A Little Less than Famous (16 page)

I smirked and waved him off. “Oh don’t you worry about me, Jake. I will be just fine.” We came to stop and I felt my stomach clench.

“Not yet,” Jake said, reaching for my hand before remembering and pulling back quickly. “This is the line; there’s probably a few limos in front of us before we can get out.”

“Okay, great, fine,” I said, smiling, folding my hands in my lap. My heart was slamming against my ribs; at any moment, one of them was going to crack from the pressure. This was it. This was the moment that McKinley Evans was introduced to the world. As Jake Kennedy’s…something.

“Sir, we’re almost to the front. Get ready.”

“Noted,” Jake said. He started scooting closer to the door. “Come on, its easier if you’re closer to the door so you don’t have to slide over when they open the door. Swing both feet out; seriously, you do not want to flash the cameras. And if you’re feeling freaked out or confused, just follow me, okay? It’s not as bad as it seems, I promise.” I nodded, swallowing hard, afraid that if I opened my mouth, I would throw up all over the leather seats. At least it would be fairly easy to clean up.

Jake looked out the window. “Okay, this is it. Let’s do it.” He took a deep breath, as the door opened up, and stepped out, a smile on his handsome face. He waved to a few people before turning to me and offering his hand. I remembered his tip and swung my legs out before taking his hand. He quickly lifted me to feet and the sounds suddenly came rushing at me. People were screaming Jake’s name and…yes, yes they were screaming mine too. Some of them looked really excited to see the two of us but most of them seemed pretty pissed off. I was pretty sure I saw one teenage girl crying at the sight of me. I always knew that I was capable of creating such positive reactions from strangers. I looked at Jake, my eyes wide. He smiled wide, his eyes saying
Smile!
I turned to the crowd and flashed a smile and gave a small wave. I looked at Jake out of the corner of my eye and saw that he was smirking a little.

“Jake, awesome, there you are.” A tiny-and I mean, tiny-blonde woman wearing a black blazer over a turquoise blouse with black slacks came bustling over, a Bluetooth attached to her ear and a Blackberry clutched in her hand like a lifeline. She looked me over. “Oh and McKinley. Even better.”

“Um hi?” I said, nervously.

“Oh, sorry,” Jake said, continuing to smile at the fans, lined up all over the place.  “McKinley, this is my publicist, also know
n as my Hollywood mom, Adrienne
Jordan.”

“All right, Jake, we have a few reporters that are dying to talk to you, and I’m sure they are just dying to
talk to McKinley. Lavonne
Claire from E! is th
e first one. You ready?” Adrienne
said, consulting her Blackberry. Jake nodded. “You ready, McKinley?”

I took a deep breath and smiled again. I had a feeling my cheeks were going to hurt by the end of this. I
followed Jake as Adrienne
ushered us over to a young and super pretty reporter, holding a microphone and looking excited to see us.

“Jake Kennedy, hello there!”

“Hi there, Lavonne
,” Jake said, flashing that smile that graced billboards and melted hearts every Thursday night.

Lavonne
turned towards me. “And look who finally came out of hiding. Hello there, McKinley, you look gorgeous!”

“Thank you,” I said, stepping closer to Jake.

“What are you wearing there?” she asked, looking me up and down. “It’s so awesome and different.”

I swallowed hard and tried to ignore all the flashes of cameras winking in my direction. “It’s a vintage dress, from the 1950s by Anne Fogarty,” I said, pulling the skirt out and then letting it fall gently back.

“Its fantastic,” she cooed at me. “Give us a little twirl.”

I looked up at Jake and smiled at him radiantly, feeling victorious. I did a little twirl, the skirt of my dress lifting a little. I came to a halt, laughing a little at the silliness of the whole event.

“Gorgeous, just gorgeous,” Lavonne
said, setting her hand on my arm to steady me. She looked over at Jake. “And look at you over here, looking pretty hot yourself.”

Jake laughed. “Nah, I pale in comparison while standing next to you lovely ladies.”

“Oh stop it you,” Lavonne
said, laughing. I felt intense amusement at the banter that was taking place during this ‘interview’. “So, Jake, we’re dying to know…are Mikey and Maggie going to break up or are they finally going to get married already?”

“Wel
l, now if I told you that, Lavonne
, I’d ruin the rest of the season!” he said. “But I can promise you that there are some seriously awesome episodes coming your way.”

“I definitely can’t wait for it. Any movies lined up? I was drooling over
Crash Landing
last winter,” Lavonne
said.
Crash Landing
had been
Jake’s hit movie the previous winter
; a super fast, action movie about a guy driving across country in stolen cars in order to rescue his girlfriend from some sort of criminal. It basically paralleled every other movie Jake had ever done. However, it showed him several times without a shirt and that alone was enough to bring in a major box office hit.

“Well, I’ve been reading some scripts, meeting with some people and I’ve definitely got some ideas lined up,” Jake said. He had such a charisma when talking to her, such an easy give and take of sharing and withholding all at the same time.

“Well we’re definitely looking forward to hearing what you have planned for us,” she said, excitedly. “Now, McKinley, we all want to know? What’s it like?’

“What is what like?” I asked, confused, but continuing to smile and lay on the charm.

“Dating thi
s handsome man over here?” Lavonne
asked, laughing.

“Oh!” I laughed. “Well, you know, we’re just hanging out, having fun!”

“Oh sure, sure,” Lavonne
said, winking at me. “I think we all know better than that! But we’re all just dying to know everything about you! It’s not every day that Jake brings a girl out to a red carpet and we all saw those steamy pictures of you at that gas station.”

I felt myself blush a little at
the mention of
those pictures but immediately recovered myself. I tossed my hair a little and waved her off, laughing. “Oh, I’m just a regular girl, you know. Nothing special about me. You’d all just be bored to tears.”
I smiled broadly, laying on some thick charm.

“Nonsense!” Lavonne
cried.

“We’ve got to move on,” Adrienne
said, coming up from behind me.

“Oh, Adrienne, do they have to?” Lavonne
asked, playfully.

Adrienne
smiled, regretful
ly. “I’ll give you a call, Lavonne
. We’ll set something up!” She gently st
eered Jake and I away from Lavonne
and further down the red carpet. “Photos, guys, ready? And try to look like you’re together okay? You guys are
the talk of the town right now!
”

I looked up at Jake, and before I could stop myself or second-guess what I wa
s doing, I took his hand in mine
, interlacing our fingers. He looked down at me and smiled, happily, his real smile, the one meant for me and not the cameras.
I knew the
paparazzi were
eating this all up.

Later that night, after we’d sat through the show (Jake won Best Male Actor in a TV show Drama) and had made an appearanc
e at an after-show party, we
finally made it back down the 101 to Calabasas and to Jake’s house. I collapsed on one of the co
mfy couches in the living room,
exhausted.
 

“I have no idea how you do it,” I said, running a hand through my hair, which had officially lost control. “I’m so tired.”

Jake came over and sat next to me on the couch, taking off his blazer and setting it across an armchair. “I don’t know. I’m just used to it, I guess.
My life is pretty non stop.
” He brushed some of my wild hair out of my face. “They loved you though. You rocked it tonight.”

I laughed lightly, shaking my head. “It was so unreal. People were shouting my name and taking my picture. And some of the questions they were asking me!”

Jake lowered his voice in an impression of a serious news reporter. “The world wants to know, McKinley Evans, do you prefer Coke or Pepsi?”

I shook my head, still smiling. “It just all seemed so silly.”

“Well,” Jake said, coming a bit closer to me, “it
is
a little silly. But damn, did they love your dress! You’re going to make vintage a fashion statement on the red carpet.”

I smirked. “So does this mean you can admit you were wrong about my dress?”

Jake glared at me, jokingly for a second. “Oh okay, I was wrong. You compl
etely rocked it, in a sexy, June
Cleaver, housewife way. But you had fun right?” 

I stared at him for a moment and then gave in. “Okay, yeah, it was totally fun.”

“I can’t believe you wouldn’t take anything from the gift parties!” Jake said, a grin on his face. “You looked like you were in shock.”

“I was in shock! How could I take all that free stuff?” I laughed. “I felt so greedy; I wanted everything!”

“Well, that is the point of that stuff being there. Companies practically beg to give their stuff away at award shows; it’s a chance to say that so-and-so has their product. It’s super worth it to them,” Jake explained.

“So they can brag that Jake Kennedy uses…” I paused as I peeked into his bag. I made a face at him. “Look at allll those video games. Jake Kennedy uses XBOX!”

“And McKinley Evans uses Iphone!” Jake countered back, tossing me something. I caught it automatically before realizing that I was holding a brand new Iphone in my hand. I stared at it for a moment and then looked up at him. “I figured since you wouldn’t actually take one, I’d grab one for you. Especially since it’s partly my fault that your old one got smashed.”

I stared down at the phone and then back up at him. “You are so weird. You just gave me a phone!”

“Well, technically, I got it for free and just passed it along to you.”

I rolled my eyes. “Like that makes it any less absurd.” I pulled myself out of the comfy couch and stood up. “Let’s go upstairs; I really am super tired.”

“Here,” Jake said, standing up as well. “Jump on my back.”

I shook my head. “Oh, no, no, not in this dress! I’ll walk upstairs like a lady.”

“No, I think,”
Jake
said thoughtfully, “I think I want to carry you upstairs! Come here!” He lunged at me
,
laughing. I laughed and ran out of his reach. He leapt over the couch and came at me.

“Oh, no, you don’t,” I said, turning to run up the stairs. He came chasing after me, both of us laughing in the loud and echoing house. I slid across the wood floors as I turned the corner and burst into his room. Just then, he caught me from behind and lifted me off my feet. My stomach ached from all the laughter. “All right, all right, I give up!”

“Good,” he said, putting me down and turning me around to face him. “Now, no more talking.”

My breath caught in my throat as I felt his hands slip my zipper lower down my back and run across my bare spine.  “Right,” I agreed. “No more talking.”

Chapter Six

“Good morning, McKinley.”

I turned around from washing some dirty coffee mugs and smiled as Dave walked into the café. I felt like I hadn’t seen him in ages; his youngest son, Kevin, had caught a wicked case of the chicken pox, keeping him at home at all times. “Dave, hi!” I came out from behind the counter and gave him a huge hug. “How’s Kevin? Feeling better, I hope?”