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“Oh, Kylie,” Dad said, using my childhood nickname as he placed a solid hand on my shoulder. “I didn’t mean to upset you.”
“I know.” I wiped my eyes with the back of my hand. “It’s not you. It’s… everything. It’s the movie, it’s how hard we’ve been working, and knowing it’s all going to be over soon…” I sniffed and finally said what I’d been trying not to put into words, even in my head. “I’ve made some…” I searched for a family-friendly word, “friends, and I’m worried that after the movie wraps, I’ll never see them again.”
My dad gave me a knowing look.
“Is one of those friends that gentleman who took you on a date the other day?”
I laughed it off, but I felt my face grow red.
“I’d like to meet these people who have been making you smile more lately. Why not invite them over?”
I was so shocked that my tears abruptly stopped.
In any other family, being invited over to meet the parents was a big deal. But in my house, which nobody visited except April? It was areallybig deal. None of the boys I’d fooled around with had ever visited my house, and my dad had never offered to meet them.
The idea of bringing Dean, Wyatt, and Isaac around was incredible, but terrifying at once. Our home was a single-storey brick house that had been built in the 1950s, with two bedrooms, beige walls and brown carpet. It was as generic as you could get, unrenovated since the nineties. Nothing like what those guys would be used to.
“Let me think about it.” I tried to ignore the flutters of hope in my chest. “In the meantime, we should both get some sleep.”
38
KYLA
Iknew Brooke was volatile, but I’d never expected to arrive on set to find my trailer covered with mud and who knew what else.
This was a deliberatefuck you. My hands shook as I slid the key into the lock, wincing as I heard dirt grind in the mechanism.
“What the fuck?” Dean stood in the space between Isaac’s trailer and mine, a look of horror on his face.
“It’s fine, I can clean it.” I gazed up at the mess, wondering where I would even start. The trailer was tall, and somehow Brooke had managed to fling mud all the way up the walls — and probably on the roof. I’d need one hell of a long hose, like something from a firetruck.
Dean shook his head.
“You shouldn’t have to. This wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t ended my arrangement with Brooke. She didn’t take it well, but to do this…” He looked over the mess with defeated eyes.
I looked from Dean to the trailer, confused. Every interaction I’d ever seen Brooke have with him seemed like it was designed to hurt me. There had been no affection in her body language toward Dean.
“I didn’t realize she even liked you.”
“She doesn’t.” Dean gave me a half-smile. “She’s in it for the money. Twenty grand a week, straight out of my bank account. Technically, she’s my employee. Or shewasuntil last night.” He climbed up the steps behind me and placed his hand on the small of my back. “How about I go in first, just in case she’s in there?”
Oh, no. I hadn’t even thought about that. What if she was hiding there, waiting to ambush me? Or what if she’d trashed the interior of the trailer, too?
I stepped back as he eased the door open. Mud dripped from the doorframe and landed on his arm, but there didn’t seem to be any booby traps. My trailer was dark and quiet. Instead of going in and opening the curtains, Dean switched the light on.
“Everything looks the same,” he said, although he gestured for me to wait while he walked through the trailer. He returned to the door a few long moments later and gave me a nod. “It doesn’t look like she went inside.”
“Thank God.” I followed him up the steps and had a look around for myself. Like he’d said, everything looked normal.
“I’m so glad I asked them to change the locks,” I said. “Imagine if she still had the key…” A shiver ran down my spine.
Even though everything looked untouched, it was hard to relax in a space that felt like it had been invaded. Between scenes, while Dean kept his promise to organize a cleaning company to wash my trailer, I hung out with Isaac. He drove me back to the motel in my car, where I marveled at how little anything had changed since I’d last stayed there. Everything looked familiar: the white paint, the brick feature wall, the table between the timber wardrobe and the sink. Even the framed print of a sunflower painting hadn’t changed.
I wouldn’t have been surprised if I’d looked into the floor-to-ceiling mirror and seen one of my ex-boyfriends standing behindme, so turning to see Isaac was a lovely reminder of how much my life had changed.
We tumbled on the bed together, kicking away the blue doona to fuck on the crisp white sheets.
When we finished, I flopped on the bed and stared at the popcorn ceiling, trying to build the courage to ask the question I didn’t want to hear the answer to. My inner thighs felt wet and sticky, but the orgasm I’d just had was worth it, and its aftershocks pulsed through my body.
