Her dad rolled his eyes, but her mom nodded.
“I promise.” She gave Anna another quick hug. “Now. As wonderful a surprise as it was to see you, it’s been a long day, and I’ve got to get to bed.” She narrowed her eyes. “You do, too, young lady. What did you do, charter a plane to get here?”
Anna shook her head, then realized she didn’t know how to answer this question. Her mom would kill her if she knew she’d jumped in a car with a virtual stranger and had him drive her here. Especially without telling anyone.
Okay, well, her mom might have a point with that one.
“Um, I flew into L.A., then drove from there,” she said. Yes, that thing she should have done.
Her mom looked around the lobby, and her eyes landed on Ben, a respectful distance away, scrolling through his phone like he hadn’t been paying attention. Though Anna was pretty sure he had been.
“Is that man with you?” her mom said in a low voice.
Something close to the truth was probably the best move here.
“He drove me here. From the airport.” She just didn’t say which airport.
Her mom nodded.
“Of course. Your driver.” Anna opened her mouth to correct her mom, then closed it again. “Do you have a place to stay, or do you want to come back with us?”
Anna knew that if she went back to her parents’ hotel with them, she would break down in tears, and no one needed that tonight. That could wait until she was safely alone.
Plus, her mom would wonder why, exactly, she didn’t have any luggage or even any clothes that weren’t the ones she was wearing. And she’d never been great at lying to them anyway, so the truth about the panicked drive to Palm Springs would come out, and then her mom and dad would both worry about her, and that was the last thing she wanted.
She waved a hand.
“No, no, Florence got me a room at the Ace, I’m fine.”
Ben raised his hand from across the room.
“Miss, I’ll bring the car around.”
Anna hid a smile. She nodded at him, and he disappeared out the automatic doors.
“Okay, baby,” her dad said. “I promise I’ll take care of myself.” He looked at her for a long moment.
“I promise I’ll take care of myself,” she repeated.
He nodded.
“Good. I would ask to see you for breakfast tomorrow, but I’m sure you have to head back to your shoot first thing, so we’ll see you when we get back home, okay? You’ll still be in San Francisco?”
She would be, thank goodness.
“I’ll still be there. Love you.”
“Love you, too,” her parents said in unison, and walked out the front doors of the hospital.
She stood there alone, only the bored woman at the information desk for company. He was fine. He would be fine. She took a halting breath and closed her eyes. Now she felt immensely foolish for that mad rush to Palm Springs. She could have just waited in her hotel room in San Francisco, they would have called in the morning, it would have been fine. She had overreacted on a grand scale, hadn’t she?
A few seconds later, Ben pulled up right outside the hospital doors.
Anna smiled shakily as she walked to the car.
“I almost died when you broke out the ‘miss’ in there, you know,” she said.
Ben grinned at her from the driver’s seat. God, she felt so bad for bringing him along on this anxiety-driven mission.
“I almost said ‘Miss Gardiner’ but then I realized you probably didn’t want No-Affect Lady at the info desk to realize who you were and decide to wake up, so then I was going to go with ‘Miss Rose,’ but I thought your driver wouldn’t know your real name, so I decided to just stick with ‘miss’ alone, and I don’t know why I’m still talking about this when the big news is that your dad is okay!”
He turned to her, a huge, warm smile on his face.
“The best possible news! I would say we have to celebrate, but it’s almost two a.m. and we’re in Palm Springs, so I don’t think that’s exactly possible, but still. I’m so happy for you.”
She smiled back at him, then bit her lip.
“Thanks, Ben. But . . . I’m so sorry I dragged you all this way. I shouldn’t have freaked out after I talked to Chris. I should have just gone back to my hotel and eaten french fries or something and waited for news, and I definitely shouldn’t have made you drive me five hundred miles south for no reason.”
He dropped his hands from the steering wheel.
“Anna, what the hell are you apologizing for? Are you really telling me that you just found out that your dad is okay, and now you feel bad because you inconvenienced me? And here I thought you were a Hollywood diva who did whatever she needed and screw everyone else, but you’re just a softie. Relax, I’m fine! I got an adventure and free In-N-Out out of this and a little birdie told me we’re heading to the Ace tonight, and I love that hotel.”
Now she had to laugh.
“Ben, I made that up, you know. I don’t have a room at the Ace.”
He started the car.
“Oh, I know. I did notice everything you told your mom about the trip down here was almost the truth, so we might as well make this one as close to the truth as we can.”
She relaxed into the passenger seat and relinquished control.
“I knew my mom would lose it if she knew we drove down here—she already almost lost it because I showed up in the first place, even though she tried to pretend otherwise. So I wanted the trip to seem, you know . . . chill.”
He shot her a look as he turned to get back on the freeway.
“Chill? Anna Rose Gardiner, or whatever your name is, I only know you a little bit, but ‘chill’ is the last word I’d use to describe you. And if I think that, I’m sure your mom knows it to her core.”
The man had a good point.
“Okay, true, but, like . . . slightly more chill than it was.” She turned to him and sighed. “What can I do to make this up to you? Basketball tickets or frequent flier miles or . . .”
Ben held up a hand to stop her.
“Anna. I promise. You don’t have to do anything to make this up to me. This was fun—I mean, at least, for me, I had fun on the drive down here, you probably did not, now that I think about it, since you were on your way to your dad in the hospital, so now it feels insensitive that I just said it was fun, but anyway, really, you have nothing to make up for.”
“I had fun, too,” she said in a quiet voice. It was true. She’d been relaxed and happy and had enjoyed herself for most of the ride.
Ben turned and looked at her.
“You don’t have to say that, you know,” he said.
She put her hand on his.
“I did. Really. Thank you for making what would have been a really stressful trip mostly a fun one.”
He beamed at her and looked away.
“You’re welcome. It was truly my pleasure.”
She didn’t move her hand away until they pulled into the parking lot at the Ace.
* * *
—
Ben looked at Anna when he turned off the car. He had one important question for her.
“Okay. Am I going in there with Anna Gardiner, or Anna Rose?”
She dropped her head to her hands. Apparently, she hadn’t thought of that. One more thing that let him know how stressed she’d been today, since he had the impression from their conversations that she always thought of things like that.
“Oh God, make it Anna Rose. I mean, or just your friend Anna, or some lady named Anna, or anything else, I don’t know. But not Anna Gardiner. I don’t want it to be a whole thing that I checked into a hotel in Palm Springs at”—she checked her phone—“1:42 in the morning. You know?”
He did know; that’s why he’d asked.
“Okay, then. Put your hoodie up and let me handle this.” He stopped to look at her. She’d had an incredibly long day, and that moment at the hospital with her parents must have been exhausting. “Actually, why don’t you stay in the car and wait for me? I’ll come back and get you when I get us rooms.”
She shook her head.
“Absolutely not, I’m not that delicate. Plus, the rooms are on me.”
He’d known she would insist on that.
“Yes, yes, fine, but, like, don’t you think handing over your credit card will make it more likely someone will recognize you? I’ll pay up front; you can pay me back.”
He’d thought she would argue with him about that, but instead she just opened the car door.
“Okay, that makes sense, but I still want to come in.”
There was no accounting for celebrity. Ben followed her out of the car and into the hotel lobby.
He walked up to the front desk and smiled at the woman staffing it.
“Hi, Niamh!” he said after a quick glance at her name tag.
She looked surprised.
“You know how to say my name! Everyone gets that wrong.”
He smiled at her.
“My cousin’s daughter is another Niamh, so I know the name well.”
She smiled back.
“Well, please tell your Niamh I said hi. Do you have a reservation?”
He shook his head.
“Unfortunately, we don’t, but is there any way my sister and I would be able to get two rooms for the night? I’m sorry we got here so late; it’s been a very long day.”
He gave her his best smile, but she shook her head at him.
“Welcome to Palm Springs, but we’re fully booked tonight! There’s a ton going on in town for the weekend. But you might have better luck at . . .” She turned to a computer and clicked around.
This was what he’d been afraid of. After Anna had told her mom she was staying at the Ace, he’d tried to book them rooms online but hadn’t been able to. He hadn’t known if that was because it was so late at night, or because they were booked, but he’d feared the latter. He’d almost told Anna that on the drive over here, but she’d seemed so stressed about everything he hadn’t wanted to make it harder on her. Now he needed to do something about this.
He leaned on the counter and dropped his smile into a steady gaze.
“Look,” he said, “if there’s any way you can help me out with rooms tonight, I’d really appreciate it. I’m going to level with you—we’re here because my sister and I were at the hospital; Dad collapsed in Joshua Tree today and we had to rush out here. We just left the hospital a few minutes ago. I know we should have called ahead, but . . .”
The clerk shook her head.
“Oh, that’s terrible! I understand why you didn’t call.”
Ben felt guilty that he was sort of lying to her, but most of what he’d said was the truth. It just wasn’t his dad.
“Thanks—it was pretty scary, but he’s going to be okay, we think, thank goodness.” He closed his eyes for a second and hoped Anna was taking note of his acting skills. “But I don’t have to tell you that we’re both exhausted after a long drive, and then the hospital, and driving around Palm Springs at night from hotel to hotel to see if anyone has room for us sounds like a nightmare that might last until dawn, and you could not possibly see two people more ready to fall into bed than the two of us.”
Niamh patted him on the hand.
“Let me see what I can do.”
At least this woman was the polar opposite of the hospital info-desk woman, who barely seemed sentient. After she clicked around for a few more minutes, she looked up at him with a big smile on her face.
“I thought so! Okay, we can take you!”
Ben cheered, and he heard a small “yay” from Anna behind him.
“Unfortunately, we only have one room—we were holding on to it for a VIP, but they canceled, so I can release it to you. You don’t mind that it’s only one room, since you’re family?”
Well, shit.
“Actually, Niamh—”
“Anything is great, thank you so much,” Anna said from behind him.
He turned around to argue with her, but she waved him off.
One room? He was going to have to spend the night in a hotel room with Anna and not touch her? This felt colossally unfair.
But what could he do? He handed over his credit card to Niamh, and she gave them two room keys and directions to their room.
“And I hope your dad feels a lot better!” she said as they walked out of the lobby.
“Thank you, so, so much,” Anna said over her shoulder.
They were silent for the first part of their walk through the sprawling property to their room.
“I see you’re also a fan of the ‘tell as much of the truth as you can’ form of lying,” Anna said, when they turned the corner toward the empty pool. She pushed back her hoodie and grinned at him.
It was good to see her smile, after how stressed she’d looked for the past few hours.
“Oh, I think I invented that form of lying,” Ben said. “It let me get away with a whole lot as a teenager. I rarely have reason to do it anymore, but it was good to keep those skills from rusting.”
Anna laughed.
“Well, you were excellent in there. Thanks.”
He handed her the key cards for the room.
“Hey—I can go somewhere else for the night; I’m sure there are other hotels where I can find a room. I was just saying all of that about not wanting to drive around so you could crash.”
She brushed that off.
“You’re the one who spent the past seven hours driving; you’re probably just as exhausted as I am. And you were right, the thought of driving around town to find another hotel made me want to burst into tears. I’m thrilled we got a room here, and all because of your knowledge of Irish names.”
Well, he’d tried. He gestured for her to precede him up the staircase that led to their room.
“Thank my cousin, who married an Irish guy.”
Oh God, he didn’t ask if it was one bed or two. If it was one bed, he’d have to sleep on the floor. Either way it would suck. This felt like some sort of curse.
Anna let them into the room with the key card.
“Oh, thank God we’re here,” Anna said. “I’ve had to pee for the past two hours, but then I got distracted at the hospital and didn’t go when we were there. I’m dying here.”
She dropped her tote bag on the desk and raced into the bathroom.
Ben put his messenger bag down and sat on one of the beds. There were two, which should have made him feel relieved. Instead, he felt like he’d lost his last chance. Like he’d even had a chance.
He had to stop thinking about this. No matter how beautiful Anna was, or how fun she was to talk to, or how much he enjoyed her company, or how much he was attracted to her, he needed to forget she would be in this room with him tonight. One, they were working together—he never got mixed up with people he worked with; two, she was a fucking famous actress and the whole world probably hit on her and he didn’t want to be the whole world plus one; three, he didn’t want her to think he’d driven her down here expecting some sort of payment. And those were only the first three of the probably twenty-five or so reasons he needed to not even look at Anna again until they were back in the car together tomorrow.
Anna came bursting out of the bathroom.
“Ben!” She had a huge smile on her face. He stood up and smiled back at her.
“Anna!” he said in the same tone of voice, and she laughed.
“My dad is okay! It finally just hit me.” She closed her eyes for a second and let out a long sigh, and the smile on her face widened. “He’s really okay.”
Somehow, it felt natural
for Ben to open his arms, and Anna walked right into them.
“He’s really okay,” Ben said. She hugged him fiercely, and then laughed out loud.
“I was so worried. My God, I was so worried on the drive down here. And you know I’m going to worry about him forever, but he walked out of the hospital on his own, and I could tell from the look on my mom’s face that he really is fine.” She leaned her head against Ben’s chest. “I’m so thrilled and relieved and . . . just everything.
“My God, what a drug relief is,” she said. She smiled up at him, that heightened, glassy look in her eyes that told him if he hadn’t already known that she was so tired she was almost drunk. Then her smile changed. Softened. And she looked at him like . . .
No. Oh no. He knew that look. He knew it well.
That was a kiss me look if he’d ever seen one. And he’d seen them a whole hell of a lot.
But he couldn’t kiss her. Hadn’t he just detailed the many reasons why?
He realized his arms were still around her. He tried to take a step back, but just ended up backing them both up against the wall. He tried to let her go, he really did, but somehow, he couldn’t.
Then she let go of him. He pushed away the jolt of disappointment he felt and tried to be relieved. Good, okay, good, that’s what he needed, for her to stop this. She would let go and get under the covers and he would get under the covers of his own bed and attempt to fall asleep with her just a few feet away and then they would drive home tomorrow and never speak of this.
Then she took hold of his face with both of her hands, pulled it down to hers, and kissed him.
Seven
He couldn’t think, couldn’t move; all he could do was kiss her. He hadn’t let himself imagine this moment, but it was somehow even better than he could have dreamed of. Her lips were so warm, so soft; her body felt so good against his. My God, how did she smell this incredible after seven hours in a car? He couldn’t get enough. He pulled her hard against him as they kissed, and he could feel her smile as he ran his hands up and down from her waist to her hips. He threw everything into that kiss; all the times he’d wanted to kiss her, to touch her, and had stopped himself, he poured all of those feelings into this moment.
While We Were Dating Page 9
