Could This Be Love? (30 page)

“You have? Wait . . .” She rolled onto her back and gazed up at the ceiling in silence, then turned to him in wonder. “You wrote the script for our movie. That’s why you got that funny look on your face when I picked it. Sijan, you’re
brilliant
.”

“You’re pretty brilliant, yourself. I haven’t told you, but you’re a hell of an actor. Better than me even, and baby, I’m good.” He grinned when she laughed. “I’m going to float an idea and you don’t have to say anything and it can just sail away if you want. Ready?”

“Wow, you’re making me nervous. Go ahead.”

“What if I wrote a brilliant screenplay . . . for us?” He held his breath, waiting for her reaction. He was pretty sure she would turn it down, but ever since he’d seen her act, he’d known he wanted them to act together. Not the stark tragic short film they already had in the can. No, he wanted something more epic, in full-blown color to capture her beauty and her talent and their chemistry. He had this desire not only to see them both on screen together, but recorded in the timeless way of Hepburn and Tracy or Bogart and Bacall.

He saw the doubt on her face as she opened her lips to speak. He beat her to it. “No, never mind. Don’t answer. Let it float by. It’ll take me years to write the perfect screenplay for us anyway, so for now, pretend I never mentioned it.”

“Okay. Now, I have work to do.” She smiled and disappeared down under the sheets.

“I would never want to interfere with your work,” Sijan said with great anticipation.

A pounding knock on the door had Avery’s head popping back up from under the covers. She looked sexy as hell with hair mussed from the sheets. He called out, “Unless the house is on fire, go away!”

“Sorry to interrupt, Sijan, but there’s a fire to put out. Jerry called. Ferris is in L.A. throwing out accusations about Avery like a loose cannon,” Tynan said through the closed door. “Jerry says things are blowing up and he needs you both on the next plane out.”

“We’ll be right out, Ty.” He turned back to Avery. “Hell. Looks like those few months you wanted before you had to deal with this just turned into a few minutes.”

Avery’s beautifully flushed face drained of color in a heartbeat, and she started wheezing and shivering.

“Breathe, Avery.” Sijan pulled Avery up to her knees and gave her a slow kiss. He held her in his arms and waited until she could breathe again, all the while rubbing soothing hands along her stiff back. “We’ll deal with this. It’ll be no big deal. Although, you might have to bail me out when I hurt Ferris. Come on, out of bed, beautiful. You have twenty minutes to pack.”

“I can’t. I’m sorry, Sijan. I can’t go with you. I’m not ready for all the questions and the gossip. It won’t be about the movie we made. You and I both know that. It’ll be about why I disappeared five years ago . . . and someone is bound to figure out what happened when I was seventeen.”

“Avery, you won’t be alone.” He cupped her face and kissed her forehead. “I’ll be right beside you.”

“You don’t understand.” Her voice, almost a whisper, cut deep.

“And you don’t trust me. Don’t trust us. That together we can handle anything.”

The big fat tears rolling down her face almost broke him. He wanted to be her knight in shining armor. He wanted to say,
Okay, new plan. You stay here at the farm. I’ll go out to L.A. and deal with the tabloids and the rumors. Then we can get on with our lives
, but he knew that would only put off what they needed to face. If she couldn’t handle this part of his life, it wasn’t going to work—no matter how much they loved each other. And pretending otherwise would only hurt them both more in the long run.

“Trust is a new thing for me, Sijan.”

“I get that, but without trust, this won’t work. I’ve got to go fix this, because even if we don’t work out, I love you and there is no way I’m letting Ferris hurt you for even one more second. Are you sure you can’t come with me?”

And with a single nod of her head, she gutted him.

Chapter Thirty

A
very cried and paced the rest of the day and long into the night. Pia made her stop and have a glass of wine, but to no avail. She couldn’t sleep a wink, not even after she moved into Sijan’s bed with Peewee and Roscoe. Heck, she couldn’t even eat. So, sunrise found her in the gym pummeling the punching bag. She showered and went back to bed, crying big gulping tears after playing the last conversation with Sijan through her head for the 1,734th time. She was so emotionally destroyed, she couldn’t even explain to Pia how she’d hurt Sijan and probably ended their relationship.

“Look, I’m not sure what happened between you and Sijan, but enough is enough.” Pia ignored her tears and dragged her out of bed to the diner for coffee and sustenance. “When you’re ready to spill, I’m here.”

The breakfast crowd welcomed them with open arms and ears since everyone wanted the latest news on Avery and Sijan’s romance. Renee filled their coffee cups and brought Avery a cupcake and Pia her usual eggs and bacon. She rubbed Avery’s shoulder in a motherly fashion.

“Well, Avery?” Renee stood next to their booth with her eyebrows raised and excitement simmering in her eyes. “Come on, tell us. We’re as anxious as a rooster just before sunrise.”

“Tell you what?” Avery sat slumped against the booth, where she’d been letting the morning’s gossip swirl soothingly around her.
Comfort from gossip? Seriously?
When had that happened? Over time, somehow the gossip at Dave’s had become a part of her life. It made her feel part of something bigger. It made her feel like she belonged.

“We’re waiting to hear about the results of our matchmaking efforts, young lady.” Agatha’s voice carried easily from a booth at the other end of the diner. “I will have serious doubts in his role as a leading man if the man failed to propose to you.”

“No. He did ask me to marry him. And I said yes.”

“Hot damn! I’m on-top-of-the-world happy for you, Av.” Pia leaned across the table and gave her a tight hug. “I knew he would be good for you. Except that part where he was being an idiot, I knew it.”

Avery settled back in her seat and looked at Pia in surprise. “How could you know? I certainly didn’t have a clue.”

“I saw this.” Pia picked up her phone and searched through her photographs, then handed the phone across the table to her. “This is Sijan the first time he set eyes on you.”

She glanced down at the photo and the air rushed from her lungs. “Oh, my God. How did I miss this?” Her gaze whipped to Pia’s in shock, tears tracking down her face.

“You were a little busy being his number-one fan, if I recall.” Pia grinned at the memory. “Good times. Tynan saw it too, only he was in denial almost as much as Sijan.”

“Why are you crying?” Renee still stood next to the booth, looking back and forth between them. “Pia, why is she crying?”

“This has yet to be determined.” Pia sipped her coffee. “But, knowing Avery, we’ll find out in a minute. She runs deep, but not silent.”

Avery sat staring at the photo of Sijan, then, in a daze, turned Pia’s phone for Renee to see.

“Oh, lord, Avery, how in the world did you resist that man for even five minutes?” Renee fanned her face with the order pad from her apron pocket. “I want someone to look at me like that one day.”

Beatrice clapped her hands in excitement. “Lovely. We’ll need to know the wedding date to put it on our calendar.”

Avery shook her head and held back the sob that tried to sputter out of her lungs. “There isn’t going to be a wedding.”

“Explain,” Agatha commanded, her voice cutting clearly through the noise of new chatter caused by Avery’s announcement.

She stood up and looked around at all the faces in the diner. “Sijan wanted me to go to L.A. with him and deal with this together. When I said I couldn’t, he said I don’t trust him, but I do. I trust him with all my heart.”

“Then what in the hell are you doing sitting here in Climax?”

“Agatha. Language, please,” Beatrice admonished. “But I quite agree. Avery, why aren’t you out in L.A. helping Sijan fend off the vicious pack of paparazzi?”

“I know I should. I want to, but I can’t.” Avery walked slowly down to the Simon sisters’ booth. She stood looking at them, her hands twisting together in worry and guilt. “It’s not Sijan I don’t trust. It’s me. They would eat me alive.”

“Would they?” Agatha raised a penciled on eyebrow at her. “You seem to have dealt with the Grapevine handily.”

“I have, haven’t I?” The more she thought about it, the more it dawned on her how much she’d changed in the last few weeks. “I have changed. Just a few short weeks ago I would have plowed my way through the contents of Sijan’s refrigerator to get through the last twenty-four hours. Instead, I beat the heck out of the punching bag in his gym this morning. And . . .”

“And?” Everyone in the diner waited eagerly.

“I noticed something else yesterday. When Michelle fanned out the tabloids with all the scandals flying around, I realized out at Sijan’s farm . . . they hadn’t touched me. I’m in a safe cocoon at the farm, like our own private island.”

“Your escape hatch if Hollywood is too much.” Agatha nodded her approval.

“Yes, exactly.” Even as she said it though, she began to shake her head and pace up and down the aisle, only to end up back next to Beatrice and Agatha’s booth. “No. There are things you don’t know that they’ll dredge up. Lord, they eviscerated me five years ago. I was a certified hot mess.”

Beatrice reached out and took her hand. “Avery Danford, you’re not that young girl anymore. You know the expression ‘bloom where you’re planted’? That’s you, dear. That’s what you did. You were transplanted into the most barren desert, yet look how you’ve blossomed. That takes strength, dear.”

“Strength? I never thought of myself as a strong person before.” Avery paced again. “I guess I had to be strong to make it through . . . everything. Of course, I had Pia’s help.”

Pia stood up from her booth. “Who says I can’t help you again?”

“You don’t have to do things alone to prove you’re strong, Avery. Goodness, I wouldn’t have accomplished half the things I did in my life without Beatrice to lean on.”

Renee walked over and placed an arm around her shoulders. “We all want to help, Avery. Just name it, hon.”

She looked around the friendly faces eager to help, and a rush of warmth spread through her veins as she realized these were her people now. “I really do belong, don’t I?”

“Of course you do, dear,” Beatrice Simon said. “Now, what about that little problem of yours?”

Avery wanted to hug everyone in Climax, but she didn’t have time to waste. Jerry had called to let her know the press conference was set for tomorrow. Talk about full circle. For the second time in her life, she was going to deal with Dirk and the Hollywood press. Only this time she wasn’t running. Nope, no more running from anything because she was stronger now. And she did trust that, together, she and Sijan could handle anything.

“Okay. Here’s my plan . . .”

Chapter Thirty-one

A
very and Pia arrived at Majestic Studios ten minutes into the press conference. She’d finally reached Jerry on his cell phone, and she and Pia were waiting at the gate for him to sign them in. Sijan’s next blockbuster with Majestic was due to release in less than two months, and the studio expected Sijan to work his magic with the press and make this scandal disappear. She shook her head and looked over at Pia. “I don’t know how this is going to turn out, Pia, but thank you for everything. I wouldn’t be here today without you.”

“Back at you, Av. I have to say, getting you ready was the most fun I’ve had in ages. I forgot how much fun I had styling people after working with animals for the past five years. You are stunning, for which I’ll only take a little credit.”

Pia had styled Avery’s hair in long, lose curls tousled softly around her shoulders. Smokey-gray eye shadow highlighted her eyes. Light blush with a hint of shimmer accented her high cheekbones, and a deep rose-pink lip gloss kissed her lips. Her hourglass figure was showcased in a tastefully body-hugging aqua Chanel dress with a hint of cleavage. A pair of funky Jimmy Choo pumps completed the deal.

“Am I glad to see you,” Jerry said from behind the gate. He signed them in with the guard and zoomed them off in a golf cart like he was driving in the Indy 500. “Sijan’s doing the best he can, but the press is not giving up. Dirk has been telling so many wild-ass tales that just when Sijan stomps one out another flames up. And they know there’s a movie, but they don’t seem to know any details. Are you sure you can handle this? Because Sijan will have my head if you have a nervous breakdown up there.”

“Jerry, I got this.” Thank goodness her voice sounded more confident than she felt.

“How did the studio get Dirk here?” Pia said. “I thought he was holding his own tell-all press conference?”

“The president of Majestic called and invited him. No way Dirk was saying no to that.” Jerry wiped his hand across the dampness on his forehead. “Now it’s Sijan’s job to shut Dirk down.”

Finally they were standing in the wings of the stage. The studio had set up a table downstage at the edge of the orchestra pit, turned the spotlights on full, and filled the seats with the press. Camera lights flashed at such a dizzying speed one would think Elvis or the Pope had made a surprise visit. Or two handsome mega-movie stars.

She worried all of it would bring back memories from her crazy days in Hollywood. But instead what it reminded her of was the last time she’d stood waiting to jump into Sijan’s life. “Wow, Pia. You getting a déjà vu vibe too?”

“I am. And it turned out pretty good the last time you photo-bombed the man, didn’t it?” Pia fluffed Avery’s hair and pushed her breasts up a little higher. “The girls were very helpful last time.”

Avery laughed. “This poor, poor man. He can’t escape me. Every time he turns around, I practically mug him. And yet he’s willing to sign up for a lifetime contract. Maybe he’s the one who needs therapy. Okay, I’m going in. Wish me luck.”