AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Whydon’t you tell me what the plan is soIcan at least help a bit?”
“Iwant to do this for you.Idon’t want you to have to help.”
“It’snot a big deal.You’venever really even been in my kitchen before.I’llonly help a little.Tellyou where to find things.Thatkind of thing.”
“You’llonly help ifIreally need it?”
Ipick up my glass and give him a mock salute with it. “Ofcourse, only when dinner is in grave danger.Whyelse wouldIget up off my butt whenIhave a sexy man cooking me dinner?”
Oops.Shit.Ididn’t mean to say that.Fromthe giant grin onJackson’sface,Iknow thatIreally, really shouldn’t have said that.
“Letme get you some more wine,” he says, walking back to the fridge to top up my glass.
Inthe next hour, my kitchen turns into a scene out of a horror movie.Totalchaos.Totalcarnage.ThankgoodnessIhave a dishwasher becauseJacksondirties just about every dish in my entire kitchen.Andif his mother’s rules apply at my house, sinceJackson’scooking,Ihave to do all the dishes.NotthatIasked him to cook.Ihonestly don’t even know why he’s here.
It’sreally weird havingJacksonhere in my home.Inmy space.Hehasn’t been here since that first night when he offered me a deal so insaneIshould have got a restraining order instead of signing two months of my life away.Butwhat didIdo?Isigned up to play girlfriend-boyfriend with the sexy movie star who used to stare down at me from my bedroom wall.
Whatthe hell wasIthinking?IfIcould go back and redo that night…Ihonestly don’t know ifIwould change it.Iwant to.Iwant none of this to have ever happened because of whereIam now.Butthat would mean thatI’dnever have got to knowJackson.He’djust be this question mark after the elevator.Maybea storyItold people at parties, eventually.
Buthaving him here in my kitchen is giving me an out-of-body-experience.Untilnow,Icould put all thingsJackson-related in this little box that didn’t touch the rest of my life.Hisbig white house up in theHollywoodHillsis a world away from my little converted apartment in a quarter of an old house inEchoPark.Hislife atHollywoodpremieres, press events, and private airports is a different galaxy from the oneIlive in.
PeopleoutsideL.A. think when you live here you must run into actors and famous people all the time.Maybeyou see someone rushing out of aStarbucksor whatever health food store is trendy that month as you drive by, butIcan count on one hand the number of timesI’vespent more than ten seconds near a celebrity who wasn’t buying cupcakes from me.Andone of those times was in the elevator withJackson.
Himbeing here with me is breaking down some wall thatIdidn’t knowIhad up to keep my real life separate from whateverIwas doing with him.AndIdon’t like it one bit.Itscares me.Seeinghim in my kitchen with a tea towel hanging out of the back pocket of his jeans, flour on his black t-shirt, and country music playing in the background,Idon’t know ifIwant to tell him to get the hell out of my house soIcan hide my head under my pillow from missing him or beg him to stay here with me forever.
Iam completely and utterly pathetic.
Jacksonis here… doing…Ihonestly don’t know what he’s doing here.Playingwith his new toy for the last two weeks he gets to have it?Haveme.AndI’mwondering how to convince him to love me forever.I’mstill a pathetic teenager wishing a beautiful vampire would steal me away from my real life, instead of an adult woman going out and making the life she wants.Andbeing a bit more realistic about who is going to share that life with me.Noone tells you when you’re growing up that you’re going to have to stop waiting around forPrinceCharmingat some point and get realistic.Butyou do.
“Oh, crap.Ileft my car at work.Now,I’mgoing to have to take a car share to work in the morning.”Ilet out a long breath asIinstruct myself to calm down.It’sonly fifty dollars.I’llmore than be able to pay for the odd extra car share ride to work onceIhaveJackson’stwo-hundred-and-fifty-thousand dollars in my savings account. “It’sfine.Itdoesn’t matter.”
“Whattime do you go to work in the morning?”
“Five-thirty.”
“Shit.Really?”
So, he really didn’t wake up all the morningsIsnuck out of bed at four to get to the bakery kitchen.
“Yes, people typically like their morning baked goods to be, you know, baked when they come to buy them in the morning and not just under proofed, wet dough.I’mnot even on the first shift anymore.Someof my staff gets there at four.”
“That’sdisgusting, all of it.I’llbe back here at quarter to five to take you to work.”
“Youcan’t be serious.”
“Tryme, baby.”
chapterseventy-one
selena
“Thosesighs seem pretty deep.AnythingIcan help with?”
Anythinghe can help with?Whenhe’s the source of ninety-five percent of my problems?
“Nope,”Iwhisper against my glass asItake another sip of cab franc.Ikilled the bottle of rosé and moved onto red.So, that’s how this night is going. “How’sthe sauce coming?Youcould have used a jar of sauce.It’seasier.”
“Noway.Thisis my soon-to-be-famous red sauce.Goodfor all things pizza and pasta.”
