Take Two (32 page)

Fudge was staring at Micah, his mouth gaping. “You’re in love with her.”

“Whatever.” Micah crossed to the fridge and opened it, pretending to look for something to eat, even though he had zero appetite.

Fudge slammed his hand on the counter. “You’re totally in love with her!” He chuckled. “Does she know?”

“No,” Micah answered quickly. Too quickly. He backtracked. “There’s nothing to know. Just drop it.” He shut the refrigerator door.

Fudge wasn’t dropping it. He followed Micah outside to the veranda. “Why the hell did you break things off with her?”

“I have rules, remember?” God, the sun was bright. “No dating. No serious relationships.”

“It’s your own stupid rule. You can break it.”

“The rule exists for a reason. It’s not stupid.” Micah circled back into the house, out of the blinding sun, Fudge in tow. “It’s a proven fact that relationships in this town do not work.”

“Then why were you seeing her in the first place?”

He stopped walking and turned to face Fudge. “Exactly. No clue.”

Fudge shook his head as if disgusted.

So Micah amended his statement. “Because she made me think that maybe I was wrong. But I wasn’t.” Except he hadn’t known if he was wrong or not. He’d wanted to see what happened with her. He sighed. “I asked her if she wanted to keep seeing me on the down-low.” He wandered into the den and threw himself facedown on the couch. “But she didn’t want that.”

Fudge sat on the couch arm and threw the bag of Cheetos on the coffee table. “She didn’t want to see you anymore?” Surprise laced his voice.

“I didn’t say that exactly,” Micah said into the couch pillow.

“Hmm.” Fudge stood and crossed to where he could look at Micah directly. Then he walked toward the kitchen, but returned a second later, his arms crossed.

Micah leaned himself up on one elbow. “Do you have something to say?”

“Yes, I do.” Fudge took a deep breath. “You’re an asshole.”

“What?”

“You’re a selfish asshole.”

Micah moved to a sitting position. “Selfish. That’s what she said.”

“Because you are. Dude, you probably don’t know this since you’ve had, like, zero experience with any relationship that lasts longer than an hour, but when you love someone, you do things in the best interest of you as a couple, not just you as a superstar. You can’t give up your playboy status to see where things go with Maddie?”

Micah leaned forward. “I need more time without the press to see how things go.”

“Bullshit.”

“What do you fucking know about it?”

“I’m always with you, Micah. I know all about it. I know all about you. You want more time to come up with another excuse about why it’s not going to work out. Because heaven forbid things did work out and you found out all your years of self-imposed solitude were a waste of your life.”

Micah sat back into the couch and pulled the pillow into his lap. “Whatever. I’m not talking about this with you anymore.”

Fudge’s eyes traveled to a spot behind Micah. “Fine with me. You can discuss it with Lulu.”

“I’m not discussing shit with Lulu.”

“Micah?”

Lulu’s voice behind him made Micah jump up, the pillow flying from his lap to the floor. “Mom!” Fuck. He looked and felt like shit, not to mention he was only in his boxers, and now he had to deal with his mother.

Micah circled around the couch to hug Lulu. “You didn’t say you were stopping by. If I’d known you were coming, I’d have gotten dressed.”

“I’ve seen you in less. I’ve watched your movies, remember?”

“Yeah, right.” He didn’t want to think about the fact that Lulu had seen his bare ass on-screen. “So, what are you doing here?”

“Chris called me.”

Micah turned to Fudge and delivered his best death glare. “I wonder why he would do that.”

Lulu threw her purse down on a side table. “He was worried, and I can see why.”

Christ. Lulu, too? “There’s no reason to be worried.” As he talked, Micah straightened the room, both because it was trashed and because he needed something to help him avoid his mother’s eyes. “I’m a little hung over, that’s all. You know how we celebrate when a shoot is over.”

“Micah, I know it’s not the movie. You don’t have to pretend.”

He bent over to pick up the pillow that had fallen off the couch. “What do you mean?” He was afraid to find out the answer.

“I told her.” And Fudge’s tone said he didn’t regret it at all.

Micah’s eyes flitted from Lulu to his bodyguard. “What exactly did you tell her?”

Lulu’s face softened with compassion. “He told me everything, Micah. About Madalyn.”

If Micah could kill Fudge with a simple stare, he was sure this was the stare that would do it.

“I told her the truth. That you’re hung up on Maddie but you’re being an asswipe about it. Excuse my language, Lulu.”

Lulu smiled reassuringly. “You’re fine, Chris. From what you told me, I think asswipe is more than appropriate.”

Micah threw the pillow down onto the couch in complete frustration. “Why are you on his side? You didn’t even want me to stay here to work on her film.”

“I didn’t know you were in love with her. Why didn’t you tell me?”

“What do you care about love?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You left your marriage, Mom. You chose your career over love.”

Lulu’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “No, I didn’t.”

“Oh, really?”
 

Lulu circled the couch and came to Micah’s side. “I chose to leave a bad marriage, Micah, and threw my energy instead into a career.”

“Yeah, that’s not how Dad put it.”

“Your father could never admit we had problems. He wanted to blame it all on my acting. But that wasn’t it at all.”

Micah shook his head. This conversation made his eyes cross. He sat heavily on the couch. Why hadn’t he ever discussed this with his mother? All these years he’d just assumed. “But you haven’t dated since you left Dad. You’ve been totally focused on your career and then my career.”

Lulu laughed as she sat next to Micah. “I have too dated. Just because I haven’t shared it with you doesn’t mean I didn’t do it.”

Seriously. Micah’s whole concept of life was shattering before his eyes. His mom dated? Like, men? “Are you kidding me?”

“Not at all. Actually—” Her face colored slightly as she looked down at her white linen pants. “Stu and I have been dating casually for the last several months.”

No. Fucking. Way.

Micah spun to look at Fudge. “Did you know about this?”

Fudge shrugged.

“Micah, honey.” Lulu put her hand on his knee. “Maybe I’ve been too single-minded about you and your career. And maybe I’ve lived vicariously through you and that put a lot of pressure on you. But all I really want is for you to be happy.”

Micah swallowed. “I’m happy. I like where my life is at.”

“That’s a total fucking lie.” Fudge sat on the chair across from the sofa. “Yeah, you’re at the top of your career. You demand top pay. You can pick and choose each project. You’ve been Golden Globe nominated, for Christ’s sake, but you’re still a miserable sack of shit. Have you considered that there might be more to life than money and making movies?”

Micah frowned. He had considered it. A lot, lately. Truth was the only upcoming project he felt completely excited about was Maddie’s, and frankly, her movie could have sucked and he’d still feel the same. He relished that he was a part of making her dream a reality. He wanted to be part of every aspect of it just to watch her delight, just to be near her.

And if he was really being honest, he wanted to be part of every aspect of everything she did. He wanted to be her partner and her friend and her lover. Her everything.

Fuck. Fudge was right. He was totally in love with Maddie, and he knew it. Why was he being such a prick about admitting it?

Oh, yeah, that’s right. Because he didn’t believe that relationships in his world had any chance of surviving. But that idea had been largely based on his parents’ failed marriage. And now his mother was telling him that his whole concept of their divorce was a lie? He couldn’t even comprehend anything anymore.

He glanced at Lulu beside him.

“Micah, if this girl is what makes you happy, then you should be with her.”

He ran his hand through his hair. “But we’ll be apart so much. And the paparazzi is not kind.”

“But if you really love someone, honey, those things don’t matter.” Lulu patted his leg once. “Who cares what the press says? Who cares what anyone says? They don’t know. And as for the distance and the schedules, you make compromises. You work together. As long as you keep communicating and sharing what’s going on in your head—and your heart—you can make anything happen.”

She turned her head until she met Micah’s eyes. “It’s not any different than building a film career. You just choose to work on each other as much as you choose to work on your own stuff.”

God, he was such a dick. And he couldn’t figure it out until his mother sat him down and told him the obvious. What was he, twelve?

He ran his hand over his eyes, rubbing out the last bits of sleep crusties that still clung to his lashes. “Mom, I think I’ve fucked up pretty bad.”

“Then un-fuck up.”

He chuckled at his mother’s uncharacteristic swearing. “How? She won’t answer my calls. I agreed to not go to meetings about her movie.” Micah considered. “I could send her flowers.”

Lulu shook her head with a frown.

“Nah, that’s lame,” Fudge agreed. “Your last romantic gesture was a hot air balloon ride. You need to do something drastic to top that. You know what they say, ‘Go big or go home.’”

Drastic. Micah’s brain started whirring, somewhat slowly due to his hung-over state. “Got any ideas?”

Fudge shrugged, reaching for the Cheetos. “You’re Micah Preston,” he said, popping one in his mouth. “I’m sure you’ll think of something.”

Chapter Twenty-Nine

“Jen’s dress is hideous.” Bree curled her leg under her, her eyes never leaving the flat screen TV on the wall.

Maddie kicked her flip-flops off and stretched out her own legs on Bree’s couch. “She’s just lost too much weight.” Unlike Maddie, who watched movie awards shows because she loved film, Bree watched to see what the stars were wearing.

Maddie squinted at the television. “She’s almost as skinny as you now, Bree.”

“Shut up.” Bree pretended she didn’t love to hear how thin she was.

“She won best supporting actress, right?”

“Yeah.”

Maddie marked the box on her makeshift ballot. She had made predictions earlier in the day while she’d run on the treadmill at the gym. This one she’d gotten wrong. Usually she was pretty good at guessing, but her heart really wasn’t in it this year. The only actor that permeated her thoughts was Micah Preston. And he wasn’t up for any awards.

“Oh my God, Christian looks h-o-t hot.”

“Where?” Maddie looked toward the screen.

“No, don’t look now. They just scanned over Micah. And he looks super hot too. Sorry.”

Too late. Maddie had already seen him. He did look super hot. As always. Dammit, she had hoped moving on wouldn’t be as hard as it was turning out to be. Stupid broken heart.

“At least he looks like he didn’t bring a date. He’s sitting in between two guys.”

This comforted Maddie. Unless the two guys were merely place holders. Award shows did that—had paid models available to take the seat of anyone who got up for any reason. It made the theater full. What if one of the guys sitting next to Micah was simply filling in for some hot blonde that had to pee? “Why do we have to watch America’s Choice Awards again, Bree?”

“Because if Beaumont wins Best Director, he’s going to immediately get a million phone calls and crap, and I have to be ready to handle them.”

Ah, yes, I’m watching this stupid award show because of Beaumont. It figures.
“It seems like you should be there then.”

Bree didn’t detect the bitterness in Maddie’s voice. “It does seem that way. But no, I have to be here instead of dressed up all pretty surrounded by yummy, yummy hot stars.” Bree had her own bitterness. She squeezed Maddie’s leg. “I mean, I’d totally rather be here with you.”

“Of course you would.”

“Tell you what, when you get nominated for best director or screenwriter or cinematographer, I expect an invite.”

“Deal,” Maddie said. And finally, for the first time in her life, she saw being nominated for an award as a possibility. She actually had a shot now that she was being funded by Three Spot. Three Spot and Micah. How had Micah managed to make her biggest dreams a reality and then completely break her heart all in the same day?

Nope. Stop. Don’t think about it tonight. Focus on why you’re here. Oh, yeah, Beaumont.
Maddie groaned. “I’m sorry, Bree, but I’m seriously hoping Beaumont loses.”

“Frankly, I am too.” If Beaumont won, the rest of Bree’s night would be spent working. “And must I remind you that you don’t have to be here?”