Once they were inside, Wendy did a spot check to make sure all the blinds and curtains were still in place. Then she launched herself back into their conversation. “Why do you say it like that?” She strode across the kitchen to face him. “Like being in it for the long haul makes you better than me?”
“Not better,” he said. “But … wary.”
“Wary of what? Me? Anyone who's not as committed to something as you are?”
“Wendy, you snuck into my house this morning and detonated a grenade. This is my life that we're talking about. My life. Having a secret love affair with a Hollywood star is a big deal. You have no idea the havoc you're causing for my plans, the kids, and everyone who's depending on me. But you were going to turn around and fly right out of here. As it is, I've only got three weeks with you to try to repair all the damage. And you ask why I'm wary?”
“Will you stop with all the damage I've caused! The team seems pretty cool with me, so I don't know why you're so bothered.”
“Wendy! You don't even know me! You have no idea what you've crashed into the middle of. No idea.”
“So tell me,” she challenged.
“No.”
“No?”
“I'm not ready to unleash you on to something else in my life.” Colin walked away from her, rubbing his hands over his face. “Not yet. Not until I've figured out how you're going to fix it.”
“Oh, so you need a fake Hollywood fix, do you?”
“I'm not sure what it'll take, but I need you. Even if it's only to back me up when I've figured it all out.”
“Why do you have to figure it all out? You could let me help. Or let someone help.”
“No.”
Wendy smiled like she was seeing the sad ending to her favorite movie for the three hundredth time.
“What?” Colin asked from across the kitchen.
“I was just thinking what happened to Lola's life when she finally decided to let someone in.”
Colin stalked toward her. “Is that why you picked my name out of a hat? Because you thought my life needed revamping? And you were the magic elf to do the trick?”
“No! I swear. I had no idea how screwed up you are. Really.”
Colin's brows shot up. “Screwed up?”
“All solitary and macho and determined to do it on your own. I mean, I get that you're this hero to a lot of people, but Colin, even George Bailey had friends. Who helped him.”
“Wendy, stop. I agreed to be fake-engaged to you, but you do not get to stomp into my life and critique everything you see. Because I sure as hell wouldn't be marrying someone who did that to me. So quit trying to fix me.”
“I'm not trying to fix you.”
“Right.”
“I'm not! All I'm doing is offering suggestions that might make these next three weeks more manageable.”
“If I'm so in need of fine-tuning, then why did you pick on me, Wendy?”
She swallowed. “There wasn't anybody else.”
“Bullshit. You picked me because I'm a nobody from the sticks who you think can only benefit from the Wendy touch in his life.”
“Colin, that's NOT true.”
“Yeah?” He took another step towards her. “What about Arlen? This is all about his kids, not mine. The reporters were already assuming he was the one.”
“Eeew! You actually want me to say I'm sleeping with your sister's husband? That's, like, yuck.”
Colin ignored her. “You said yourself that when an on-screen romance is imminent, an off-screen one can't miss.”
“That's all true.” Wendy sighed. “But nobody would have believed it. Or backed it up. Lola and Arlen are this total underground love story. And a supposed affair between me and Arlen? It would kill the vibe on the show. Everyone in the cast and crew loves Lola and Arlen. And if they thought he was screwing around on her? With me?” She scoffed as if the idea that Arlen could possibly choose anyone over Lola were nothing but ludicrous. “The affair worked on Ups and Downs because it was a sitcom about people in their twenties trying to figure things out, sleeping around, messing things up. But Off the Beaten Path? It's a drama about kids and family. An affair would be so sleazy.”
Colin's jaw was still so tight.
“And the kids—having them endure a sex scandal about their Dad?”
“Okay, okay,” Colin conceded. “Stupid idea. But come on! There must be so many guys in your circle you could have picked!”
Wendy shook her head.
“There had to be somebody else. Somebody in Hollywood who would want to be fake-engaged to you.”
She kept shaking her head. “No. Not like you. The paparazzi didn't realize it, but they already had the evidence.”
Colin flushed a brick red. “Yeah, thanks for that.”
“I had to!”
“You can't tell me there isn't a picture of you hooking up with someone else! You're on the arm of some new guy every other week.”
“I am not!”
“You've slept with half the men in Hollywood and you have to come after me?”
Wendy's mouth gaped open as if she'd been slushied right in the face. “I HAVE NOT SLEPT WITH HALF THE MEN IN HOLLYWOOD.”
“I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that,” he said. “But as long as you did it, you may as well have used one of them. They're local and can get something career-wise out of all this. It should have been one of them. Not me.”
“There is no THEM.”
“Give it a rest, Wendy. There are pictures and stories of you parading around, quite publicly, I might add, with all your men.”
“But I don't SLEEP with them.”
“Right.” And he stormed to the sink and stood there, hands on the counter, back to her, looking at the shaded window over the sink. He had nowhere to go. There was nowhere to go with Wendy.
“Colin,” she said evenly from behind him, “I haven't slept with anyone since the pictures.”
He turned around. “What?”
Wendy took a deep breath. “I haven't hooked up with anyone since those naked pictures of me went viral. Until you.”
Colin stood so still. “You're kidding.”
Wendy shook her head.
“Those pictures were six years ago.”
“I know,” she said. “Believe me, I know.”
Colin felt himself reeling. How totally fucked up do you have to be to spend most of your twenties celibate?
Wendy sank down to a chair at the kitchen table. “After those pictures, I went numb.” She smiled ruefully. “I liked Dylan so much.” She looked up at Colin. “We were so happy and it was so easy. The two of us, loving each other, like we were in this safe little bean pod with crazy Hollywood swarming all around us.”
Colin wanted to sit at the table with her, but he stood his ground. What if this was all some set piece she'd been rehearsing? “What happened?” He worked to sound neutral. Untouched. Unconcerned. “Did you guys have a fight?”
Her brows rose and she shook her head. “Nothing happened. I was on cloud nine the day the pictures hit and the story went viral. I'd been at the set all day and by the time I got home that night, every trace of him was gone from my place. I never saw him or heard from him again. He choreographed it all down to the second.” Her voice got quieter. “He must have been planning it for a while.” Her voice got softer still, harder to hear. “And I had no idea.”
Colin walked to the table and sat across from her. “None?”
She looked right at him. “None. I'd been chirping on, happy as a lark for all that time when he must have been orchestrating every last detail.”
Colin could see the red tide seep into her cheeks.
“I didn't even know he took the damn pictures! Sleeping, in the shower—in the shower! Some of those bedroom shots ...” She closed her eyes for a few seconds. “I mean, where had he even been hiding the camera?” She shook her head. “I was so afraid he still might be spying on me that I moved out that weekend. I bought the
place in Beverly Hills about a month later.”
Colin could hardly swallow. Hiding the camera. Moved out. “Uh … how long had you been together?”
“Not long. Eight months. But boy, I saw forever when I was with him.” Wendy nodded, a tear pushing to the corner of her eye. But then she sniffed and straightened her shoulders. “Well,” she said, as if shaking the memory off. “I guess for Mr. Salt of the Earth Environmental Conservation Guy, a quick pay-off and a comfy life on some beach was more attractive than a life of actually caring about something or someone besides himself. I was collateral damage.” She looked up at Colin with a glistening, determined smile. “But I'm strong. I'm successful. Things like that should bounce off me, right?”
“No,” he said fiercely, “they shouldn't.”
All the bluster seemed to swish right out of her. “Well, it didn't, as it so happens.” She looked down at her hands. “Every time I start to feel even the barest twinge of liking someone, connecting with someone, I back off. Way off. I got further with you in the hotel room, so much further, but I still ran.”
And Colin, who'd been starting to feel lulled by a soft warmth of shared secrets, reared back like Wendy had just opened the door to an ice storm. He got up from the table. “That's not true. About how you always back off. You tried to get together with Arlen.”
Wendy's head jerked up. She looked confused. “No I didn't.”
“There's evidence.”
“That picture?” She laughed as she stood up to face him head-on. “That was a publicity stunt.”
Colin clenched his jaw, not wanting to fall for any of the fluff Wendy might be twisting. “So you were never interested in Arlen?”
“Colin, the first time I ever saw Arlen was in his audition tape for the show. An audition he did with Lola. An audition that ended with a kiss. That kiss.” Wendy shut her eyes and let a shiver breeze through her. She looked back to Colin. “I knew right then that the two of them had fallen HARD for one another. And when I saw them together for the first time in real life, I saw him look at her and her look at him and it was enough to singe my eyelashes.”
Colin didn't ease the muscles in his jaw. “But you still went after him—very publicly.”
Wendy took a deep breath, as if steeling herself to explain something for the fifteenth time to a recalcitrant child. “Colin, I've spent over half my life starring in what could be called romantic comedy. But no matter how you label it, romance is almost always a part of it. But the story of true love? And happily ever after? I found out that in real life, it wasn't likely.”
Colin looked steadily at her, not saying anything. Not easing up.
Wendy gave the ghost of a smile. “Then I see it in Lola and Arlen. The real deal. And Lola? LOLA? She was holding back. She had a million excuses, and she was holding back. When she'd found something with Arlen the rest of us only ever dream of and get really jealous of. So I needed to light a fire under her butt.”
Colin was shaking his head. “Don't try to tell me you cared so much about Lola back then. I know you tried to get her fired off the show.”
“What? No, I didn't!”
“Tom was going to fire Lola because you were getting nervous because she hadn't cast Sam yet.”
“Of course I was getting nervous! I was in the best freaking drama I'd read in years. Do you know how hard it is to find a good drama in Hollywood that doesn't revolve around drugs? Or crime? Or back-stabbing? My goodness! You watch American television drama and you'd think everyone in the country was in the mafia!”
“Well, Tom Glenn thought you were freaking out enough that he had to fire Lola.”
“Tom Glenn is an idiot.”
Colin's mouth dropped open.
“He's a worthwhile person and everything,” she rushed to say. “But the man doesn't know a cotton-picking thing about how to make the best entertainment happen. He knows what he's got, and he knows what he wants. But he has no idea how to get from one place to the other.”
Colin looked down and smiled. “He's not the only one.”
Wendy nodded. “Touché. It's all about getting from what you have to what you want. That's the trick.”
Colin stepped back and looked away. “So you were never interested in Arlen?”
Wendy laughed, the resignation palpable as Colin widened the gap between them. “Arlen's a great guy, no joke. But he's not for me. He never was.”
Colin smiled, then moved back toward her and reached for her, pulling her toward him.
Wendy smiled up at him. “You weren't … jealous, were you?”
Colin didn't answer. Instead, he kissed her.
Chapter 17
MATTEO
Everyone is wigging out that Wendy and Colin are getting married. But come on. It was so obvious how much he liked her. I didn't know she liked him back, or that they had this whole secret romance going on, but it makes sense. Colin is such a cool guy. He's like the guy version of Lola, and there's nobody as awesome as Lola.
“Matteo, get your feet off the table.” Lola sweeps into the living room, holding aloft a really big pizza box. “We have to eat there.”
“Mom, this is the ottoman. It's made for feet.”
“I'm still putting the pizza there.” She barely misses my sneakers as she drops the pizza box. She flops into the big armchair, leans back, and covers her face with her hands.
Dad sweeps into the room next, carrying two more pizza boxes.
Lola peeks through her fingers and wails. “What? You only ordered three pizzas?”
“The fourth one's right here.” And Nana comes hurrying into the room, pizza in one hand, a pile of napkins and plates in the other.
“Pam!” Lola hoots. “You're a goddess of pizza!”
“Matteo,” Dad squawks at me, “what are you doing? Go get Lola a Coke. Can't you see she needs one?”
“She'll eat all the pizza if I leave the room!”
Dad looks to Lola, looks back to me. “Good point.”
“I'll get Cokes for everyone,” Katie calls as she bounds down the stairs.
Dad looks up. “Make mine diet.”
“Of course.” Katie darts past the living room. “Ella! Pizza's here!”
Man, Katie and Ella better get in here fast. The pizza won't last long, not with Lola in meltdown mode.
Dad gets her two pieces of everything-on-it right quick before she can demolish any boxes. I open the other pizzas until I find the Hawaiian, then I dig in. Everyone gathers around talking all at once, grabbing a few slices then sinking into the living room furniture. Lola stays slumped in her chair, chomping and guzzling like a demented zombie. But she doesn't seem any calmer after two pieces and an entire can of Coke. “Mom,” I say. “Chill. Uncle Colin's not going to kill the show.”
That makes her sit up. “Matteo, I'm not thinking about the show. I'm thinking about Colin.”
“What about him?” Ella pipes in.
Lola slumps back. “He's a lot like me.” She groans.
“That's a bad thing?” Katie asks. “I don't think it's a bad thing. You fell in love, and you ended up with all of us. That's not a bad haul.”
Lola leans forward, looking all laser beams into Katie's face. “But I came so close to really messing it up.”
Katie zings her right back, with just as much force. “But you didn't.”
Lola considers this. “But I was with your Dad, on the set, everyday. It got to the point that I couldn't stand not being with him a second longer. Colin and Wendy have three weeks, then she comes back here. They'll be thousands of miles apart.”
Dad slides from the arm of the chair where he was sitting into the seat of the chair behind Lola, swinging his leg around her. Then he wraps one arm around her waist so they look like they're on a toboggan. “Would that have mattered?” He kisses her on the cheek. “If I were across the country, would you have gotten over me?”
That does the trick. Lola blushes. Whenever Dad can make Lola blush, we all know she's pretty much
defeated.
“No,” she sighs, shaking her head.
Nana does this chuckle thing that makes you feel all warm inside. “Colin and Wendy are both very intense people.” She says this as she pulls a cheesy piece of pepperoni off her pizza and pops it into her mouth. “Neither one is going to live a lie, even if they're a million miles apart. So, if they really love each other, they'll find a way to make it happen, no matter how they mess it up along the way.”
“So you think they'll mess it up?” I swear, Katie looks like she's itching to take notes.
“Oh, yes,” Nana says. “No doubt about it.”
Chapter 18
THE STORY OF WENDY AND COLIN
Wendy knew she could keep kissing Colin in the kitchen forever, but she managed to wedge her hands between them, splaying her palms against his chest. He stopped kissing her and leaned back, as if he needed the counter to hold him up.
“What?” The one word was all he could manage when he was breathing so hard.
But how could Wendy explain? She wasn't nearly as adept as Lola when it came to putting things into words. How could she tell him that she wanted a hug when he clearly just wanted to have sex?
Not that she didn't want to have sex with Colin. But she wanted his affection, too. That night in the hotel, he'd made her feel so cherished. But the more he got to know her, the less willing he seemed to show her any tenderness. And the more she got to know him, the more the distance hurt.
She looked up at him. “That night in the hotel,” she whispered. “I think we wanted the same thing. But I don't think we do now.”
“Well,” he said on a laugh, but on a bitter laugh. “Isn't that one hell of an understatement.” He reached out and ran his fingers along her arm. “But I thought this might be one thing we could agree on.”
Yeah. He didn't get it at all. Or he was pretending he didn't. Either way, Wendy knew she'd be selling herself short to have a wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am with Colin when she wanted so much more. Or at least, when she wanted something quite different.
Catch a Falling Star (In Love in the Limelight Book 3) Page 10
