The Has-Been and the Hot Mess - Isabel Jordan Page 0,49
he got his dream job was gut-wrenching. But the thought of giving a real relationship a shot with someone she could actually love was positively terrifying. Did she have that kind of courage?
Her mom elbowed her and pointed to the door. Jackson had just come in. His eyes found her immediately, and his whole face lit up with a smile that had Kendall’s heart beating double time.
Her mom leaned over and whispered, “Like heaven put an angel on earth just for him.”
Huh. Maybe the idea of letting herself fall wasn’t so terrifying after all.
Kendall was quiet on the way back to the hotel.
If he were with anyone else on the planet, the quiet wouldn’t worry Jackson. But with Kendall?
Something was wrong. Seriously, terribly, scarily wrong.
He glanced over at her, studying her delicate profile, lit only by the dashboard lights of their rented Land Rover. She was staring, unblinking, out the window. Since there wasn’t a damn thing to look at out there—the darkened store fronts that popped up in between the occasional bar and restaurant just weren’t all that interesting—he had to wonder if she was truly lost in thought, or actively avoiding talking to him.
“Are we going to talk about it, or are you going to stay quiet all night?” he finally asked.
She glanced over at him, then shifted her gaze back to the road. “I’m just thinking.”
“Well, I realize that.” In his experience, her brain only shut down in one of two circumstances: if she was asleep, or when she was mid-orgasm. “Care to share with the class?”
It took a minute, but eventually, she said, “My work here is almost done. I mean, one phone call and I can get you any agent in LA. After that, you’ll still need some PR and social media support, but not much. A low-level assistant could handle your social media, and you’d only need someone like me in a crisis.”
Oh, he needed her for a lot more than a crisis. But he didn’t want to scare the crap out of her, so even though his hands tightened involuntarily on the steering wheel, he managed to stay cool and ask, “Are you anxious to get back to LA?”
Her laugh was completely devoid of actual humor. “Anxious to go back to the townhouse that isn’t mine in the city where Kyle has probably blackballed me and I’ll never find work? No, not especially.”
Don’t just blurt out that you want her to stay. Stay cool. Don’t be an overeager creeper. “In that case, what do you want to do, career wise?”
She finally turned her beautiful eyes his way, and he had a second to enjoy it before he had to look back at the road in front of them. But having her finally look at him after being so quiet and distant for so long was…soothing somehow.
“Up until the whole mess with Kyle,” she said, her adorable little button nose wrinkling at his name, “when I first started my career, I would’ve told you that I was made for celebrity PR. I mean, I was the best. I think I equated being the best with actually enjoying my job. But when I think back on all the whiny, entitled, asshole celebrities I’ve had to work with over the years—”
“Ouch,” he joked, rubbing a hand over his heart.
She smacked his arm lightly. “Not you, dumbass. I’m talking about all the people I’ve worked with that I didn’t even like. And it was my job to make other people like them. It was fraud, I guess? Not criminal or anything, obviously, but definitely phony. I don’t want to be phony anymore.” Then she turned in her seat to fully face him and asked, “Do you know what I really want to do?”
Please say me. Please say me. Please…
He mentally smacked himself across the face. “What’s that?”
“I want to do more events that benefit charities like your shelter, and all the shelters who participated in our event. Raising that money and getting all those dogs adopted was a real…” she trailed off, obviously searching for the right word.
“High,” he supplied. “It’s a high. The only healthy one I’ve been able to find.”
Other than you.
She was very quickly becoming his drug of choice. And the crazy part? It didn’t scare him nearly as much as it should have.
“Yeah,” she said on a dreamy sigh. “I want to help. Do some good, you know?”
He smiled at the excitement in her voice. “Yeah. I know.”
Jackson couldn’t keep up his calm,