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But he knew he couldn’t. He’d given his word. He’d made a commitment. He needed to see it through.
Keaton looked down at the pancakes. “Thanks, anyway.”
Avery smiled, but he saw a flash of disappointment in her eyes. “Anytime.”
“Bye, little man.” Keaton ruffled Jacob’s hair before being ushered out of the kitchen by Heather.
As she escorted him back to the bunk room, she explained, again, the ‘zone’ he was allowed to be in. He felt bad that he’d obviously caused her stress. He wasn’t trying to be a pain in the ass, but he didn’t necessarily regret it. Going rogue had allowed him to see Avery again, even if it was just for a few minutes. And he’d heard her laugh, which was a sound he wasn’t sure he’d ever have the pleasure of hearing again.
“Can I get you anything?” Heather asked as she dropped him back off at the room.
“No, I’m good. Thanks.”
The only thing he wanted was Avery.
10
The entire castlewas buzzing with excitement. There had been some filming the day before, but that had been more behind-the-scenes footage. Today was the first day the cast was actually going to meet each other.
Avery was doing her best to stay out of the way of production, which meant she was holed up in her office, which was just fine by her because she had a ton of work to do. She was putting together systems so that she would be able to seamlessly hand over the reins of her job to whoever her replacement was.
She hadn’t realized how much she was actually responsible for until she’d had to put everything together. It was no wonder she’d felt like she was always behind and wished she could clone herself. She was doing the job of five people.
Her mom had taken Jacob out for the day. They were going to a bouncy house gym to grab lunch and then to a movie. Avery had an entire day of uninterrupted time and planned to make the most of it.
So far, her mind had been a little preoccupied. All she could think about was Keaton walking into the kitchen with his shirt off.
The first time she’d seen him without a shirt, she’d had an Emma Stone moment fromCrazy, Stupid, Lovewhen Ryan Gosling takes his shirt off and she says he looks photoshopped. His unreal physique made sense five years ago because Keaton had been at the top of his MMA career having just won his third consecutive world championship. He’d been in peak athletic form.
But last night, she hadn’t been expecting what she’d seen. Somehow, someway, he’d gotten even sexier during retirement. His body was even more impressive now. So impressive, in fact, she’d forgotten where she was, what she was doing, or that anyone else existed.
It wasn’t until he spoke that she realized her son had jumped into his arms, and she was making him pancakes. Then, when Keaton had reached out and touched her face, she’d had another moment of total lust fog. His touch was so gentle, yet firm, just like she remembered it.
Thank god her son was there, because if he hadn’t been she might have stripped naked and begged him to take her on the counter. Which would have been embarrassing for a plethora of reasons. One, after remembering Keaton’s dating rules, she now knew for certain Keaton was not interested in her. Two, Heather showed up and she would have gotten quite the show if Avery had been left to her own devices. And third, unlike Keaton she wasnotin better physical form than the first time he’d seen her in her birthday suit. Between having a baby and running on junk food and four hours of night sleep most nights, her body was not in prime condition.
Avery looked down at the muffin top that sat on the waistline of her slacks. Maybe that was the reason Jude cheated on her…
No.She absolutely would not allow her brain to go down that road. Jude didn’t cheat on her because she’d put on fifteen pounds, and even if he had, that said more about him than it did about her.
He’d cheated on her because their relationship was void of love. It was void of friendship. The only thing they were good at was business. And even in that, they weren’t really in it together, they just happened to have complementary skill sets. Avery was good at the behind-the-scenes mechanics of keeping everything running, and Jude was good at networking and marketing himself and the hotels.
Over the past five years, her focus had solely been on building Jude’s family's brand. She’d put all of her energy, time, creativity, and brainpower into making their business as successful as she could. She hadn’t done it for Jude, she’d done it for Jacob. Her plan had been to build his legacy. Every late night she’d spent away from him, she’d told herself was worth it because of what he would inherit. She hadn’t had any sort of help in life. It had taken her fifteen years to pay off her student loans.
She didn’t want that for Jacob. She wanted more for him. It was the same reason that she’d almost walked down the aisle and married a man she didn’t love. So that Jacob could have the family that she’d never had. Which was clearly misguided.
How had she gotten it so wrong? How had she missed that the most important thing to Jacob would be time with her and that he would be happy if she was happy?
Her phone vibrated on her desk, and she turned off the alarm. She’d set it to the time she’d heard Sabrina was arriving. She still hadn’t told her friend that she was in Whisper Lake because she hadn’t wanted to answer questions about why she wasn’t on her honeymoon over the phone.
Avery stood and grabbed her keys. She checked her reflection in the mirror hanging on the wall before heading out, just in case she ran into Keaton in the halls. Last night, she’d looked like a total disaster, so today she’d gotten up extra early to blow dry her hair and put on a little makeup, in case she saw him again.
Just because nothing could happen between them, didn’t mean she wanted to look like a troll when he saw her.
As she got to the end of the hall, she heard Sabrina’s voice. She walked into the foyer and her friend’s back was to her as she spoke to Maura.
“That’s fine. She can make all the demands she wants. She is not going to hold this production hostage. You tell her that we’re providing makeup and hair for the balls, but not every day. It was in her contract. We can email her a copy of it if she wants.”
In what felt like conversational Double Dutch, Avery waited for a break in Sabrina’s rant to jump in and surprise her friend.
