Los Angeles

by Carlan, Audrey

  She holds her hands up. “Hey, hey, I get it. I don’t want any more press either.”

  “I’m assuming you already ran this by Skyler’s new publicist?” I purse my lips and focus on Annie, who’s sitting primly in a chair off to the side taking notes. Her blonde hair, parted in the center, is hanging down in front of her face. One thing I noticed after she returned to the office is that she doesn’t often look me in the eye. She’s also not dressing much like Skyler anymore. It seems Annie’s personal style is actually really plain, simple dresses or sweater-and-slacks combos. I can’t say I appreciate her style the way I look forward to seeing what Wendy is wearing each day, but it’s nice to see that she’s finding herself.

  “Yes, Parker. Ms. Black is the one who brought the contract to us. She personally suggested the job for us. Apparently, the producer is a friend of hers.” She licks her lips as her eyes meet mine for a scant moment before she looks away and focuses on the wall.

  “Thank you, Annie.” I turn my chair so I’m facing Bo and Kendra, who are sitting in front of my desk, and Royce, who’s leaning against the wall near the window. “Are we game for this project?”

  Royce rubs at his bottom lip with his thumb. “The question is, are you prepared to leave, brother? You’ve been leery, and if you need more time, we could turn down the job. Family first. We always agreed on that.”

  I sigh and place my elbows to my desk, my fingers steepled. “I need to break the chain. Sky needs to be able to be alone again. Traveling is part of what we do in this role.”

  Royce nods. “I’m with you all the way. Whatever we gotta do.”

  “I can’t go, guys. The bar,” Bo says.

  I suck against the back of my front teeth. “I can’t ask you to stay. You go. I can work the bar—”

  “Um, excuse me, guys,” Annie interjects. “The contract said no deal if Parker is not on the project in person.”

  “Fuck me!” I sneer.

  “Dude, it’s cool. I got the bar covered. Kendra, you’ve got IG with Annie, right, ladies?” Bo glances at Annie, who nods, and then at Kendra.

  “Absolutely.”

  “They said it should be really quick. A week at most,” Annie adds, her voice only two steps up from a whisper.

  “I gotta talk to Sky about this. Make sure she really is good, but she does need to get back to normal. The studio visits and running lines is helping. Her therapy is going awesome. She seems really happy and back to my life-loving girlfriend. This would be good for the two of us. Still, I want to run it past her. If she’s okay with it, Roy, go ahead and sign the contract. I’ll let you know in a few minutes, yeah?”

  Roy nods, pushes off the wall, and moves to my door. Bo eases out of the chair beside Kendra.

  “Gotta get the restaurant ready and open the doors for Baylee.”

  “Give her a key,” I suggest.

  “You think Pops would be cool with that?” Bo queries.

  “Hell if I know, but what I do know is that you’re gonna have to be able to come and go from here to there, and you need to be able to trust someone. The cook has a key already. Give Baylee one and test it out. If she was gonna steal or do damage, she’d have done it already, and Roy says the books are tight. Neither of you has had an off register yet.”

  Bo grins. “I always like it tight, man.” He waggles his eyebrows.

  “You’re a pig,” Kendra fires off.

  “Fuckin’ hell. Get outta here.” I laugh and point at the door the ladies are headed for.

  As Bo is walking to the door, I call out, “Hey, Bo . . .”

  He turns around and holds on to the handle that he just pulled open for Kendra and Annie.

  “I just wanna say thanks, man. For holding down the fort at the bar, being here for me, for all of us. You’re rock steady. I appreciate you. I’ve got nothing but gratitude, brother.”

  He smiles wide. “I’ll remember that for when I fuck up huge and you have to bail my ass out.”

  “No questions asked. You need me. I’m always gonna be there.”

  “Word,” he says with a chin lift, and walks his motorcycle-booted feet out the door, a hand up in the air with two fingers in a peace symbol.

  I take a deep breath and pick up my phone.

  It rings a second before the most beautiful voice in the world answers, “Hey, honey . . .”

  “Hi, Peaches, got a minute?”

  “For you, always.”

  I grin and turn around in my chair, opening my lap and snapping my fingers.

  Zeus looks at me from his perch on the arm of the couch. He slowly licks a paw and stares at me with that bored-to-tears look cats have mastered. I snap again and pat my leg. He lifts his head and tilts it to the side, assessing if he wants to move from the arm to my lap or not.

  “This LA job coming up . . . Annie says your publicist referred us.”

  Her voice dips to a cautionary tone. “Yeah, is that a problem?”

  “No, I was just wondering if she really thinks me being a part of a dating TV show is good press for you. I don’t want to see the tabloids suggesting that I’m trying to replace you or something stupid.” I rub at the back of my neck, trying to ease the tension formed by the idea.

  She laughs heartily. “I think since the press now knows what we’ve been through, they’ve actually been really kind lately. A lot of the news has been related to hero worship over you and what you’re willing to do to keep me safe.”

  I smile but know there was a lot more to it and a lot of other more-qualified people involved in figuring out what Tracey was up to, not to mention the stalker issue with Benny.

  “The last thing I want to do is make anything uncomfortable for you, Sky. And this job, it’s going to take me and Roy to LA for at least a week. That means it’s the first time you’ll be alone since it all went down. I need to know that you’re okay with that and feel safe.”

  “In our home with Rach and Nate living in the side house? Our giant overprotective dogs? I’ll be fine. You have nothing to worry about. I’m good, I swear! I want you to do this. I’m actually doing a two-minute interview promo spot for the producer to use in advertising the show. I’ll be saying something about my boyfriend being part of the team and involved, but viewers will have to watch in order to find out how.” She giggles, and the sound seeps straight through my chest, easing the nervousness I had at the suggestion of having to leave her.

  Finally Zeus leaps off the arm of the couch, extends his entire body in this awesome stretch that would feel so good to me right now, and then comes over. He meanders through my legs, rubbing his fur against my shins until he’s done, and jumps up into my lap, spins in a circle, and settles down across both of my thighs. Once he’s situated, I finagle my fingers into the soft tufts of his fur. Instantly my cat purrs loudly. His presence eases me the same way Sky’s happy voice does.

  “So, you’re totally cool with this job? No concerns whatsoever,” I reiterate, just to be certain.

  “Absolutely. Honey, I know I’ve been really needy when it comes to you and your attention, but it’s only because I lost a lot. You, your family, our friends are my whole world now, and Parker, you’re at the tippy-top of that list. I’m good, and frankly, I think it’s time. We need a little space to miss each other.”

  “Peaches . . . I miss you the second I kiss you goodbye in the morning. I don’t ever need to miss you.”

  “That’s sweet, but I have a feeling this is going to be really good for us. You getting back to what you do best, me spending uninterrupted hours prepping for my role in the A-Lister series . . . everything is as it should be. At the very least, we’re on our way.”

  “This is true. We’re definitely on our way.” I sigh, letting out a relieved breath.

  “To a happily ever after?” She laughs.

  “Every day with you, Skyler, is my happily ever after.”

  5

  SKYLER

  “Remember the plan,” I remind Nate for the third time. “He c
an’t know what I’m doing or where I am.”

  “First of all, you’ve already told me this. Second, I do not like lying to your man. I don’t like to lie to anybody but especially not to Parker. He’s family,” Nate grumbles, and looks away.

  I roll my eyes and settle in my seat on my private charter, waiting for the captain to announce we’re taking off. Rachel is sitting next to him, and I watch while she places her hand to his forearm.

  “Babe, do this one thing. It’s not that hard. When Parker calls, and you know he will since he checks on Skyler through you as well as her every day, just go with it. She’s happy. She’s healthy. We’re chilling at home. No big deal.”

  Nate scowls. “I don’t like this plan.”

  I narrow my gaze at Nate while my new publicist, Elliott Black, maneuvers her tall, thin shape into the open captain’s chair next to me. Ellie is my new right-hand woman. We clicked the second Geneva James and Amy Tannenbaum, her literary agent, introduced us to Geneva’s personal publicist. Elliott Black is a down-home girl, from Nixa, Missouri, originally. She’s young for a publicist and a full-on shark in the industry, but she’s got a sweet side to her I think comes from being raised in the Midwest. Her chestnut-colored hair is cut in a short, chin-length bob. Her red tortoiseshell glasses match her crimson lips. She says the lipstick is her nod to fashion since she wears nothing but perfectly tailored suits every day. Though I wouldn’t call her unfashionable. I haven’t actually seen the woman in anything but the finest and most current designer suits in every color imaginable.

  At this point, I’m just thrilled that Geneva is willing to share Ellie with me. Not to mention her involvement in my plan has been crucial. I wouldn’t have known where to begin without her assistance.

  “You don’t have to like it, Nathan,” Elliott states in a stern tone, always calling Nate by his full name. She does the same with me. She never calls me Sky. Always Skyler. Even after two months of working nonstop together after the Tracey and stalker debacle.

  I’ve come to find the woman is beyond intelligent. She spun the entire horrible experience to the media in a way that ended up making Parker the hero to my damsel in distress, which worked huge on the public. Probably because it was closer to the truth than anything else.

  Still, a pang pierces my heart thinking about my ex-best friend, knowing she’s going to live out her days in a ten-by-ten-foot room in a high-security psych ward. Even with what she did, I can’t help but feel sorry for her. Parker, however, is the complete opposite. The loss of her hand, which ended up being unsalvageable, and life in a penitentiary-style psych ward were not enough for my man. If the courts had allowed a firing squad, he would have been the first to sign up as a shooter, right alongside Bo, Royce, Randy Ellis, and Wendy. He loathes the woman to the point that even the mention of her name in any way makes him wince and snarl.

  “Yeah, babe, you just have to go along with it for now.” Rachel’s words bust into my head, banishing all thoughts of Tracey as I watch Rach run her hand up and down Nate’s arm in a soothing gesture.

  “All will be revealed soon.” Ellie grins a cat-that-ate-the-canary smile. Her part in my plan so far has been executed to perfection.

  I lean over and pat Nate’s hand, so happy to have him alive and well and sitting beside me on a plane headed to the City of Angels, Los Angeles, California.

  “Nate, I promise, it will be worth a little bit of deception.”

  Nate frowns but nods, lifting his chin in assent. For him, my promise is enough.

  I squeeze his fingers briefly. “Thank you.”

  Elliott leans over and digs into her briefcase, pulls out a folder, and rummages through the pages. “These are the contestants the IG team is working with now.” She points to a handful of men’s and women’s names. When she turns to the last page, I gasp, seeing a woman who could almost be my twin.

  “Holy shit. Who’s that?” I ask, not capable of looking away from the woman.

  Ellie grins and taps the face of the blonde-haired, brown-eyed woman in the picture. “That’s Tara Darling, a budding actress and stuntwoman.”

  “No way! She looks just like me!”

  “I know. I made sure she dyed her hair to your golden tone and put in brown contacts. She’s actually a strawberry blonde with blue eyes normally.”

  I open and close my mouth, staring at the uncanny resemblance to myself.

  “Unfortunately, she’s much taller than you. About five eleven, but I’ve warned her to only wear flats on the set.”

  “You hired her? Why?” I stare at my doppelgänger.

  “Of course I did. When you came to me with your plan and we formulated this idea, I started searching for prospective contestants to ensure the pool of people would suit the end result, but also make for some damn good TV. The producer, Louise Gonzalez, is one of my best friends. She actually knew of Tara and suggested her. It will play out so well on television to have someone who looks like you when the guys are having to judge the contestants. And hopefully, it also makes your man think of you when he’s trying to tell her what to do or say, and makes him lovesick with missing the real deal.” She winks and grins again.

  I chuckle, grab the photo, and lift it up to show Rachel. “Look at this chick!”

  Rachel’s ice-blue eyes widen, and her mouth opens as she reaches across her husband’s seat to grab the paper. “No way! I’m so pumped! This is going to be a blast, watching Parker squirm!” She chuckles and hands the image back to me.

  I bite into my bottom lip and trace the woman’s face in the picture. Her eyes are a little farther apart than mine, her chin pointier, but she really does look similar to me. It will be interesting to see how Parker responds to my doppelgänger in real life.

  Butterflies take flight in my belly as I think about my man and what is on the horizon. I’ve never felt more confident in our love and future than I do right now. He may freak out, but once the shock wears off, I know his romantic heart will be filled with joy.

  I sigh and hand the picture back to Ellie. “This is going to be so much fun!” I smile at her and slap my hands against my thighs in a mini drumroll gesture.

  “It’s definitely leaps and bounds away from my normal system for image promotion, but it has a fairy-tale quality to it I love getting behind. Your man and the media are going to explode when this goes down.”

  “As long as we stick to the plan and I stay out of Parker’s sight in LA, we’ll be golden.”

  She winks and closes the file, placing it back in her briefcase. “Leave that all up to me and you’ll be just fine.”

  The captain’s voice over the intercom tells us we’ve been cleared for takeoff and to buckle up.

  The four of us clip our seat belts as directed, and I close my eyes, imagining it all playing out perfectly in my head.

  The stage is set.

  The pieces all perfectly placed.

  All I need is my victim.

  Victim being my tall, muscular, well-dressed, chisel-jawed, blue-eyed guy, who I love more than my own life, playing into each move I’ve laid out.

  All will work out as intended. I just know it!

  When we arrive at the studio in Los Angeles, Ellie sneaks me down the hall and into a viewing room above the stage.

  “Hey, Louise!” Ellie holds out her arms and embraces a Hispanic woman with long, dark hair that’s pulled back into a low ponytail at her nape. She’s petite in size and stature, but her welcoming smile is big and bold.

  “Good to see you, girl. As you can see down below, everything is going as planned. Between Royce and Parker working with the contestants the last three days, we are ready to rock and roll. Not to mention, that Roy is smokin’ hot.” She fans her face. “Parker is nothing to sneeze at either, but I already know he’s taken.” She smiles at me. “Been keeping up on the celebrity ins and outs the past year, and your girl and he have been on them . . . a lot. This is going to be excellent for the ratings.”

  “Glad we could help ea
ch other out,” Ellie says, and turns around, holding her arm out to me. “This is the woman of the hour, Skyler Paige. Skyler, this is my good friend, Louise Gonzalez.”

  I take her hand and shake it. “Pleasure to meet you. Thank you so much for helping me out with my little project.”

  Louise jolts back a step. “Are you kidding me? You and your guy coming on my new show is a huge boon for us. The entire network is going crazy over it.”

  “Well, you realize it’s just this first episode.”

  She shrugs. “Doesn’t matter. We just need the one, and we’ll hook the viewers right off the bat. I plan on making television history with this pilot, thanks to you and your guys down there. Check them out.” She gestures to a glass panel about ten feet from where we stand.

  “Can they see us?” I look below where I can see the camera team—a bunch of people running around with headphones on, others standing at the sidelines behind the equipment—and it’s as if the clouds part and the sunrays shine through as my guy comes into sight, walking in from stage left.

  Damn, he looks handsome.

  Parker is wearing a stylish getup: a pair of navy slacks, a white dress shirt, sans a tie, and a beige jacket complete with tan suede patches at the elbows. On his feet are a new pair of camel-colored Ferragamos I bought him and added to his wardrobe. Even though there was considerable smoke damage to the furniture in my penthouse Tracey tried to burn down, the closet survived mostly unscathed, aside from the clothes smelling sooty, which a high-quality dry cleaning service was able to take care of without a problem.

  Parker is moving his hands and shaking his head as if he’s exasperated.

  Louise interrupts my thoughts. “No, we have the tint on right now. We’ve found that when the contestants are on the stage, they get really nervous if they feel like Big Brother is watching them, so we black out the screens but can still watch and manage the team below.”

  “How come we can’t hear anything?” I watch as Parker walks over to one of the production people who’s holding a clipboard and points down at it then at one of the chairs. He then proceeds to move over to the side of the stage and walk with a little swagger to one of the chairs, turn, smile at the team, and sit down. He props one ankle on the opposite knee, leans back, and runs his index finger along his sexy, kissable lips.