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I cheered. I was happy for him, happy to have been a part of the crowd and happy to have shared in the excitement from those around me.
But I wasn’t happy knowing E would stop at nothing until she got an answer from me.
Chapter 13
Jake
Seattle
I was currentlybeing eyed. Judged even. It was sort of a crap shoot with Meryl. A single look could have a myriad of emotions behind it. But it was the almost imperceptible tick at the corner of her mouth that gave her away.
“Sometimes you make my job feel like a job,” she chastised.
My hand closed around my coffee mug and I smiled at her. “You love it and I’ve done nothing to make yourjobany more difficult than it was last week,” I reminded her.
We were eating breakfast in my room and apparently it had been an opportune time for her to dig deeper about Lucy.
I knew she was doing what she was paid to do, and if I was being honest, Meryl was like an aunt; she cared and underneath her no nonsense exterior, she truly was looking out for me.
I should have been less surprised when she bluntly demanded, “Are you and the photographer an item?”
Immediately slipping into my interview persona, I fielded her question like a pro: with deflection. “You know, I never hounded you for personal information about Shelly,” I pointed out, referring to her wife, whom I adored.
“That’s not the same and you know it, Jake. Shelly is a national treasure—everyone loves her. But you,” she emphasized, “you are my job and that encompasses everything you do, everyone you’re close to, and everyone you choose to date.” She harumphed for good measure.
I took a bite of my egg white omelet, not answering her.
Meryl pushed her scrambled eggs around her plate, not having eaten any. “How am I supposed to handle the paparazzi? And youknowI don’t like being blindsided by the press. What if it comes up in tomorrow’s interview?”
All fair points, but the truth was, what was I supposed to tell her? Lucy and I weren’t dating. We’d shared a kiss. A wonderful, amazing, earth-shattering kiss that left me wondering what would have happened if we hadn’t stopped.
There was no way I’d tell Meryl how desperately I had wanted to kiss Lucy the entire night. There, in the darkness with our backs against the cool stone wall of the castle. There, where she had been so carefree and passionate about her talent. There, where I opened up about the difficult side of show business. There, where she regarded me with a tenderness and understanding.
For the first time, I felt like someone was seeing me for who I truly was. All the pretenses and guards I kept in place had dissolved slowly. I felt comfortable and safe like if I were to tell her my deepest secret, she’d guard it with her life because that was the kind of woman she was.
And I certainly wouldn’t tell Meryl about what transpired between Lucy and I once we got back to the hotel. I hadn’t planned on kissing her as we rode the elevator to her floor. I simply had wanted to spend more time with her.
If the tension in the elevator hadn’t been palpable enough, walking beside her was. Discreetly, I inched closer to her, enough to smell the lingering scent of coconut with each step she took.
In the seconds it took her to find her keycard, I’d made my mind up. I had to kiss her. I had to know what she tasted like, how she felt against me.
Lucy’s skin was velvety under my touch as I slid my hand against her elegant jawline. Her pupils had grown large enough that the only color remaining was a sliver of ice blue.
If my intentions hadn’t been clear, I told her I was going to kiss her. She leaned into me. As she did, I pulled her closer until we were sharing each other’s breath and space. I tasted the residual sweetness from the candy as our lips touched.
It hadn’t mattered that we were in a dimly lit hallway and not somewhere sweepingly romantic. We were two people that were grounded completely and wholly in that moment, sharing in something profound and a hell of a lot deeper than I’d ever experienced before.
So, no. I wasn’t about to tell any of that to Meryl.
“Have I ever given you a reason to not be prepared for the press?” I countered, looking at her with what I hoped was my best puppy dog face. It was the look I’d reserved for whenever I’d gotten in trouble with my mom—it worked every time.
Meryl pressed her lips together and looked to the side, making a show of thinking about my question.
“That’s what I thought. Now listen,” I told her, dabbing my mouth with my linen napkin, “if anything should come up, you’ll be the first to know, ok?” She opened her mouth and anticipating it before she could voice her concerns, I stated, “Lucy and I have a mutual connection through Liam, so it’s inevitable that we will be together at some point in the future.Mutual acquaintancebeing the preferred term,” I stressed.
She stood and nodded. “For now…” she added under her breath.
I secretly hoped she was wrong.
