Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 83986 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 420(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83986 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 420(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
“I think you’ll regret it if—”
“No, I won’t,” he replied, sliding his arm around my waist and easing me closer to him. “Meeting you changed everything, and really, I want to be alone with you for the few days I have left until I have to resume my shooting schedule.”
“I don’t want you to regret bailing on the wedding.”
“It’s not like I’m giving the bride away, and as I’m paying for everything, I feel like that’s enough, you know? I want to go home, and I want to take you with me.”
“You want to take me home to your big house in Malibu?”
“Yes. That’s what I want. You’re going to love it there, and when I’m done filming, I’ll come see your house in Highland Park and meet all your people, all right? I really do want to do that, meet your family, your friends, but right now… I want to be alone with you. I need that time, just the two of us.”
I did too. “That sounds perfect.”
His smile was instant. “You’re saying yes?”
Grinning back, I nodded. “I’m saying yes. But you’re the one who has to tell Gemma we’re leaving.”
“Wait now,” he said, looking concerned.
I was laughing softly as I snuggled in against him, loving the closeness, loving even more when he wrapped me in his arms. The man was all over me all the time, and I never realized how much I wanted that. He was made for me. The first time I took his hand and he squeezed back, things had changed for me. I was on a whole new path, and he was there with me. Wherever we were going, it would be together.
“You know there are perks to falling in love with a movie star.”
I groaned and rolled over, facing away from him.
“You’ll get to go to all the awards shows with me and meet all the big stars.” He spooned me, pressed up tight, rubbing his face into my hair. “You don’t have to wait for tables at restaurants, and they always bring your car up first at valet.”
“Stop,” I said, chuckling.
“There are lots of things, but do you know what the best one is?”
“I do actually.”
“You do?” He sounded surprised.
“Yeah,” I said softly. “I get to be the keeper of his wonderful, loving heart.”
After a moment, he slipped his arm across my chest and snuggled in just a bit tighter. “You certainly are,” he said gruffly, clearly touched. “I’m all yours, and I’m ready for our next adventure.”
And so was I.
THIRTEEN
As expected, the worst part of leaving was saying goodbye to the Cushing family. Gemma cried while I hugged her and rubbed her back, and I promised I would see her as soon as I got home.
“She’ll remember, you know,” Joey warned me. “She remembers stuff all the time that you think a little kid would never.”
Since he was a little kid as well, I found his concern adorable.
Ash, who was a very smart man, gave Gemma a small solid-gold lapel pin that he told her was mine, and pinned it on her sweater.
“This way, you’ll always have Cooper with you,” he told her.
She was thrilled. Ainsley was not.
“You realize,” she told me in confidence as we were waiting for the bride and her wedding party and friends to return from the early morning boat trip, “that he’s now given me a small thing I have to keep track of in the laundry.”
“Yeah, well, she’s happy,” I said, smiling as I watched her and Ash standing near the patio doors, him holding her as they looked at the boats in Penobscot Bay together.
“Yes, but I’m going to have to unpin and pin it, and—”
“Never mind, look,” I whispered, bumping her, tipping my head toward the entrance to the lobby, where the women who had gone out on the early morning boat ride were staggering in.
“Holy shit,” Ainsley said under her breath, trying really hard not to smile. “They look like ass.”
Wet, with windblown hair, but not in a sexy way, more in a convertible-without-a-scarf way. Many made it as far as the couches and collapsed. I noted that not one of them took off their sunglasses.
Sienna looked the best out of the entire bedraggled mob, and that was not saying much. She didn’t stagger, she was shuffling, and crossed the lobby toward us. Bentley ran by her to the bathroom, while Jennifer didn’t make it and threw up into a trash can near the concierge desk. What was impressive was that it was one of those with the hole in the side, so she had to tip it to make sure she didn’t splatter.
“Was it worth it?” Ainsley asked Sienna as she reached us, shaking her head.
“Most were still drunk when we left,” she told her. “Every one of us, including me, is hungover, and yes, it was so worth it, because I had an epiphany this morning.”