“You don’t have to be sorry. Enjoy the water.” He looked up at the stars. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky. And even though the resort was well-lit, he could still see the Milky Way. The vastness of it made him feel small. “It’s a nice evening.”
“Yes. I love it here. The weather is always gorgeous.”
They stayed silent for a few moments before Dani turned to him. “Hey, I forgot to ask. Did you find a place with a room for me?”
He shook his head. “Sorry. No one has any openings.” A tiny bit of guilt struck him, because that wasn’t entirely true. He’d found a few hotels, but they were on the cheaper side, and he didn’t like the idea of taking her to another nightmare. No, he’d rather make sure she was safe than have to explain to the police why Danica Jordan was murdered at a place called Assault-and-Batteries are Us.
“Oh. Then…?”
“It’s fine if you just stay with me for a few days. Until something opens up.”
Her phone chimed. Dani scrambled out of the water so fast, you would have thought she saw a fin swimming around her. She quickly wiped her fingers and grabbed her phone off the deck chair.
“Who is it?” he asked, hoping she didn’t say her boyfriend. He silently reprimanded himself. So what if she had a boyfriend? Did he think she’d be single? She was Danica Jordan, after all.
Her face fell, and she frowned. “It’s just Shelby. My father’s assistant.”
A small twinge of jealousy made him wonder who her boyfriend was. A famous actor? Someone he knew? Austin pushed aside those thoughts. It wouldn’t do him any good to be thinking things like that. He cleared his throat. “What does she want?”
She read the text in a fake high voice, imitating Shelby. “Your father has received your messages and will reply as soon as he is able. Are you behaving? No more embarrassing incidents?” A massive eye-roll followed and she tossed her phone back on her chair. “Ugh.”
Maybe it wasn’t her boyfriend she was hoping to hear from. Maybe it was her father. He watched as she climbed back into the water. “He’s too busy to send you a text?”
“Allegedly.” She looked like she’d taken a bite of a sour apple and found a worm.
“Is he shooting a movie right now?”
“Yeah,” she said, her voice softer.
“I’m sure he has some crazy hours when he’s filming. You should give him some slack.”
Dani wiped at her face. Was she crying? He immediately felt awful for reprimanding her. He hopped off his chair and sat next to the tub, ignoring the fact that now he was sitting in a puddle of water and would have a wet seat when he stood up. “Hey, are you okay?” He placed a hand on her shoulder.
Dani nodded and turned from him. “I’m fine.”
She obviously wasn’t fine. He’d made her cry, and now he felt like scum. But he had no idea how to make it better. All he could think to do was pat her shoulder in a “there, there” motion, which felt super lame. “I’m sure he’ll text as soon as he can.”
She took in a large breath, then let it out slowly. “Yeah.”
He swallowed, trying to think of something else to talk about. Anything. He royally messed this conversation up and needed to abort, and fast. He took his hand back and pulled his legs to his chest. “So, if you were to go to college, what would you want to major in?”
It took a minute before she answered. “I’m not sure.”
“What kind of job do you think you’d like?”
Her shoulders slumped. “I don’t know.”
She didn’t know? He tried to understand that, but he couldn’t comprehend. He’d always wanted to play football for a living. It’d been his dream ever since he could remember. How did she not have a dream of some kind? “What kinds of things do you like to do?”
She shrugged, still not facing him. He let her think for a moment, but when she didn’t say anything, he thought maybe this wasn’t something she wanted to talk about right now. Or she could be upset with him. But before he could try another subject, she said, “I like helping people.”
He smiled. “That’s a start.”
“Not really. There’s no job like that.” Finally, she turned to look at him, and he could see her eyebrows knit together. “I’m really not very useful.”
It pained him to see her think of herself like that. How can she have such poor self-esteem? He never would have guessed that in a million years. She was the daughter of a major movie star. She was on the television all the time. He’d never seen her acting self-conscious. She always looked like she thought highly of herself. Too highly. The camera made her look stuck-up. He was quickly figuring out that the camera lies.
“Of course you are. And there are plenty of jobs where you can help people.”
She gave him a skeptical look. “Like what?”
“Depends on how you want to help people. Doctors help cure people. Dentists help fix people’s teeth.”
She wrinkled her nose, but before she could say anything, he jumped in. “That’s fine, if you don’t like those. There are plenty of others. Police officers help people. Or 911 dispatch.”
“I don’t think I could do any of those. I don’t like blood. Or hearing people in pain.”
“You could be a therapist, and talk through people’s problems with them. Help them through though things.”
He expected her to shake her head at that one as well, but she brightened. “I would like that.”
“There you go. You could go to school and become a therapist.”
Her frown came back. “Couldn’t I be a therapist without going to college?”
“I don’t think so. Why? Are you worried your father wouldn’t pay for it?”
“I’m sure he would.”
Austin wasn’t sure what the problem was. “Then you’d be fine.”
She stared at the water bubbling out of the jet near her. “I’m just not very smart. So, if I could learn to do a job that helps people without having to go to school, that would be best.”
What did she mean, she wasn’t smart? She was naive, but that was only because of her upbringing. She wasn’t stupid. He opened his mouth to argue, but her phone sounded and she scrambled out of the hot tub to get it.
“Daddy?” she said as she answered it.
He couldn’t hear the person on the other end of the phone, but he sincerely hoped it was her father. He waited to see if her expression fell. But instead of disappointment, a hopeful smile widened on her face.
“Did you see? I got a job.” She seemed so happy that Austin prayed her father would be encouraging.
Her smile faded. “No, I didn’t get fired.”
Austin held in a groan. Why would her father ask that? How hard would it have been to simply congratulate her? His muscles tensed and he felt himself going into protection mode. He stood and crossed the short distance to her. He restrained himself from pulling her into his arms, even though he wanted to.
Dani frowned and nodded. “Yeah. I’ve been doing that.” The conversation went on, or rather the lecture, if Austin had to guess. From the way Dani kept saying, “Yes, Father,” and how her shoulders slumped lower and lower, he could tell she was getting spoken to. Austin’s mood darkened. He didn’t know a lot about Samuel Jordan, but his opinion of him was lowering quite a bit.
Finally, she said, “But I did what you said. Can’t I come home?”
She blinked rapidly, and it looked like she was going to start crying again. “But that will take a while.”
What was he telling her to do? Earn her own money to come home? Did he realize how much a plane ticket from the Cayman Islands to LA was going to cost? How much could she save if she were paying for her room and board? Did her father even care how hard she’d been working to please him?
“Okay, Daddy.” She stabbed at her phone and tossed it on her chair. She looked like she was going to break down at any second.
“Hey, it’s okay,” Austin said, unsure if now was an appropriate time to pull her close.
A tear escaped and rolled down her cheek. “He wants me to keep working here until I earn enough to come home. Which will probably be never because I have to use that money to buy food and stuff.” Her fingers shook. “I already owe you—”
He put a finger on her lips, silencing her. Her lips were warm and soft, and he instantly regretted that decision as desire shot through him. He lowered his hand. “You don’t owe me anything. You don’t have to pay me back. Consider it my kind deed for the day.”
“But I can’t let you keep paying—”
“Dani.” He hooked his finger under her chin and slowly raised it until he could look into her eyes. “I want to help you. Please. Let me be good for something right now. I’m feeling pretty useless.”
He hadn’t meant for those words to come out, but for some reason, they spilled out of him without warning. And now Dani was staring at him, her eyebrows pulling together. “Useless? What do you mean?”
He couldn’t really tell her how he felt useless because of his injury. She thought he was a maintenance guy. He covered it up with a cough. “It’s nothing. The point is, I’m happy to help you. And soon you’ll get your first paycheck, and you can start saving up to get that plane ticket home. You can do this. I know you can.”
An urge to show her that she was capable surged in him. He wanted this for her. Dani had to succeed, so she could see how she was more than what the people on social media thought. She could learn to do anything she put her mind to. And Austin was determined to show her that.
Chapter 13
Dani changed into her new pajamas, and even though they were only fifteen dollars, they felt soft against her skin. Maybe because she was simply exhausted and couldn’t muster up the strength to care anymore about cheap fabric. Or maybe her brain was trying to cope with the situation, and fooling her into believing everything would be okay. Either way, she could tell her give-a-crap meter was at its breaking point.
She came out of the bathroom and plopped down on the couch beside Austin, where he was scrolling through his phone. Then she remembered that she’d never watched that embarrassing video of hers and balked. She couldn’t look at it now. Not with Austin sitting next to her. But a moment later, he got up and said he was going to brush his teeth, and he disappeared into the bathroom.
Perfect timing. Dani put in her ear buds and searched YouTube for her name. The offending video came up first. She pushed play. Man, it was bad. Worse than she’d realized before. She looked so messed up. Not only the makeup, but the way she did everything that Victoria and Steph said to do. Pathetic. How had she never seen it before? Why was she trying so hard to please those two? Was she that way all the time?
The video continued and Dani waited for the part she’d seen, where she talked about Rafael. It was definitely cringe-worthy. She told the world everything that happened, even the most embarrassing parts. How he’d fooled her, why he’d done it, and how she’d totally believed him and fallen in love with him.
Dani’s face heated as she watched herself spill the entire story through slurred words. And it wasn’t as if Victoria or Steph cared. They were delighted to get everything on video. How could she have trusted them? There was something definitely wrong with her internal sensor.
But watching the whole awful video reminded her that trusting people was simply a bad idea. No matter how much she wanted to take Austin at face value, she had no idea what his motives really were. Yes, he looked like he was helping her, but it looked like Rafael was sincere at first, too. She didn’t find out the truth until it was too late.
She had to be more careful around Austin. It was just like her to give her blind trust, and then be destroyed. She kept forgetting that, probably because Austin looked so trustworthy. He was handsome, and had been kind to her. But those were the most dangerous people. Why did she keep forgetting that?
Austin came out of the bathroom and Dani jumped. She paused the video and tucked her phone behind her so he wouldn’t see her horrible clown-self on the screen.
He gave her a weird look. “What’s that?”
Shoot. He’d seen her. She decided to play dumb. “What’s what?”
He squinted. “Why are you hiding your phone?” He motioned to her hand behind her back, and the trail of earbud cord leading to it.
Busted. But maybe if she distracted him, he would not keep bugging her about it. She wrinkled her nose. “Why are you asking what it is, if you knew it was my phone?”
A look crossed his face, and she wasn’t sure if it meant he was amused or he was losing patience with her. “Why are you not answering my questions?”
“Why are you asking so many questions?”
“Why are you being evasive?”
“Why aren’t you?” she shot back at him, before she could really think about it. Her face heated. What a stupid thing to say.
He opened his mouth to respond, but nothing came out. He closed it, opened it once again, then clamped his jaw shut and shook his head. “Never mind. I forgot what we were talking about in the first place.”
“Me, too.” She waited until he walked to the small room fridge to pull her phone out and close the YouTube video. She’d watch the last thirty seconds later. She was pretty sure how it ended anyway. She must have passed out and Victoria had nothing else to video.
Austin held up a water bottle. “Do you want something to drink?”
“No. I’m ready to sleep. I can hardly keep my eyes open.” She had been exaggerating, but as soon as the words came out a yawn took over, and the exhaustion from the day set in.
“You can have the bed. I’m fine on the sofa again.” Austin pointed his water bottle toward the king-sized slice of heaven by the sliding door.
Dani wanted to take him up on it, but guilt caused her to shake her head. She’d already displaced him last night. It wasn’t very nice to do that to him again. “I’m fine. You can take the bed.”
He shot her a look that said, “You shouldn’t argue with me about this.” What he really said was, “I can’t make you sleep on the couch. Get.” He waved toward the bed.
“No. I’m fine, really. It’s softer than it looks.” That was a lie. The sofa wasn’t soft. But she felt too guilty to give in to him.
“My mother would be appalled if I made a woman sleep on a hard lump while I took the bed.”
“Your mother isn’t here.”
He rubbed the back of his neck. “Thank goodness.”
That made Dani laugh. “Okay, then let’s take turns. Last night I got the bed. Tonight is your turn. You do believe in equal rights for women, don’t you?”
He seemed to weigh his words carefully. “Yes, I do. But I also believe in being a gentleman.”
“Then give me what I want.”
Skepticism colored his features. “You really want the sofa tonight?”
“Yes.” It would make her feel much less guilty for mooching off him.
He sighed. “All right.”
Chapter 14
The late afternoon sun slowly lowered in the sky as Austin tried for the third time to get into the book he was reading. Everyone said it was good, but he couldn’t get past the second page. Maybe because his mind kept wandering. All he could see was Dani’s face over the text.
He shut the book and got up from the chair on the deck. This was ridiculous. He couldn’t sit there any longer. He needed to go somewhere or he was going to lose it. Maybe he could take another walk around the resort. Not that he hadn’t memorized the entire place. But maybe he would run into Dani.
Before he could find his sandals, a knock sounded on his door. Was Dani off work already? A quick glance at the clock told him that was possible. It was almost five. She might have finished a bit early. He’d given her a room key, but maybe she’d left it behind this morning. He ran a hand through his hair before pulling open the door.
A delivery kid stood there holding a vase of flowers, which wasn’t what Austin had expected at all. The kid checked a piece of
paper, then lifted his gaze. A smile popped onto his face. “Hey, you’re Austin Scott.”
Austin nodded, still a bit dazed. “Yeah.”
“These are for you.” The kid shoved the flowers at him. “I’ve been a fan of yours forever. I had no idea I’d be delivering these to a major football star. The delivery instructions just say Austin.” His face flushed. “This is probably totally inappropriate, but I’m going to say it anyway. Can I have your autograph?”
Austin was used to people getting excited when they recognized him, but hadn’t expected to come across any fans at the Billionaire Club. He nodded and opened the door wide so the delivery kid could come in. “Sure.”
He placed the vase on the desk and then looked for something to write on while the kid did this little jumpy thing that made him look like he’d eaten a sugar factory for lunch. Austin held in a smile. “How long have you been delivering flowers?”
“Only two months. Nothing this exciting has ever happened, though. Wait until I tell my dad. He’s going to have a fit.”
The resort had left a pad of paper on the small desk, and Austin grabbed it. “What’s your name?”
“Derrick. I can’t believe I got to deliver flowers to the Austin Scott.” He swung his arms back and forth. “Hey, what are you doing here anyway?”
“Recovering.”
“Oh, that’s right. I heard you were injured. Your knee, right?”
“Yes.” Austin wrote a quick note to Derrick and then signed his name. He capped the pen and tore off the page. “Here you go.”
Derrick took the paper like it was made out of thin gold and could be damaged with too much handling. “Thank you, man. I hope you heal quickly.”
“Thanks.”
“Have a good one. And I hope those flowers brighten your day.” He pointed his index fingers at Austin and backed out of the room, closing the door.
The flowers. Austin had almost forgotten about them. Who had sent him flowers? His coach? Physical therapist? He walked back to the desk and pulled the card out of the bouquet. He opened it and stared down at the message.
A Case of Extreme Mistaken Identity Page 7
