might as well tell you everything.” He grimaced. “Maggie didn’t believe that you and Gavin were really a couple,” he said bluntly. Sophie and Corey glanced from him to me.

  Jonathan continued. “She thought there was something off about Eden and Gavin’s relationship, and when she saw you chase after this guy, Eden, well, she thought you were cheating on Gavin with him. She said she was going after him to get the proof. And maybe get some dirt on you. She seemed like she really wanted to find out you’d done something wrong.”

  “Yeah, that’s how she is.” I waved away his discomfort and Sophie and Corey’s concern. Maggie always wanted to beat me, and I never knew what the race was. I sat there stumped. How was I going to find her? That insane freak of a sister of mine had just gotten herself into an unimaginable heap of trouble. Who knew what this bad guy would do to her when he found her?

  I looked around the room. Everyone else appeared as adrift as I was, except for Jonathan who looked sad and guilty. Poor kid. I bet he’d give anything for Maggie to have just gone to a movie with him tonight. Actually, he was probably wishing he’d never taken my call.

  I was dangerously close to throwing up, and my mouth was suddenly dry, but I managed to say, “I guess I should call the police, though I don’t know if they’ll do anything since Maggie’s an adult and hasn’t been missing for twenty-four hours. That’s what they say on CSI, right? Do you think they’ll believe me if I just say a bad guy has her?” Or maybe I should call Matthew. He was already looking for the guy.

  The doorbell rang, startling us all. I jumped up and ran to answer it, knowing it would be Maggie laughing her butt off at how worried she’d made me. I opened the door. Special Agent Matthew Hotness Decker was on my front step instead.

  “Hey.” The hint of a smile crinkled the corners of his eyes.

  The whisper of a smile began to dawn on my face as well. “Hey.” I took a deep breath. Just seeing him standing there was calming me down. My body swayed toward him an inch.

  “Welcome home.” He stuck his hands in his pockets.

  I held the door open for him. “Thanks. You too.”

  “Was Paris everything you wanted it to be?” He walked into the living room and paused, taking in the assembled parties. His eyes widened when they landed on his brother.

  “Jonathan? What the hell are you doing here?”

  “Hey, Matt.” Jonathan grimaced. “Uh…it’s a long story.”

  “He’s dating my sister. But I’m so glad you’re here! My sister—”

  “What?” Matthew jerked his head back and blinked. “My brother is dating your sister?”

  “Yeah, well, tonight was their first date, and it kind of went off the rails. You see—”

  “How did my brother start dating your sister? How did they even meet?” Matthew interrupted again.

  “I’ll answer your extremely valid questions some other time. Right now, I’m glad you’re here because my sister is missing, and she was last seen in the back seat of your bad guy’s car!”

  Matthew’s jaw dropped like I’d sucker punched him. “What do you mean?”

  “Jonathan and Maggie followed Gavin and me on our date tonight,” I said.

  Matthew narrowed his eyes and cast an appraising glance at Gavin, who gave Matthew half a nod.

  I continued. “When Maggie saw me duck out of the restaurant to get the guy’s license plate number, she decided to follow him in Jonathan’s car. With Jonathan.”

  “Why the hell would she do that?” Matthew asked.

  “Because she’s crazy. I don’t know. You can ask her when we find her.” It was starting to get hot. Or maybe it was just me. I fanned my face with my hand. “I guess a cop car pulled the guy over—so your plan for me to call it in seems to have worked—and while the guy and the cop were talking outside of the car, Maggie ducked into the back seat of your guy’s car.”

  “I tried to follow them,” Jonathan piped up, “but I lost them.” Color suffused his cheeks. “Sorry.”

  “So let me get this straight. Jonathan and your sister followed my chief suspect until he was stopped by the police, and then your sister got into his car without him knowing,” Matthew said.

  “That’s the gist of it.” I braced myself for his anger.

  A smile broke across Matthew’s intense face. “That’s fantastic.”

  “It is?”

  “Well, no, your sister is completely stupid for doing it, but it might help me out. You see, this ‘bad guy’ is in possession of stolen information from one of the largest tech companies in the country. He’s been trying to sell the plans for a micro-holographic cell phone to the highest bidder.”

  “How micro?” I asked, fascinated.

  “Very. You must have stumbled upon the buy tonight when you saw him at Nobu.” Matthew ran a hand down his stubbled jaw. “I could put out a warrant for his arrest since he stole the information, but he’d get a whole lot more jail time if I could catch him trying to sell it. Which, as you may remember, was what I was on the point of doing when I met you, Eden.”

  “I remember. Sorry. Again.”

  “Yeah, well, anyway, that’s why I had you call the local police. They stopped him for unsafe driving, but of course they had no reason to take him into custody. We don’t even know if he had the plans on him. I’d hoped it would slow him down so I could catch up and get a line on where he’s been hiding out. But I didn’t get there in time. I stopped by to thank you, though, since it helped to know what direction he was headed. But I didn’t expect this. Your sister there in his car is perfect.”

  “It is?” I wasn’t following.

  “Does she have a cell phone on her?”

  “I assume so.” I guess I should’ve thought to just call her when I’d heard she was missing, but if she was still in the bad guy’s car, the last thing I’d want would be to alert him to her presence.

  “Great! Let’s go find them,” Matthew said.

  “You don’t mean for Eden to go with you.” Gavin stood and squared up to Matthew. “That would be too dangerous.” Gavin put his arm around me. Protectively? Possessively?

  “I’m not suggesting she fire a weapon. I just assumed she’d want to be there when we find her sister,” Matthew said. “You can come too.” I wondered if Matthew wanted Gavin there to keep an eye on him. Wasn’t he part of this?

  “Uh, thanks,” Gavin said, startled. “But I can’t. I’ve got an early morning flight to Vietnam. And it looks like you’ve got things covered here.” He strode to the front door.

  “You’re leaving? Now?” My stomach lurched. I know my sister practically kidnapped herself, but it seemed insensitive for Gavin not to be more concerned. He should have wanted to be with me. This was a big deal.

  Matthew’s eyes met mine. “Okay,” he said to Gavin. He took my arm. “We’d better get going then, Eden. Every minute they could be getting farther away. And who knows if he’s discovered her yet.”

  “Okay.” I glanced at Gavin. I felt more than a little emotionally bankr
upted by him at the moment. He gave me a quick, awkward hug, making Matthew let go of my arm. Gavin kissed my cheek.

  “Quick question,” Corey piped up. We all turned to him. “Why does Eden get all the hot guys?” Sophie joke-punched him, and he slumped down into his seat.

  “I’ll call you.” Gavin squeezed my hand twice and let me go. “I want to hear how everything turns out.”

  From a safe distance. “Okay. See ya.”

  Gavin waved at me and left before anyone could say another word.

  “Can I go with you guys?” Sophie asked with too much enthusiasm, her eyes lingering on Matthew. I squinted at her. She caught my gaze and shrugged.

  “You’d better stay in case she comes back here,” Matthew told her.

  “What should I do?” Jonathan stood up. His forgotten keys fell to the floor. He picked them up and clutched them tightly.

  “Go home,” Matthew told him. “I’ll call and let you know what happens.”

  “I’ll stay with Sophie,” Corey said, “but you guys let us know if there’s anything we can do.”

  “Will do.” Matthew nodded to me, and I grabbed my coat out of the hall closet. Matthew took my arm and didn’t let go until he opened the car door for me, as if this were a date and not a mad dash to find my missing sister.

  I carefully got into the car, arranging my long black dress so it wouldn’t bunch up. Matthew waited as I tucked my skirt up next to me, clearing the way for the car door to close.

  “So how are we going to find them?” I asked once we were on our way.

  “We’re going to go to my office and get the StingRay. If Maggie has her cell phone with her, and if it’s on, then we’ll triangulate the signal and follow it to where she is. We’ll find her.”

  He didn’t say if she’s still alive, but that’s what I thought. I really should have been worrying about her before instead of thinking about how much she bugged me and how glad I was that she wasn’t around. Some sister I was. I just hadn’t pictured her ever doing something this crazy. She always put herself first. Self-preservation should have been a no-brainer. I guess she just didn’t know what she was getting into when she got into that guy’s car.