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I head toward my brother’s table, but I’m intercepted. A woman with bouncy red curls is fawning all over him, and he seems to be signing a book for her. My brother is both good-looking and talented. Women love him and I don’t know how Allie takes the attention he receives, but maybe she just knows he loves her. I certainly do. He was a loner until he met her, solike my father, you’d have thought they were of the same blood. But I’ve said the same of Tyler, so I suppose it’s just a single-guy thing.
I halt and stall my approach, allowing Dash’s fan a bit of time with him until she reluctantly backs away from his table. Dash’s eyes land on me and he smiles, and it’s a smile that proves how different he is since Allie came into his life. I didn't see the hollowness of his smiles in the past. But now I do. Now, I see that this smile reaches his eyes and lights his face. I truly believe his happiness with Allie is part of the reason I’m feeling alone. I haven’t lost Dash. But I haven’t fully found myself, either.
I claim the seat across from him and he shuts his computer and sets it on the chair to his right. “What’s up, little sis?”
“You tell me,” I urge. “How’s the new book coming?”
“It’s actually flowing. Life feels calmer. It’s working for me.”
“Since Allie came along,” I assume.
“Yes,” he agrees. “Since Allie came along, but enough about me. There’s been too much of that lately.”
He’s not talking about his career. He’s talking about his fighting, and the battle we all fought to end that part of his life.
“The event seemed like it went well last night,” he observes.
“It did. People seem happy to have Tyler running the show.”
“If Jack treated staff and clients anywhere near as badly as he did Tyler, I’m not surprised. Any idea how Tyler is doing?”
“He’s Tyler. No one has any idea how he’s doing, which probably means he’s suffering. He needs you. You’re the only one he seems to talk to.”
“Not any time as of late. I’ve tried.”
“Try harder, Dash. Maybe just show up at his place?”
“That’s really not a bad idea. I’d say I’d grab an expensive bottle of whiskey and take it over there to share with him, but he drinks too damn much.”
It’s not the first time Dash has made that reference and there was a whiskey glass on the table when I visited Tyler, but the idea of him spinning out of control with that type of addiction doesn’t sit right. “He never had a glass in his hand at the party last night. It seems like if he had an addiction, he would have. And do control freaks become addicts?”
“You’re talking to me, Bella. Yes, we do, and when we fall, we fall hard.”
Adrianna sets my plate in front of me and a diet drink as well, because she knows me. The diet first. The coffee next. We chat with her for a moment before it’s just me and Dash again. “Back to Tyler,” Dash says. “Maybe I’ll go by his place this weekend.”
“He’s out of town this weekend, Dash.” I slide my plate aside. “I need to talk to you.”
He narrows his eyes on me. “Why so serious?”
“There’s a new studio head. He’s trying to make changes to your contract you won’t like. I’m pushing back and he’s not budging.”
“I see,” he says. “Go on.”
“I think the deal could fall apart. We need to go back to the competing studio and really consider them as a viable option. This will create a fresh bidding war between studios A and B, A being your preferred studio. But you have to be willing to move studios if we play that card.”
“You know how I feel about the studio head at B.”
“He rubbed you wrong. I get that. And when this was an apples-to-apples thing, that was a fine way to pick your studio. If what you want is spelled out in a contract, then you’re protected. And you never have to deal with A or B. I will. I just need you to say yes to how I want to approach this. We need to protect your future and when things go south in Hollywood they sometimes, more times than they should, die. Even projects as big as yours. Please open your mind.”
He studies me a long moment, and then says, “You’re really worried this is going to fall apart.” It’s not a question. He’s reading me a like a book.
“Enough that I’m going to LA this afternoon. Hollywood can offer you a changing opportunity, Dash. If this opportunity falls apart, I want you to know that I fought for you like I’m fighting for my own life and yours.”
“I know you will, Bella. And if falls apart, it falls apart. Do I need to go with you?”
“No. I think it’s better if they feel you’re removed and unemotional about any of this. Tyler’s going with me.”
“Tyler,” he says flatly, “is going with you. As in, just the two of you?”
