AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Callie eyed his burger with a raised eyebrow. “You’re serious with that?”
“I haven’t eaten dinner yet.”
“We just ate all that popcorn.”
“That wasn’t dinner.” He hefted the burger and took a large bite. “But if we’re judging, you’re serious with the decaf coffee?”
Her mouth twitched. “Touché. I apologize. Far be it from me to come between a man and his cheeseburger.”
Jake nodded his forgiveness and bit into the burger again.
“So will you tell me the long story of why you’re back in Bliss Cove?” Callie took a sip of her coffee.
“Yeah, but I’ll give you the short version.” He dipped a fry in ketchup. “My agent is in the middle of negotiating my contract for the nextFatal Glorymovie, and I got into some trouble with the media.”
Callie’s brows rose. “What kind of trouble?”
“My sister Pam and I were out for dinner at a restaurant on Sunset Boulevard.” Old anger simmered in his chest. “She’d just told me the previous night that she was pregnant, so we talked a lot about her plans, name ideas, that kind of thing. But someone tipped off the press that I was there, and when we left, a huge crowd of paparazzi was waiting.”
He paused and shook his head, his jaw tightening. “I’m used to it…sometimes…but Pam isn’t. And they were especially aggressive because they’d heard I was holding out for a huge pay increase forFatal Glory 7. So they were shoving and yelling questions about the contract and shit…and of course the flashbulbs were blinding, and then a crowd of spectators and fans showed up, shouting for autographs and selfies…anyway, it got insanely chaotic really fast. Pam was getting scared, and the fucking restaurant wouldn’t call security to help us get to the car.”
“Why on earth not?”
“Because they’d been the ones to call the press in the first place.Theywanted the publicity.” Bitterness scraped his throat. “So this one tabloid asshole got into Pam’s face with the camera and yelling stupid questions—are you Jake’s new girlfriend? Are you in his next movie? How long have you been dating?I warned him to back off, and he got nasty. Shoved his way forward and tripped over a step. He plowed right into Pam and knocked her over. The only thing I saw was her lying on the ground, holding her abdomen, and the bastard still taking pictures of her.
“I saw red and just lost it. Yanked the guy back and punched him in the face. He went down like a rag doll. Andthatwas when security arrived…except they came after me instead of the fucking paparazzi.”
He took a swallow of water, smothering latent rage. “Of course, it ended up all over the internet. Photos of me taking the swing. The guy with a bloody nose. Interviews with wait staff saying I was drunk, which was a lie, and then another with some low-life production assistant from my last movie who gave them some crap about myanger issues. You can look it all up.”
“I don’t want to.” Her voice was quiet, and she reached across the table to rest her hand on his arm. “I’m so sorry that happened. Was Pam okay?”
He nodded. “Physically, she was fine, but she was upset. Still is. My PR rep Susan and I issued a statement owning up to what I did and also telling the truth, but it was overshadowed by the reporter threatening to press charges. That would obviously make things worse, especially in the middle of theFatal Glorynegotiations. So I got exiled until things settle down and my agent and the studio work out the contract details.”
He stirred the chocolate shake with his straw and gave a humorless laugh. “Okay, so that wasn’t the short version after all.”
“So why did you come back to Bliss Cove?” Callie rested her arms on the table and leaned closer. “Why not go off to some Caribbean island or…I don’t know. Shanghai?”
Jake shrugged. He didn’t even have an answer for himself, let alone anyone else. Let alone Callie Prescott, who’d always known where she was going and always had her shit together, even in times of crisis like when her father died.
He wiped his mouth with a napkin and tossed it beside his plate. “You ready to leave?”
“You’re not going to finish?”
“I’ll take the milkshake to go.” Jake dug into his pocket for his wallet and headed to the register to pay, adding an excessively generous tip.
After pouring the milkshake into a plastic cup another waitress gave him, he started back to the table just as Grant came out of the kitchen. Catching the other man’s eye, Jake nodded in both acknowledgement and thanks. Grant responded with a tilt of his chin.
It was the male equivalent of an outright hug.
After Jake held Callie’s jacket for her—again resisting the urge to tug her hair from the collar—they walked into the cool night air and started back toward Mariposa Street to their parked cars.
“Hey, thanks for tonight.” Callie nudged him with her elbow. “You were right. I hadfun.”
“Don’t worry.” He nudged her back. “I won’t tell anyone.”
“Neither will I. About you, I mean,” she added quickly. “Not that I have anyone to tell.”
Unease rustled in his chest. Exactly what her mother had said about her. He wasn’t worried about Callie telling anyone anything…but he disliked the idea that Eleanor’s assessment of Callie as a “spinster” had been accurate. She was a warm, brilliant young woman who deserved more than just a movie date followed by decaf coffee.
