Heartthrob (Hollywood Hearts, #1) Page 2

  Eventually I shrugged, but my shoulders felt tight, as if an invisible rubber band held them taut. “I don’t regret my choice, Lena.”

  Lena reached over and grasped my hand. “I know. You needed to be there. But you’ve been manager of your family’s restaurant for, what, five years now? Ever since your father died. You’re thirty-one. It’s time to do something for you for a change.”

  I turned to face her again. “I’m here for you too, remember?”

  “I know. And do you remember our deal? Six months minimum and a gown for me to wear to the Golden Globes and another for the Academy Awards. I’ve set you up with everything you need, you’ll see.”

  “How could I forget?” And I’d been trying really, really hard to. “But enough about me. Please tell me you’re having some time off before you start your next project.”

  Lena waved a hand at me. “Don’t be silly. Filming starts this time next week.”

  Good grief. The woman was a workaholic. “Wow, a whole six days off. You wild thing. So you’ve just been filming an intense period drama in Africa and now you’re switching to a romantic comedy? Mind-bender, anyone?”

  Lena shrugged her pale shoulders. “It’s not a problem. It will be a nice change after the last one. I’m really looking forward to working with Jacob Swan, too. I hear he’s great.”

  “It wouldn’t have something to do with the fact he’s just been named the Sexiest Man Alive would it?” I asked, giving her a wicked grin.

  That earned me a small smile. “Was he? You know I try not to read the papers. I guess it’s not exactly a surprise though, is it? He’s a good-looking man and he’s hot right now.”

  “Just like you,” I pointed out. “The movie could have the worst script ever written and it would be an instant success with the two of you in the leading roles.”

  “The script is quite good actually. It’s not going to win awards but it will balance out my persona a bit.”

  “I don’t know why you’re so worried about that. That cool, reserved persona has already earned you award nominations.”

  “True. But it’s never good to be stereotyped.”

  “So you’re doing a movie with America’s hottest, all-round nice guy and hoping some of that might rub off?”

  “Actually, can we not talk about work? It just reminds me of you-know-who.”

  Relationships in the industry seemed to be an occupational hazard in Lena’s profession. Even when the cameras stopped rolling, the public were eager to see their favorite celebrities’ lives unfold in the media. As far as I was concerned, she could keep her million-dollar salary for that sort of invasion of privacy.

  Lena looked relieved when my cell phone buzzed on the seat beside me.

  I picked my phone up. “Oh, for . . . ”

  “What? Is it your mama? I know you’re an adult, but don’t get mad at her for checking up on you. This is a big step for her.” Lena was well aware of Mama’s overprotective tendencies when it came to her only child.

  “No,” I said, still contemplating my phone. “Much worse. My cousin.”

  “Which one?” It was a reasonable question given my oversupply of extended family.

  I sighed and picked up the phone, while rolling my eyes at Lena. “Arabella.” I reluctantly hit ‘accept.’

  “Is it true?”

  I winced and moved the phone away from my ear. At eighteen, my youngest cousin could still occasionally be painfully teenaged. For reasons that continued to elude me, Bella and I had formed a strange sort of sisterly bond. “Hi, Bella,” I said when it was safe to bring the phone back to my ear.

  “Ally, don’t mess with me. Are you seriously in LA?”

  “Yes.”

  “What?” she screeched. I directed a pained look in Lena’s direction while she continued. “I go away for the summer and you just up and leave? How could you?”

  “You were at summer camp.”

  “I could have come to LA with you!”

  I sighed. “No, you couldn’t. You’ve still got to finish senior year. Besides, it was kind of a last-minute thing. When Lena—”

  “Bullshit!”

  “Bella! Watch your mouth!”

  I heard her take a deep breath. “Sorry. I’m just not sure I believe you, Ally.” I didn’t miss the note of contempt in her voice. “When Mom told me where you had gone, and who you are supposedly with, I didn’t believe her. I mean, come on, my mom calls social media ‘social medium’ and thinks Twitter is ‘tweeter.’ Personally, I think you’re having some sort of mid-life crisis.”

  I couldn’t help myself and smiled. Aunt Lisa’s appalling lack of knowledge of all things twenty-first century was pretty funny, but I sobered at the thought my teenage cousin considered me old enough to be having a mid-life crisis. Arabella obviously didn’t remember Lena because she had only been a toddler when Lena lived in Providence. And maybe I was closer to middle age than I wanted to admit. “I’m hanging up now,” I told her. “Call you back on Facetime.”

  I ended the call before she could protest and turned to Lena. “Bear with me, please?”

  “Of course. You know I love your family.”

  “That makes someone,” I muttered as I scrolled through the contacts in Facetime. “OK, here goes.”

  After a brief wait, Arabella’s face came up on the screen of my cell phone.

  Upon seeing me, she crossed her arms and shot me an unimpressed look. She had the same shoulder-length dark loose waves I had, but was one of the few members of our family blessed with Uncle Tony’s bright blue eyes.

  “Ooh, you’re in a cab,” she drawled.

  “It’s not a cab.” Tired of her sass, I pointed the phone at Lena.

  Lena waved and her perfect red nails glinted under the car’s interior light. “Hi, Arabella. Nice to meet you.”

  In the split second it took for all the color to drain from Bella’s olive complexion, she managed to draw another breath.

  “Oh my fucking God, it is you!”

  I jolted in my seat at her crystal-shattering pitch and quickly lowered the volume. Alright, maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all.

  Her eyes rounded in a sort of mad haze. “When Aunt Rosa told me Ally had a model friend in high school, I didn’t believe her. You’ve got to admit it is pretty hard to believe because Ally’s not the popular type. I mean, as if! Ally’s one of the most boring people I know—no offense, Ally.”

  I saw Lena’s lips quirk and I opened my mouth to put a stop to my youngest cousin’s observations, but I was already too late.

  She continued with the force of a freight train. “I don’t know if you know this, but all Ally ever does is work and I’m pretty sure she hasn’t been out with a guy in like forever. Even Aunty Rosa says Ally needs to get out more. So it’s pretty hard to imagine someone with your talent hanging out with her, but then I guess she can be kind of fun. I mean that’s why everyone asks her to babysit all the time, the kids just love her and—”

  “Bella!” I managed to interrupt finally. “Thank you for the honest character assessment but I think you might be boring the most famous actress in Hollywood.”

  Bella’s mouth snapped shut and her eyes grew wider, if that was physically possible. She reached out, like she wanted to touch the image of Lena on her screen, then whipped her hand back like she’d been bitten. “Oh wow! I’m so sorry. We’ve never even met and here I am rambling like a crazy person. I guess I was just so shocked that it really is you and I’m betting you’re probably used to this sort of reaction when people meet you, not that it makes it any better I guess and . . . ”

  Bella’s voice trailed off when Lena’s face broke into a movie-star smile. No longer capable of speech, Bella blinked repeatedly, as if she couldn’t quite make sense of what she was seeing.

  I smirked.

  “I guess you’ve heard that Ally will be living with me then?” Lena asked Bella.

  Bella nodded so violently that looking at her made my own brain ra
ttle. I was seriously concerned she was about to be overcome by some sort of celebrity-induced fit.

  “Really? That’s totally awesome,” she breathed, but it only took her a millisecond to recover and a big, dumb grin split her face. “Hey, if Ally’s still staying with you at Christmas, maybe I could come to LA and—”

  I switched the phone back around to face me. “Got to go, Bella. Bye!”

  I ended the call and twisted to look at Lena, who was laughing quietly beside me.

  “This is no laughing matter. I’m related to her.”

  “It’s just as well you’re on the other side of the country then, isn’t it?”

  I didn’t reply and turned to look out the window. Crazy family aside, I still needed some convincing.

  Chapter 3

  Perhaps I could get used to this.

  When I stopped pinching myself.

  I’d never considered Lena ostentatious, but this house? My entire extended family could live happily together here without it ending in an argument, and that was saying something.

  Last time I’d visited she’d still been living in a modest apartment. Since then, Duncan had purchased a house for them in the Hollywood Hills. I remembered staring in awe at the photos she sent me, unable to comprehend that people actually lived in houses that big.

  The first night, I’d queried Lena on her real estate purchase. Her reply was to grimace and say, “Duncan insisted.” I didn’t push the subject after that. Obviously Duncan had wanted only the best for his soon-to-be ex-wife.

  No wonder Lena felt lonely, I thought, wandering along the upstairs hall. It appeared to stretch endlessly in either direction. The off-white walls were decorated tastefully with pieces of modern art, and the occasional indoor plant helped to further break up the space. Everything about the house was old-world Californian charm and I had to admit it suited Lena, but it still felt like a hotel rather than a home.

  I wound my way down the stairs into the expansive foyer. I’d been here three days but the novelty of the Gone With The Wind staircase still hadn’t worn off.

  I wasn’t sure if I’d missed Lena this morning. I hadn’t realized how tired I was until I arrived. In the space of a week I’d finished up at the restaurant, farewelled almost every member of my extended family and journeyed across the country. I’d spent the first few days sleeping late, lounging around the pool and generally indulging myself in the luxury to which I was unaccustomed.

  Lena was a morning person and had usually already done an exercise session by the time I came down for breakfast.

  Today I heard voices as I padded across the kitchen, the marble floor cool beneath my bare feet. It seemed like Lena was on pretty good terms with her staff. As well as Tim the driver and Jay, she also had a cook, a housekeeper, and a gardener who I was yet to meet. I’d noticed it was common for her to stop and chat to them.

  I wondered if it was a way to keep the loneliness at bay. As nice as her staff were, she needed a real friend and that’s why I was here. Oh, and to design some dresses for her, but I was still getting my head around that.

  Lena appeared to be out on the patio talking, so I went straight to the fridge and surveyed the contents. I wasn’t used to having breakfast prepared for me. I’d tried to tell Melina, the cook, that I worked in a restaurant and that it wasn’t necessary, but she took that as a challenge. I nodded in approval as I picked up the plate intended for me. Buttermilk pancakes with a selection of fresh fruit. I was going to have to start going to the gym myself if this continued.

  I grabbed some cutlery and headed toward the patio. Eating meals outside overlooking Lena’s impressive grounds wasn’t exactly a hardship, and I planned to make the most of the sunshine.

  I opened my mouth to ask if it was always this sunny in California, but paused.

  “You think you know everything, don’t you?”

  I blinked and registered a tall man wearing a cap standing with his back to me. I tensed at the tone of his deep voice. Even angry there was a certain quality to it. Kind of like whiskey, all smooth and warm, with the aftereffects leaving a tingly feeling.

  I blinked again, catching my train of thought. His nice voice didn’t change the fact that his hostile comment had been aimed at Lena, and he had no right to speak to her that way. I mean, who was he? The gardener? Or some other hired help Lena had working on the place?

  “I know this much. You’re a liar.” Lena’s haughty reply floated to me on the light morning breeze. She also stood with her back to me, which struck me as odd given the confrontation with whoever this man was.

  “Even now you can’t look at me, can you?” He made a good point, but I still didn’t like his tone. It was dark and dangerous and that tingly feeling extended to my toes.

  He strode over to her in a few swift steps and grabbed her by the shoulder, spinning her around.

  “Hey!” I’d put my breakfast down on the table and rushed over to them before I could stop to think. If I had, I might have noticed he was seriously built, but I was already using my shoulder to shove him roughly out of the way. “I don’t know who the hell you think you are,” I shouted, “but you have no right to speak to Lena like that!”

  My surprise attack was more effective than I’d hoped. Somehow in my fervor to protect Lena, I’d pushed the man to one side into the table, unbalancing him. I winced as his hip hit the edge and his noticeably muscled frame was sent sprawling onto the rather hard-looking paving stones, smashing my breakfast plate to the ground in the process.

  “Ally! What have you done?”

  I stared in disbelief as Lena rushed forward and bent down next to the guy.

  “What have I done?” I repeated, eying my pancakes despondently. I’d ruined my breakfast, for one. “He was pushing you around. Don’t tell me you honestly think that’s OK?”

  “No,” admitted Lena, looking a teensy bit exasperated because she didn’t do angry. “But what? You thought you’d beat him up for me?”

  I couldn’t see if I’d beat up the guy for real because Lena was crouched down in front of him. All I could make out were a pair of long, denim-clad legs.

  I put my hands on my hips, equally exasperated. “I didn’t mean to push him into the table. That just kind of happened. I’m sorry, OK? But come on, I was protecting you.”

  “Try telling that to the production company,” Lena muttered.

  I stared at her. “What do you mean?” I asked slowly. “What does your staff have to do with your production company?”

  “My staff?” Lena’s exasperation morphed into confusion. “Ally, what on earth?”

  I waved my hand toward the guy. “Your gardener! He doesn’t have anything to do with your production company, does he?”

  Lena continued to stare at me as if I was deranged. I had the sneaking suspicion that maybe she was onto something, but I wasn’t able to figure it out because the guy’s laughter distracted me.

  The tingly feeling returned at the warm, rumbling sound. Obviously, whoever he was, he wasn’t severely injured.

  Lena sighed and turned back to the guy. “I’m glad you’re finding this funny.”

  “Oh, man,” he said. “This beats the script.”

  “Script?” I squeaked.

  I watched the guy stand up, then gasped when I saw his face beneath the purple Lakers cap.

  Oh. My. God. I had just attacked Jacob Swan.

  Sexiest Man Alive Jacob Swan. Renowned movie star. Hollywood heartthrob.

  I didn’t really buy into the whole celebrity thing—when you had a best friend who was a movie star, you kind of figured they were just normal people, too. But there wasn’t anything normal about Jacob Swan, I realized. I’d only ever seen him on-screen and sure, he was ripped and charming, all golden-haired and blue-eyed. What movie star wasn’t gorgeous? But this was real life and somehow the man exuded something lacking in mere mortals. Charisma? Sex appeal? Taller-than-average height? Muscles?

  I wasn’t anywhere close to figuring it out
, so I cleared my throat and forced myself to concentrate. “I’m so sorry. Are you alright?”

  A slow smile spread across his face and I think I forgot to breathe momentarily. His easy, all-American persona appeared to come naturally. His bright blue eyes watched me with amusement.

  “All good. You didn’t used to play football by any chance?”

  Maybe the lack of oxygen was affecting my brain because I couldn’t seem to make sense of what he’d just said. “I’m sorry?”

  “That was one hell of a shoulder charge. Pretty impressive given your size.”

  Oh, that’s right. I recalled he’d been a football player in his younger years. “Football’s not really my thing.” I was amazed at my ability to hold a normal conversation.

  “Don’t you mean sport’s not really your thing?” Lena asked.

  Oops. I’d totally forgotten she was there. “Lena’s right. Sport isn’t really my thing.”

  “You’re her new bodyguard then?”

  “No!” I knew he was making fun of me, but I still took the bait.

  “Well, after that, maybe Lena should offer you the job. I’m not going to mess with you.”

  “I wouldn’t recommend it,” Lena said. “She can be kind of ferocious when she wants to. You should have seen her take on the mean girls at school.”

  “It’s all in the angle of the shoulder,” he agreed, still preoccupied by my amateur football skills.

  “I didn’t resort to physical violence at school,” I protested.

  “Oh, right. So she’s got a mouth on her, too?” Jake asked.

  “She’s Italian,” Lena confirmed. “You should meet her mama. This is Ally, the friend I mentioned who’s staying with me. Ally, this is Jacob Swan, my co-star. Hopefully by now you’ve figured out we were running some lines.”

  I offered them both a sheepish smile. “Yeah, got it. Very convincing, by the way. You must be good at what you do or something.”

  Jacob grinned and stepped toward me, hand outstretched. “It’s Jake when I’m not on-screen.”

  Oh, great. Now I was going to have to touch him? I’d already done that and it hadn’t ended well. I hesitated and his grin intensified. He thought that I was dazzled by him, goddamn it.