The car was a small consolation for losing Dallas. “Fine. I’ll hold it for you. When you’re ready to have it back, let me know.”
“I’ll just go buy something else.” She closed the distance, flung her arms around me and squeezed.
In a matter of minutes, I’d be driving away from Dallas. My eyes watered and I sniffed.
She drew back and studied my face. “Are you okay? Second thoughts about leaving?”
Staying was a bad idea. Besides, if Jackie and I couldn’t be seen together, I’d be stuck in her condo all day. I already knew what kind of trouble that would lead to. But no way would I burden Jackie with my Dallas crush. I didn’t want her to feel guilty — she had enough to deal with.
I forced a laugh. “Oh, please. You know how I hate this city.”
“Okay. Drive safely,” Jackie ordered. “I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
During the elevator ride down to the underground parking, I sent Stella a goodbye text. Then I started up the Tesla and mentally said goodbye to Hollywood and Dallas.
* * * *
My chest ached and my vision blurred as I drove back to Hemet.
Dallas was just a guy and there was no shortage of them around. Millions of guys all over the world, right?
But none of them were Dallas.
Stupid Dallas. Why couldn’t he be more like Luke Holtz? I wouldn’t have had a problem leaving Hollywood then. But no. Dallas had to be generous to his fans, an amazing family guy, an incredible singer and he just had to write a song for me. To make it worse, he was sexy as hell and a fantastic kisser.
Oh, yeah, Hemet was over populated with guys like that. Not.
I wanted to turn the car around, spill everything to him, and beg his forgiveness for lying about who I was. I couldn’t though.
I needed to snap out of it. I’d only known him a few days. Not nearly long enough to fall in love. No way.
Still… that’s exactly what it felt like.
I’d get over him — eventually. In the meantime, I was a long ways from not wanting Dallas.
Chapter Eight
I grabbed a fresh tissue and wiped my eyes. I’d been up in my room since I got home hours ago, wishing I were in Hollyweird and missing it. Missing Dallas.
And there had been sobbing involved. Lots of it.
Curling up against my pillow, I eyed my cell I’d thrown on the bed earlier. I wanted to call Dallas just to hear his voice, but I’d never even gotten his phone number. Jackie would have it. I couldn’t ask her for the number of the guy who’d dated and dumped her though.
“Sweetheart?” my mom called through my bedroom door.
I sniffed and dabbed my eyes, so she wouldn’t know I’d been crying. “Come in.”
The door opened and she poked her head in. “You’ve been home for a while. Don’t you need to eat?”
“I’m not hungry.” I gave her a weak smile. “But, thanks.”
She sat on the edge of the bed. “Do you want to talk about it?”
“No.” I wrinkled my nose. “Not really.”
My mom folded her hands and stared into her lap. “Jackie came home and cried the entire first day.”
“Yeah, she needed a break.”
“And now you’re doing the same thing. She told me what happened with her, but that doesn’t explain what’s going on with you.”
“I want things I can’t have.” Being more specific than that could lead to Jackie finding out I’d seriously fallen for her ex. She’d feel guilty and I didn’t want that for her.
“Did you… do you want to move there?” my mom asked.
Did I? I missed Stella. And pretending to be Jackie made me realize how much I’ve missed having my sister close by. But did I want to live in Tinseltown? Living there, but not being with Dallas would be too painful. “No.”
“Okay.” She remained silent for what seemed like minutes, then rose and kissed me on the forehead. “When you feel like talking about it, let me know. Lasagna’s in the oven, but I need to make a quick run to the store before dinner. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
“Thanks, Mom.” That’s what I loved about her — she never pushed and would wait patiently until we came to her in our own time.
After giving my hand a pat, she slipped from my room and closed the door. Moments later, I heard my mom’s car drive out of the garage.
I’d known Dallas only a few days. What I felt couldn’t be love. And it was a good thing too, because he’d never love me back. I was the girl who’d lied to him and pretended to be someone else. That kind of betrayal was a crappy start for any relationship. Even if he did forgive me, that didn’t automatically mean he’d want to date me.
If the guy I’d lied to and left behind were Luke Holtz, I wouldn’t have to wonder what he’d wanted. Luke wouldn’t go for plain Maddie when he could have a star like Jackie. Dallas was different though. He hadn’t been into Jackie the first round.
Which brought be back full circle. Had we stood a chance if he’d known who I really was? The thought killed me.
I squeezed my eyes shut, determined not to start bawling again.
A car engine idled in front of our house, then suddenly stopped. Not driven away, but shut off. It didn’t sound like my dad’s car though, or my mom’s. Yet, it sounded familiar. Like my Beetle, which I’d left at Jackie’s.
Since our only neighbors lived far enough away that I needed binoculars to see them, whoever just parked at our curb had come for me or my parents.
I sprang off the bed, looked out the window and saw my Volkswagen Beetle hugging the edge of our lawn. What was Jackie doing back? Something was wrong.
Dashing out of my room, I zoomed down the stairs, darted outside and tore across our lawn, practically skidding to a halt just a few feet from my car.
Not Jackie.
Dallas climbed out of the car and planted himself directly in front of me. He stared down at me, his lips thinned to a straight line, his gray eyes dark.
“Dallas, what are you doing here?” I blurted without even saying hello. “Is everything okay?” By the look on his face, everything was not okay. The coward part of me wanted to retract the question and run back inside.
The scowl lessened just a bit. “We need to talk.”
“Uhm… How did you get the key?” He’d gotten it from Jackie, obviously. Did that mean he knew I wasn’t her? And why drive my car, instead of his own? But the bigger question banging around in my brain was why he’d come.
“Jackie gave it to me. And your address.”
So he knew the truth. “Did she tell you or did you figure it out?” I asked.
“Jackie enlightened me.” Dallas’s jaw tightened. “But I want to know why you didn’t tell me?”
“I-I couldn’t. It wasn’t my secret to tell and I swore to Jackie.” But I still felt sick to my stomach for betraying him. Avoiding his gaze, I folded my arms over my chest. “A promise is a promise.”
“Really, Maddie?” he growled. “You were just going to let me go? The last few days meant nothing to you?” He fisted his hands at his sides.
My eyes narrowed. “Did it mean something to you?”
He exhaled. “Would I be here if it didn’t?”
He’d come all the way out here for me? Not possible. “But… guys like you don’t go for girls like me. The real me, I mean.”
His brows rose. “And why’s that?”
I hesitated, shifting my weight from one leg to the other. “Because I’m not like those other girls that you know. I get a little nervous in crowds, especially in the spotlight. And I’m not exciting like the Jackie you thought I was. I may be boring by Hollywood standards, but I like myself the way I am.”
“Guess what?” He inched toward me. “So do I.”
Dallas had to be experiencing a moment of insanity, because he couldn’t possibly like me back. “Why are you really here?”
Dallas blinked, then his words slowed. “For you, Maddie. It’s
only been one day and I miss you already.”
“Really?” I asked, still skeptical. It’s not that I didn’t think I deserved to be liked. But how could he trust me after I’d deceived him like that? “Even though I pretended to be someone else?”
“Out of loyalty to your sister. Family’s important.” His voice softened. “And if you hadn’t switched places with Jackie, we wouldn’t have met.”
Relief washed over me, but my smile faded. “You’re still my sister’s ex. Isn’t that… weird?”
Dallas gently grasped my shoulders. “I hardly count as an ex. Two dates, one kiss and it was over.”
“According to the magazines, you guys dated for weeks.” I scoffed. “How could you only kiss her once after dating all that time?”
“Weeks, huh?” He shook his head. “Did you read that in the same rag that said Jackie was pregnant? We go places together, just as friends. You know, it’s convenient since we’re neighbors.”
“Whether it was one date or twenty, there are unwritten rules about that kind of thing.” I couldn’t cross that line again. Jackie hadn’t made a stink about it before, but she might if it went further. And I couldn’t blame her if she did.
He kept his grasp on my shoulders. “But if you and I being together doesn’t bother Jackie, why should it bother you?”
“How do you know she doesn’t care?” I asked.
“She gave me this address and shoved your car key at me.” He released me, but inched closer. “She also told me that the way to your heart is through jasmine. In pots, not bouquets, otherwise they die.” He stuffed his hands in his jeans pockets and shifted his weight. “She warned me to make sure you had time to read every day or you might get grumpy and that you’d rather curl up with a good book than watch a movie. Then she said ‘Good luck, stud. If you break my sister’s heart, I’ll have to hurt you.’”
I wrinkled my nose, unable to picture my sister playing matchmaker, especially with Dallas. “She really said that?”
“Promise.” Dallas made the cross symbol over his heart.
So much for her soap boxes on being young and free to make mistakes. That would be kind of hard to do with a guy like Dallas who’d be in it for the long haul. But I had her blessing to date him, which meant that nothing stood in the way. “I can’t believe she told you about our identity fraud when she was the one who insisted on not telling anyone.”
“Oh, uh…” He turned away from me.
“What?” I asked.
“I kind of ambushed her in the hallway, thinking she was you, and demanded to know what the hell was going on. I told her it couldn’t have been one-sided and that…”
I swallowed, not quite believing the words coming out of his mouth. “And what?”
He lifted a shoulder. “That I’d fallen for her. You, I mean. It was weird though. I was standing there in front of her door spilling my guts, but I couldn’t figure out why we suddenly had zero chemistry.”
Fallen for me?
“And that was when she showed me a picture of you guys together and told me you were twins.”
“Then you drove all the way out here just for me?” I had to be sure.
He freed his hands from his pockets and looked like he might reach out to me, but he let them fall to his sides. “Maddie… I think we can be good together.”
My eyes misted and I bit my bottom lip. “You and me?”
“Yeah, why not?”
Why not indeed? I’d gone from fame to shame, but now where did I belong? I glanced up into those eyes and knew my place was with him. “Will you stay in town for a while?”
One side of his mouth curved up. “Well, seeing as it’s kind of a long drive back…”
“Speaking of driving, why did you bring my car and not yours? If things hadn’t worked out, what would you have done?”
He entwined his fingers with mine. “I believe in us, Maddie. But the way you left, I wasn’t sure if you did too. What if you bolted when you saw my car? So I brought yours, knowing you’d assume Jackie was driving.”
I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face. Not that I wanted to. “Make me breakfast in the morning?”
“So long as you don’t leave my sight until then.” He grinned.
I laughed. Sure, I was crazy about him, but spending the night with him? “Oh, really?”
“We’ll rent a bunch of movies and fill up on popcorn. Maybe snuggle. If you’re lucky.”
“I’m feeling very lucky right now.” I leaned in and wound my arms around his neck.
He pressed me closer, his arms wrapping all the way around me, and buried his face in my hair. “I have to be back the day after tomorrow for that guest spot on Love and Loathing,” he said.
Oh, right. We lived a two hour drive from each other. “Dallas, if you’re there and I’m here, how will this work?”
“We’ll figure it out.” He brushed his lips against my forehead. “Jackie’s got an audition next month for that role in Winter’s Edge. Henley is finishing up another project, which gives Jackie time to research the role. She wants to rough it on a ranch — milk cows, rope steer, shovel horse manure — so she can give the character more authenticity when she tries out for it.”
“Rough it on a ranch?” Jackie’s idea of roughing it was skipping the limo and driving the Tesla herself. “You’re serious?”
“She said you don’t start college until the fall. Why don’t you stay in her condo while she’s gone? We can drive back together in the morning.”
Dallas Bines, my dream guy, had just made a two hour drive in a girly car to take me back to LA. Me, not Jackie. I grinned. “This was her idea?”
“Yeah, well, she also wants you to pretend to be her for a while longer.” He snickered.
I laughed. “I knew there was a catch.” I wouldn’t complain though. Jackie’s request made it very convenient for me to date Dallas without moving to LA. Yet.
He grinned. “You know, UCLA is a great college. And LA has some pretty good photography schools.”
“I’ll have to look into that.” I stretched up on my tiptoes, melted against him and kissed my fantasy guy.
THE END
Acknowledgments
I have so many people to be grateful for! Thank you to all my beta readers — Sara, Sausha, Danette and a few others. A very special thank you to author Susan Hatler for all her work on From Fame to Shame and her suggestions to make it even better. Susan, you rock!
Thanks to the team at Crush Publishing — editors Robin Haseltine and Sarah Billington and a very special thanks to Rose Nomura for her FABULOUS cover design!!!
Please keep scrolling for sneak peeks of other books by Veronica Blade.
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Please feel free to visit our website at www.CrushPublishing.com or author’s website at www.VeronicaBlade.com for updates on releases.
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AUTHOR BIO
Veronica Blade lives in Southern California with her husband and whichever of their kids — or someone else’s kid — decides to drop in. By day she runs the family business, but each night she slips away to spin her tales. She writes stories about young adults to relive her own childhood and to live vi
cariously through her characters. Except her heroes and heroines lead far more interesting lives — and they are always way hotter.
You can visit Veronica Blade on FaceBook, check out her website at www.VeronicaBlade.com or follow her on Twitter @VeronicaBlade. She loves hearing from readers!
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