Lovestruck in Los Angeles (22 page)

It sounded silly, I know, to be worried about a bunch of teenaged girls. But the situation could get really dangerous. I’d been with Thomas once before when he’d been caught unexpectedly by a group of fans, and I’d had bruises for a week. Once they started grabbing and clawing it was inevitable that pushing would follow. And they would be in every bit as much danger as we were if the crowd got too big.

The photographer was watching us in confused shock.

“Can you get security?” I called to him. “Please!”

I noticed with relief that he was already pulling out a walkie-talkie—but still the girls were pressing in on us, shoving and elbowing to get closer.

As Thomas tried to keep the girls back, I pulled out my phone and quickly pulled up Heidi’s number. “Heidi?” I cried when she d answered. “We’re at Disneyland, and we’re getting mobbed.”

She cursed. “Why didn’t you call me before you went?”

“I’m sorry!” As I said it, someone elbowed me hard in the side as they tried to get closer to Thomas. The crowd around him was four or five bodies deep. Crap. I quickly gave Heidi the run down of where we were, and she hung up so she could make some calls.

“Ladies, please,” Thomas called. “I can give you all autographs if you just give us a little room.” He sounded strained, scared almost. “Are you okay?” he called back to me, just as another elbow slammed into my side. “Hey!” he yelled, sounding angry now. “You need to step back!”

Luckily, at that moment a security guard came pushing through the crowd. “What’s going on here? Everyone step back!” He was soon joined by another guard, and within a few minutes they had the crowd—at least a few dozen teenagers and young adults—pushed back.

I took a deep breath, realizing that my hands were shaking.

“Are you okay?” Thomas asked, taking me by the shoulders.

“I’m fine. I’m so sorry—”

“This isn’t your fault.” He turned to the security guards to explain the situation.

“We’re so sorry,” the man said when Thomas was finished. “We usually provide individualized security in situations like this. If we had known you were coming—”

My stomach dropped. This kind of thing was my job. I worked in Heidi’s office, and arranging security was a huge part of what we did. Girlfriend or not, I should have planned better as an employee of Thomas’s team.

A woman clad in a business suit darted across the street toward us, talking briskly on a cell phone. “I’m on site,” I heard her say. “I’ll get it under control.” She hung up the phone and elbowed through the security, holding out her hand to Thomas. “Mr. Harper, I’m Stephanie Kerns. I’m with public relations here at the park. I’m so sorry for this unfortunate situation. We had no idea you’d be joining us today.”

“That’s our fault,” Thomas said, shaking her hand. “We were trying to fly under the radar, I’m afraid.”

“Of course, of course.” Her smile didn’t fade, but I noticed a tightness in her face. I had a feeling she wasn’t too thrilled with us. I didn’t blame her—someone could have gotten hurt because I’d been too dumb to plan for this.

The security guards helped Stephanie lead us through the crowd—now bolstered by curious onlookers—toward the guest services building, where we were ushered into a private office. In the quiet of the room, I finally allowed myself a deep breath of relief.

“Your manager’s office called once you got into trouble,” Stephanie was saying as she gestured us into chairs. “I’m sorry I didn’t get there sooner.”

“It’s no problem,” Thomas said. “We’re sorry to be a hassle—”

“Nonsense.” She waved her hands dismissively. “We get celebrities on site quite often. It’s no hardship whatsoever. Now, are you both okay? That was quite a crowd. Should I call in someone from the medical staff?”

“Lizzie was elbowed rather hard.” Thomas turned to me, concern on his face. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” I said. “Promise. I just feel stupid that I didn’t plan better.”

“Lizzie—” he began, but Stephanie interrupted to hand us each a bottle of water.

“Let’s see what we can do to make sure you have a safe and enjoyable visit, shall we?” she asked.

I had to give it to her, Stephanie was efficient. Within minutes she had arranged a guide to take us around the other park for the rest of the afternoon. “Carter will see to it that you have everything you need. But you’re welcome to call me should any problems arise.”

She handed Thomas her business card, which he pocketed just as there was a knock on the door. “Ah, that will be Carter now.”

Carter was an enthusiastic, twenty-something tour guide dressed in khakis and a Disney polo shirt. He shook hands with both of us, seemingly totally unimpressed by Thomas’s celebrity. We both thanked Stephanie profusely before following Carter outside. “This is Walter,” Carter said, gesturing at a security guard. “He’ll be accompanying us.”

Thomas and Carter made small talk as we walked across the sidewalk towards the park entrance. I tried to keep up with what they were saying, but I was having a hard time. First I had failed to provide for security and nearly gotten Thomas trampled. Now, because of my mistake, Thomas had to spend his special day talking to a stranger. I felt terrible.

“Hey,” Thomas said, catching my hand. “You okay?”

“I just feel bad. I wasn't thinking when I planned this day, not at all.”

“Lizzie, you planned the day beautifully.”

“No, I didn't. You should have heard how pissed Heidi was.” His face tightened, so I hurried on, not wanting to be the cause of him getting angry at her. “And she was right. I’ve been working for her for how long, now? And I still failed to plan this day as a member of your team. And I jeopardized your safety.”

He stopped right there in the middle of the crowded walkway. When it was clear we weren’t following, Walter and Carter waited for us a few feet away. “Are you kidding me? Do you know how much I love it that you didn't plan this as a member of the team?”

“Thomas, it’s my job—”

“Lizzie, one of the best things about our relationship is the way that you think of me as a normal person—”

“You’re an extraordinary person.”

He grinned and tucked a strand of hair back behind my ear. “Thank you, love. But I appreciate that you never treat me like a movie star. You just think of me as me. I don’t want that to change, whether you work for Heidi or not. Okay?”

I looked into his familiar green eyes, so intent and serious, and I knew that he meant it. “Okay. I promise it won’t change. But we should make sure we think about things like security from now on.”

“Agreed.” He ran his fingertips down my neck, across my shoulder, and down my side, until they were resting right below my ribs. I winced involuntarily. “I thought so. She got you pretty good, didn’t she?”

I shrugged. “It was just an elbow.”

Thomas sighed and took my hand again. “You should let them give you an icepack.”

“No way. I want to ride Toy Story Mania.”

He laughed. “Toy Story Mania it is then.”

***

I was relieved to find that the addition of a security detail didn’t ruin our day. In fact, Carter was able to take us right up to the front of each line without any hassle. The first time that happened, at Toy Story Mania, I had been worried that Thomas was going to get upset. There was a ninety-minute line behind us, and special treatment like that usually made him uncomfortable. Instead, he grinned at me and whispered, “Lucky us. I guess there are some perks to this life, eh, Lizzie?”

I had smiled along with him and tried not to feel like an ass as we were taken past the line and shown to our ride vehicle.

California Adventure definitely had more of the thrill ride thing going. We rode a huge roller coaster that shot us upside down in a loop, raced each other in race cars on another Pixar-themed ride, and got soaking wet on a white water rapids boat ride. I tried hard not to let the events of earlier put a damper on things and had a feeling Thomas was trying to do the same. Where his excitement at Disneyland had been clearly genuine and overwhelming, his mood seemed ever so slightly forced as Carter guided us around the second park and the security guard stopped anyone from approaching us.

We ate dinner at a restaurant with great views of the nightly fireworks spectacular. Even there we were treated with kid gloves, being shown to a prime table directly next to the windows. “Wow,” I murmured, as the fireworks began out over the water. “This is an incredible view.”

Thomas was quiet, watching the fireworks, his food mostly forgotten on the table in front of him. I turned my attention to him, watching the way the lights from outside lit up his face in color, before casting it again into shadow. He eventually sensed my gaze, because he looked up and smiled at me sheepishly. “Sorry, Lizzie. I was zoning out.”

“No problem.” I paused. “Are you…okay?”

“Yeah,” he said quickly. Too quickly. When I didn’t drop my gaze he finally sighed. “I just keep thinking what this would have been like if we’d come here last year, you know? Before everything got so crazy. What it would be like if we were just two more people on a date at Disney.”

I debated whether or not to tell him that I’d been thinking the same thing ever since lunchtime. I didn’t want him to feel like he was imposing on me in any way, being who he was. “I get that,” I finally said carefully. “But at the same time, Thomas, we probably wouldn’t be here if it wasn't for everything getting so crazy. We certainly wouldn’t be living together in a house in Malibu, you know?”

“True.” He smiled faintly. “We’d be scuttling around freezing cold London under umbrellas.”

He said it to make us both feel better, but the thought struck me with an intense pang of homesickness. It must have been obvious on my face.

“I miss it too,” he said. “Funny, isn’t it? It’s so beautiful out here, and we have everything we could possibly want. So why do we miss it?”

“Because it’s home.” I reached out and took his hand. “L.A. is great, and I think we’ll miss it when we leave. But London is home.”

He nodded. “Sorry. I’ve been a bit morose since we sat down, haven't I?”

“You’ve been fine. I want you to talk to me when you’re feeling stuff like this. Isn’t that what we said last night?”

“You’re right. I just don't want to sound like I’m complaining all the time. I do know how lucky we are to be here.”

“Not just to be here,” I said, wanting to cheer him up a little. “To be here in style. We drove here in a convertible, Thomas.”

He finally grinned. “Not just any convertible. An Audi a5.”

I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, whatever. All I know is that tonight we’re going to drive that same car back home, to our palatial, waterfront mansion, for God’s sake.”

“Where I will ravish you on our California king-sized bed.”

I laughed. “Exactly.”

He seemed better after that, though he didn’t want to stick around to ride any more rides. We thanked Carter at the gates, Thomas tipping him profusely, before another employee shuttled us back to the parking structure in a private car. The driver took us directly to the Audi. We thanked him and hopped out.

Thomas opened the passenger door for me but stopped me before I could climb in, pressing my back into the car as he kissed me, long and slow. “I love you,” he whispered. “Thank you for the best day I’ve had since we came out here.”

“You’re very welcome.”

He kissed me one last time before heading around to his side of the car. Then he drove through the gathering darkness back to Malibu. Back home.

Chapter Eighteen

The following Monday I was awakened by the shrill ringing of my cell phone. I looked at the clock and cursed. It was barely nine a.m.—a bit early after a late night of drinking wine on the deck with Thomas. Probably my mother, who always seemed to forget that there was a four-hour time difference between L.A. and Detroit. I fumbled for the phone on the nightstand as Thomas muttered, “Whozethat?” sleepily beside me.

“Not sure,” I whispered, finally grabbing the phone and bringing it to my ear. “Hello?”

“Lizzie? Is that you? This is Ellen Jacobs.”

I sat straight up in bed, my heart pounding. “Hi,” I said, trying my best not to sound as if I’d just been woken from a dead sleep. “How are you?”

“I’m so sorry,” she said. “You sound like you were sleeping. How rude of me.”

“Don’t worry about it,” I said, climbing out of bed so I wouldn’t disturb Thomas any more.

“Wonderful. So, listen. I have a bit of a proposition for you. I’m going to be in Los Angeles on Wednesday along with one of our senior editors. I showed him your manuscript, and we’d love to meet with you.”

I froze in the act of opening the fridge.

“Lizzie? You still there?”

“I am,” I managed to squeak out. “That…that would be wonderful, Ellen. I’d love to meet with you both.”

“He was impressed, Lizzie. Really impressed.”

“With my book?” I had a feeling my voice was higher pitched than was appropriate, but I was having trouble processing things like that. I felt like screaming out loud—was this really happening?

On the other end of the phone, Ellen chuckled. “Yes, with your book. I told you that you had something. So let’s have lunch on Wednesday, okay? We can have a nice chat about the book and go from there. Does that work?”

“Absolutely,” I said immediately. I was supposed to be arranging Heidi’s travel schedule on Wednesday, but I didn’t care. I’d stay late and do it, or handle it another day. There was no way I was passing up on this.

“Wonderful. I’ll have my assistant email you the details.”

“Thank you, Ellen. I really appreciate this.”

“Hey, I just passed-on the manuscript, you’re the one who wrote the great book. We’ll talk soon, okay? Go back to bed.”

I laughed. “I think I’m too excited to sleep.”

After we hung up, I stared at the phone for a long time. Was this really happening? I couldn’t believe it. A senior editor wanted to talk to me about my book. Ellen had called it great. Holy shit.

“Hey,” Thomas said, coming down the stairs. He looked deliciously rumpled in pajama bottoms and no shirt, his hair a mess and his face unshaven. Without another thought, I ran to him and threw my arms around his shoulders.