She still hadn’t told him about her doubts or fears because she knew he’d be smooth and charming and winning, and she knew he’d talk her out of them. And she didn’t want to be talked out of them.
She simply couldn’t breathe in L.A.—the city made her feel like she was trapped in a giant cage. Colin’s house, especially, was like an elaborate birdcage, hard to break into, but also hard to break out of…a sanctuary and a jail cell rolled into one pristine, picturesque package.
She tried to imagine Colin moving into her little house instead. The idea was so laughable that she thought maybe she should take that tack to try to make him understand. As if. She laughed out loud as she imagined his reaction.
No, Colin’s lifestyle was set, his path determined. If anyone had to bend his or her will to make the other happy, it was her. And she could admit that Colin was right in one way—something had to give. A relationship like theirs couldn’t happen over the phone, not anymore. It was time to hit either the accelerator or the brakes, and she was terrified her foot was stretching in the direction of the latter.
What’s wrong with me? Will I ever have a normal relationship? Am I scared of commitment? She’d never thought so, but maybe that was it. If she wasn’t satisfied with Colin—gorgeous, funny, attentive Colin, adored by millions—maybe no one would satisfy her.
Her stomach twisted into a knot as a face that wasn’t Colin’s flashed behind her eyes. She shoved away the impossible image, her mind wheeling as she thought again, impetuously, that maybe she should move in with Colin. After all, big rewards didn’t come without big risks. She’d never know whether she and Colin were meant for each other unless she allowed their relationship to move forward.
A shiver raced through her body. The thought of saying yes to his offer was terrifying to her, and not in that good, tingly sort of way. She wasn’t ready for this, not now. Maybe not ever.
All this time, Amelia had been moving around her room, making her bed, picking up the clothes she’d shed the night before, moving items from her open suitcase to her laundry hamper, dreading the fact that she’d be packing the suitcase again the very next day.
She shook her head, deciding she was taking herself too seriously. I don’t have to have all the answers right now. It wasn’t as if Colin had asked her to marry him.
She moved into her bathroom and turned on the shower. As she turned her face up into the hot stream of water, she closed her eyes and forced herself to forget about everything except lunch with Reese and Brooke. She was nervous about what was coming later, but that was later. For the next several hours, she’d be talking and laughing and hanging out with her two favorite women in the world.
Colin’s flight would land right about the time she and Reese and Brooke finished up at the salon. And then she’d step back onto the roller coaster.
The movie wouldn’t launch nationwide until the next day, but it was launching in Memphis tonight, and it was just for her. In just a few short hours she and Colin would be on the red carpet again for a special screening in her beloved city.
* * *
When the limo door opened, Amelia braced herself. Sure enough, the screaming, cheering, and squealing hit a high-pitched crescendo as soon as the fans packed against the velvet ropes caught a glimpse of who was inside the car.
This is so surreal. The L.A. premiere had been madness, utter mayhem. She’d expected that. But this was Memphis. Her Memphis. How many times had she gotten in and out of cars in this city?
Granted, she’d never gotten out of a car in Memphis quite like this. As her eyes adjusted from the dark interior of the car, she glanced back at Colin, who was poised to exit the limo right behind her, looking smashing in his crisp, black suit. She smiled dizzily and then took the hand being offered by the chauffer who’d opened the door with a flourish. As she emerged from the vehicle, a few hundred flashbulbs blinded her, and the pandemonium of frenzied fans put her thoughts in a muddled tailspin.
She barely felt her feet as they crossed over the red carpet that had been rolled out for tonight’s event. As she and Colin made their way forward, stopping every few inches to sign autographs, pose for photos, and interact with the enormous crowd—it seemed as if the entire city had come out to greet them tonight—she smiled until her cheeks were numb and waited for the insanity to end.
The atmosphere was electric, as intense as Tuesday’s L.A. premiere had been. She was shocked by that—she’d expected tonight to feel laid-back by comparison. She wondered briefly where Reese, David, and her mom were. They’d driven up right behind her and Colin and, though they’d also traversed the red carpet, she was sure they were already inside the theater, snug and safe and free from all this chaos.
She breathed a sigh of relief as she and Colin finally approached the theater doors, and she stopped automatically to pose for pictures at the “step and repeat,” a splashy board covered in the studio’s logo that was set up beside the entrance as a photo backdrop. As Colin did the same, Amelia paused to answer questions being thrown in her direction by a small gaggle of reporters. She recognized a couple of the local ones from her years of working with Memphis media, and that fact relieved some of the tension she always felt in these microphone-in-her-face situations.
Before she knew it, they’d entered the comparatively quiet theater and were closed off from the screams and catcalls outside. It was a private screening, and in this case, private meant their party had the entire cinema complex to themselves. Around a hundred people were crammed into the lobby, among them her family, friends, and various city leaders and supporters of her books. As soon as Amelia was inside, she began to scan the room for Reese.
She finally spotted her in the center of the room doing the same thing. Once they’d locked eyes, Reese ran over and grabbed Amelia by the hand, tugging her toward the ladies’ room at the far end of the lobby. Reese glanced around and started talking so rapidly in such a low voice that Amelia struggled to catch a word of it.
“What?” She shook her head and cupped a hand around her ear. It had been ages since she’d seen Reese so worked up.
Reese rolled her eyes exasperatedly as she pulled Amelia through the crowd and started over. All Amelia heard was, “You’re not going to believe who’s—” before Colin appeared at her side, cutting Reese off mid-sentence.
“There you are,” he said, linking her arm with his. “Hi, Reese.”
“Hi.” Reese smiled brightly at Colin, but shot a wistful glance in Amelia’s direction.
Before Amelia could stop it, she and Colin were engulfed by a swarm of people demanding their attention. She looked around apologetically, but she didn’t see Reese again until after an announcement was made that the screening was about to start. She entered the theater with Colin at her side, and though Reese sat just two seats away from her in the theater, on the other side of Colin, she didn’t say another word about whatever it was that had her so agitated. Before long, Amelia forgot all about it.
* * *
Two hours later, she pushed through the throng of gushing friends and fans. This was the third time she’d seen the movie in its finished form, and she was thrilled with it, but she knew she couldn’t be objective. As she surveyed people’s reactions, though, she felt a heady mixture of relief and pride. They like it. They really seem to like it. The thought stretched her already wide smile even wider.
She glanced up at Colin, who was looking at her with a thoughtful expression. He tightened his arm around her and reached up with one hand to stroke her cheek. As she drank in the perfect moment, her earlier worries seemed easy to push aside. Everything’s all right. Surely she could make Colin understand. When the craziness of the launch died down, surely they could figure something out, some arrangement that would let them be together, but let her keep her own life intact, keep it from being swallowed up by his.
She grinned at him, already thinking past the mayhem of the walk back down the red carpet to what would come after it. In a few hours, she was me
eting Reese, David, and Brooke for a late dinner. But before that, she and Colin were going to her house to spend some time alone. He only had two more hours in town before he had to fly to New York for a morning interview. We’re not on the same page, she thought. But we can be.
Amelia seized onto this surge of optimism, anxious to be alone with him inside the limo. Lost in these thoughts, she allowed Colin to pull her with him out the doors they’d entered, where they were greeted with a new round of deafening screams.
She stopped in her tracks, caught off guard.
Amelia stared out at the sea of faces, all here for her—for them. The idea of that was overwhelming. She glanced up at Colin to share the moment with him and found him staring intently back at her, his clear-blue eyes filled with fierce emotion. His expression made her feel even more off-balance than the crowd. She gave him a questioning look.
They were standing side by side just outside the long row of theater doors. All at once, Colin turned her to face him, eliciting even stronger screams from the fans squeezed in along all sides of their exit path. Seemingly oblivious to their audience, he leaned down toward her, brushing a strand of her long, dark hair back from her face as his lips brushed against her ear. “Marry me, Amelia,” he whispered, softly, but so clearly Amelia couldn’t mistake his words even through the noise of the crowd.
She lost control of the muscles in her jaw. She couldn’t speak. She couldn’t even breathe. She thought she might pass out from pure shock.
After a few seconds in which time stood still, she regained her composure enough to close her gaping mouth. What?! her mind screamed at her, but all her voice delivered was, “I…um. I—”
Colin smiled and gave her shoulders a light squeeze. He leaned down and put his lips against her ear again, and this time he said, “I’m sorry, I didn’t plan to do it this way. I just couldn’t wait one more second.”
His crystal eyes were so clear, so sincere. How could she doubt his motivations? As she stared at him, frozen, her mind replayed one phrase over and over: We’re not on the same page!
Her stomach wrenched as she realized the enormity of what was happening, what had to happen next.
She had to break things off.
Through all of this Amelia remained rooted in place on the theater’s front walk, suddenly incapable of putting one foot in front of the other. The surrounding chaos took on a dreamlike quality, growing blurry around the edges. In her fog, it took Amelia several seconds to recognize the familiar shape hurtling toward her, the voice calling her name above the din. She slowly tore her gaze from Colin and focused it on Reese, who was all-out running in her direction.
“Mel,” Reese sputtered in relief as she drew up beside her, grabbing Amelia’s free hand. She didn’t say anything else, just gestured with her head toward the throng of fans.
Amelia swung her head in the direction Reese was staring, her eyes clouded with confusion and her brain more jumbled than it had been throughout this entire three-year-long ride. Unthinkingly, almost robotically, she scanned the faces in the crowd across the velvet ropes just steps from where she stood, trying to figure out what had Reese so agitated.
Though the action felt like it was happening in slow motion, it took her only seconds to figure out what—who—Reese wanted her to see. And then her eyes locked with a deep-blue pair so familiar, so unexpected, she had to fight back tears.
Amelia felt her heart lurch against her chest and her knees give way beneath her. She leaned heavily into the support of Colin’s side.
“Are you okay?” he whispered, his voice thick with concern. Before she could process what was happening, he was ushering her protectively through the mass of people, much faster on the way out than on the way in.
Amelia turned before sliding into the car, straining her neck and scanning the crowd in desperation for the face she’d glimpsed so briefly it felt as if she’d imagined it.
But it was hopelessly lost in a sea of screaming fans.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
Everything to Lose
Noah, May
Noah’s eyes widened in shock and disbelief.
He watched helplessly as Amelia took off down the red carpet. Colin Marks’ arm was draped possessively across her shoulders as he guided her through the throngs of people toward their waiting car.
As soon as she disappeared from view, Noah’s shoulders sagged. He lifted a hand to his face, rubbing his forehead in frustration. She’d looked straight at him. No, more than that—she’d seen him. He knew it…he’d caught the flicker of recognition in her eyes for one brief instant before Colin had interrupted the moment, and now the moment was gone.
She was gone.
How the hell was he going to get to her, to penetrate the thick wall fame had built around her? Surely he hadn’t come all this way for nothing?
He stood fixed in his spot against the velvet rope, not noticing the murmur of the crowd begin to die down as it thinned out, Amelia’s fans buzzing in excited voices as they made their way back to their cars. His thoughts were darting around inside his head, leaving him oblivious to the flurry of activity around him. He was so tired.
Tired, hot, hungry.
Sad.
Pathetic.
He’d landed in Memphis the night before, checked into a nearby hotel, and barely slept before rushing to the theater parking lot early that morning, predicting the mob scene the screening would produce. He’d been right to arrive early. When he pulled his rental car into the lot, dozens of die-hard fans were already on the scene, some with sleeping bags, others with camp chairs—even a few with tents. He pushed and shoved and pissed people off to get his front-and-center spot near the theater doors, figuring it was his one and only chance to catch a glimpse of her, let alone get her attention.
He wasn’t sure, now, what he’d thought he’d accomplish by showing up here tonight. It wasn’t like he could possibly have talked to her in the midst of this madness. But he hadn’t wanted to involve anyone else if he could help it. He hadn’t been able to bring himself to call his sisters, his mom, to help him track her down. How humiliating. And of course, her numbers were unlisted, her address impossible to find. He’d tried to track her down on Facebook, Twitter, but he was lost in an impossibly large sea of fans and followers.
So he’d come here on his own, to the one place he knew she’d be at the one time he knew she’d be here.
And now he didn’t know why he’d done it or what the hell he should do next.
Do I just go home? But then what would Amelia think about why he’d shown up at her premiere? She’d think I’m insane, that’s what. Suddenly, the crippling weight of his depression was back on his shoulders, only now the load was even heavier, tripled by his embarrassment. He closed his eyes, heaved a deep sigh, and spun on one defeated heel to head back to his car.
He’d barely taken two steps toward the parking lot when he heard footsteps rushing up behind him.
“Noah!”
He stopped in his tracks at the voice he hadn’t heard in almost a decade. He turned around so fast he nearly tripped. “Reese?”
She ran the ten steps that remained between them, and before he even processed what was happening, she ducked under the velvet rope and flung herself into his arms.
“Oh my gosh, Noah! What are you doing here?” She stared at him incredulously. She stepped back and looked him up and down. “I can’t believe it’s really you.”
His mouth opened and closed. He was at a loss for words.
Reese shook her head, eyeing him so critically he felt self-conscious.
“You look like hell,” she said. She giggled, and his eyes widened. “Sorry—I didn’t mean it like that. You look great. It’s just…have you slept lately? You look like you’ve been…oh, God. You’ve been out here all day, haven’t you?”
His face turned a deep shade of crimson, and he stammered.
“Uh, no. I mean…What?”
He stepped back to turn the scruti
ny on her. Geez, she hadn’t changed a bit.
“Hi, Reese,” he finally said. He shook his head and flashed her a bemused grin. It felt as if he’d seen her yesterday, not like they’d spent the past ten years as virtual strangers. The moment was utterly surreal.
Reese smiled back at him, and his heart pounded with the possibilities of what this meant, running into her. I’m in deep now. No turning back. He took a deep breath.
They were interrupted then by the sound of more approaching footsteps, and both Reese and Noah turned in their direction. An exceptionally tall, dark haired man stepped into the space beside Reese—he slid his left arm around her waist and stretched his right hand toward Noah.
“David Chapman,” he said in a thick baritone.
Noah shook the hand he extended. “Nice to meet you. Noah Bradley,” he replied.
David’s eyebrows shot up. “Is that right?” he said. “Good to meet you, too. I’ve heard a lot about you.”
He turned to Reese.
“Ready, hon? Brooke’s getting impatient. She might drive off without us.” He laughed. “I’m not sure that’s a good idea. You know how she is with directions…”
Reese turned back to Noah, her eyes bright with expectation. “Would you like to come with us? We’re going back to our house for a bit, then we’re meeting Mel for dinner.”
Noah dipped his head, not sure what to say. “Thanks for the invitation,” he mumbled. “But I…don’t think I’d really be wanted.”
He felt Reese’s eyes boring into him, and he glanced back up at her.
“Don’t be silly,” she said. “I just invited you. Besides,” she added, “I don’t think you came all this way just to watch us stumble up the red carpet.”
His face flushed again. Was that ever the truth.
But what exactly had he come here for? I’d better figure it out, he thought, because now that this unlikely doorway to Amelia had opened, he knew he’d damn well better not slam it shut again.
Now a Major Motion Picture Page 31
