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Her mouth fell, but then Jake put a reassuring hand on her knee under the bar. She managed to smile softly. “Yes, that’s me,” she said, shrugging her shoulders.
“Very cool.” Ren beamed as he poured Jake and Rakell a glass of champagne. “Also, Jake, we have a case of that Merryvale cabernet you like so much.”
Two guys walked up, extending their hands to Jake, congratulating him on the Super Bowl win. Jake smiled, shaking their hands, then one of them snapped a picture of his friend shaking Jake’s hand. It happened so fast that Rakell didn’t have time to move out of the way.
“Great,” she murmured, an edge of sarcasm in her tone.
Jake’s head snapped toward her. “Hey you, you’re not camera shy, are you?” There was an incredulous tone to his voice, smiling as he rubbed her knee under the bar.
“Just didn’t expect the attention. I forget how famous you are, and I suppose it will be like this.” She pinched the bridge of her nose as if the realization was taking on a life of its own inside her head. “Sorry, just not used to it.”
“Sweets, you’re on the fucking cover ofSports Illuminated,so you might have to getused to a little attention. Those guys were trying to get a long look at you; they were just using me to get to you, I could tell.” He grinned, nodding to Ren as he put down their glasses.
Rakell leaned into Jake. “Bullshit, and you know it, and if that’s the case, why did you let me leave the house with no makeup, faded jeans, and…”
“And a thin sweater that clings to your boobs…Come to think of it, I should probably keep you locked away.” He bent in, kissing her forehead. “God knows you don’t need makeup, you’re...”
“Okay, but just need to adjust…” she explained.
“We’ll be in a secluded booth, they…” He nodded toward Ren and his dad. “They kinda protect my privacy when I come here for dinner,” he said, attempting to reassure her.
After finishing their champagne, Ren guided them to their booth. They had already placed Jake’s favorite appetizer order, asking if Rakell wanted anything else. Rakell ate, really ate, for the first time in over a month—between the photo shoot in France and theSports Illuminatedshoot in Jackson Hole, her diet had been abnormally restrictive. Jake sat on the same side of the booth as her, finding it difficult to keep his hands off her.
During dinner, her phone buzzed several times; Jake watched as she pulled it from her purse, checking it, then her face dropping before stuffing it back each time. The irrationalthought that it was an old client kept pinging his brain, then he’d take a sip of wine and try to move past it. On the drive home, her phone rang. She did the same thing: took it out, looked at the screen, her head shaking a bit, then hurriedly shoving it back into her purse.
“Rae-kale…is everything okay?” The concern in his voice rang through the SUV.
She situated her small purse between her legs. “Yes, sorry, I keep checking because when I talked with my agent, she mentioned that there was a big movie star who was interested in having me audition for a movie he’s directing and starring in. She wouldn’t tell me who because it’s not solidified, but she said it would be career-changing. I just don’t want to miss her call. Sorry.”
“I get that…sounds exciting. I’m curious now. But who keeps…” He halted, burying his next words, knowing that he needed to squelch the spike of jealousy prickling him.
“Umm…so it’s my mom. She does at least try to call me for my birthday.”
Her voice was weak, an air of longing dusting the wordsmomandbirthday. “You should answer her,” he said, processing the way her words mixed with her tone.
“Jake…” she began, staring straight ahead, “my mom is not Ms. Annette. I…it’s too much to get into…I actually don’t understand us, or…” She quickly sucked in air, then let it out with a short sigh as if gathering strength. “If I talk to her, my birthday will be ruined,” she said definitively, all the fragility in her voice gone.
“Okay…yeah, I don’t want that,” he said, steering the SUV around a corner. This was the time to tell her… “I have a place booked in Tahoe for your birthday tomorrow. It’s where the Celebrity Pro-Am is played—I’m sure you’ve seen Randall Adams, Larry Fitzpatrick, Charles Barkley, and a handful ofother professional athletes. I just found out that Dwayne and I are invited this year. The Edgewood Tahoe Resort is beautiful, and I wanted to show you Tahoe. It may be one of the most beautiful places in the world. And the resort has an excellent restaurant…” He felt himself rambling, not knowing how to address the situation with her mom but absolutely pressing to keep this time positive. They both needed this to springboard their relationship. “I also have a special gift for you. I…well, it’s something I helped design,” he finished, detouring from an obviously painful subject.
She reached over and laid her hand on his forearm. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to bring my mom into this…We rarely talk, and that’s a good thing. I know it’s different for you, and I don’t know how to explain it to someone, well, someone whose family is so strong.”
“Sweets, it’s okay. Let’s just concentrate on us and you potentially getting a career-changing role.”
When they got back to his place, they sat on the couch in front of the fire. Rakell leaned against him, her feet curled up behind her. “Jake let’s take a selfie, us together like this…” she said, thinking she wanted to engrave this night in her memory forever. Picking up on his puzzled expression, she added, “But just for us…not for…”
“Just us…for us,” he confirmed, holding his phone, he extended his hand and snapped several pictures.
“Another one,” she whispered, planting an overexaggerated pucker to the side of his face, as her eyes twinkled at the phone, arms draped over his shoulders while he took more pictures, grinning like the boy who finally got the red bike for Christmas.
Her phone buzzed across the room.
“I sent you a bunch of them…but they will stay between us, no posting…I promise.”
“Jake, I know I need to learn to work the social media stuff…well, that’s what Ana, my agent, says.”
He was rubbing a lock of her hair between his fingers as he spoke. “Or just not react to it. I mean, I didn’t seek it out, and I pretty much hated it 'cause of the stuff they were printing, but there was some truth to it, so it probably helped me clean up my act. Now I don’t care what gets posted, or what they print, because I know what kinda life I’m living.”
“You’re more accustomed to the attention. I only get that kind of attention on a shoot, and it’s because…”
