and it made me think about the future, and family, and having babies, and a life that I’d always wanted but never felt was attainable.
He’d asked me if I wanted to have kids. No man had ever asked me that. Not even Drake. But he hadn’t asked me anything since. At least not anything that personal.
We’d made small talk but after a brief lesson on baiting and casting, we’d settled into a comfortable silence. Or at least, I assumed he was comfortable because he wasn’t talking. I, on the other hand, was busting at the seams with questions. Mainly, I was curious about Rachel, but I doubted he would want to talk about her.
My phone buzzed with another alert, intruding on the peaceful serenity of the atmosphere. We’d been at the river for about thirty minutes and it hadn’t stopped going off. I pulled it out and saw that it was a notification that Drake was doing an interview.
He still hadn’t answered my texts or returned my calls and I was done attempting to contact him. To the world, it might look like I was the one that cheated, but I knew the truth.
“Do you ever turn that thing off?” Beau’s deep voice interrupted my thoughts.
I’d heard what he’d said, but when I looked up at him and our eyes met, I forgot what he’d asked. All I could think about was how dreamy his stare was. How did people ever speak to him and not get distracted?
“What?” I was glad that my inquiry only required one word, because I wasn’t sure that I could have formed much more than that.
“Do you ever take a break?” He motioned to my phone. “From that?”
He didn’t sound annoyed or irritated that it kept going off, he had more of a concerned vibe about him.
“Oh, um. No, not really. I mean unless I’m on set filming or, yeah…I guess that’s it. Yesterday when my phone was dead was probably the longest I’d gone without it for…for as long as I can remember.”
“Hmm.” He made a non-committal sound as my phone buzzed again.
It was a text from my publicist.
Hannah: Just saw Drake’s interview. Need to talk damage control. Call when you can.
Drake’s timing had always been perfect, for him anyway. So of course, his interview would come out when I was doing the first thing in a long time that brought me any semblance of peace. I say semblance because I was about ninety percent calm and zen, but then there were my hormones. Those suckers were throwing a massive rager complete with ecstasy and glow sticks.
“Everything okay?”
“Oh, um, Drake, my ex, did an interview with Access Hollywood and my publicist needs me to call her so we can decide what the next steps will be.”
“What did you see in your ex?” His question came out of left field. And from the way he asked it, it was clear he wasn’t impressed with Drake.
He hadn’t mentioned anything about my relationship or what had happened before now. Usually, the only two things anyone wanted to talk about was Drake or Sunset Bay. But he hadn’t mentioned either.
“Drake and I had amazing chemistry from our first scene together. What you see on screen is real…” My words trailed off when I realized I was giving Beau my rehearsed response. It was the answer I gave to reporters. “Sorry, I just…I’ve answered that question so many times I can’t count but I don’t think I’ve ever actually told the truth.”
“What’s the truth?”
That was a very good question. I went back in my mind to when we first got together and tried to remember what it was. What had I seen in him? The answer came to me like a flashing neon light in a dark room, but I’d just never seen it before.
“He liked me.” It was the first time I’d admitted that out loud or to myself. I’d never allowed myself to be that vulnerable or real with anyone. Not Genesis. Definitely not my mother. Not Gam. Not Hannah. Not anyone.
I looked back at the water and adjusted my grip on the pole, trying not to think about what I’d just revealed or how pathetic it made me sound.
“What do you mean?” Beau questioned.
Oh boy. My head was scrambling trying to come up with a way to spin my answer. What would Hannah do or say? Every self-protective instinct in me was screaming to make something up. Something that would paint me in a much better