AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Maybe,” Maggie said, trying to look Cole in the eyes instead of staring at the divot at the bottom of his neck.
It was a compelling neck notch, if a bit lawyerly. It’d probably get a deal for its own Videon series soon: Cole James’s Neck Notch asErnest Osting, Esq.Maggie would watch it.
But Cole, unaware of his sexy-as-fuck neck notch, wasn’t hearing the warning in Maggie’s voice. “It’s perfect.”
“I can see the logic of what you’re saying, but—”
“Nobut.” He edged closer. “Itisa good idea.”
Unlike, say, the way Maggie knew she was looking at Cole. That was fruitless and pointless and unprofessional. And if it felt sometimes as if Maggie might perish from the wanting, then it was a good thing she was an adult, a both-feet-on-the-ground, head-firmly-on-her-shoulders adult, who knew you couldn’t die from feelings.
Maggie suddenly had more sympathy for all the students who, over the years, had sobbed at her desk about their breakups and crushes.
Right on, kids. Unrequited love is the worst.
“You can suggest it to her, but you have to let her take the lead. If she thinks it’s a terrible idea, you have to be willing to let it go.”
“Oh, I can be Elsa if necessary.”
But Maggie wasn’t so sure he could. Cole was not good at being icy or running away. Between him and Tasha, he was far more Anna than the Snow Queen.
When Cole and Maggie started to weave through the thicket of chairs, he moved an empty one out of the way and gestured for Maggie to go first. And there went her heart again, building the bonfire and getting out the fixings for s’mores, perfectly willing to liquefy for him right there.
Maggie knew Cole meant the gesture in the kindest, most chivalrous, most friendly manner possible, andthat was all. Sure, it could be taken in another way—a hotter, more intimate way—but Maggie had to accept that it was mere politeness, even if his carefulness with her, his awareness of her, made compartmentalizing her feelings for him almost impossible.
“Have you chatted with that journalist yet?” Cole took his seat next to Maggie and across from Tasha. “The one doing the set visit?”
“The woman or the man?” Tasha picked at something on her cuticle.
“Either.”
“Nope, but I think it’s on my schedule tomorrow. It’s fucking exhausting, if you ask me. This thing isn’t going to drop for a year, eighteen months—whenever they decide to release it. Why do we have to start promoting the show now? Don’t we have enough to deal with?”
Maggie had no idea how actors handled it—the hours the leads worked, the amount of promo and press that was in their contracts, the day-to-day crappiness of fame. She’d decided in her late teens that while she loved theatre, she had no interest in pursuing it professionally. She’d had no idea how wise that decision was until she’d seen the machine up close. It was hard to cry too hard for people in gilded cages, but Maggie could see the cage part more than the gilt these days.
“Well, doing some promo now saves us from having to do more later,” Cole said.
“Except it’s really both, isn’t it?” Then Tasha pulled the rug out from under her best friend. “But you know, as long as they’re here, I was thinking ... What if I told one of them—probably her—about a certain asshole we all know?”
Cole’s expression of surprise would’ve been funny if the subject hadn’t been so serious. Tasha Russell was, as ever, smarter than anyone around her gave her credit for being.
“I don’t know,” Cole managed to get out.
“You think it’s a bad idea?” Tasha asked.
“No, it’s worth considering.” Maggie certainly understood where Cole was going with this plan. Ever since Tasha had shared what had happened duringCosa Nostra, Maggie had wondered about who else Vincent might have done that to. Who else might have experienced other shitty behavior from him. And what could be done about it.
A public accounting of Vincent’s grossness wasn’t much. But it wasn’t nothing.
At least if it was what Tasha wanted.
“Agreed,” Cole said. “I’m not saying you have to tell Libby, but she might hear about Vincent’s visit.”
Zoya hadn’t made any kind of announcement about it. She hadn’t saidHey, don’t talk to the press about that breakdown that we never explained or acknowledged in any way. They were essentially relying on the discretion of the key crew members who’d been present, which was a lot to ask.
About that point, at least, Cole was right.
“So I might as well try to get ahead of the gossip?” Tasha’s gaze swept over Ryan, Cole, and Maggie.
