The people at the studio would do all the necessary makeup and polishing, but Katie would be helping her do whatever she could to make her look the part when she arrived. I’d planned on picking her up from the hotel to drive her to the studio myself, but that wasn’t going to happen now.
Exhausted and feeling like I was covered in a layer of hospital grime, I stumbled through my bedroom to my bathroom, leaving a trail of yesterday’s clothes behind me. After turning the faucet on, I climbed into the shower without waiting for steam to start pluming out of it.
The cold water was like thousands of tiny darts being blown into my skin, but it sure as hell helped to wake me up. As it started warming up, I lathered my hands with soap and used it to wash everything from my hair to my feet, then rinsed off and turned another blast of cold water on myself before climbing out.
Wrapping a thick towel around my waist, I didn’t even bother to dry off properly before I was on my way to my closet. I only ran the towel over my head a few times so my wet hair wouldn’t get my clothes damp.
There wasn’t time for much if I wanted to get there at the same time Leah did, so I grabbed a clean pair of underwear, socks, and a suit, getting dressed in the walk-in closet and adding a watch from my collection at the last minute. Once I was decent, I ran my fingers through my hair and kicked on a pair of shoes.
Yep. That’s going to have to be good enough. Jefferson would skin me alive if I ever represented Killen Cosmetics—and by extension, him—without looking like I should be representing such a luxury brand. But I was pretty sure even he would’ve forgiven me this morning.
A quick glance in the mirror made me wince a little. My eyes were red and a little watery from lack of sleep, there were circles the size of fists underneath them, and my usually clean-shaven jaw was covered in stubble. Fuck it.
It was more important that I was there in case Leah freaked out before the interview than it was for me to show up shaven. With my mind made up, I headed back to my car and pointed it in the direction of NBC studios.
Katie and I had spent a fair amount of time the last two days preparing Leah for this interview. We’d told her exactly which questions she could expect and how to answer them, and we’d also made sure she was ready for a few curve balls.
Time would tell how ready she really was, but I had a good feeling about it. Leah had demonstrated time and again that she was fast on her feet and could shoot from the hip with the best of them. She was going to do just fine.
After tearing to the studios as fast as I could get there—at a speed which, thanks to the traffic, didn’t really qualify as tearing at all—I parked in the crowded lot. I’d been here a few times, so I was familiar with the security processes and had everything ready for my credentials to be checked.
I found Leah in a room backstage with her name written on the tape that had been slapped onto the door. She spun to face me when I opened it, her eyes so wide I could see the white almost all around them.
In a navy blue dress with a white jacket, heels, and her hair and makeup done, she looked gorgeous. She also looked fucking terrified.
“Dane,” she breathed my name like seeing me was a huge relief, but then her eyebrows drew together and she marched over to me. “How’s Jefferson?”
“He’s been discharged and he’s going to be fine,” I said soothingly, shutting the door firmly behind me before leading her over to the sofa in the center of the room. “How are you?”
Her green eyes blazed into mine, but I couldn’t tell which emotion was more dominant in them. Eventually, she just folded her arms and sighed. “I’m going to be fine, too. I just can’t believe I’m about to give an interview on such a huge network. It’s insanity. They shouldn’t be interviewing me. It should be you. Or Jefferson. Or even Katie.”
“It can’t be any of us,” I said steadily, moving to the mini-fridge and taking