Lovestruck in Los Angeles (4 page)

I shrugged, looking back at the flowers. “It means a lot to me. His letting me stay here was such a big deal, you know? I wouldn’t have been able to come back otherwise.”

He took my hand and pulled me over to his side. “You could have just moved in with me.”

“I think that would have been pushing it.” I wrapped an arm around his shoulder, leaning into him a little. “It was hard enough to get my mom on board without having to tell her I’d be shacking up with my boyfriend.”

“You do realize we’ll be shacking up in Malibu, don’t you?”

“I wouldn’t use any derivative of the word ‘shack’ when it comes to that place.”

He chuckled. “Good point. But seriously—does your mom know about your future living arrangements?”

I shook my head. “I was a little vague when I told her about L.A. And she didn’t ask, so maybe she wanted to keep it that way.”

He watched me closely for a minute, but didn’t say anything else on the topic. I knew it bothered Thomas that I didn’t feel like I could be open with my family about our relationship.
His
parents were thrilled to hear that we were moving in together when we got to L.A.—they considered it a positive step in our relationship. I tried to imagine my own family reacting in such a progressive way, but it was laughable. It just wasn’t who they were.

“Not having second thoughts, are you?” Thomas asked, his voice soft.

“Of course not.” I leaned down to kiss him. “I’m really excited to move in with you. I wouldn’t have agreed to if I wasn’t.”

He grinned briefly before his face turned serious. “I should warn you, I leave dirty towels lying around in the bathroom.”

I made a face at him. “I’m actually well acquainted with your terrible hygiene habits. I plan to put a stop to it immediately.”

He groaned, and then the downstairs buzzer went off. “Oh my gosh,” I gasped, pulling away from him. “What if that’s them?”

I ran to the buzzer and pressed the button. “Hello?”

“Lizzie?” Callie’s voice was annoyed. “It’s freezing down here. Let us in.”

“Hi, Lizzie!” I heard Charlie call.

“Get in here,” I cried, buzzing them in. I spun around to survey the apartment, catching sight of the disaster on the counter. “Crap, the flowers.”

“I’ve got it,” Thomas assured me, brushing the mess of stems and leaves into the bin. He held up the vase. “Where do you want these?”

“The entry table. Thanks.”

I took one last quick look around the room. I’d packed up all of my books and magazines to be taken to Thomas’s flat. The bedroom and master were similarly cleared out, all traces of my weeks living there gone. Candles burned on the mantel, the furniture had been straightened, and the hard wood floors gleamed. I’d even arranged a comfy throw on Charlie’s brown leather couch. Everything was just about perfect.

The front door banged open. “Hello!” Charlie called out cheerily.

“Charlie!” I threw my arms around him, making him laugh.

“Hello, Lizzie my love.” He kissed my cheek. “How are you? Ready to soak up the sun, you lucky old slag?”

I laughed, releasing him. “Absolutely.”

Callie pushed past him into the room. “Not only did he leave me with all of the luggage, he got to hug my best friend first,” she muttered, grabbing me in a hug.

“I missed you.” I squeezed her tight. “Come to L.A. with us.”

“Sure,” she said. “I’ll be Thomas’s hair dresser.”

“Not bloody likely.” Thomas waited until I had released Callie before swooping down to kiss her check. “You look fab, Cal. New York agrees with you.”

After he’d greeted Callie he turned to his best friend. “Good to see you, mate.” I loved that Charlie embraced him—no silly macho behavior between them.

“What have you done to this place?” Callie asked, staring around the room. I felt a flash of panic—had I misplaced something? “It’s so…clean.”

Thomas laughed. “She wanted to make it nice for Charlie’s return. I kept telling her it would be more familiar with a few more coats of dust and grime.”

“Blimey,” Charlie said, leaning down to smell the flowers in the vase. “I don’t think I’ve ever had a plant in the house before.”

“Is it too much?” I asked, trying to slide a scented candle out of sight without anyone noticing.

“It’s lovely.” Charlie slung an arm around my shoulder and steered me toward the kitchen, Callie and Thomas following. “I will thoroughly enjoy living in such splendor for the next week.”

“Did your preparations include chilling some wine?” Callie asked. “We had a bitch of a flight.”

“There’s wine in the fridge,” Thomas assured her. “But we thought we’d take you two out to lunch.”

“Excellent.” Charlie slapped Thomas on the back. “I’m skint. I forgot to change my money to pounds.”

Thomas rolled his eyes, but I only laughed. I loved Charlie and all of his scatterbrained, day-dreaming ways.

“How bout you bring our bags into the bedroom before you go sponging of our friends,” Callie said.

“Come on, mate, I’ll help you,” Thomas said and the two disappeared back to the entryway. A moment later, Charlie called out, “Holy crap, Callie, she made my bed.”

Callie and I laughed, perching ourselves on bar stools in the kitchen. “Was the flight really bad?” I asked.

“God, yes. I hate overnight flights. I can never sleep.”

I made a sympathetic face. “Our flight from L.A. was absolutely insane. I think I’m still jet-lagged.”

“And in a week you get to do it all over again,” she said happily. “It will be nice, you know. Having you back on the same continent.”

I grinned. “Funny, that’s what I’ve been saying about you ever since I found out you were coming to London.”

“Are you being sappy?” Thomas asked from the doorway. “Lizzie, you promised me no sappiness.”

“I promised no such thing,” I said, grabbing Callie’s hand and squeezing. “You might not care much about being reunited with your best friend, but I happen to love mine very much.”

“You’re not excited to see me?” Charlie asked, joining us in the kitchen. He frowned at Thomas. “Way to make a bloke feel loved, Thomas.”

Thomas sighed, but I could tell he was trying not to smile. “You’re all quite ridiculous.” I stuck out my tongue at him, and he laughed. “That rather proves my point, miss.”

“Did someone say something about lunch?” Charlie asked hopefully, rubbing his stomach.

“Yeah, let’s get lunch.” I hopped off the bar stool, still holding Callie’s hand. “I’m starving.”

“I want fish and chips,” Charlie said, heading to the door.

“We’re not eating fish and chips,” Thomas said. “We’re going to have a proper grown-ups lunch with menus and a waiter.”

“But I’ve been away from my homeland for months.” Charlie crossed his arms. “Do you know how hard it is to find proper fish and chips in the States?”

“Charlie, we have girls with us, mate,” Thomas said. “We’ve discussed this. When you take a girl out, you go to a place with table cloths.”

“God, they bicker like an old married couple,” Callie muttered, but I was grinning widely. This was what I had been missing. My lovely friends together again, teasing and arguing just like the old days. We’d spent plenty of time with Sarra, Mark, Meghan, and Carter since I’d moved back, but it wasn’t the same without Callie and Charlie. Having the old group back together made me almost giddy.

Thomas must have caught sight of my face as he helped me with my coat, because he brushed a kiss across my forehead. “You’re cute, you know.”

“I’m
happy
.”

He smiled. “That’s what I meant.”

***

I couldn’t have asked for better weather for the night of our party. It was clear and cool, but not so cold as to prevent us from utilizing the outdoor patio at Mr. Idoni’s Italian restaurant in Kentish Town. Callie and I had rented the flat above the restaurant when we lived in London, and it remained one of my favorite places to eat and hang out anywhere in the city.

We’d rented the entire dining room of the restaurant, and it was packed full of friends, family, and co-workers. Enough of Thomas’s
Darkness
cast had joined us to keep Imogen occupied with star gazing for the entirety of the party.

“So, Lizzie,” Jackson Coles said, handing me a glass of champagne. The star of the
Darkness
franchise grinned at me before taking a sip from his own glass. “How are you set for next week? All ready to go?”

“Thanks,” I said, tilting the glass toward him. “Yeah, I think we’re mostly ready. Most of my things were packed up anyhow since I’ve kind of been in transit the last few months.”

“He couldn’t convince you to move in with him, eh?” He waggled his eyebrows at me in that cocky, dangerous-movie-star way of his. Jackson was the star of the
Darkness
series and one of the most sought-after celebrities in the world. I’d been incredibly nervous the first time I met him face to face, but he had grown on me over the months. I knew his current expression was custom designed to make women my age swoon. I merely smiled.

“I’m a pretty cautious girl, Jackson.”

He laughed. “Oh, I have no doubt of that.” His eyes flicked down my figure, and I did my best not to make a face. He was such a hopeless flirt. “Not that I blame you. Isn’t he still in that pokey little place in Bayswater?”

“I adore Thomas’s flat,” I said, my voice hardening slightly.

The laughter faded from his face a little, though he didn’t seem embarrassed or ashamed. Thoughtful, maybe. “I bet you do,” he said, his voice soft. “He’s a lucky man, you know that?”

I felt slightly flustered. I was immune to Jackson’s charms, but it was hard to be completely stoic in the face of his intensity. “I think we’re both lucky.”

He nodded, still searching my face. Just when I was about to make an excuse to get away, Thomas slipped his arm around my waist.

“I’ve barely seen you,” he said softly, nuzzling my neck. A shiver ran down my back at the contact. Thomas held out his hand. “Jackson, mate, glad you could make it.”

“I wouldn’t miss it,” Jackson said, shaking his hand. “Have to see the two of you off properly, don’t we?”

“Has Lizzie been asking for advice about L.A.? She’s been a bit worried about finding her way.”

“You’ll love L.A.,” Jackson said enthusiastically, and I realized he had probably spent a lot of time there. Jackson had been a huge star since long before anyone had ever heard of Thomas. “It’s great, really. Lots to do no matter what you’re into. The shopping and nightlife are fantastic, of course, but there’s so much more to it than that. Great food, really fantastic, and amazing places to hike or climb or ride your bike, whatever you like. The beaches, obviously, are beautiful.”

I smiled at my boyfriend. “I think Thomas is mostly excited to go to Disneyland. He won’t shut up about it.”

Jackson laughed. “Well, that’s fun too. Did I hear you were living in Malibu?”

I nodded. “We found a place right on the beach.”

“Brilliant. You know, you should give surfing a try. I got really into it last time I was there, and Malibu is a great place for it.”

I wished that Jackson could be like this all the time. In the year since I had met him, I’d had the chance to get to know him a bit, and he was by far at his best when he was natural and easy, rather than the teasing, flirtatious party boy he pretended to be with most people.

“Really?” Thomas asked, clearly intrigued. “You know, I always thought it looked so hard.”

“Nah, man,” Jackson said. “You could totally handle it. Don’t you ski?”

“A bit.”

“It’s similar. All in the core strength and balance.”

“That disqualifies me,” I muttered. “Balance is not my strong suit.”

Thomas chuckled and tweaked my side. “I bet you could do it if you wanted to.”

Of course, Lola Fischer had to choose that moment to join us. It was like she had a sixth sense for knowing when I was having fun or something.

“Hello, Thomas. Lizzie,” she said in her sexy, throaty rasp. “Chatting about L.A., are you?”

“Yes, Jackson was just giving us some pointers.” Thomas’s voice was even, but he tightened his arm around my waist ever so slightly. He knew exactly how I felt about his female
Darkness
costar.

“Aren’t you lucky, Lizzie?” Lola said, giving me her sickliest sweet smile. “To get to move to sunny California! And all because you met Thomas here. Talk about a fairytale.”

Her words clenched my stomach like a vise. I knew it was stupid to let anything she said bother me. Lola seemed to like nothing better than putting me in my place. A place that was far away from her and the rest of her celeb friends. She couldn’t stand that I was able to get a glimpse into their world by way of Thomas. She took every opportunity to remind me that I did not belong with them, and I knew her intent was to be hurtful. Usually that knowledge allowed me to brush off her insults and jabs. But why did she have to be so damn good at aiming her insults exactly where I was sensitive?

Thomas’s hand tightened on my waist, and I knew he was about to say something to her. “I’m very lucky, Lola,” I said, smiling.

I felt Thomas relax slightly. “I think I’m the lucky one,” he said, then kissed my neck again.

“What will you do out there, Lizzie?” Lola asked. “I’m sure Thomas will be rather busy with the shoot. Do you think you’ll be able to keep yourself occupied all day?”

“I’m sure I’ll do fine.” Despite my best efforts, my smile slipped from my face.

She laughed. “Of course, there’s so much lovely shopping to do out there. And you’ll be able to work on your tan.” Her eyes scanned my face. “Not that you really need it.”

“You’re right,” I snapped, pissed now. “We Latina girls don’t really need to tan. Aren’t we lucky?”

Jackson grimaced, probably realizing Lola had gone too far. She merely smiled, clearly proud of herself.

“I’m sure I’ll have plenty to keep me occupied,” I said. “Considering I’ll be working for a living.”

“Oh, that’s right,” Lola said. “Didn’t Thomas get you a job with his agent? How sweet.”

“Actually—” Thomas began, the anger in his voice evident, but I cut him off.

“Oh, look, Thomas,” I said, placing a steadying hand on his arm. “Your sister is here. We should go say hi.”