the positive. At least my grandmother wasn’t dead. That was the only good news I’d had. When I’d woken up the first thing I’d seen was a very serious Jackson sitting in the chair that was in the corner of my room. The moment I saw his face, I knew something was wrong. My first thought was that something had happened to my grandmother.
When he told me that she wanted me to call her, my second thought had been that I was happy she was alive. That relief had been short-lived when I pressured him into telling me what was wrong before I called her.
I might be ten years older and wiser, but the moment Jackson explained what Gio had done and was planning on doing, I was transported back to that scared eighteen-year-old girl. All of the work I’d done over the years to put the pieces of my shattered soul back together, and it broke all over again in that moment. It was emotional déjà vu. I felt panicked, humiliated, angry, helpless, sad, embarrassed, and numb all at once.
All of my emotional and physical responses were exactly the same, but there was one glaring exception.
Jackson was with me, and he had been amazing. He’d been supportive, and he hadn’t told me that everything was okay. It was a pet peeve of mine when people did that. Instead, he just listened, offered advice when I asked him, and offered any help that I needed. If it weren’t for him, I might’ve just got the first flight back to JFK, gone home, crawled in bed, and stayed there for, oh, a year or so until this all died down.
But he’d given me the emotional support I’d needed to board the plane to California and face the day ahead. We had our last interview scheduled, and it was a big one. Kyle Austen Reed was what my grandmother referred to as a “real” movie star. Thankfully, I wasn’t walking into the interview blind. I’d met Kyle at an awards ceremony I’d attended with my grandmother when I was sixteen. I’d spent most of the night talking to his date, popstar Karina Black. We’d bonded over Kyle and my grandmother both introducing themselves by all three of their names to everyone they met.
Mia told me that Jackson and Kyle knew each other because Kyle was Jackson’s best friend Holden Reed’s cousin. And they were sort of related since Harmony, Jackson’s little sister, had married the eldest Reed brother, Hudson. It really was a small world.
One more interview, and then the portion of my job dealing with the public in person would be completed and I could turn my focus to more pressing matters at hand.
Beside me, Jackson stirred and I glanced over to find him still sleeping peacefully. He was so beautiful. That was never an adjective that I’d used to describe a man before. But that was the word that came to mind when I looked his way. Between his long, thick eyelashes, high cheekbones, and the stubble peppering his strong jawline, there was just not another adjective I could use. Just looking at him brought me more comfort than anything else ever had.
My grandmother, as well-meaning as she was, had done her best to be there for me. She’d basically had the same take on the situation that she’d had a decade ago. She’d told me that everything was fine, there was nothing to be upset about, her attorneys were on the case, and she’d pay a small fortune to make sure that Gio was stopped. But none of that had really made me feel any better.
The damage, once again, was already done. It was out there and with the popularity of the show streaming, more people than ever were accessing it. I felt my chest tightening, making it difficult to breathe, and I started to do my 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 when the memory of Jackson looking in my eyes saying, “Fuck ’em,” came back to me.
“Fuck ’em,” I whispered beneath my breath.
“Did you need something?”
I looked up and saw the air hostess standing beside me.
“Oh no, I just…um, no I don’t need anything.”
“Do you want me to bring a pillow or blanket?” The air hostess motioned to Jackson who was lights out.
“Sure.” I nodded.
Jackson had stayed up all night because he said that he hadn’t wanted to accidently sleep through me waking up. And he hadn’t gotten any sleep the night before, because we’d been…busy.
“Excuse me, dear.”