AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I love you, Taryn Lynn Mitchell,” he said with a smile.
“I love you too, Ryan William Christensen.”
Although I thought I had been in love before with other men, never did those three little words mean so much to me as they did at this moment with this man. The feelings that flowed between us were natural and effortless; as easy as breathing.
While he was kissing me, I heard his stomach growl loudly. “We better get inside for dinner.” I pulled him by the hands.
“You know, when you walked away with your keys I thought you were planning on speeding off in your car.”
“No!” I laughed. “I actually got you a birthday present today. There’s no way I can get it home without you seeing it, so I thought I’d just give it to you now.” I unlocked the car and he let go of my hand.
“I got it at the antiques store down the road. I hope you like it.”
“Wow! Look at this! It’s an old Gibson!” His fingers strummed over the strings, but his cell phone buzzing in his pocket distracted him. “Ahh, I just turned the damn thing on and already it’s ringing.”
“Hello? Who is this? Oh… what?” Ryan was short with whoever was on the other line. He turned his shoulder away from me, dropping his voice to a whisper. “I thought I made things perfectly clear the last time we had this conversation. I told you… things have changed. Then stop calling me,”
he said quite callously.
He turned his phone off and walked a few feet away before noticing that I wasn’t following him. He held his hand out to me and waited until I caught up, silently towing me towards the house.
“Are you two all right?” Ellen asked when we entered the kitchen.
“Yeah, Mom. Taryn and I had some things to discuss that were more important than dinner.” He picked a piece of fish off of the plate and shoved it in his mouth. “See this?” he whispered in my ear. “Family, peace, no screaming fans, no security, home-cooked meals, normalcy. This is what I want. This is what I miss.”
“I’m glad to hear that,” I said. “Because it’s the only way I know.”
After dinner, I grabbed some blankets and with two open bottles of wine we made our way out to the backyard. Ryan and his father threw more logs on the fire, setting a nice blaze in the fire pit. Millions of stars dotted the clear sky.
I took Ryan’s guitar and softly played a few chords.
“What are you playing?” Ryan asked.
“Nothing… I just had some lyrics in my head.”
We took turns playing, each of us adding to the melody.
We were trying to come up with words that rhymed. After an hour, we had written part of a song… our song.
“When is your next movie going to start filming, Son?” Bill asked.
Ryan stopped playing. “Rehearsals start January 3rd. I’ll be filming in Miami for almost three months,” he said as he looked over at me.
“What’s the movie called?” Bill continued.
“It’s called Thousand Miles. It’s already been scheduled to be released by next November, I guess right around Thanksgiving again.”
“What’s the movie about?” his mother asked, filling her wineglass.
“It’s a drama about an FBI agent,” he pointed to himself, “who volunteers to drive his best friend’s sister to see her fiancé who lives in the Florida Keys. It turns out that the fiancé is a serial rapist who’s on the run. My character is falling in love with her the entire trip.”
“Who are you going to be working with on this film?” Ellen asked. “Any other big names we might know?”
“The only other part that I know that’s been cast is the lead actress. I’ll be working with Lauren. Lauren Delaney,” he quickly added.
The sip of wine I was taking instantly burned my throat. Lauren? Like ex-girlfriend Lauren?
The way he said her name gave me the impression that he expected his mother to know who he was talking about.
Instantaneously, my eyes shot over to his mother to see her reaction. Her expression was a dead give-a-way; the mix of shock and panic was evident.
Chapter 22 - Protected
We drove directly to the airport from the cabin. Even though we were two hours northwest of Seaport, we were only forty-five minutes west of Providence. Ryan made sure to mention that out loud.
Since it was known that the airport in Providence was the entry/exit point for our visiting celebrities, several paparazzi were on guard… waiting for any celebrity to pop up on their radar. Ryan knew what was waiting for us so we said most of our verbal goodbyes in the car on the way.
