Hollywood Triplets - Layla Valentine Page 0,15

in a passionate embrace. “It was more of a nice, friendly kiss.”

“Oh my God,” Janette said, reaching for the remote. “Should we be watching this? I mean, does it make you feel bad to see him with another woman?”

“No,” Annalise laughed. “He told me he isn’t interested in Jenna, and I believe him. He’s just doing a job there. It doesn’t mean anything.”

“They’re kind of overdoing it, actually, aren’t they?” Janette said, now studying the on-screen kiss with a connoisseur’s eye. “It doesn’t look very authentic. Maybe they don’t have as much natural chemistry as I originally thought they did.”

“All I can say is, that’s not how he kisses in real life,” Annalise said. “In real life, he’s… more gentle. He takes his time. It’s like he really wants to experience every moment of the kiss. With her… he just looks like he’s trying to get as much of her as he possibly can.”

“Yeah,” Janette said. “I always thought this looked really passionate, but now that I think about it, this isn’t how I like being kissed.”

Annalise sipped her orange mocktail and sat back, watching Curt on the screen.

It was weird seeing him like this after spending the day with him. Always before, she had felt sort of detached when she’d watched actors in movies. They hadn’t seemed like real people to her. She supposed that that had been for the best—it had allowed her to believe she was watching the character instead of the real person.

But now she knew Curt, and she found that the spell had broken a bit. She couldn’t see him as dashing Hank Lawrence, owner of a small sailboat, who had been hired to take the rich and helpless Carolina Mayfield out for a day on the waves when his boat had been wrecked by a storm. All she saw was Curt.

She felt a swelling of pride as she watched him. He really is good at this, she thought happily. In real life, he isn’t anything like this character. He’s not just playing himself. You can really see how he’s stepping into a role here.

“He’s so dreamy,” Janette murmured. “You have to go out with him again, Annalise.”

“I did say that I would if he asked me,” Annalise reminded her. “But I don’t think he’s going to.”

“Well, I think he is,” Janette said. “Remember what we agreed, Annalise? Put good things out there, and good things will come back to you. You have to believe that good things can happen.”

“I do,” Annalise said. “Whatever happens next, today was a really great day. I don’t need anything else to happen in order to validate that for me.”

“Well, I’m glad you had a good time,” Janette said. “But you have to promise me you aren’t going to give up on this.”

“You just want to see me date a movie star,” Annalise said, grinning.

“Of course I do.” Janette grinned back. “But it’s more than that. How long has it been since you came back from a date this happy about how it went?”

“A while,” Annalise admitted.

“I don’t think it’s ever happened,” Janette said. “Every time you come home from a date, we have drinks and talk about what was wrong with the guy. Well, what was wrong with this one?”

Annalise hesitated. The truth was, she couldn’t think of anything. Her date with Curt had been perfect. She wouldn’t have changed a single thing about it.

As she often did, Janette seemed to know what Annalise was thinking. “Exactly,” she said triumphantly. “He’s perfect. So you have to go out with him again. You owe it to yourself to see if there’s anything there.”

“Maybe you’re right,” Annalise admitted.

“I’m definitely right,” Janette said. “And trust me, wherever he is, he’s feeling the same way. He’s going to call you and ask for a second date, I’m sure of it. You just wait and see.”

Chapter 6

Annalise tried to keep her hopes up. She really did.

And for a few days, she was successful. She convinced herself that Curt was waiting to call her so as not to seem too eager. That was a rational idea. It was something she had done herself more than once.

Admittedly, it made a little less sense given that the guy was Curt Slade. He didn’t need to pretend not to be eager. Annalise wasn’t going to start thinking he was desperate or something if he called her quickly. He was Curt Slade. He could get any woman he wanted.

All right. So maybe it was just that his schedule