Heartthrob (Hollywood Hearts, #1)

by Belinda Williams

  I returned my focus to her. “I’m sorry?”

  “You belong here, too. You’ll see.”

  Chapter 25

  After I’d finished her measurements, I left Chloe on the sofa and went looking for Lena. Now Chloe was experiencing the aftereffects of my lasagna, too. If we didn’t push her out the door soon, she’d be asleep like Jake.

  The house was quiet as I walked into the entrance foyer. My sneakers made a squeaking sound on the tiles, breaking the silence. I paused and listened. Where had Lena gone with Jay? The cavernous house felt damn eerie when it was like this. It was probably why Lena had ensured there was a stereo in my workroom. No wonder she felt lonely here.

  I considered searching the house, then wondered if it would be easier to simply text Lena using my cell phone. First-world problems. I was about to return to the kitchen when I heard Lena’s voice coming from outside.

  I went to the window adjacent to the front door and froze when I saw who Lena was talking to.

  Duncan.

  What was he doing here? Is that why Jay had come to fetch her?

  I weighed up her right to privacy and my need to protect her in about a split second. My overriding loyalty to my best friend won out.

  Carefully, like I was some sort of trespasser, I reached for the handle on the front door and turned it slowly. Everything in the house was so well maintained it didn’t even make a sound. Holding my breath, I inched the door open a crack.

  “Is that why you offered me the role? To apologize?”

  I stiffened against the back of the door. Lena generally didn’t do pissed like other people. She rarely raised her voice. Instead, her tone became hard edged, like the blade of a knife.

  “Of course not,” I heard Duncan say. “The offer stands. You’re an award-winning actress now, Lena. Stop doubting yourself.”

  “You misunderstand me. I don’t doubt myself, Duncan. I doubt you.”

  I winced. Ouch. Well, he’d started it by the sound of it.

  “I suppose I deserve that,” he said.

  Um, yes.

  “I can understand why you’d doubt me,” he continued. “After the way I treated you.”

  There was a beat of silence. Lena was such a private person she had never actually told me exactly how their separation had come about—which meant it probably hadn’t been pretty.

  “It’s done now,” she said with a note of resignation.

  Duncan’s brittle laughter was carried to me on the gentle breeze coming through the crack in the front door. “You’ve always had such a tendency toward the dramatic.”

  “Don’t be condescending.”

  Oh, man. I dared a look out the window again to see Duncan holding up his hands.

  “I’m sorry. That came out wrong,” he said. “You’re right. I did come here to apologize. I’m not doing a very good job of it, am I?”

  I saw Lena’s shoulders relax slightly. “No.”

  Duncan took a step closer to her. “Lena. Forgive me?”

  Her features remained unreadable and I imagined there was a fair bit of restraint involved in keeping them that way.

  “Thank you,” she said eventually.

  If it had been me I’d probably have been swearing at him and chasing him down the driveway.

  He took another step toward her. “No. I mean forgive me.”

  “Duncan?” She sounded wary now.

  “I made a mistake,” he continued, but Lena interrupted.

  “Yes, you did and thank you for apologizing—”

  “I was wrong, Lena. About us. You’re right to doubt me. The truth is, this all started because I doubted myself. You must understand this was never about you. It was about me and my insecurities.”

  I withheld a groan at the ‘it’s not you, it’s me’ sentiment. He was nearing sixty. Surely that excuse didn’t cut it.

  “What are you saying?” she asked.

  “I’m saying my doubts about our . . . suitability were ill-founded.”

  “Oh, for fuck’s sake,” I muttered. This was what came from having a relationship with someone way too old. They used outdated language like ‘ill-founded’ when really what he was trying to say was that he had been a dick.

  He cleared his throat. “I thought you deserved better.”

  “Why would you think that?” Lena asked.

  I had to admit, she had a point. He might be a lot older than her but he was one of Hollywood’s most successful producers.

  “When we met, you were young,” he began.

  I choked back something between a chortle and a cry of disbelief at the understatement.

  Duncan paused and glanced in my direction. I jumped back behind the door quickly. Damn me and my big mouth.

  “So what?” Lena shot back. “I’m getting too old for you now? Or perhaps I got it the wrong way around? Maybe I’m not old enough?”

  “I can understand how it looked at the awards,” he hurried on. “You know Miranda and I have remained close.”

  “She was your plus one. How else would it look?”

  “Only at the after party. I wouldn’t have been so insensitive to have her sit at the table during the ceremony.”

  “Shall I thank you then? Is that what you came here for? Thanks?”

  “No, of course not. I really am messing this up, aren’t I?” There was a short pause. “Lena.” Duncan’s voice sounded rough. “I came here to ask you if you’d be prepared to try again.”

  “Holy shit,” I breathed.

  “And what does Miranda think about that?” Lena asked, her voice neutral.

  “I don’t care what Miranda has to say about it!”

  “That’s funny. I had the impression Miranda might like to have a say. Seeing as you’re living with her.”

  “I’m not living with her. I’m staying in a guest bedroom at her house. My house,” he corrected. “Because the grandchildren are there at the moment.”

  Oh, wow. Did that make Lena a step-grandmother? How screwed up was that?

  I heard Lena sigh. “What made you change your mind?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You seemed pretty certain about the situation when you gave Suzie permission to notify the press of our separation. Before you’d told me.”

  I sucked in a sharp breath. Oh, poor Lena. That’s how she’d found out? By reading it in the press?

  “That was an error. A miscommunication between her and me. I can assure you it was not my intention—”

  “Fine. You may not have intended for me to find out that way, but it doesn’t change the fact that you planned to end things. Without talking to me first.”

  “I was wrong, Lena. I was trying to make it easier on you.”

  “Easier on me?” Her voice came out deeper than usual. “Making it easier on me would have involved talking to me first—”

  “Of course I was going to talk to you—”

  “No. You were going to tell me, Duncan, like you always tell me what I should be doing. Well, I’ve had enough. Regarding the movie role, I need to discuss it with my agent. You can deal directly with her from now on.”

  “Lena? Naturally, you’re upset. I completely understand. You just need some time—”

  “Stop talking, Duncan. Right now. I don’t want to hear any more. You always talk over me. Maybe if you stopped talking long enough to hear what I have to say you would have realized I’m a person, not a production project.”

  “Oh, now come on, that’s not fair. I’ve always had your best interests at heart.”

  “Answer me something. Are my best interests career-related?”

  “Of course they are. What sort of question is that?”

  “It’s a question I’ve realized I should have asked myself before now. The same way you can’t just announce that our marriage is over, you can’t come back here and tell me it’s on again. Especially because since you left I’ve discovered we didn’t have a real marriage after all.”

  “Not a real
marriage? What are you talking about?”

  “I thought you married me because you loved me.”

  “I do love you, Lena. Why can’t you see that?”

  “No. You love the idea of me. The movie star me. You’ve never bothered to get to know the real me.”

  “Well, then, why don’t you let me?”

  God, he was smooth.

  “I’ve thought a lot about that since you’ve been gone,” she said. “I don’t think I let you know me.”

  “See? We’re both at fault—”

  “Be quiet, Duncan. I didn’t let you know me because deep down I knew you didn’t want to. You still don’t want to. The only reason you’ve changed your mind is that I’ve won a Golden Globe and it makes good business sense for us to be together. What it took me a while to figure out is why you thought it made good business sense for us to be apart.”

  “Lena. This is nonsense. Truly. You’re making no sense.”

  “I’m making perfect sense. And when you realized that me being linked to Jacob Swan would be better for my career, you decided to step back.”

  “The bastard,” I said at the same time as Duncan leapt forward to try to calm her, but she shrugged him away.

  “Lena—”

  “It’s true, isn’t it? We’re both young, beautiful and now that we’re in a movie together we’ve got the potential to be a Hollywood golden couple. It was too perfect for you to resist. You say you love me, but there’s one thing you love more and that’s the idea of me being your protégé. You love the respect and power that comes from watching your little project—me—become a huge success. It’s the ultimate power trip for the world-renowned producer. So you got Suzie to write that press release, except she released it too soon.”

  There was a moment of silence as she waited for him to deny it, and when he didn’t she continued.

  “You were going to tell me beforehand and argue it was for the good of my career. I’d bet you didn’t actually want to get divorced. We’d just take a break until the movie was released later this year and then once the publicity for it had died down, we’d reconcile. Except it didn’t work out that way, did it? When it blew up in your face you decided to let me believe it. It would be more authentic that way. Well, you got that much right. This separation is the real deal and I’m filing for divorce. Irreconcilable differences.”

  “Lena, please! You’re blowing this all out of proportion.”

  “No, the press have done that pretty well. I say we let them run with it.”

  I heard the sound of gravel crunching and took a peek out the window again. Duncan had turned away from Lena and was pacing the driveway.

  “You can’t talk your way out of this one,” Lena said.

  “That’s not what I’m trying to do!”

  “Then you’re wondering how on earth I figured it out, aren’t you? It’s infuriating you.”

  A muscle in his jaw twitched.

  “I’ll tell you,” Lena went on. “It was Ally and Miranda.”

  I leapt back behind the door at my name.

  “Allegra Valenti?”

  “Yes. Jake's interest in her ruined your plans, didn’t it? And when I won the award last night you decided to cut your losses and try to get me back. Your wife seemed so convinced that Jake and I made a picture-perfect couple that she made a point of mentioning it to Ally.”

  “They won’t last,” he spat.

  I took another step back as if I’d been slapped.

  “I’d say they’ve got a better chance of lasting than we ever had. They actually seem to be getting to know each other.”

  “It won’t last,” he repeated. “Given you’re not going to see sense and trust in our marriage, I’d suggest you send your friend home as soon as possible and start being seen around town with Jake. She’s beneath you and won’t do your reputation or his any good if she sticks around.”

  “Goodbye, Duncan. My lawyers will be in contact.”

  I heard crunching gravel again but it sounded different this time, like the rocks were being crushed. I crept back to the window.

  To my relief, Jay had appeared from nowhere. I silently thanked God for his scary bodyguard superpowers.

  “Mr. Moore? I’ll see you out,” Jay said firmly.

  Duncan looked like he was about to argue, but then he thought the better of it.

  Chapter 26

  Shaken, I stepped back from the door and looked helplessly around the foyer. I knew Lena well enough not to try to comfort her straight away or to let her know I’d overheard. She needed time to process things. Hell, I’d need time to process things, and my first instinct was to tell most of my extended family.

  My second instinct was to race down the driveway after Duncan and interrogate him. With the revelation that Duncan had actively been encouraging Jake and Lena to be together, it suddenly put his whereabouts into question on the night of the Golden Globes. Could he have been so motivated by the idea of Jake and Lena being a Hollywood golden couple for the good of her career that he’d ransack my designs to get me to leave town?

  And what about his ex-wife, Miranda? She was looking like a pretty strong suspect now, too. Miranda had seemed more than happy to accompany Duncan to the Golden Globes. Was she harboring hopes of a reconciliation? And what lengths would she go to? Would she resort to vicious stunts like destroying my workroom to scare me away so Lena and Jake could be a couple? Was she truly that desperate to make sure Lena was out of the picture?

  I made my way back into the kitchen but paused in the doorway. Chloe and Jake were asleep on separate sofas. I needed to wake them and send them home because Lena wouldn’t be in the mood for socializing now, but I hesitated. They both looked so cute and content. It seemed cruel to disturb them. Who knew when they’d eat a proper meal again? Let them enjoy it.

  I found myself standing at the far end of the island bench, which was long enough to be a small runway. I contemplated my laptop, then, not allowing myself time to think, I picked it up and exited the room.

  I only flipped open the lid when I was in the safety of my bedroom. Feeling a bit like a wayward teenager, I opened a browser and loaded up Google. I swallowed, my hands hovering above the keyboard.

  This was OK, I told myself. It was publicly available information. Chloe had said so. Even Jake had been surprised at my lack of snooping.

  But it still felt like an invasion of privacy. I reached across to close the lid of the laptop, but didn’t do it because I heard Lena’s voice in my head.

  You never bothered to get to know the real me.

  My heart ached for her. If anyone deserved love, she did. I wasn’t ignoring the fact she’d held back, too, subconsciously or otherwise—but I didn’t want to make the same mistake. If I was going to entertain the idea of a relationship with Jacob Swan—admittedly something I was still having a hard time getting my head around—I needed facts. I needed to know who he really was, because in this town it seemed like people weren’t just playing a role for the cameras. They were pretending off screen, too.

  Jake had said he liked my honesty, then he’d asked if I’d take a chance and get to know him.

  Ignoring the slight tremble in my hand, I typed ‘Jacob Swan’ into the search bar and hit enter.

  I scrolled down quickly when two news articles including pictures of me and Jake at the awards came back at the top of the search results. Ignoring those, I located the Wikipedia entry and clicked on it.

  His smiling face greeted me. He looked relaxed and casual in a T-shirt. It said the photo had been taken at a comic convention two years ago.

  I scanned the introduction. His birth year was four years before mine, which made him thirty-five, like he’d told me. Below that a section titled ‘Early life’ mentioned his parents and four older brothers. It sounded like he’d had a pretty normal upbringing. He’d gone to the local high school and his family was Catholic. That would make Mama happy.

  To my surprise, the next section was called ‘
Football career.’

  “Oh,” I said softly.

  The information detailed his rise from high school football to being offered a college scholarship. According to the entry, he’d been a rising star—that was until he’d landed a tackle badly and wound up in a coma. The tackle had fractured his skull, requiring lifesaving surgery. By the time he woke from the induced coma his body and brain needed in order to heal, he’d missed out on the draft.

  It went on to say his oldest brother was now a football coach but Jake was the only one to play college football, like Jake had told me.

  After that I read about his film career. Once he’d recovered from his injuries, he’d dropped out of college and started working as a carpenter, learning the trade from his uncle on his mother’s side. That partly explained his outdoorsy physique. Maybe I could ask him to make me a set of bookshelves? He wouldn’t mind if I watched while he made them, would he? And he’d need to take his shirt off because making bookshelves is hard work . . .

  I shook myself at the bad—or good—train of thought and continued reading.

  His big break came when his mother encouraged him to audition for some television commercials. He was picked for a role in a Budweiser advertisement, which ironically ran during the Super Bowl, and the rest was history. His good looks and charm secured him the role of a stake-wielding, resident good guy in an ongoing vampire television series. Women across America (and the world) tuned in every week to watch him slay vicious bloodsuckers. And if he ended up with blood on his shirt and had to remove it? All the better.

  I smiled to myself. Mama hated anything paranormal, and I recalled retreating to my bedroom to watch the show in the privacy of my own room during my early twenties.

  After the series finished about six years ago, he’d been cast in movie after movie, mostly romantic comedies and action hero sorts of roles. I hadn’t seen all the movies but I recognized most of the titles.

  I hesitated when the words ‘Personal life’ came onto the screen, and stopped scrolling.

  OK, so now it felt as though I was snooping. This was exactly what I didn’t like about Hollywood. The fact that it said ‘personal’ indicated it wasn’t for public knowledge.