Jodie tilts her head to the side while she opens a bottle of red wine. “Not as often as I would like. But Andrew managed to get him yesterday. He’s home in two weeks but we’ll see him at the premiere next week. I can’t wait.”
My heart leaps. Not long.
“Cool. It’ll be good to finally get him home,” I say.
Cool. Look how casual I’m managing to be.
Jodie pours three glasses. “We’ve missed him so much. It’s been hard not seeing him every day, and we’ve not been able to visit as much as we’d like. He’s always busy.”
“It has been hard,” I agree. Calling it hard is like saying Queen were only okay.
Spencer is my safe place, and he’s been gone for so long.
“How is uni, love?” Andrew asks, taking a glass from Jodie.
I take mine and offer her a small thanks. “It’s good. There’s a lot of work but I like it.” It’s my ticket out of home.
“Good. We can’t wait until you graduate,” he says.
My eyes widen. “No big party!”
I’ve warned them about not making a huge fuss. I don’t think my parents even know I’m in my last year.
Jodie holds her free hand up. “I’m not promising anything.”
Oh God, they’re going to go all out.
“There enough for a fourth glass?”
My heart stops dead at the sound of his smooth voice.
Jodie screams, slamming her glass down on the marble worktop so hard that the wine sloshes over the top.
“Spencer!” Andrew calls, rounding the island to hug his son.
I turn so slowly, my breath catches in my throat.
There he is. Standing tall, even taller somehow, in his parents’ kitchen. Spencer Lowe. My first, last, and only love. He laughs as his parents tackle him. The mass of brown wavy hair on top of his head flops, and my stomach flips. He’s wearing jeans and a simple white T-shirt that shows off a mouth-watering six pack.
With his arms tightly around his mum and dad, he says, “Missed me, huh?”
His voice vibrates through me, doing things to my insides that offer very inappropriate thoughts.
Then, his attention is on me. Striking green eyes raise, and I’m falling.
I place my glass on the counter because I don’t trust my grip.
He’s here. Right now.
“I thought you weren’t getting back until after the premiere?” Jodie asks, finally letting him go.
He tears his eyes from me and smiles at his mum. “Telling you I’m home today would ruin the surprise. I have to stay in LA after the premiere now, but I still wanted to come home.”
“I’m so happy you’re here, darling,” she cries. “Would you like wine?”
He turns his nose up. “No, thanks.”
Andrew rolls his eyes. “I knew you didn’t really want one. There’s beer in the fridge.”
“I’ll get it,” Jodie says.
Spencer takes a step closer to me. Then another.
His parents are in the background, getting him beer and cleaning the spilt wine. All I can see is him. To be fair, all I’ve ever seen is him.
“Hey, Spence,” I whisper.
“Don’t ‘Hey, Spence’ me. Come here,” he commands, holding his arms out.
I swallow the sob and run the small space into his embrace. Closing my eyes, I wrap my arms around his back and hold onto him so hard, I’m probably close to breaking a rib.
Burying his face in my hair, he rests his lips in the crook of my neck and holds me so tightly, I wonder if he’s missed me the same way.
This is home.
I breathe him in until I’m totally drunk on Spencer.
“Damn, I missed you, Miss Indie Croft,” he murmurs, his lips brushing my skin.
I’m sure he felt the shudder ripple through my body. It was more of an electrocution than anything else.
“Very formal. I missed you, too, movie star.”
On a chuckle, he pulls away, and I feel the chilling loss instantly.
“Finished uni yet?”
I narrow my eyes. “Made a million yet?”
His smile grows, and so does my heart.
Four
Spencer
Remind me again how I was able to leave her?
Being back is like stepping through some kind of time warp. Nothing has changed. She’s still here in my family home where she belongs. She’s still my best friend.
We sit around the dining table, eating a huge roast that could easily feed eight. I just want to pick Indie up and take her to my room. I want to be touching her.
I’ve just finished telling them what it’s like on set—again—and how exhausting promoting a movie is. I’m desperate to do it all again.
“When do you have to go back?” Dad asks. “We’re flying out Wednesday.”
“I know, I’m leaving with you, so we’ll be ready for the premiere on Friday.”
Mum gasps. “I can’t wait. My bags are already packed.”
Andrew shakes his head. “The premiere of my son’s first movie in Hollywood!”
I turn my head to my left. “Indie?”
She looks up at me through long eyelashes. “Yeah?”
Really? She knows that I’m looking for conformation. We’ve always said that she’d be at the premiere, although not recently. It was kind of a given.
“I know you don’t like taking time off uni, but a few days will be okay, right? You’re still planning on coming?”
There is no way I can go to this without her.
For a second, she looks lost. Then she makes my night. “Nothing would stop me.”
I sigh in relief. If she’d have said no, I don’t know what I would do. “Good, because I need you all there.”
“After dinner, we’ll have a look at flights and visas,” Dad says. “I assume you’ll put your family up in your posh apartment?”
Smirking, I say, “I’ll have to make sure I send the prostitutes away first.”
“Spencer!” Mum scolds with a laugh.
“Wow, you must be a crap actor if you’re having to pay for it,” Indie jokes.
I grip my heart. “You wound me.”
Damn, I love her.
At one point, I thought things with Indie were going somewhere. We’ve been friends since we were
