Lying Love (Lazy Love Book 3) (3 page)

Calling Valerie on mobile.
She heard it ring once, and then twice.

“Hello?”

“Valerie, it’s me.”

“Hi, you! How was dinner? Are you okay? Do you need Jesse and I to come get you?”

Amber laughed. “Dinner actually went really well, but I need to talk. How would you feel about a girls’ lunch tomorrow? Maybe we could do the Mexican place in Wiggieville.” Now that both Valerie and May were pregnant, they were wanting tacos. For every meal, it seemed.

“Just us? Cuz if you want May to join us, you need to call her now, and make sure she won’t be sleeping at lunch time tomorrow. She’ll get up if she knows we need her.”

“Yeah, I’ll call her. I don’t want Jesse and Bob, though. Just you and May. I need advice.” Amber sighed heavily. “I still love him, Val.”

“Of course you do. I could have told you that. Call May, and I’ll see you for lunch tomorrow. Better make it a late lunch, like around two, or you know she’ll be falling asleep in her refried beans.”

Amber laughed, picturing it. “See you then.”

After Valerie had hung up, she called May. When her friend answered, she got straight to the point, knowing May was probably working. May was always working. “I need a girls’ lunch tomorrow at two. Mexican place in Wiggieville. Okay?”

There was silence for a moment, and Amber knew May was probably finishing up typing a sentence. “Could you repeat that?”

Amber sighed. “Yes, I can repeat it. Are you paying attention this time?”

May chuckled. “Yes, I’m paying attention. I always pay attention. Except when I don’t!”

“I need a girls’ lunch. You and me and Valerie. Tomorrow at the Mexican place in Wiggieville. Two o’clock. Okay?”

“I’ll be there. That’s a little early for me, but I can manage.”

“Tell Bob he’s not invited. Just the girls.”

“Hey, Bob. I’m going to lunch with Valerie and Amber tomorrow, and you’re not invited.” There was a pause and laughter. “I told him. He said he loves you too.”

Amber grinned, knowing Bob really did love her. He loved her as an annoying kid sister and nothing else. She was glad the writers had decided against writing a romance for the two of them as they’d discussed. The idea of kissing Bob was like the idea of kissing her father. She was sure she wouldn’t be able to act well enough to make it look at all convincing. “See you then. Want me to swing by and get you so we can all ride together?” May lived just north of the set on the way to Wiggieville.

“Yeah, do that. Then I can work later and not worry about having to drive. Any hint as to what this is about?”

“I saw a ghost today.” Amber hung up after her words, knowing her friend’s brain would take it from there. She was a writer and always making up crazy scenarios for everything she heard. Amber laughed softly to herself as she left her hanging that way. She could just imagine how May was going to react when she saw her.

When she got back to the set, she went into her lonely trailer and undressed, putting on one of the sexy nightgowns she slept in every night. She knew most women didn’t wear that kind of thing to sleep alone, but she liked it.

She grabbed her script and climbed into bed, reading over her lines for Monday once again. The show mostly focused on JoAnn and Dylan, Valerie and Jesse’s characters, but Amber’s character, MaryBeth, and Bob’s character, Bob, were also in every episode. They were considered the four stars of the show.

As she read the script over and over, her mind kept thinking about the kiss she’d just shared with John, and from there, it drifted back to the first kiss they’d shared under the bleachers.

John grabbed Amber’s hand and pulled her toward the bleachers during half-time of the high school football game. They’d each gone to the game with a group of friends, but they’d all paired off once they got there. Their parents all said they were too young to date, so they didn’t do it openly.

“Where are you dragging me off to?” Amber asked, happy to follow John anywhere. He was her best friend, and lately, there’d been a little something more between them. They hadn’t defined their feelings yet, but she wasn’t bothered. She knew he was hers, and she was his. It felt too right to be any other way.

“Over here.” He pulled her under the bleachers and turned to her. “I heard this is a good place if we want to be private for a minute or two.”

She smiled at him flirtatiously. “And do we want to be private for a minute or two?”

He nodded. “We sure do. You know why?”

She shook her head. “No, why?”

“Because I’m gonna kiss you.”

Her eyes widened. “You are?”

“Yeah, because you’re my girl. Aren’t you, Amber?” His words were questioning, but his tone of voice told her he wasn’t at all worried about her answer. He knew how she felt as well as she knew how he did.

“Is this your way of asking me to be your girl?”

He shrugged. “I figured you already were. Do I need to ask?”

“No. You’re right. I’ve been your girl since elementary school. We just can’t tell my parents.” Amber took a step toward him, her hands going flat against his chest. “Have you ever kissed a girl before?”

He shook his head. “Nope. Have you kissed a boy?”

“Of course not. How could I kiss someone else when I was your girl?”

He laughed. “I knew you’d understand. I guess we’ll learn about kissing together.”

“I guess we will.” She looked up at him. Over the summer, he’d gotten much taller. She seemed to be stuck at five-feet two inches, but he was almost six feet tall. “I think you’re going to get a crick in your neck. Maybe we should find a rock for me to stand on.” She looked around at the ground, trying to find something appropriate.

He laughed. “I think we can make it work without you standing on a rock.”

“Okay, let’s do it.” She raised her lips, waiting for him to kiss her.

“I think we’re supposed to close our eyes.”

“Why? Then I won’t be able to see where to put my lips.” She frowned at him. “What if I accidentally kiss your nose? What happens then?”

He shrugged. “Not sure. We’ll keep them open until we’re close to kissing, and then we’ll close them.”

He lowered his head slowly, tilting it to one side, and waiting as she tilted her head to the other side. His lips brushed hers gently as he kept his hands on her waist. She smiled. “I like kissing!”

He laughed. “Me too! We’ll have to do it more often.”

“I’ve heard there’s a janitor’s closet that’s good for kissing.”

“I like the way you think.”

Amber shook her head, staring down at the script. How could she ever have thought she was over him? John filled her memories. He was the only man she’d ever met who was just right for her. No, she wasn’t over him at all. She loved him more now than she had five years before.

She hoped the girls could give her good advice, because if she was left to her own devices, she knew she’d mess everything up all over again. How could she survive another heartbreak with John’s name written all over it? She wasn’t sure it was possible.

A
mber walked
over to Valerie’s trailer and knocked at one-forty-five the following afternoon. Her friend came to the door, looking stylish in her maternity jeans and blouse. “Your belly just gets cuter every day!” Amber said with a grin.

“Jesse keeps saying the same thing. I feel huge!”

“I think that’s part of the whole pregnancy thing.” Amber watched as Valerie carefully descended the stairs. “I’m glad we don’t have to hide it during filming anymore. That had to be getting tiresome for you.”

Valerie waved to Jesse who was looking at her with concern. “I’ll be with Amber and May. No one is going to let me or the baby die. Stop worrying!” She shook her head at Amber. “He’s going to make me crazy. He doesn’t want to let me out of his sight.”

“I heard that!” Jesse yelled after her.

“You were meant to!” Valerie called back. “Yes, it was a pain to try to hide the baby, but no more.” She leaned close and whispered, “It’s a boy. We found out on Friday.”

“And you’ve been able to keep quiet for this long? How did you do that?”

Valerie grinned. “Jesse and I were talking about names.”

“And? Do you have one yet?”

“Not yet. Bob says the baby should be Robert if it’s a boy and Roberta if it’s a girl so we can call him Bob or her Bobbi. Not happening.”

Amber laughed. “I don’t blame you. Besides, he’ll talk May into it, I’m sure. Never let a man named Bob name your baby!”

Valerie nodded. “May is sick of naming people because she has to name so many characters. Sometimes she’ll get on Facebook and beg her fans to name her characters for her…and they do it! Seems to me that she should do it herself, but you know she won’t put up much of a fight when Bob wants to name their baby Bob or Bobbi or Bobbette. Oh God. We can’t let her name that baby Bobbette!”

Amber cringed. “He wouldn’t do that would he?” She wasn’t sure why she even asked. Of course he would. Bob was insane when it came to May and that baby she was carrying. He’d name him whatever variation of Bob May would let him get away with!

Valerie looked at Amber. “Of course he would. He’s
Bob!
He does ridiculous things for fun!”

Amber shook her head as she slid behind the wheel, waiting for Valerie to buckle. “I hope May shuts him down. We’ll talk to her about it at lunch today.”

“After we talk about your date with John.”

“It wasn’t really a date.”

“No? What was it then?”

Amber shook her head. “I want to wait to tell you both together.”

“Does May even know about John?”

“Nope. I’m telling her today. She’s a romance writer. Surely she has some kind of insight about relationships.”

Valerie raised an eyebrow. “That’s like saying that an actor has an idea about people’s characters because they’ve played so many. I have a feeling May knows less about relationships than either of us.”

“Well, I still feel like she’s an expert, and I’m going to talk to her. Even if she hasn’t been in a lot of relationships, she’s at least made a study of them. That’s better than nothing!”

Valerie shook her head. “I think you’re getting your hopes up too high there, but we’re your friends, and we’ll listen and talk things through with you. We want you to be happy.”

“I know you do. I don’t know that it’s possible with John, but I know it’s not possible without him. John—he’s been my everything for so long, I don’t know how to get past him. I hadn’t seen him in five and a half years, but I took one look at him yesterday, and I felt like I did when I was twelve and he first kissed me under the bleachers at the football game.”

Valerie laughed. “You were kissing boys under the bleachers at football games when you were twelve?”

Amber grinned. “If you’d met John, I know you’d understand.”

“I do want to meet him. You should invite Jesse and me on a double date with you.” Valerie looked at the front of May’s house. “I wonder if she’s still sleeping.”

“Text Bob. He can wake her if she is. She probably worked until eight this morning. That woman is a mess, but I love her for it.”

Valerie laughed. “I don’t think it’s possible not to love May. Her books make me laugh, and she’s so much fun to be around.” Valerie quickly texted Bob, and May opened the door immediately.

She rushed to the car and opened the back door. “What’s the emergency? Tell me everything!”

Amber shook her head. “I’m not saying a word until we’re sitting over chips and
queso
!”

“Fine. Whatever. Bob said you had a huge turn-out for the signing.”

Valerie jumped on the change of subject. “It was really good. Exhausting but good. How are you feeling?”

May sighed. “I feel like the only thing holding me together is static cling. I seem to alternate between hungry days and throwing up days.”

Valerie turned to her friend and smiled. “I felt like that in my first trimester too. Are you queasy?”

“A lot of mornings I am, but I’m not now.”

“Well, it
is
afternoon,” Amber pointed out with a grin.

“Just drive, Amber.” May rested her head on the back of the seat. “You sound like Bob.”

“No one wants to be compared to Bob!” Amber said.

“Well, Bob kind of likes being Bob,” May told her. “I just wish he’d quit trying to get me to call him King Bob. It’s never going to happen.”

Amber laughed. “King Bob?”

“Just because I said I should be queen of the universe, he decided that made him King Bob. No way!”

Valerie grinned. “Yeah, let’s not feed that at all.” She shook her head. “I can just see him refusing to respond to anything unless we preface it with King Bob. Steven would have a fit.”

“Oh, wow. I can just see Steven’s face if Bob said that.” Amber grinned over at Valerie. “He wouldn’t put up with that for more than a minute or two.”

“He wouldn’t put up with it that long! Our director does not believe in actors being full of themselves. At all.”

May smiled. “I’m glad he’s just saying it to me then. We don’t want Bob to lose his job with Little Bob or Bobbette on the way.”

Valerie looked at Amber. “May, please promise us you won’t let Bob name that baby Bobbette! That name is awful!”

May sighed. “It is, but I’m so sick of naming people. I told Bob he could name the baby whatever he wanted.”

“Anything but Bobbette, May!” Amber shook her head. “No one should be stuck with a name like Bobbette!” She parked the car at the Mexican restaurant they all loved, and turned to look at May. “Please!”

May shrugged. “I already told him anything he wanted. I don’t think he’d let me take that back. This is Bob we’re dealing with!”

Amber sighed. “I know. But Bobbette?” She got out of the car and walked toward the restaurant, hating that the day was still so hot. “I hate Texas summers.”

“Me too!” Valerie complained. “You guys should both move to Wyoming with me. The summers are so much cooler!”

“So are the winters,” Amber pointed out. “You haven’t lived there through the winter yet!”

“That’s true.” Valerie shrugged. “I’ll put up with awful winters for beautiful summers, though. I grew up in Iowa, so I’m used to bad winters.”

Once they were seated, May looked at Amber. “Okay. I need to know about the ghost comment. Do you have any idea of the different scenarios that have run through my mind over that?”

Amber laughed. “I do! That’s why I said it! I knew exactly what your imagination would do to you, and the very idea tickled my funny bone.”

May frowned at Amber. “Well?”

“Not til we’re eating chips and
queso
. And I’m buying, since it’s my emergency.” There were no real money issues between them, because they all lived well below their means, so the other two just shrugged.

When their waitress took their drink order, Amber told her they needed a big bowl of
queso
. She opened her menu, but she had no idea why. She’d had the thing memorized for years.

As soon as the
queso
was set on the table, and they ordered, May glared at Amber. “Spill!”

Amber sighed, taking a chip and dipping it in the queso, chewing slowly before explaining. “When I was twelve I fell in love. His name was John, and he was the most wonderful boy in the whole world. He kissed me under the bleachers at the Jupiter High football game.”

“Was it an awkward first kiss? Did you bump noses?” May asked, suddenly very intense.

Amber frowned at her friend. “Why on earth would you ask me that? There’s something wrong with you, May. I think you’ve lived with Bob for altogether too long!”

“Don’t blame Bob. We’ve only been married for two months. I’m about to write this flashback scene where a girl has been separated from her high school sweetheart for years, and I want to write about their first kiss. My first kiss was with Bob, and he kind of already knew what he was doing.” May looked at Amber expectantly. “So? Did you bump noses?”

Amber shook her head. “No, we didn’t bump noses. It was a nice kiss. Closed mouth and all, but nice. He didn’t start using tongue until we were thirteen.” She sighed. “Now let me tell my story!”

May nodded, taking a chip and biting into it. “Fine. Go ahead.”

“My parents hated him. They were big into being descendants of the Texas Republic and all that jazz. I don’t know if you know this, but I come from one of the richest families in Jupiter.”

“All six families that live there?” May asked, obviously making fun of the tiny hometown Amber was from.

“Hush. Well, anyway, they complained a lot about my dating him.” She shrugged. “We didn’t let it bother us. We were still sweethearts in high school, and he took me to prom. A couple of weeks before prom, we made a pact that we were going to have sex for the first time on prom night. My mom had a long talk with me about John not being right for me as I was getting ready for prom, and she reminded me that if I married him before I was twenty-one, I’d forfeit my trust fund.”

“Did you care?” May asked.

Amber shook her head. “Not really. But she also talked to me about sex, which is never a comfortable discussion with your mother. Anyway, we were crowned king and queen, which I expected, but after prom, I couldn’t go to the hotel with him. I don’t know why, but suddenly it didn’t
feel
right.”

“You were what? Seventeen?” May asked. “That’s really young, and I don’t care if everyone is doing it at that age.”

Amber nodded. “He had just turned eighteen, but I was still seventeen. Anyway, I told him I wasn’t ready, and he took me home. It was obvious he was mad, and he apologized before I got out of the car, but I was furious with him for trying to push me.”

May nodded. “And you stormed off?”

“Worse. I told him I was done with him, and I ran into the house. I started dating his worst enemy, a boy my mom had been pushing me to date for years, the very next day. I didn’t even
like
him.”

May closed her eyes. “I do understand. Was John your ghost yesterday?”

Amber nodded. “Yeah, but there’s more to the story. I found out yesterday that Brian, John’s enemy, went to him at school on Monday—so, two days later—and told him how good I was in bed, and they got into a fight. John said at the moment he believed it, but later he knew better. He immediately started dating this girl I couldn’t stand who was known for putting out. Her name was Kayla. It wasn’t long before I heard Kayla was pregnant, and it broke my heart.”

May shook her head. “Did he marry her? Is he still married?”

“Yes, he married her, and no, Kayla ran off shortly after Nicki was born. But in the meantime, I almost married Brian. On our wedding day, I went to the church and broke it off. I couldn’t marry him. It would have freed up my trust fund money, which was really the only reason I was marrying him, but I couldn’t marry anyone else when I knew I still loved John.” Amber ate another chip slowly. “Brian came to the church with Karen, my best friend. He told me they’d been sleeping together the whole time we’d been dating. He had a trust fund situation like mine and just wanted his money free so he could do whatever he wanted, which was be with Karen forever. But he was there to break it off with me as well. Neither of us wanted to marry the other.”

“Sounds like a twisted situation.”

Amber nodded. “It was. And a lot of it was my fault. Anyway, Brian and Karen left the church, were hit by a train and killed. Rumors flew in every direction. I heard they were going to be filming a new drama in Wiggieville, and I went to a walk-on audition, expecting to get a tiny part. I was cast as MaryBeth. I haven’t seen my parents since.”

“But Jupiter is like thirty miles from here!”

“I know. They were furious with me. Brian’s mother blamed me for the wreck, and my mom and Brian’s mom were close.” Amber shook her head. “I have no desire to go back to that world.”

“So what’s going on with John?” Valerie asked.

Amber took a deep breath. “As you know, I went out with him last night. He said Nicki would be there, but he had her spend the night with his mom at the last minute. We talked, and he talked me into three dates. He thinks he can convince me that we still love each other in three dates.”

“Can he?” May asked softly.

“I don’t know!” Amber’s voice was almost a wail. “I don’t know what to do. He touches my hand, and I can feel it all through my body.”

“Did he kiss you?” Valerie asked.

Amber nodded slowly. “He did. And it was just like it always was. One kiss and I’m ready to strip and do anything he wants.”

May made a face. “Did you ever sleep with Brian?”

“Of course not! He made my skin crawl. I thought about it, as a way to get back at John when I heard he was married to Kayla, but I couldn’t go through with it.”

“And John wants to date you now? And you still have feelings for him?” Valerie asked.

Amber shrugged. “I know he’s the only man I’ll ever love. I think I knew it even when we broke it off on prom night. Nicki said he has a picture of us from ‘prob’ in his bedroom at home.”

May leaned back in her chair, her hand going to her stomach to rub it, even though it wasn’t yet obvious she was pregnant. “How do you feel about getting back together?”