Celeb Crush (47 page)

Luke places a hand over my mouth to shut me up.  He gazes at me with bright emerald eyes melting in gold fire.  “Have faith, Tiger.  We’re a family—no matter what.  We’ll take care of each other.”

It takes me a few seconds before I can talk.  I take a few steps back.  “I’m crying right now because of the hormones.  Not because I’m—I’m really, r-really happy.”

He laughs and goes to comfort me, but I hold a finger up to indicate that I need a minute.  He waits patiently for me to compose myself.  I take my time, quickly wiping my cheeks while flushed with mortification.  Instead of morning sickness, I have crying sickness.  The other day I wept at a cat commercial.  I don’t really like cats.

“Okay,” I say, smoothing back my hair.  I narrow my eyes at him.  “If I do this, just know that if you ever cheat on me I will maim you.  Not badly enough that you can’t raise our child while I’m in prison.  But enough that you won’t be walking the runways during Fashion Week again, pretty boy.”

Luke considers this, shrugs.  “Sounds fair.  Anything else?”

“Yeah.”  I walk back up to him and poke him in the chest.  “If we make it legal—it’s for life.  You are stuck with me forever.  And if you grow tired of me, or bored with me…or scared of me—too bad!  Just remember, you asked for this.”

“Is this going to take much longer?  Because if so, I’m going to need you to take your clothes off.”

“Baby—no.”  I laughingly fend him off when he hooks a finger in the neckline of my dress and peeks inside with an exaggerated leer.  “We need to talk about this!”

“What’s there to talk about?”  Luke shrugs again.  “You want my loyalty and you want forever.  Sounds good to me.”

“Just like that?”

“Yeah, just like that,” he agrees.  “It’s the simplest thing in the world, Tiger.  It’s you and me, and Luke Jr.  That’s all I need.  We’ll see about getting a brother or sister for him somewhere down the line.”

“But—”

This time he silences my objections with a kiss.  I’m more than happy to sink into it, like a junkie finally getting her fix.  We’re well on our way onto round two when Luke suddenly pulls back with a sexy smirk.

“So, Anderson Kelly…you gonna marry me, or what?”

Smiling, I look up at his beautiful famous face.  My secret celeb crush.

I take a deep breath.

Epilogue

I wish I had known that being pregnant makes me seasick before I decided to get married on a boat.  Fortunately there were very few people present to witness me projectile vomiting between reciting my vows.  The boat’s mine, by the way.  My birthday present from Luke.  We named it
Black Hole
.  Boy, do people look at you weird when part of the name is covered up.

Yes, I am officially Mrs. Movie Star.  No, we haven’t formally announced it yet.  Luke wanted to let it slip during his appearance on a popular talk show—but I want to keep it quiet out of spite.  Like my pregnancy, everyone suspects but no one can confirm.

The press and I have a love/hate relationship.  They rarely catch me outside of work-related events with Luke.  I’ve obtained mythical white whale status.  The few times they do catch me in a candid moment, like coming out of an Arby’s or looking up at a tree, all their pictures seem to come out blurry.  And before they can surround me like a pack of wild dogs, I manage to fade into the background without a trace.  It’s like I have evil powers.  I’m intrigued that I might.

I’ve become somewhat of an internet sensation.  Maybe not in a good way, but I’m a big girl—I can take it.  My pained expressions and blunt responses when an interviewer’s microphone is turned on me are fodder for memes around the world.  In a way, with my pathologically thick skin, I am oddly suited to being the wife of an A-list heartthrob.  Anyone else would be reduced to a puddle of paranoid self-loathing by now.

You’d think I’d hurt Luke’s reputation by being myself—but if anything, he’s more popular than ever.  His new publicist, an enthusiastic young guy named Vaughn, is scared of me.  Guess he heard what I did to his predecessor’s car that one dark and stormy (in my recollection) night.  Speaking of Jessica—we’ve decided to call bygones on past events.  I’m learning to forgive people, and I’m finding that it gets easier the more you do it.  Anyway, she’s actually trying to take me under her wing—and even wants me to come work for her.  She thinks I’ll be an asset in the business.  I have no idea how she came to that conclusion. 

In addition to preparing for the arrival of my son—Anderson Jr.—I’ve been busy starting up Luke’s new charity for foster children—Find a Kid a Star.  FAKAS for short.    Don’t say the acronym out loud, though—it doesn’t sound right, as Nate so helpfully pointed out.

Speaking of Nate, guess what?  He finally got himself a girlfriend!  Guess who?  No, not Kat.  Even better.  Amber Lynn Carver!  Luke’s mother.  How messed up is that?  The weird thing is that they’re really good together.  They seem to keep each other grounded and happy.  They asked for Luke’s blessing, of course.  He told them he didn’t give a shit.  I’m just glad that Nate’s legal.  Ha, what if he ends up as Luke’s stepfather, and my father-in-law?  Luke doesn’t think it’s funny, so I try not to laugh about it in front of him.  Amber Lynn and I barely get along.  Just know that I will never that woman near my kid without close supervision.

Life’s not perfect, but it’s getting close.  How could it not be?  I’m in love with the sexiest, most talented, and most incredible guy on the planet—and by some miracle he loves me back.  An insulting number of people have asked me how I did it.  How did I manage to snag a megastar like Lucas Greyson?  I never give an honest answer because the truth is…I don’t know.  Maybe I’m not enough of anything to everyone else, but to Luke I’m enough.  And that’s everything.

So, yeah, my life is pretty damn amazing right now.

And, also…

Kat Vandevere, you can suck it.

That is all.

.