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Locking his arms around her, he breathed in the sweet scent of her hair. “Callie, I’m not dating Jessica Barnett.”
She drew back, jerking her gaze to his. “I know.”
“I’m not…” He clenched his teeth, hating such shitty gossip. “I’m not cheating on her with you. I would never do something like that.”
“Iknow.” She spread her hand over his shirt, a puzzled glint shadowing her eyes. “I would never believe it.”
“Those bastards invent stories like that all the time. They fucking love stories about cheating and break-ups.”
“Jake, I don’t believe them.” Callie curled her fingers into his T-shirt and gave him a little shake. “I’m so sorry.”
“You don’t have anything to be sorry about.” He pulled in a heavy breath and rested his hand on the side of her face. “Are you okay? Your mom and sister?”
“We’re fine. Just fielding calls from friends and neighbors.” Tangling her hand into his, she led him toward the house.
Her mother and two sisters were seated in the dining room, and the smell of coffee filled the air. After a round of introductions—Rory looked at him suspiciously and Aria recalled that he’d been elected Homecoming King in high school—Callie went into the kitchen to pour the coffee.
“What happened?” Eleanor gestured for Jake to sit down. “Who blew your cover?”
“My former agent.” He sighed and ran a hand down his face. “I’m so sorry for all the trouble this has caused.”
“Trouble?” Aria grinned. “This is the most exciting thing to happen in Bliss Cove since Mrs. Bowers was elected mayor. Is it true that you go to oxygen bars with your costars?”
Jake managed a rusty laugh and shook his head. “I don’t even know what an oxygen bar is. Most of the things people read about me aren’t true.”
“That must suck.” Rory narrowed her eyes at him, twisting a lock of dark hair around her finger.
“Sometimes it does. Other times it’s calculated. Part of a narrative.”
“Your narrative right now is pretty lousy,” she observed.
“Yes, it is.”
“What are you going to do about it?”
“Rory, this isn’t our business,” Eleanor chided.
“No, it’s okay.” Jake looked at Rory. “I have a PR firm that’s rolling out a big campaign to turn the narrative around. But since I’m not doing anotherFatal Glorymovie, I don’t care all that much. I’ve had to maintain a certain image because of Blaze Ripley, and a lot of that is who I am, but part of the reason I wanted to take a smaller role is to step away from the spotlight. So my main goal is not to fix my reputation, but to make sure no one gets hurt because of my actions.”
Though Rory frowned, faint admiration gleamed in her navy-blue eyes. The doorbell chimed.
“I hope that’s not a reporter.” Eleanor stood and went into the foyer.
Callie returned from the kitchen and distributed mugs of coffee. Passing behind Jake’s chair, she squeezed his shoulder gently and disappeared back into the kitchen.
The gesture bolstered his courage. Excusing himself, he followed her. She stood at the counter, slicing a pound cake. Her tangled brown hair fell across her cheek, partly shielding her elegant profile. She was still dressed in what he’d come to think of as her “professor clothes”—a straight tan skirt and cream-colored blouse.
He wanted to go up behind her, slide his hands around her waist and pull her body back against his. He wanted to breathe in her fruit-scented shampoo and press his lips to her nape. He wanted her to smile and turn her head, to seek his mouth for a kiss, to tell him in a warm, husky voice that she loved him.
How was it that this woman had burrowed into his heart so fast? Had she known there was a vast empty space only she could fill? A Callie-shaped hole where no other woman would ever fit?
She absently licked a crumb off her forefinger and glanced up. Heat threaded the air, layered with the crackling electricity that sparked between them every time their eyes met. His pulse increased.
“Callie, I—”
“We have an unexpected visitor.” Eleanor walked in from the foyer, a nervous smile tugging at her mouth. The tall, gray-haired man whom Jake had briefly met at Sugar Joy followed her.
Callie set the knife down. Jake felt her sudden tension from clear across the kitchen.
