I cast a glance at the beefy guys sitting in the SUV, watching us from their parking spot nearby. “They’re not very social, are they?”
She followed my gaze, gave them a small wave, then shrugged. “They like to keep their distance. Especially when I’m not alone.”
“If you’re alone, do they stick a little closer?”
“Close enough, but it’s a fine line. The main guy, Joe, told me when he first started that he wasn’t my friend, he wasn’t my big brother, and he didn’t want to chat. He was there to watch out for me and nothing else.”
My brows flew up. “Uh, that’s pretty harsh.”
“I guess. I’ve seen it before, though. The lines between celebrities and their security details getting blurred and weird. They’re called buddyguards in the industry and they usually wind up getting fired by management. Or they quit because they start getting asked to do stuff that has nothing to do with security.”
“Like what?”
She counted on her fingers. “Picking up luggage, dropping kids off at school, walking the dog, you know. The stuff people are too lazy to do. That’s not what the security team is for, so the good ones like to establish their boundaries upfront. Joe’s been with me for like six years, and I barely know anything about him. But he keeps me safe.”
I shook my head. Her world was so different from mine, it wasn’t even funny. “I don’t know how you do it. Always having them following you around, that is.”
“You get used to it.”
I knew she probably meant that in a general way, but I heard it in a personal way. Like, as in, I would get used to it. And since I was her boyfriend now, I would need to if I wanted to be anywhere near her. “Right. Anyway, let’s go grab an iced coffee or something. We don’t want to burn too much daylight here or we won’t make it to the top of the mountain by lunch.”
She mock saluted me. “Yes, sir.”
I poked her in the side. “Don’t salute me, PW. I’m not an officer.”
“Only officers get saluted?”
“Yep,” I replied, holding the door to the convenience store open for her.
“Interesting. Will you get promoted to officer at some point?”
“Not unless I apply for Officer Candidacy School. Which is basically like boot camp for officers. It’s a lot more focused on leadership, though. And it’s super competitive to get into when you’re already enlisted.” I grabbed a couple of plastic cups and began making up two iced coffees. “Do you still like caramel?”
“Yeah, thanks.” She grinned. “So, if you’re not an officer, what are you?”
“I’m a sergeant. Hopefully finding out this month if I’ll make staff sergeant in January.”
“Cool, I hope you get it.”
“Thanks,” I said, handing her the iced coffee and paying the clerk for those and a couple of large water bottles. We walked back outside and took a seat on a bench by the bike. “Anyway, it’s a pretty decent pay bump, so I’m probably going to move into a bigger place after I get promoted. I have a sweet apartment by the beach right now, but San Diego is pricey if you want to be near the water, and it’s pretty small.”
The words were out of my mouth before I’d even considered who I was speaking to. She could probably pay for an entire year of my rent with the money she made on one episode of her show. My entire apartment could probably fit inside just one of the rooms in her LA mansion. The difference between our worlds and the way we lived kept popping up, making my stomach turn.
“I’d love to live by the beach,” she said conversationally, as if the fact that I lived in a tiny apartment didn’t matter at all to her. “I have a great view of the city, but I bet the beach is fun.”
“Yeah, for sure. You’ll have to check it out sometime.”
We spent the rest of the time drinking our coffee while reminiscing about our favorite parts of the ball the night before. It was a much easier topic, considering it was our one shared experience since high school.
I was also glad she’d hit it off with my friends. They seemed to really like her too, although I did wake up to texts from Hawk, O’Malley, and Mills asking me what the heck was going on with me and Paige. All of which I ignored, so I fully expected to get an earful about it on Wednesday when we finally went back to work after this ninety-six.
They didn’t know about my history with her, so I imagined what happened last night seemed a little strange to them. Not only had Paige approached me to accept last year’s ball invite, but she’d also invited us all back to her hotel suite when the paparazzi made their appearance. Oh yeah, and that very public kiss. Guaranteed that didn’t happen when Justin Timberlake went to the ball a few years ago.
So yeah, safe to say my friends wanted answers. And since they actually listened to me about not asking about it while we were in Paige’s suite, I figured they’d earned the truth.
When we pulled into the parking lot at the Echo Canyon trailhead, it was packed with cars. This was to be expected on a weekend after six in the morning, but one of the perks of driving a motorcycle meant squeezing into small spaces. I squeezed between two cars and turned off the engine.
“Nice. This thing came in handy, after all,” Paige said.
“Right? You sure wouldn’t have been able to fit your helicopter in this spot.”
She rolled her eyes. “Hardy har.”
The duffel bag I’d used for the Vegas trip was attached with a bungee cord to the back of my bike, so I busted into it and pulled out my backpack with our packed lunch in it and the water I’d bought at the gas station in Kingman.
“Where’s your uniform and everything?” she asked, eyeing the now empty duffel.
“Hawk took it back to San Diego in his truck since I had the bike. He didn’t appreciate me dropping it off to him at five o’clock this morning.”
“Oops,” she said with a laugh.
She took one of the water bottles I handed her, and we set off on the hike. It was pretty challenging, but we’d done it so many times when we were in high school that we both knew it like the backs of our hands. Muscle memory kicked in, and we didn’t even think about the inclines or the way the dirt trail curved up the side of the mountain. Our feet just took us, no concrete thoughts, just quiet endurance.
The bodyguards were outfitted in athletic attire for our adventure, and although they seemed to make a point of staying about twenty feet back, I was still very conscious of them. I wondered if they thought I was a potential danger to Paige or if they were there to protect her from something else—as if I couldn’t. Probably both. Not like I was some macho guy, who thought of myself as any woman’s savior or anything, but the idea that if something crazy happened, my girl would have three bodyguards to save her while I stood back seemed kind of strange to me.
“Do you still like to hike?” she asked after a few minutes.
I snorted. “It takes some of the fun out of it when you’ve got sixty pounds of gear on your back, but yes. There’s a small group of us who actually enjoy the fact that Marines go on so many hikes. What about you? Do you still hike?”
“Yes, at least once a week I try to get out. It’s just a nice escape from it all, you know? I’ve got a couple of spots in LA—Mandeville Canyon, Runyon Canyon, oh and my new favorite is Solstice Canyon because of the waterfall.”
“Sounds nice. Any of them on the Hollywood mountain?”
She laughed. “That’s Hollyridge Trail. It’s super touristy, but it’s fun.”
“Maybe we can do that sometime.”
“That would be nice,” she replied with a warm smile. She looked around the trail, her eyes traveling over the familiar desert landscape. “It’s crazy to be back here. I’ve missed it.”
“When was the last time you were home?”
She looked up. “It’s been a while. A couple of years, at least.”
“Wow. And uh, how are your parents?” I grinned at her when she rolled her eyes and laughed at me. “What? It’s a normal catching-up
question.”
My history with Paige’s parents was a rough one. They were big fans of me when we’d first started dating. As a high school baseball star with good grades, I seemed clean-cut and wholesome enough to be worthy of their daughter.
Then when the full-ride scholarships started coming in from several amazing colleges, my future definitely looked like it would overdeliver. Like most parents, they wanted nothing but the best for their daughter. And with the added layer of her dad wanting to cash in on my major league future? I was treated like part of the family. Too bad their outlook of me took a one-eighty shortly after.
“My dad is … my dad. He’s obviously done a great job as my manager. I couldn’t believe how quickly Young, MD became one of the biggest shows on TV. But we don’t really have a personal relationship anymore. I talk to him when Celebrity Paige needs Manager Rich. Outside of that, I’d say we barely talk.”
It made me sad to hear that. She’d had a really close relationship with her dad back in the day. She was an only child, and her parents constantly had their fingers in everything she did.
At the time, I remembered how irrationally jealous I was of her for that. My parents were too busy looking for the next scheme or how they were going to get some quick cash. It wasn’t about me unless I could somehow help with that. They were embarrassing, to say the very least, and I hadn’t wanted them anywhere near my life. Still didn’t.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “What about your mom? How’s she doing? What does she say about all this with your dad?”
Paige shrugged as she made her way up the challenging terrain. “She’s fine, I guess. Every time I try to talk to her about an issue with my dad, she always just reminds me that he’s the reason I’m as successful as I am. She says I need to take the bad with the good. I need to be grateful. It’s usually a pretty short conversation.”
“Bummer.”
“Agreed,” she said. We stepped around another group coming back down from the top of the mountain. “It’s crowded today.”
I didn’t reply, but I’d been thinking the same thing. And I’d been keeping an eye on every other hiker we passed to see if they recognized her. So far, no one had.
“Anyway,” she said, “it’s not like I’m not grateful. I am. I know he worked really hard to get me the role on Young, MD in the first place. I know he puts work in making sure my contracts are good and the raises come every year with another season renewal. But I also know from my assistant that he is part of the reason no one will consider me for other roles outside of the show.”
“Really?”
“She’s heard some things that make her think he’s kind of putting that vibe out there in the community. Things like insinuating it’s all I can do, all I want to do. It’s all anyone should expect of me. I’m not interested in other roles. I’m not fit for this role or that role. I’m really not sure why he doesn’t want me to branch out, but apparently, he’s low-key blocking any film opportunities that would take away from my work on the show.”
“It makes sense that if he’s motivated by the money, he likes the steady paycheck of the show.”
She shot off a finger-gun motion. “Yep. But how does he know that leaving the show will mean the money will stop? I mean, what if my movie career totally takes off, and it’s even better than the show?”
“Is that what you want?”
“What?”
“For your movie career to take off like that.”
She bit her lip. “Well, yeah. I mean, that would be great. Having such a long run on the show has been amazing, don’t get me wrong. It’s a little scary to think about not having it as my home away from home. Those people, that set—it’s all I know. But it’s all I know. I just want to do something different.”
I couldn’t help but notice that her reasons for wanting to switch to movies had nothing to do with movies themselves. She didn’t seem as excited about making films as she was about just simply leaving the show.
I really, really shouldn’t have let it, but the simple observation took root inside of me. If she didn’t want to do the show anymore, but she wasn’t really that motivated by actually doing movies, maybe that meant she might be willing to leave the industry altogether.
“So this director with the Marine son, what do you know about her and the movie? I know you said you liked the plot, but what makes it so great?” I asked. She slipped on a loose rock and I caught her right before she faceplanted in the dirt. “Whoa. Easy, killer.”
Paige laughed as I helped her get her feet back under her. “Thank you.”
I glanced over my shoulder at her three shadows. They’d picked up the pace slightly, as if to help, then slowed again when I caught her. I sent Joe a tight-lipped smile and nod. These guys were cramping my style.
“Anyway,” she said, “Sandra, the director, is known for having really strong female characters in her movies. They’re darker, grittier, more character-driven, suspenseful. It’s miles away from the light dramedy vibe on Young, MD. This one is about a junkie who witnesses a murder and has to convince everyone that it wasn’t the drugs talking, and she’d really seen it. There’s this whole redemption arc for the woman, which I love. She cleans up her life, finds love, saves the day as far as the murder. It seems like it’ll be really good.”
“Wow, sounds intense. Is that the kind of movie you want to make going forward?”
She frowned. “What do you mean?”
“I don’t know. Like, if you step away from the show and into this super-opposite role, is that you saying that you want to do darker stuff from now on?”
“I mean, I hadn’t really thought about it as a new brand for myself,” she said, eyeing me carefully. “Right now, all I have is Young, MD as my identity. Maybe I want the freedom to do whatever I want instead of being typecast as one specific thing.”
“I get that. But what happens if this becomes your new typecast thing? Paige Walker, thriller actress.” I moved my hand across the sky as if painting a picture of the headlines in front of us.
She wrinkled her nose. “I don’t think it’s the same thing with movies. There are lots of actresses who do different kinds of movies. Look at Sandra Bullock. She’s done rom-coms like The Proposal and also that creepy Bird Box movie on Netflix. Maybe I could be the new Sandra Bullock.”
I pursed my lips, impressed. “Good point. Well, if that’s what you really want, I’m glad I’m helping you get the movie. Speaking of, are we going to have a photo op at the top of the mountain?”
“Yes, thank you,” she said, chuckling. We did some climbing in silence for a little while. Then, she cleared her throat. “Do you regret it, Noah?”
“Regret, what?”
“Everything. Turning down all those scholarships, joining the Marines, breaking up with me. All of it.”
I thought back to the summer after high school. We’d just graduated, I’d had my pick of about a dozen schools to attend on a free ride. Scouts promised me all kinds of things to sweeten the deal, a few major league teams were in the mix, making promises of their own for the future. It was supposed to be everything I’d ever wanted, right there in my grasp. Until I realized I didn’t want it anymore.
“No, not at all.”
She swallowed and looked away. “Got it.”
“Paige,” I said, reaching for her hand and tugging her off the trail so she’d look at me. “If there was one bad side to the way things turned out, of course, it would be that I lost you. But we didn’t want the same things. It wasn’t fair for either of us.”
“I know.”
“So why do you seem mad at me about it?”
One tanned shoulder lifted and fell. “I honestly don’t know. I know it’s not your fault. You had to do what was right for you, and I had to do the same thing. But it just feels weird now, I guess.”
I nodded. “Yeah, I can see that. But the last time we were here I told you it wouldn’t be the last time, remember?”
She looked around wis
tfully. “Yeah, I remember.”
“I mean, I didn’t think it would take this long, but here we are.”
“Right.” She bit her lip as if she wanted to say more.
“What? What are you thinking?”
“It’s just, I don’t think you needed to give up on baseball because of what happened with your parents.”
I crossed my arms over my chest, closing myself off from the feelings that tried to surface. “Paige, it’s complicated.”
“I know what they did was wrong. I know it was hard for you. But I’m sure the scandal of the whole thing would have died down eventually and you would have been free to live your own life.”
Shaking my head, I blew out a breath and looked over her head. “I really don’t want to relive all of that right now, okay? Let’s keep going so we can make it to the top.”
“Okay.”
That conversation was headed down a road that I wasn’t ready to take. I’d needed to stop it. But, then again, I’d kept all of this from her for long enough. It was probably time she learned the truth about what really happened between us.
“Paige, look. I played baseball in high school because I loved it,” I said. “Then came the other stuff. Scholarships, plans for the majors, all of your dad’s strategies. It overwhelmed me. All of it.”
“I know, but I couldn’t believe all of the opportunities you had that you wanted to walk away from. It was all really great, Noah.”
I swallowed, bracing myself for her response. “Yeah, it would have been great if it was something I wanted to do.”
Her steps faltered. “Noah, I didn’t realize you didn’t want to do it.”
I shrugged, using my forearm to wipe away some sweat that had formed on my brow. “The way I grew up with my parents always chasing money, never happy with what we had, doing illegal stuff to make it big. I looked at this plan your dad had for my life and it was just so … unsteady. I didn’t want to go to college, but obviously, I’d have to go if I wanted to play college ball. Then if I got drafted to a professional franchise, my life would revolve around contracts and salary negotiations and pressure.”
Adored by You: A Sweet, Celebrity, Military Romance (San Diego Marines Book 7) Page 7
