Ella’s eyes lighten with understanding. “Absolutely. Two of my childhood friends are still way off the radar. I’m a ninja. We’ll have a great night, and no one will know you’re even there. Ethan wants to do something, too.”
I sit straighter. “Oh, I do want to meet Ethan.”
She laughs. “He’s cute, right?”
Spencer scowls.
“So cute. I loved him in… I can’t remember the name, but he got naked.”
Ella’s lips press together as she tries not to laugh again. “Criminal. He was the hottest villain.”
Nodding, I reply, “I didn’t know whether I wanted to slap him or jump him.”
“He’s probably into both.”
Spencer’s eyes tighten. “Is someone going to come and take our order or not?”
They do, about five seconds after he grumbles about it. If they heard him, I hope they lick his expensive sourdough toast.
“How scared was Spence on his first day? He only told me he was nervous because he was trying to be cool. Did he pee his pants?”
“I’m right here, Indie.”
Both Ella and I ignore him. “Like a petrified puppy. He was adorable. It didn’t take him long to catch on, though, and now you wouldn’t know he’s a newbie.”
“We’re moving on,” Spencer demands.
“You want me to get along with your friends, just like you did with Mila and Wren.”
“I would rather you did it without talking about me.”
“You’re the only thing we have in common right now.”
He folds his arms. “Find something else.”
I look back at Ella. “I think he’s jet lagged.”
Spencer lets out an exasperated breath.
“He talks about you all the time,” she says.
I steal a glance at Spencer to find he’s glaring at Ella as if she’s revealed a big secret.
“Oh, stop,” she scolds. “It was refreshing to see someone still missing home and not getting totally swept away by fame.” Turning to me, she adds, “You’re still the most important person in the world to him. I’ve seen that fade with others, but it’s been almost three years now and he’s still not looked at anyone else.”
I lick my lips as I try to find something to say. Not looked at anyone else? Is she talking romantically?
Ella saves us from the awkward silence. “You should have seen him after our long days on set. I thought we’d killed him at one point. Ethan and I both tried waking him up.”
I go along with her subject change because I’m too scared to backtrack. “He fell asleep on set?”
“No, in his trailer.”
“Moving on… again,” he mutters.
Our food is brought out, and Spencer’s shoulders relax. He’s never liked to look weak—his words, not mine. He’s the one who fixes things.
He can’t fix me or my parents. God, I know he would try if he knew about them. He’d drop everything and rush to my house. I would be out of there in a heartbeat while he tried to put back all the broken pieces of me. That’s not possible. You can’t fully heal in the respect that you’ll move forward without some lasting damage.
If he knew, we’d be changed forever. I would be the poor girl with the neglectful parents.
I just want to be Indie.
Does he want that, too? I wonder if he wants to pick up where we left off when we were seventeen. That would be almost impossible.
Patting his hand, I say, “Sorry. You’re still big and tough to me.”
He rolls his pretty eyes, and I can’t help looking at his lips. I haven’t felt those against me in far too long. My blood sears as I imagine kissing him, feeling his tongue sliding against mine.
We finish breakfast, and Spencer walks me back to his house before he has to leave. His disguise is in place. There are more people around now, but he’s not been spotted that we know of. That’s probably because I’m a nobody and he’s with me. If he was walking with Ella, they would be mobbed.
“What do you think of Ella?” he asks as he cuts the engine on his drive.
“She’s nice. I like her.”
There was no sexual tension between them at all so I’m now in favour of their friendship. There is, however, tension between us. We haven’t spoken about what Ella said. We don’t need to in order to feel those words.
“Good. She’s really helped me, you know.”
“Sounds like it.”
“I almost quit during the second week.”
“What? You never said.”
He shrugs. “I was homesick, I missed you, and the hours were kicking my arse. We were nowhere near done. I didn’t think I could make it to wrap.”
He missed me.
What is happening? We have to talk but what if I don’t like what he says? He might have been missing me in a purely platonic way.
“So ,what happened?”
“Ella. She told me how she felt the same when she landed her first lead in a movie. It’s hard work, and there’s a lot of pressure on top of the long hours. You pretend to be someone else for a massive chunk of the day, and then you crash. I guess I felt like I was losing myself because I had no time to be my own person anymore.”
“And she changed that.”
“She showed me I’m not alone, and that a lot of actors go through something similar. You changed my mind.”
“What did I do? You didn’t even tell me you felt like that.”
His lips curl. “I thought about coming home and telling you I’d given up. I couldn’t do it. Indie, you’ve been the reason I pushed so hard. You made me believe I could do anything. There was no way I was coming home without finishing my first movie.”
My heart beats harder, and I feel a bolt of desire between my legs.
Don’t leap on him. Jesus, I would give up all of my savings if he would just kiss me. “You’re such an amazing actor, Spence. I can’t wait to watch everything you do. There is going to be so much more. But I hope you already know that I want your first Oscar to be dedicated to
