Page 19 of Promise Not to Fall for the Rich & Famous

“And I’m not a fan of blue cheese…” He tipped his head to one side, enjoying the light in her eyes as she considered.

“Fine.” She pushed her plate toward him and pulled his closer. The burger looked much bigger in her small hands as she lifted it off the plate. “Count of three?”

He grinned. He couldn’t help it. She was a lot of fun. “One. Two. Three.” He took a nice sized bite of the burger, enjoying the taste of bacon mixed with the charred patty. He didn’t love the hints of blue cheese he detected, but he didn’t hate them either.

“That’s not bad,” he said after wiping his mouth with a napkin.

Carly waved a hand in front of her pinched-up face and reached for her drink. She didn’t stop drinking until the straw gurgled amidst the cubes at the base. She set the glass down with wide eyes. “I can’t believe you can eat that.”

Gage glanced down at the burger to see where she’d taken a bite. “That’s tiny,” he said. “You took the teeniest bite.”

She waved her face some more and shoved the plate back toward him. “Good thing. I’d be dumping this ice on my head if I ate any more.”

He chuckled. “Some like it bland, I guess.” He wiggled his brows. “Some like it spicy.”

“Thisis not bland. It’s amazing.” She took another bite of her own burger, and Gage did the same, realizing that things had shifted right back to the magnetic energy between them.

“So,” she said after their refills came. “Tell me why you don’t have a girlfriend.”

Gage lifted a brow. “I never said I didn’t.”

Carly didn’t even blink. “You wouldn’t have asked if I was dating someone if you had a girlfriend. Or invited me to lunch.” She glanced up at him while dunking a fry. “I hope.”

“You’re right.” He was grateful that—while his dating history wasn’t filled with success stories—it wasn’t as dark as Carly’s seemed to be. “Having Mark Craven as your dad, it um… affects things like the kind of women who are attracted to you and why.”

She lifted her chin and made a noise of enlightenment. “Ah, I see. So you attract women who just want to use you to get to your dad.”

“Basically. And it seems to scare off all the normal ones in the process. I try to give women the benefit of the doubt. But then they’ll start asking when they can meet my father. Or if we can go see him on the set of his current movie, which isn’t always in Hollywood, despite what they might think.”

Carly’s shoulders fell. “That sucks.”

He nodded. “Yep. That’s why I kind of keep women at arms length lately. LA is filled with a lot of Hollywood hopefuls. I look forward to working toward my graduate degree. I’ll be going to Berkley for that.”

“Hmm.” Carly lifted her legs onto her chair and tucked them crisscross beneath her. “So you reallydowant to finish school after your acting stint?”

He nodded, glad she was taking him more seriously than she had yesterday. “Very much. Architecture is where my passion is. I go to a concert hall to see my favorite rock band, and half the time I’m more fascinated with the structure or the way the acoustics resonate in places so massive. Not that I want to design arenas like that.”

“What do you want to do? Homes?”

“Myownhome one day, yes, but I really want to design medical facilities that incorporate a lot of light and nature. I plan to team up with a skilled set of landscapers and turn some of those cold and sterile buildings into places that offer beauty in those dark, difficult times.”

Carly grinned. “That’s awesome,” she said. “What made you want to do that?”

“I think it goes back to when my grandmother was dying. I went with my mother quite a bit, and we went from one facilityto the next. Most were hideous, from my perspective anyway, as a child.

“My grandma was dying, my mother was miserable, and it seems like most places offered the same greenish-gray, florescent lighting with windowless walls, scuffed floors, and thick, drab curtains. One place we went to though, it was really nice. It was a specialty clinic outside of town. I’ve since discovered who designed it, but anyway, it was bright in there since the structure let in so much light. And it was surrounded by tall green trees with a ton of unique birds. My mom and I, we even took a walk through the garden and it was really peaceful. It countered my mom’s anxiety a lot and just helped her to calm down.”

“Wow,” Carly said softly. She reached across the table and rested a hand over his. “I’m sorry for teasing you about not following through with your degree. I can see that you have a real love for what you’re doing. I admire that.”

“Thank you.” A new surge of warmth pulsed through him at her touch. But even more affecting were the words she’d shared. He hadn’t realized how much he’d needed the encouragement. After all the doubts and jeers he’d received from his old man about getting that degree, it felt nice to have someone say they believed in him. Someone besides his mother.

He flipped his hand over so they were palm to palm, and gave her a squeeze. “Christian told me that you’re an elementary school teacher, right?”

She grinned. “Right.”

“He also told me you’re from California, like me. What part?”

“Walnut Creek.”