Impossible Glamour (23 page)

She nodded.

I pulled her closer. “Let’s go back to bed, babe. I think Big Boy has something he needs.”

We both glanced at Big Boy and Ellen giggled.

“I can’t believe I’ve fallen in love with a man who named his penis.”

“Babe, we all name our penis, you were just lucky enough to fall in love with a man who is honest enough to admit that he did.”

With that, I pressed my lips to her nose.

Wait…love?

“Ellen did you just…” The words stopped in my mouth. “Did you just say you
love
me?”

Had Ellen Legend just admitted to falling in love with the Webzie?

“I…uh…oh—”

“Babe, I love you too,” I said. Her eyes brightened and we kissed. Damn.

“Webber, you make me happy,” she whispered as we stood naked in her kitchen with our foreheads pressed together.

Yeah, this was perfect. So fucking perfect. If we could just shut out the rest of the world, because when Steve found out that his little girl had fallen in love with me? I’d be lucky if the Legend let me live.

Webber

El Jeffe’s pad was primo. I’d been to his place in Bel Air before today, but each time I pulled to a stop in the circle drive before the monster manse, I realized just how successful CTA and, by extension, the president of our agency was. A tiny bit of anger pulsed in my gut. My clients’ box office had helped to build this house and also kept CTA in the black. After their success and my success collecting them and managing them and keeping them happy, I deserved a piece of this pie.

Jeff’s housekeeper walked me through the house and out back to a table on the patio beside the pool. Jeff’s kids swam and screamed in the background. I surveyed the scene from behind my shades. The babe in the bikini who looked like she belonged on the cover of
Maxim
and was the mother of three lounged on the other side of the pool, flipping through a magazine. She looked up, smiled, and waved. I knew Jazelle from holiday parties and other CTA events. She accompanied Jeff to the occasional premiere.

She’d given up her career to settle down and be the trophy wife to one of the most powerful men in Hollywood. Wonder if she knew about all Jeff’s extracurriculars? Maybe she didn’t care. I heard there were wives like that in town. Women who had unspoken agreements with their hubs. The wifey could spend as much dough as she wanted and the husband could swim in a sea of strange. No comprende. Sure, I could understand how that might be what a man wanted, because fuck, I was a man, and wanting a piece of strange was kind of built into the DNA. But now that I’d found the girl I wanted to be mine for the rest of my life… Hell, I didn’t even want another woman and neither, apparently, did Big Boy.

“Webber!” Jeff walked out of the house in khakis and a button-down top. He wore aviator shades and looked fresh and relaxed. “Thanks for coming over on a Saturday.” He slapped my back and we shook hands. “Sit, man, sit. Want anything? Beer? Water? Lemonade?”

“I’m good,” I said and relaxed into the chair. My stomach jumbled in knots. This conversation I didn’t think was going to go well.

“So here’s the thing, Webber. You don’t have the votes.”

“Steve just got out of the hospital. We can’t pull the trigger on what Gregory wants until he’s one hundred percent.”

“Man, I get it and I’m not busting your balls about it. But a deal is a deal.” Jeff settled back into his chair. “Besides, you’ve had multiple opportunities to seal the deal with Selena, and I hear you keep shitting the bed on that.”

Jeff wouldn’t give two fucks about how I felt about Ellen. His wife was right across the pool and smokin’ hot and he’d bang anything with a tight pussy and big titties.

“Not for me, man. It’s a no-go with Selena.”

“Right. I get it.” He paused and steepled his fingers.

Oh boy.

“But here’s the thing.” He leaned forward. “There’s a rumor in town.” He lowered his voice. “A rumor that you’re banging Legend’s daughter. What’s her name, the one that’s not as hot as her sister but has brains out the wazoo.”

I sat stone still. I wasn’t about to cop to any of this. Not to Jeff.

“That’s rich,” I said. “You know how the rumor mill churns.”

“Right,” Jeff said. He examined me like he was trying to determine if I was or wasn’t. “She’s the one that Legend doesn’t want to have anything to do with entertainment, right? The one who’s meant to be a surgeon? Or something else none of us fuckers could ever do, right?”

“Ellen’s in her third year of medical school.”

“You two are close?”

“We’ve gotten closer with Steve in the hospital.”

“How close?”

“Close enough.” I lasered in on Jeff. “What does Ellen have to do with the partnership vote?”

“Just trying to assess risk,” Jeff said. “If you’re banging the unbangable daughter, then when you get caught—and believe me you will get caught, because there are no secrets in Hollywood—I know that you will lose your biggest client. Which in turn impacts my bottom line, plus doesn’t make me feel quite so bad about your not getting the partnership vote this year.”

Heat flamed through me. “It’s a no-go, then. You’re not going to push Selena or Gregory.”

“We had a deal, Webber. You couldn’t close your part.”

“Because one of my clients had a heart attack and one of the partners wanted to shove a dildo up my ass.”

“You know the ABCs of sales, Webzie, you’ve been in this game long enough. Always Be Closing. If you can’t get it done then I can’t help you out. What the hell, man? I’m not your fucking mom, I’m your boss.”

No use whining about the whole damn deal.

“Okay, sorry, we got to wind this up. Jazelle is all over my ass about spending time with the kids.” Jeff leaned toward me. “Which really means she thinks I’ve got a piece on the side.” A grin slid across Jeff’s face. “Hate it when she’s on to me.” He looked over at me. “Webzie, be glad you aren’t married. Found a divorce attorney’s number on her phone. She’s either banging him or setting me up.” He smiled and waved to Jazelle. “The bitch will get half. Look at that, just look. That is her life. Lying by the pool and she gets half of everything I’ve made simply because I stuck my cock in her for the past ten years.”

Wowza. Would I ever become this cynical? Had Jeff ever loved his wife? Did he even love his kids? Really, to be honest, I wasn’t sure he loved anyone but himself. I shouldn’t be surprised by any of this, but with these feelings for Ellen running so close to the surface, I saw things a little bit differently. Jeff stood.

“So listen, sucks on the partnership vote this year, but maybe in three, if you get your shit together and don’t lose Steve for fucking his daughter. Ha! That’ll be fun to watch. Your value will take a huge nose dive.” He turned his thumb down.

“Thanks, Jeff. See you Monday.”

“Yep, Monday, man. See you then.”

I walked through his palatial pad and out the front door, hoping that I never had the same lifestyle as Jeff.

Ellen

The sun was high in the sky. I wasn’t an outdoorsy type of girl, but I’d never say no to a walk on the beach with the pups. Agnes, Drummond, and I skirted past Daddy’s Malibu pad and down toward the beach. Choo stood just at the edge of the surf with his and Jackson’s pups.

“Choo!” I ran across the sand with my arms open wide. Agnes and Drummond bounced along beside me and then rushed toward Jackson and Choo’s dogs. I hadn’t seen Choo since the wedding. With Webber at a work meeting and Jackson out of town on business, today was the perfect day for a walk. Choo wrapped me into a hug.

“Oh my God, you look radiant!” He lifted his sunglasses and his gaze examined my face. “Who are you fucking?”

Heat flamed my face.

“Choo!” I pulled away from him and smacked him on the arm.

“Seriously, who? Is it that resident, what was his name?” Choo tapped his fingertip to his lips. “Michael?”

“Michael…Michael…Michael…” I mumbled as I tried to remember
a conversation that involved someone named Michael. “Oh! Michael, the resident in my rotation?”

Choo nodded and we turned north and started to walk.

“No, no, no.” I circled my arm in Choo’s. “Why do you think I’m sleeping with someone?”

“First, you have this glow.” He stopped and turned to me. “It’s this freshly fucked glow, like maybe you got some last night even. Second”—his gaze surmised my entire body—“you have on a skirt and a shirt that matches.” He reached for my hand. “No ripped cuticles, a fresh manicure, and”—he leaned in close to look at my face—“lipstick. Giiiirl, you had better come clean or I am going to dig, and when I dig, everyone will know what I’m digging for.”

“By everyone you mean my family?”

My heart bounced in my chest and I turned back up the coast and we started to walk.

“They are a nosy bunch, especially your sister. You two may look the same but as far as you act, completely different.”

“I take great pride in that.”

“Ha! So does she.” Choo pulled a bright yellow tennis ball from his shorts pocket and tossed it into the surf. Three dogs bounded into the water. Bullet, Choo’s Chihuahua, stood at the edge and barked at his compatriots. “Seriously, doll, what is going on? I’m hearing all kinds of rumors.”

“From?”

“From people who aren’t in your family, okay? I got a call from an agent I barely know digging about you and Webber Conner.”

My cheeks heated and I stared straight ahead up the coastline.

“I mean, come on, you and Webber Connor are about as compatible as peanut butter and gravy.”

I didn’t look at Choo, instead I smiled and shook my head like that was the craziest thing I’d ever heard.

Choo stopped walking. “Ellen?”

“Hmmm.”

“Look at me, Ellen.”

I turned to Choo. My cheeks heated. My neck was hot.

“Oh my God, you are fucking Webber Connor!”

“You’re worse than Sophia.”

“Does she know? Does Amanda?”

“Sophia thinks she knows…Amanda…maybe. We haven’t told anyone.”

Choo covered his fingers over his mouth. “Your dad is going to flip the fuck out.”

“Why does everyone keeps saying that?”

“Because it’s true. Ellen, he’ll ruin Webber’s career.”

“Ruin? What do you mean, ruin? He will not, Daddy—”

Choo grasped my hand in his. “Oh no, doll, he will ruin Webber. Completely. Totally and utterly. He will annihilate him. Not only will your dad leave Webber as a client, but he’ll take every one of Webber’s clients with him, plus he’ll blacklist Webber. Don’t you remember what happened when Sterling wouldn’t produce your dad’s film? How he became persona non grata? What about when Amanda crossed Kiley? Babe, if Webber is messing with you, he must have it bad, because I’ve never seen anything that Webber loves more than his career. Anything.”

My stomach rolled and fear coiled deep in my gut. I’d thought that maybe Webber wouldn’t become a partner because of our relationship, but it never entered my mind that Daddy would actually want to destroy Webber’s entire career.

“How serious?” Choo asked.

Agnes dropped the ball at his feet. Choo scooped it up and tossed it back into the surf.

I didn’t want to answer. How serious was it? “For me?” I shrugged my shoulders. A huge sigh escaped my lips. “Serious.” I stopped walking and turned to Choo. “I mean…I never would have thought that Webber and I…I don’t know, Choo.” I turned and looked at the surf rolling in and out. “I think I’m in love.”

“Well, wow. You and Webber?” Choo shook his head. A smile crossed his face. “I can see it, Ellen, I can. He’s completely irreverent and probably makes you laugh all the time, and you let him be serious. Webber doesn’t have me fooled. He has a whole lot of heart.” Choo nodded. “Yeah, I can totally see how you two would work.”

I smiled at Choo, thankful for his words. But none of what Choo said was going to fix the problem that was Daddy.

Ellen

The weekend blew by, and the next two weeks Webber and I were inseparable. He and Agnes stayed at my house, Drummond and I stayed at his. We played our relationship like a secret and acted as though nobody but us knew what was going on. Then I got a cryptic voice mail from Daddy. He wanted to see me and he wanted to see me now. I pressed the Off button on my phone.

“What’s up?”

Webber sat on his bed beside me while the big screen played a movie that starred an actor he wanted to sign.

“That was Daddy.”

He picked up the remote and paused the film. “And?”

“And he wants to see me. Now.”

“Now? As in tonight now?”

I nodded and slipped from beside Webber. “I’m going to go over there.”

Webber got up from the bed too.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“I’m going with you.”

Fear spiraled through my belly.

“What? No, I don’t think that’s a good idea. Daddy can get—”

“I know exactly how Steve can get, but you’re not doing this alone.” He reached out and grasped both my arms. “We’re in this together now, right? I don’t want you to face him alone. I want him to know what this means to me, what you mean to me.”

While I appreciated Webber’s words, a panic laced my gut. I was torn. I didn’t think this would be a good idea. If Webber walked in with me, I feared that would only push Daddy farther over the edge.

“Babe, this is serious for me.” He rubbed my arms. “And I think this is serious for you too. I mean, Ellen, I love you. You know that, right?”

Tingles shot across my skin. I did know that Webber loved me, and I loved him too, but that didn’t stop the fear that crescendoed through my body with the idea of what Daddy would say and possibly do to Webber.

Choo’s words of warning pinged in my brain. What if Daddy did try to destroy Webber’s career, and all because he’d fallen for me, because we’d fallen for each other? I didn’t want Webber to sacrifice what he’d worked for just because he’s made the mistake of falling for the invisible Legend twin.