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“Yeah, they changed it. We were supposed to be in studio for our love scene next week, but when the sides came, we saw that they’d changed it.”
I’ve known Jimmy long enough to see the apology in his eyes. He never would have invited me had he known. Regardless of the fact that we’re not anything official and everyone here is a professional, there’s nothing pleasant about watching someone you have feelings for dry humping another person.
“When are you due on set?” I ask, thinking maybe I can have a quick visit and bolt, but there’s a knock on the door as the last word leaves my lips.
A woman with a headset on pokes her head in. “They’re ready for you.”
“Great, thanks,” Jimmy says.
Adelaide hops off her chair and heads toward the door. “It was good to meet you. I’m sure I’ll be seeing more of you.”
I mumble a, “You too,” and smile at her.
Jimmy steps into me so that we’re chest to chest. “I understand if you want to leave.” His hands rest on my hips.
I feign indifference with a shrug. “No worries.”
His hands drop to his sides. “I forgot, you don’t really care if you’re not the only woman in my life.”
He’s pickingnowto have this fight?
“It’s not like that and you know it,” I snap.
He settles his hands on his hips. “What’s it like then?”
I squeeze my hands into fists at my sides, resisting the urge to scratch at myself because that feeling, the one I hate, is back and it’s like bugs crawling under my skin. “Why do you keep pushing me on this? You know I’m not girlfriend material. You know better than anyone the issues that would ruin us.”
He grips my shoulder and using his other hand to brush his knuckles along my cheek. “You’re so much more than you think. I wish you could see that.”
Our gazes connect, my blue to his deep brown, and a part of me wishes I could sink into him, believe what he sees in me. But there’re things about myself I hide, and I’ll only end up hurting him worse than I already am.
I sense the day coming, the day when I’ll have no choice but to dislodge the anchor of me and let him move on with his life. I owe him that much at least. But I can’t bear to think of how hollow my life will be without the one good thing I have left in it. One day I’ll find the nerve.
I wrap my hand around his wrist and pull it from my face. “You’d better get on set.”
His lips thin and tilt down, but he doesn’t argue. “You gonna stay?”
“Yeah, I’ll stay for a bit.”
He nods, and we both head for the trailer door.
Once on set, Jimmy is so busy and enthralled in Adelaide—or the scene they’re filming—that I slip away unnoticed fifteen minutes later.
I can’t handle watching him and Adelaide kissing and carrying on, but sadly, that’s not the only reason I hightail it out of there.
Chapter Twleve
JIMMY
“Make yourself at home. I’m just gonna run and change,” I tell Adelaide as I head down the hall.
I invited her back here once we wrapped on set. Not for me exactly, but because Tripp is supposed to drop by tonight and I think he and Adelaide might get along.
Lilah wasn’t in the living room or out on the deck when I came in, and she’s not in the bedrooms either. I’m relieved she isn’t home, because I have no idea how she’d react to Adelaide being here and she and Tripp can’t be civil. Still, I can’t help worrying about where she is and what she’s doing. I do my best to put it out of my mind while I change. I texted Tripp before we left set, so he should be here soon.
Adelaide is on the couch in the living room.
I pour her a glass of wine in the kitchen. “So tell me, Adelaide, how come you don’t have someone in your life?”
