The Trouble with Marrying a Movie Star (31 page)

"Doubt is still there," he said as his finger traced over my heart, burning into my flesh.

"Not so much. That came out from a place of my own insecurities. You have been friends with that slut for a long time, and I get that. You trusted her. I told you that Erin warned me about not telling you everything. Her sixth sense about things always kicks me in my ass when I don't listen."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"I was afraid of losing you."

"You never told me that." He took my hand back into his.

"I was afraid that if you knew everything, you would think I was some weird stalker fangirl who happened to have struck the lottery by meeting you 'accidentally.' I fantasized about meeting you all the time, but when it happened, it was all so surreal. I had my hesitations in a way; I didn't trust you. I didn't trust that you loved me enough to see that it was a coincidence and that I wasn't crazy."

"You're
not
crazy?" he asked shocked.

I hit him with a small pillow that was in between us. "Ha, ha. You have some crazy fans, and you have told me some crazy ass stories about them. These women have been crafty, and I thought somehow you would think that I orchestrated the whole, colliding into Wade thing, to meet you in some weird way."

"I would never have thought that. Even though someone had tried to go through him to get at me before, I knew that you were different. When Peyton said what she did, it took me by surprise. I thought that if you had kept that from me, what else you weren’t telling me."

"I should have told you everything, and I paid the price for it."

"As much as I would love to go back in time and do things differently, I now know that the love we have for each other can get us through the hardest of times, baby."

I reached up and gave him a kiss. "I love you."

He lifted my hand that he had been holding and placed a firm kiss on the back of it. "Mmm, we'll have many years to get it right. Many long years together."

"Long years, huh?"

He smiled big. "I plan on growing old with you, Andria Moore." He then took my left hand and started playing with my ring. "I wonder if our honeymoon will be like this."

I took in a drawn breath. Louder than I intended and he heard.

He sighed out. "I'm not saying that we need to do this right away—"

"No, I thought that I should have talked to you about this earlier."

He pushed upright, positioning himself against the headboard. "We said we would wait, and I'm not going to push you. Last night was amazing, and I know we still have things to work out—"

"We will always have things to work out. That's not what I'm saying. When I asked for the ring back, it was to shut up our parents. Keeping the ring and not returning it...was something I should have talked to you about. I was going to give it back to you at the airport, and then you surprised me with this...I..."

He stopped all movement. "You're saying you wanted to give it back?"

I sat upright. "No! No, I'm saying I didn't want you to think…I wanted to keep the ring. I always wanted to keep it. I regretted giving it back to you in the first place but at the time…well, you know I was angry. Then I thought maybe we needed more time. I wanted both of us to think about what it all meant. It wasn't just a wedding that I wanted; it was the marriage I had dreamed about the most. I wanted
you
. Nothing else mattered."

"But you were so pissed at me about the wedding."

"I was upset about the whole studio thing." I glared at him. "Even though I tried to understand your reasoning, you didn't tell me everything either. I'm still learning how your life works and telling me that paps would be leering around didn't seem any different from our daily life."

"I wanted our wedding day to be special."

"It will be."

"Are you saying that
this
," he rolled the ring around my finger, "will be now staying?"

"
This
," I lifted my left hand up, "is
never
going to leave this hand again."

Andrew's grin grew wider before rolling me onto my back, as he started to caress his lips gently against mine before pressing more passionately.

"Can you handle it?"

I walked into the guest room and heard Andrew outside on the patio talking on his cell. "I need one week. I don't care what you have to do. Let me speak to Maisie." There was a pause. "I just sent you an email; can you take care of it and leave Frank out of it? Good. Thanks." That was the last thing I heard him say as he stepped back into the room smiling at me. "Hey, I didn't know you were in here."

"Do you have to work?"

He walked over to me wrapping his arms around my waist. "No, I was just trying to take care of some things while you were getting ready."

"If you have to work, I can keep myself busy."

"Maisie can handle things while I'm gone."

"What about Frank?"

He wrinkled his nose. "She will soon be taking over completely for him. Miles is compiling everything that he is finding. It looks as if Frank has been skimming off the top, at my expense."

I looked at him shocked. I knew Miles's firm was investigating missing funds from Andrew's account and that his accountant looked good for it, but had no clue about Frank. "It was him? I thought you were looking at your accountant?"

"After Miles audited his figures and found nothing, he wanted to dig deeper. I gave him access to all the computer systems, and he discovered a hidden file that incriminated Frank and him. The asshole was skimming from Frank's cut and kept a record of it."

"How can you sound so calm about this?"

He smirked. "You haven't been around for some of the meetings. I think a few of Miles's people may disagree with you. "

"Has Peter filed charges?"

"We're working on it."

"I hope so! That asshole! I can't believe Frank thought he could steal from you and get away with it. I knew he was a creep—"

"Hey," Andrew lifted my eyes to his. "I don't want this to spoil our time. Come on, we're going to be late."

We were at a family luau of one of Andrew's friend's, Kalani's, home. He and his family were celebrating one of his nephews' birthdays and had roasted a pig for the occasion. We arrived just as they were digging up the meat from the hot coals. I watched as they prepared the pig for the feast and learned how to make poi from Kalani's grandmother, who everyone called Mamma.

The tiny house that sat on the shoreline was filled wall to wall with people, and even though everyone knew who Andrew was, they treated him like any other guest. Kalani's family and friends showed the meaning of
ohana—
family—and treated us as such.

We stuffed our face with some incredible food. Then the music was turned up, and people started to dance on the beach, while we sat around the fire pit and chatted with Kalani. "Andria, how do you like our island?"

"I love it. Always have." I smiled at the large man who had the coolest tattoo wrapped around his forearm.

"This side of the island is very quiet," one of his friends stated as he joined us.

"Andrew's staying on the north shore," Kalani added.

"Nice, bro."

"My favorite part about that side of the island is being able to eat at the shrimp truck daily." Andrew wasn't exaggerating when he said that.

"Too rich for my blood, bro."

"I thought it was reasonable?" I said looking at the men.

"They're joking Andria."

"We have our own shrimp truck in our kitchen. Mamma can throw them down. You two should come over one night this week."

"That sounds great," Andrew said excited.

"Andrew loves Mamma's shrimp. Isn't that right?" Kalani shouted over at the elderly woman as she nodded her head.

Andrew stood up and walked over and placed a kiss on her forehead. They started to talk, and I watched the two of them laughing.

"He's her favorite," Kalani's sister, Ana, said as she sat down next to me. "She loves it when Andrew visits. Even though it's my son Manny's birthday, she made Andrew's favorite fish," she said, laughing out.

"I wondered why no one else was eating that fish. Thinking about it, I didn't see it on the table."

There had been a buffet spread on a long table outside of the house, but I didn't remember seeing that type of fish on it. I would know. I made several rounds.

She laughed harder. "Exactly. Mamma dished that out for Andrew,
only
."

I laughed. "I see. Should I keep an eye on Mamma? Andrew loves my cooking, but she has me beat."

"Keep an eye on whom?" Andrew sat back down with something else in his hands.

"What's that?"

Andrew smiled. "Mamma made chocolate cake for me."

I turned toward Ana. "I don't have a chance, do I?" We both laughed.

"What?" Andrew asked with a mouth full of cake.

"Nothing, I want a taste." I leaned over and kissed him. "Mmm, it is good."

"When's the wedding?" Kalani asked.

"We haven't set a date yet," I answered before Andrew fed me a bite of his cake.

"Long engagement?" Ana asked.

I shook my head. "We were trying to figure out how to get married without it being a circus."

"Are you sure you want to marry this man?" Kalani joked. Andrew narrowed his eyes.

"No one's bothered you while you've been on the island, have they?" she asked.

"Surprisingly no. I was a little worried when we ventured out in public, but nothing major. A few fans recognized Andrew. He took some pictures with them and asked if they could wait before sending them out. Each one seemed overjoyed that he took the time, and they all said they would wait. So far, no paparazzi in sight."

"It's usually like that. A lot of people from LA vacation here, the locals are pretty used to seeing famous people. The tourists are usually too focused on their vacation to notice anyone. They are always behind a camera."

"Can I have this dance?" Ana's son walked up and asked me nervously while everyone around snickered.

"I would love to." I smiled. "Such a polite young man." I looked over to Ana, who beamed proudly.

"Don't be fooled," Andrew added before he narrowed his eyes at the boy. "Make sure you keep your hands on my fiancées waist, Manny."

I snarled at Andrew, but laughed at Manny, who had placed his own sinister smirk on his face as he winked at Andrew.