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“I think maybewe should get dressed,” Chris said, and Bronte frowned, confused by his sudden change in demeanor but slipped on her leggings and sweatshirt, forgoing her bra and underwear as he dressed completely. Taking her hands between his, he pulled her back down next to him, though he focused on the floor instead of her.
“What is it?” she asked.
He didn’t answer, and she wiggled her fingers in his palms. When he finally looked up, his eyebrows were drawn together. “I was on the phone all day with Wes and Tom.”
“Tom, your agent?”
“Yeah. I’m going back to LA.”
“Okay.” She knew he had to at some point. “When?”
“Today.”
But not that soon. “Oh.” She blew out a breath from her bottom lip, and a few wisps of hair flew away from her face. “Okay. Do you have meetings or something?”
“Yeah, and preproduction stuff.”
“I thought…I thought you said you weren’t needed for most of that.”
“I’m not, but I’ve got a special trainer to help me out, and I need to get my head back into my work. I can’t be distracted.”
She swallowed. “I’m a distraction?”
He shifted closer. “No. What? No. Bronte—”
“You just said—”
“You are not a distraction,” he said, letting go of her hands to run his fingers through his hair and over his neck. “But you know what people think about me. I need to prove to the studio heads I’m a safe bet again.”
She appreciated that but still didn’t know what that had to do with her. “You told me you wanted to be with me for the foreseeable future.”
“I do,” he said earnestly.
“I thought that you wanted to be with me for as long as possible before you had to leave.”
“I did. I do.” His use of the past tense didn’t escape her, and it was like a punch in the gut. “I do want to be with you, but I think it would be best if I go back now. There are pictures of us all over the internet.”
“I don’t get it.” She shook her head, so lost with all of this.
“It’s out. Who I am, and where I am.”
“I don’t care about that.”
“This isn’t coming out right,” he said and stopped to take a deep breath. He hugged her close, running his hand through her now-messy hair. “I know you don’t care, and that’s why I love you, but it’s only a matter of time before they start coming after you. Your life won’t be yours anymore, and I won’t let that happen. If I go back to California, it won’t. “
She pushed against him. “Am I missing something? You say you love me, but you have to leave. You told me filming doesn’t start until next month.” When he nodded, she stood up, her hands pointing to the sofa. “You just… We just…” Her voice broke, and she spun away from him, hurt by this sudden news and embarrassed to be so panicked about it. She’d known all along he would have to leave; he had a job to do. She only assumed they would have more time. She wasn’t prepared for the shock of it. “So, what was that? Goodbye and good luck?”
Chris stood, grabbing her shoulders. “That’s not what that was, and you know it. I don’t want to leave, but you get why I should, right? I have to think about what’s best for you, your job—”
“How about us? What’s good for us?”
“What’d happen when random people start calling you, asking for interviews? When photographers start showing up across the street from your school for pictures, hanging around your parents’ house? I know how this goes, Bronte, and I don’t want that for you.”
She’d never thought about the possible consequences of dating someone famous, but there was no reason why they shouldn’t have been able to talk about this. To work it out. “You aren’t even giving me a choice in this. We should have talked about this. You should have told me what you were thinking.” Her heart rate spiked. “But you left me out of the decision. You’re leaving, and that’s it.”
“That’s not it.” He wrapped his palm around the nape of her neck, and she closed her eyes, calming down under his touch. “It’s not like I’m going to outer space. People do long-distance relationships all the time. I know what you went through before with Hunter, but I promise I will do whatever I have to do to make this work.” He pressed their foreheads together. “We’ll work out times to talk and FaceTime, and—” he broke away from her with a gasp like he had a sudden bright idea “—let’s share a calendar. You’ll be able to see what I’m doing every day, and we can pick out some days you can visit. Or, I can probably find some time to come back here.”
