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Especially now, when she was head over heels for a guy who’d end up leaving her high and dry.
But this time she wasn’t sidelining her dreams or giving up her ambitions. She’d used the extra time off work to finish her homework and her semester project and to grill Lucas for information that should help her ace her final exam. For once a relationship was actually working in her favor.
“So what happened to make you leave Broadway?” he asked again, interrupting her self-congratulatory mental happy dance.
“Life. She has a way of stepping in and shaking things up, you know. I figure it’s her way of keeping us from getting too cocky.” She angled an arch look his way. “You should watch out. I’ll bet you’re due.”
“C’mon, tell me. You know everything about me,” he reminded her. “Including the sad fact that I wore a purple tuxedo to the prom.”
“It was closer to violet,” she observed. Then she shrugged. “It’s not a very exciting story. I was in a car accident. Busted my leg up pretty bad.”
He shot her a frown. “You didn’t call your parents? Go home, play good daughter for a while until you healed?”
“I called them,” she said stiffly.
“And?”
“They said I’d made my choice, now I could live with it.” Lara’s words were matter-of-fact. She’d expected nothing less, nothing more. After all, she’d left home for a reason. Why would her being gone change anything?
“Son of a bitch,” Dominic breathed. His fingers clenched, stretched then clenched again on the steering wheel. “Banks left you swinging in the wind, too?”
“Phillip?” Lara blinked. Had she ever considered calling him back then? She tried to remember, but didn’t recall that ever entering her head.
“You didn’t even ask him for help?”
“I never thought about it. He was always a toe-the-line kind of guy, though. No reason to think Prince Perfect would buck the company line.”
“That’s just sibling rivalry,” Dominic said with an indulgent glace that made Lara want to punch him. “Everyone who has brothers or sisters has that. Doesn’t mean he wouldn’t have helped you.”
She rolled her eyes. As if he had a clue?
“Enough talking about ancient history,” she dismissed with a wave of her hand. “Tell me what we’re going to do when we get to Southern California.”
He shot her a look that said he was doing her a favor but would be returning to the subject later. Fine. Lara knew how to dodge with the best of them.
“When we get to Southern California?” he mused. “We’re going to have sex. Lots and lots of crazy, wild sex.”
Sounded good to her.
10
WHAT A MONTH.
Two weeks ago, she hadn’t known Dominic Castillo existed.
Now she was sitting on a hotel terrace overlooking the Pacific Ocean, sipping coffee and debating her newfound attitude and how she felt about it.
Southern California’s much too laid-back attitude seemed to be rubbing off on her. Two days after arriving, he’d gone back on duty, but they still spent every night together, had gone sightseeing and spent glorious hours on the beach. Who knew she was crazy about the ocean? With Dominic on duty during the day, she had plenty of time to add extras to her final project. Nights were for wild sex, long walks on the beach and soulful talks. She figured the wild sex balanced out the cheesiness of the other two.
When Flo had called to reluctantly inform her that she’d been fired, Lara had just laughed.
Nibbling a strawberry, the sweetly tart juice exploding on her tongue, Lara watched the tiny surfers from afar.
Her landlord had left a message with Flo that she was evicted. Apparently he hadn’t found a body in her apartment so didn’t feel her excuse was justified and was keeping her deposit but throwing away her belongings. No biggie, since Lara didn’t figure they could scrape together enough of that mess to equal a single thing worth saving.
So she was jobless and homeless.
And she was oddly fine with that. It was as though a huge weight of obligation was gone. Of course, she had very little money and no apparent means of making more until she graduated. Since the internship paid jack, she’d have to find some way to cover the bills. But she couldn’t quite work up enough energy to worry.
Lara’s easy mood dimmed.
She was a little worried for her brother. Dominic had assured her over and over that Phillip was fine, that she just had to lay low a little longer while the team secured the situation. But now, after barely thinking about the guy more than a dozen times over the years, she was thinking of him daily. She could chalk that up to the situation. After all, it was because of him that she was here on this very balcony.
