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“Lauren and I text almost every day.” About life in general and how much she disrespects Xavier for turning on me. She doesn’t know I didn’t swipe the Oscar, but she’s on my side like a good friend should be. “Shan and Kate are keeping their distance.”
I don’t fault them for it. Not really. They both are on track to star in a reboot of Practical Magic, and they don’t want to appear guilty by association with the press. They’re also super supportive whenever an interviewer asks them about it. I saw a segment on E! News where they declined to comment on the incident. Shan stated, “Nina is a dear friend,” and said no more.
“Don’t worry about any of this,” Meredith tells me. “Xavier’s schedule is open so we can roll with the public reconciliation sooner rather than later, which I’d recommend. It’ll pad the audition for the new show. There’s a movie premiere for Millie’s new feature—”
“No,” I blurt out, stunning my agent into silence.
“No?” she manages after a gap of time passes.
“I’m not coming back to California. Not yet. I’ll have to think about the audition.”
“There’s nothing to think about, Nina. They love you. They want you.”
“Or they want attention for the casting call.” I can picture me showing up with a bunch of fresh-faced actresses hoping to make it big. Or worse, it’ll be a show where they cast me first and then the other girls’ careers and the success of the show will be on my shoulders. What if it’s canceled? Pilot shows crash and burn all the time. If that happens I’ll be Nina Lockhart, Oscar-napper and bad-luck charm. No, thanks. “I’m not ready. I’m not in a good place right now.”
“Honey.” Meredith does her forced-sympathy thing. My agent is a bulldog, which is why I hired her. I know she cares about her clients—her all-business persona is more about her belief that time is money, but she seems to remember my personal welfare as an afterthought. “What’s going on with you? You took a hiatus, you’re being photographed with a hunky hometown boy your public loves, and now you’re…oh. Oh. Oh no.”
I bristle, knowing she’s figured it out.
“Nina. Is what’s going on with you and the blue-collar guy serious?”
She said the word “serious” like there’s a positive pregnancy test in the bathroom trash can. By those standards…
“No. Of course not!” I protest a little too vehemently.
“You swear?”
“I swear. He’s an ex-boyfriend, and I’ll fully admit that I’ve had fun kissing him for show, but behind closed doors he knows the drill. This is an act. What we’re doing is for the publicity. He picked up two new jobs since we were photographed next to his work truck. The benefits of being seen together are mutual.”
“That’s what I like to hear.” Meredith is back to business with her next breath. “A reconciliation between you and Xavier is nonnegotiable. The public loves a love story and you two have broken everyone’s heart by being apart.”
Funny how everyone’s heart is broken except for mine. I don’t even miss him.
“Nina, he threw me under the bus. I can’t trust him.”
“You don’t have to trust him. You have to appear with him a few times. Be seen going home with him a few times. Go out to lunch with him a few times.”
“That’s a lot of times,” I grumble. “Sounds like I’ll be dating him again for real.”
“Think of it like a part. And when you two are through ironing over this mess, you can walk away if that’s what you want. Or…”
“Or?” I ask after she takes a meaningful pause.
“Or you might determine that you’re better off together after your time apart and live happily ever after.”
“Happily ever after,” I repeat, but my mind isn’t on Xavier McCormack, my mind’s on another guy and the possibility of us deciding we’re better off together after our time apart. Are Jackson and I capable of a happily ever after when we’ve been through so much?
“It’s Hollywood, sweetheart, anything can happen.”
I’m listening to dead air a moment later when Meredith ends the call without warning. I sigh and drop my phone on the counter, starting as a low voice cuts through the air.
“You know, I offer a discount for referrals.”
I spin to find Jax standing in the kitchen, handsome and sure in his standard jeans and tee. He stopped by to check that everything was finished with the remodel, including the freshly dried paint on the newly repaired hole in the walk-in closet that Daryl fixed yesterday.
“If you need a remodeled closet or kitchen, let me know.” In a reverse situation from yesterday, Jax overheard too much.
“That was my agent.”
