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Turning off my alarm, he stomped his way to the bathroom. As he did, I caught sight of his left hand and the tattooed ring on his finger. My name looked good on his skin. Biting my lip, I considered following him into the bathroom, maybe dropping to my knees beneath the spray and making him forget why he was pouting. But before I could get to my feet, my phone rang and I reluctantly picked it up.
“Why can’t I wear a tux like the guys?” Palmer asked as soon as I lifted the phone to my ear. “You know I hate dresses. As your maid of honor, I should get a choice.”
“We’ve already had this argument, Palms.” I slowly stood and walked over to the closet. Most of my clothes were already at the new house, but we couldn’t move in until after the wedding. I only had a few selections to choose from at the apartment, so it didn’t take long before I’d picked what I would wear to the final fitting.
She’d had the same complaint from the moment I’d asked her to be my maid of honor. It went without saying that my three sisters would be bridesmaids, but I needed Palmer as my number one. I had a visual in my head of what I wanted all four of them to look like, and I couldn’t give my bestie what she wanted and let her wear a tuxedo. Something she knew, but that didn’t stop her from complaining. Or trying to change my mind. But so close to the wedding, it wouldn’t have even been possible at this point.
“Fine,” she huffed. “But only because I love you. At least the dress isn’t ugly like the one they made me wear to my cousin’s wedding last year. That damn thing is any bridesmaid’s worst nightmare.”
I shuddered as the memories of my own nightmare flashed on fast-forward through my head again. Gulping, I tried to laugh it off. “You know I wouldn’t do that to you, bestie.”
“Uh-oh,” she muttered. “What’s wrong?”
“What?” I pretended not to understand. But there was no getting out of it. Palmer knew me better than anyone else in the world, probably even more than my own parents. We’d been to hell and back together. From the moment I’d set eyes on her, she was my best friend, and no one else would ever fill that all too important role.
“Your voice is off. Again. Did you and Moreitti argue?”
“No, of course not.” After putting the phone on speaker and placing it on a shelf, I pulled on fresh panties and then the white strapless bra I had to wear to the fittings.
“Then what’s with the voice?” she demanded.
Sighing, I told her the truth. I didn’t have to pretend with Palmer the way I did with the rest of my family. “More nightmares.”
“Fuck, babe. I’m sorry. Listen, you need to speak to a therapist. This is going to turn into some scary PTSD if you don’t take it seriously. I know someone who can get you in as soon as you give me the green light to set up the appointment.”
“Ugh. I don’t want to talk about my feelings with a stranger,” I complained, pulling a dress over my head.
“You want to talk to your parents? Your sisters? Your aunts? Cousins?” She kept going, and I cringed more and more.
“Okay, okay,” I grumbled, zipping myself up before slipping my feet into a pair of flats. “I get it. And no, I don’t want to talk about any of this with them. Give me the number. I’ll set the appointment up myself.”
“Yeah, that’s a big hell no,” Palmer said with a dry laugh. “You’ll forget about it or keep putting it off. Those nightmares you’ve been having every night will start playing out in the middle of the day. And then you’ll be spending the rest of your pregnancy locked in some asylum or in a special care rehab. Your career will go down the drain, your kid will be fucked up, and your husband will be driving the rest of us insane because he can’t reach you mentally.”
I blinked at my reflection in the mirror in the walk-in closet. Part of me wanted to think she was being overly dramatic, but the sad truth was, I could foresee all of what she was predicting actually happening.
“Set it up,” I told her after a pause. “Then text Elliot so he can add it to my calendar.”
Chapter 2
Jordan
I shook Winston’s hand across his desk, and we both stood. Taylor, who had been taking notes on her phone during our meeting, stood as well but didn’t offer her hand. Instead, she continued typing, but I didn’t pay her much attention as the movie producer kept going on.
And on.
And on.
The man was an endless bag of air. If Arella hadn’t asked me to accept the offer to continue with the villainess movie, with Winston instead of that dead bastard Garon, then I wouldn’t have taken the first meeting with the man, let alone gotten to the point that we were now looking at audition clips for some of the minor parts that still needed to be filled.
“Sir, you have a lunch appointment,” Taylor said in a quiet yet firm voice. I liked it when she used that tone. It told whoever I was in a conversation with that I needed to take her words seriously, and they never gave me shit about ending a meeting. She more than earned the salary I paid her. If anything, I was thinking about giving her another raise.
As we got into the back of my SUV with my driver—one of Barrick’s men—at the wheel, Taylor finally placed her phone facedown on her lap with a barely there sigh. “Palmer was able to convince her to see the therapist,” she informed me. “And the first appointment is tomorrow morning.”
“They couldn’t get her in today?” I asked with a grunt as I shifted to face my personal assistant a little better. Without thinking, I rubbed my thumb over my left ring finger, caressing the tattoo of Arella’s name her cousin had inked into my skin. When I got edgy, needing to see her but couldn’t, I found comfort in touching the black writing. Some days, I rubbed it more often than not. In the beginning, while it was healing, I’d had to stop myself from touching it so much so as not to ruin it.
Fuck, but I needed to see her. Now. Hear her voice. Touch her. Kiss that mouth that drove me crazy.
“They could, but she had a packed schedule for the day, and she told Elliot today wasn’t possible. After some convincing, Palmer got her to agree to tomorrow’s appointment, and Elliot was able to rearrange tomorrow’s meetings and other appointments.”
