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“I’ll grab us both one.” She bumps me out of the way and walks inside to help herself. I hear a honk and look over my shoulder at a car pulling into my driveway.
Allie.
Every part of me freezes into a solid block of oh, fuck.
“She came,” I murmur as she climbs from the car and runs to meet me. Even after considering she might, it didn’t occur to me that she really would. She’s standing on the lawn looking up at me, my cellphone in her hand.
“Jax.”
“Allie.”
She doesn’t climb the porch’s stairs and launch into my arms. She doesn’t say more. She simply offers my cellphone and I accept it, noticing she doesn’t touch me when she does.
“I’m sorry about the video.” She peers up at me, wary. “I didn’t mean for you to walk in on that. I was going to tell you after.”
“After what?” Is she sorrier that I interrupted or that I showed up at all?
“After the stunt Xavier pulled. I didn’t know he was going to film me, but the second I saw the cameraman I knew what I had to do.”
I say nothing as I power on my phone.
“I tried to guess the passcode but couldn’t,” she says, then continues. “Jax, I fucked up.”
At her bald pronouncement I look down at her standing on my lawn, her shorts short and her T-shirt tight and her tennis shoes buried in my overgrown grass because I haven’t had a chance to mow. Lately, what time hasn’t been taken up by work has been taken up by her.
“I shouldn’t have asked you to bail me out. I should’ve walked outside and told Xavier it was over and that we were over from the moment he stole Millie’s Oscar.”
I nod, knowing what she’s saying but at the same time not sure why she’s saying it.
“But I told Catarina Everhart.”
My phone vibrates in my hand and text messages and missed calls light the screen. One name in particular catches my attention, and I tap the bubble with Barrett Fox’s name on it.
“ ‘My girl saved your girl’s ass,’ ” I read aloud. “That’s from Barrett. What’d you tell Catarina Everhart exactly?”
“She said the article was going up as a special report tonight. She was writing it when I left. There was smoke coming off the keyboard she was typing so fast.”
Her eyes snap over my shoulder and she smiles tentatively. “Hi, Julieann.”
Jules hands me a beer and palms my shoulder, promising she’s nearby if I need her. Then she walks into the house without a word to Allie.
“Jules is concerned,” I explain. “Can I grab you a beer?”
Allie shakes her head.
I crack the can and take a long swallow, but it doesn’t taste good. I set it on the railing. “Thanks for bringing my phone,” I say, sliding it into my pocket. “I hope Catarina helped you out.”
“I don’t know if she did or not. My agent is going to freak. Xavier is going to freak. I have no idea if the scandal will sweep me away with it or not.” She takes a tentative step closer to me. “And I don’t care.”
My heart is thudding loud enough that I can hear the blood rushing past my eardrums.
“I love you, too, Jax.”
The world stops. I shake my head, confused and possibly imagining things. Which was how I felt this morning when I pulled into Allie’s parents’ driveway and saw her in Xavier’s arms.
“I love you more than Hollywood,” Imaginary Allie says now. “More than myself. More than I used to and that was a lot. A whole lot.”
My hands are sweating and my brain is scrambled. I continue staring down at her, mute, considering all the possibilities. I blink hard but Imaginary Allie doesn’t vanish. She’s real. She’s standing in my front yard declaring her love for me. She loves me.
