She raised an eyebrow, obviously not believing me, and went back to the dishes.
“Did you sleep with him?” she asked, not making eye contact with me.
“No.”
She turned to look at me. “I don’t believe you.”
“I didn’t. We were too drunk,” I said, aiming for honesty. “And in truth, he’s in love with you.”
“No, he’s not.”
“He is, Nora. He told me.”
She narrowed her eyes at me. “He told you that?” she asked skeptically.
“Yes, he did.”
The ghost of a smile flashed across her mouth, but then it was gone. She slammed the dishwasher closed.
“If he’s so in love with me, why was he making out with you?”
“I initiated it. I was trying to get over Jase. I didn’t work, FYI, but what was worse is that I thought I was giving Ethan what he wanted. I was wrong. From the moment he saw you, I knew something shifted for him.”
“Then why didn’t he come after me? Why didn’t he talk to me?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. He’s loyal as hell to me, and he didn’t what to leave me alone with Jase.”
“My brother was pissed that night. You really hurt him, Logan, and you really hurt me.”
“Nora, I promise, that wasn’t my intention. I was just being selfish. I was looking for an escape.”
She crossed her arms over her chest. “Did you know that we were getting back together? That we’d slept together?”
“No,” I said sincerely. “I had no idea.”
“Really?”
I shook my head. “Ethan wouldn’t talk about it with me. He wouldn’t talk about you.”
Nora didn’t say anything else. She just ran her fingers through her ponytail that was resting over her left shoulder.
“He’s going to be home tonight,” I told her. “Why don’t you stop by and see him, talk to him. I know he wants to see you.”
She nodded. “He’s been calling and texting me all week.”
“I know. He’s been moping around and complaining about you not returning his calls.”
That ghost of a smile graced her face once more.
“He wants you back, bottom line,” I said, making sure she knew exactly where Ethan’s head was at. “Will you at least think about giving him another chance?”
She nodded. “I’ll think about it. Now why are you going to kill my brother?”
“He kissed me,” I shared, just the memory of it giving me tingles all over my body that I fought to ignore.
“Really. He’s not holding back, is he?” she said blandly, and I knew she was still pissed at me. Simply apologizing wasn’t going to be enough. I’d lost her trust.
I hesitated before saying, “No, he’s not, and I’m honestly losing my resolve. I’m not sure I can keep pushing him away. I think my only option is to just stay away from him, to let time and space help me forget.”
“Good luck with that,” Nora said crisply, before she pushed passed me and walked back out to the main part of the restaurant.
I wondered if she’d ever forgive me for what I’d done. I wasn’t sure if she would, but if I got her and Ethan back together, then coming to the café that day had been worth it.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Ethan
I was vegging out on my couch with Garrett and Ellie when the doorbell rang. They both looked at me in expectation, so I let out a huff and got up to answer the door.
“You were closer,” Garrett called after me as I walked angrily to the door. It had better not be one of his fucking fans.
I yanked the door open, ready to rip whoever was on the other side of it a new one when I stopped short and my eyes went wide.
“Nora?”
“Hi,” she said, almost shyly.
“What are you doing here?”
“Giving you another chance,” she said softly, as she looked up at me through her lashes. Damn, she looked so beautiful, and her saying those words made her even more beautiful. “I think.”
Say what?
“You think?”
She cocked her head to the side. “I want to know that you’re all in this time, that you’re not going to run, that you’re completely over Logan, and I want to know that you really want to be with me.”
I swallowed hard. I knew what I had to say, what she wanted to hear, and it terrified me. I’d never told a girl, other than Logan, that I loved her, but I’d also never felt for anyone what I felt for Nora.
She suddenly stepped closer to me, so close that we were almost touching, and I could breathe in her sweet scent.
“Ethan,” she said softly, expectantly, but she was on the edge of pulling away. I could tell if I didn’t say something, the right thing, and fast, I’d lose her.
My heart was pounding, beating deeply against the walls of my chest, as I took a step closer to her, took her hands in mine and looked into her beautiful green eyes.
“I love you,” I said so softly she probably couldn’t hear me, but I didn’t care. I’d said it, and it felt so good.
Her eyes got wide, and then they filled with tears. I was suddenly so worried that I’d said the wrong thing. Did she not want me to love her, did she think I was moving too fast? I was starting to panic.
Then she choked out a sob and threw her arms around my neck, pulling me against her. “I love you too,” she gushed, clutching me so tightly, as if she never wanted to let go. And I never wanted her to.
We stood there on the porch for countless minutes, just holding each other until she finally pulled back. I lowered my head to close the distance between us, pressing my lips to hers, feeling their soft warmth radiate through me and make me feel whole again. She opened her mouth to me, letting me in further, dragging me into Noraland, the happiest place on earth.
“Bugs are flying around the house,” Garrett yelled from the living room, interrupting our kiss.
“So what,” I yelled back. He was getting on my nerves.
He had a break in filming, so he’d come home for a few days, and he’d been bugging the shit out of me, giving me crap for being in a bad mood. I was glad he was leaving the next day.
“So close the front door, dumbass,” he yelled back.
“Ahh!” I heard Ellie scream. “It just dive-bombed me. What the hell is that?!”
WHACK!
“Got it! That is one big fucking bug,” Garrett declared, and I just shook my head. “What the hell is that?”
“I don’t know!” Ellie squealed. “Throw it outside. Get rid of it!”
“I’m not touching it!” Garrett argued.
I turned back to Nora, not wanting to get involved in their spat over what was probably a dragonfly. Garrett was such a chicken-shit.
Then all of a sudden, Nora smiled at me, and everything else drifted away. I took her hand, pulled her inside and wordlessly led her upstairs. We stepped into my room. I closed the door, drew her into my arms and looked at her for a few seconds.
“Why were you crying before?”
She slid her hands behind my neck. “Because I was happy. I’ve been in love with you for months, and I never thought you’d feel the same way.”
“Why not?”
“Because you’re a player, Ethan. You don’t do commitment.”
I shook my head. “I’ve only played with you since the night we met.”
“Really?” she asked hopefully.
I nodded. “Yeah, I mean, except for what happened in Vegas, it’s only been you.”
“Well, you know what they say, right? What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, let’s keep what happened there that night in Vegas. Let’s just pretend it never happened.”
“I’d love to do that,” I answered sincerely.
She ran her hands back through my hair. “And I can think of lots of things I’d like to do to you,” she said then, standing on her toes so she could kiss me before she s
tepped back, fell onto the bed and pulled me down on top of her.
Chapter Thirty-Six
Logan
I knocked tentatively on Gretchen’s open office door. I’d waited long enough to talk to her, and I couldn’t wait any longer.
“Come in,” she said, not looking up from her computer screen.
“Hi Gretchen,” I said, and she gestured for me to take a seat on the couch.
She continued to type for a few minutes before looking up at me. “What can I do for you?” she asked, and I could hear the subliminal ‘hurry up, I’ve got a lot to do’ message in her tone.
“Um, so I wanted to talk to you about the shoot on Friday.”
“The one with you and Jason?” she questioned, as if challenging me to disrupt her no doubt perfect plans.
“Yes, that one. See, the thing is, I can’t do it.”
Her eyes went cold, but I hadn’t caught her off-guard, so I wondered if she’d been expecting this.
“Why not?”
“Because we broke up, and it was messy, and we’re not really talking right now. I’m not sure I can see him.
I hadn’t seen Jase in almost a month, outside of magazines, of course. He was gracing the cover of Rolling Stone that month with the other actors from of Sons of Sovereignty. He was shirtless in the picture, and I had to look away whenever I saw it in a store. He’d also been in Celebrity Weekly a few times.
My dad let me know each time, and each time he followed up that announcement with the message that he wanted to kill Jase. Just in case I’d forgotten. He was not happy about the reasons surrounding our break up, because he’d trusted Jase, and Jase had failed him.
“I’m aware that you’re no longer together, but I don’t really care. You both have contracts, and I expect you both to be there and act professionally, which in this case will mean acting like you’re in love.”
“But the whole world knows we broke up. Won’t the ad seem a little false now that we’re not together? Wouldn’t it be easier for you to replace me with someone else, someone who might be a better fit?”
She sighed. “Logan, listen, I get that you’re upset. We’ve all been there, but no, I can’t replace you. You’re more than welcome to void your contract, but we will need the advance back, and it will probably not bode well for your future in marketing in L.A. if you do this to us. I don’t care who your mother is. We might seem like we bow down to celebrities in this industry, but we really don’t. You have to work hard, put in the time, come up with the big ideas, and sometimes you have to do things that aren’t fun, you follow me? You won’t get anywhere with your connections alone. And if seeing your ex-boyfriend makes you uncomfortable, and you can’t get past it, then maybe this isn’t the right career path for you. I guess Suzanne and I were wrong.”
“Wrong? What do you mean?”
She sighed. “We see a ton of potential in you, and that’s the truth. You’ve done a phenomenal job in your internship, and even though you’re just a freshman in college, we wouldn’t be opposed to keeping you on two days a week while you’re in school and eventually finding a home for you here after you graduate. You have a real talent for innovative ideas. I mean, what you suggested at the staff meeting last week when we were talking about breaking in to the tween market was genius. Absolutely genius.”
Yeah, I’d completely stepped into my sister’s mind for that, but Gretchen didn’t need to know that.
“Thank you.”
“But,” she said, dangling the carrot in front of me, “if you back out now, you’re done.”
Shit. That was harsh.
I sighed. “Okay.”
She shrugged. “Real world, kid. It’s how it is.”
I took a deep breath, knowing that the right thing to do would be to go through with the shoot. I hated the idea of seeing Jase, not because I didn’t want to see him, but because I didn’t want to be reminded of what I’d lost.
“Fine, I’ll be there,” I grumbled.
“Good,” she said, and turned back to her computer, effectively dismissing me.
* * *
“Ethan, please,” I begged.
“No,” he said, shaking his head as he took another bite of his breakfast sandwich.
I was sitting across from him at the McDonald’s near his house, because I knew he stopped there most mornings before class, and even though he didn’t have class that day, because it was finals week, I knew he’d be there. And I was buttering him up. I had to be at the shoot in Malibu in an hour, and I was dreading it, but I was especially dreading going alone.
“Come on. I don’t want to go by myself.”
He shook his head again. “I can’t. I have to meet my sociology study group. We’re doing some last minute cramming for our final that’s at three, and besides, I’m not getting in the middle of this.”
“Why, because Nora wouldn’t like it?”
“Yes,” he said definitively. “She’d hate it, and I’m not in the habit of pissing her off these days.”
“But you’ve been my friend since we were seven. Don’t I take precedence?”
He raised his eyebrow and stuffed a few hash browns into his mouth. “Thaishonothcashe.”
“What?”
He swallowed his mouthful of food and took a big slug of orange juice. I took a sip of my coffee, not able to stomach much else.
“I said, that is so not the case. I love you, Lo, and you’re my best friend, but she’s my girlfriend, who I just got back together with not even a month ago after I screwed up royally and chose you over her, so I’m not doing it again for something this trivial.”
“Trivial! Are you kidding me?! This is not trivial, and you suck as a friend by the way.”
His shoulders sunk in a way that told me he felt like I was being irrational and he couldn’t reason with me. It was the girl in me coming out, and sometimes he forgot she was in there.
“Lo, you know I’d do anything for you, but not this. I know you just want me there as a buffer, but you’re going to have to learn to be around Jase. You guys have a whole year of this ahead of you, not to mention the fact that you’re going to be on set with him this summer, right?”
I shook my head. “No, I told Luiz I couldn’t do it. I backed out. I think I’m going to go home.”
“Dude, that sucks,” he whined, and I knew he wasn’t upset about me bailing on the movie. He was sad that I wasn’t going to be in L.A.
I shrugged. “I know. I’ll miss you too, but I’ll be back in the fall. It’s not like I’m leaving for good. It’ll be just like how it used to be when I lived in Florida.”
“I know, but I’ve gotten used to having you here.”
“Me too, but I miss my dad. I want to go see him and Sasha.”
“How’s she doing, by the way?”
“Fine, I guess. She’s finally over the morning sickness, and I think she finds out what she’s having soon. I’m really hoping for a boy. My dad could use someone on his team.”
He nodded. “That’s true. My mom always felt outnumbered at home, but at least she had Kelly. She really likes Nora too. They get along great.”
“Aww, E, that’s so great. Did you ever think a year ago that you’d have a serious girlfriend who you’d introduce to your family?”
He laughed out loud, showing me the half-chewed food in his mouth. “Hell no, but Nora’s so cool. I love her.”
I smiled. I was happy for him. “She’s so good for you.”
He nodded. “Yeah, I know, which is why I don’t want to screw things up.”
I sighed. “I know. I get it. It just sucks. My stomach’s in knots. I haven’t seen Jase since that day at his house when he kissed me.”
Ethan winced. “That sucks.”
“Tell me about it. It’s going to be so awkward.”
He shrugged. “At least you don’t have to be topless like Nora. I can’t say I was thrilled seeing her pressed up against Cody, but I just kept telling myself he likes dudes, and it made
it easier to swallow.”
We’d been at Nora’s shoot the day before, and although I’d been helping out, I got to spend most of the time watching with Ethan.
He shoved the last bite of his sandwich in his mouth, crumpled up the wrapper, and stood up. “I gotta go. Call me later, okay?”
I nodded. “I will. You’re still coming over tomorrow to help me move, right?”
The dorms were closing, and Henley and I were moving out. My stuff was going to my mom’s house for the summer. She was going to store what I wasn’t taking to Florida, which was a lot. I was packing light – just a suitcase full of clothes and my surfboard.
“I’ll be there at ten,” he said, then he leaned down to kiss my cheek.
“Thanks. Love you.”
“Love you too,” he called over his shoulder.
As he walked away, I felt such relief that we’d never slept together. We’d kissed – a lot – but I’d been so drunk that my memories of that night were fuzzy at best. And that was a good thing, because the last thing we needed between us was awkwardness.
And we were in a good place. We loved each other platonically, just as we had for years, and it was what worked. We were so much better as friends.
I looked at my watch. I had to be in Malibu in forty-five minutes, so I figured I’d better leave. There was no telling how bad traffic would be. On the way there, I called my dad, needing someone to talk to so I could take my mind off of Jase.
And when I arrived at the set, I was calmer than I’d been an hour earlier, but it was short-lived when I saw Jase’s vintage Mustang parked in the lot at the section of beach that had been closed off for the photo shoot. He’d gotten there early. Our call time wasn’t until a half an hour later, but I was pulling intern duty for thirty minutes before I needed to get into hair and make-up. My first stop was to check in with Gretchen to see what needed to be done.
“Logan,” she said, half-surprised, as if she thought I might bail at the last minute.
“Hey Gretchen. What’s going on?”
“Nothing much. We’re all set up, so we can get started early. Why don’t you head over to the tent and get your hair and make-up done.”
Gravity Happens (Forcing Gravity) Page 30
