him when he’d thought no one was looking, she wouldn’t have thought anything was wrong. He was damn good at hiding his emotions. “Hey, Kori. How’s it going?”
She stopped. This was the time to decide if she was ready to drop into the deep end of the pool. She could pretend she hadn’t seen that look on his face, ask her question and move on. Or she could be his brother’s girlfriend and try to figure out what was going on. “What’s wrong?”
Jared frowned as though no one ever asked him that question before. “What do you mean?”
If she let him, Jared would talk his way right back into everything being fine. She got the feeling Jared would do a lot to keep the peace around him. “No bullshit, Jared. I’m not a fan or a reporter or a flunky. You look tired and worried. What’s wrong?”
His lips formed a flat line. “It’s nothing.”
“Nope. It’s not nothing. It can be something you don’t want to talk about, but it’s not nothing.”
He let his bag drop and sat down on the second step. “You care?”
She moved toward him, dropping down beside him. “Of course I do. You’re Kai’s brother.”
“Yeah, well, he doesn’t care.” For the first time since she’d met him, a hard look came into his eyes. “That’s something you have to understand about Kai.”
He didn’t know Kai now. A lot had happened to both brothers over the time they’d been apart, but she softened her response. Jared didn’t need a lecture. He did need the truth though. “I can care enough for both of us. You have to give Kai some time. You were an asshole.”
“It’s been twelve years.”
“He’s smart in many ways and slow in this one. Trust me. Kai always does the right thing. He’ll come around. Is this about Kai?”
Jared shook his head. “No. It’s about everything. I hate conflict. We all got into a massive fight on the plane and I don’t like it when things get nasty.”
“What was the fight about?”
“Whether or not I sign a new contract with Dart.”
That was one problem she did understand. “Ah, your contract is up but the show is going strong. Your career is going strong, too, and they think you’ll have a million and one offers after this movie hits big.”
“You have forgotten nothing of your time in Hollywood.” He turned to her, giving her a smile that likely could melt the heart of any woman he chose. “I’ve got a little time, but I have to make the decision. I have to give them time to wrap up the show or find a way to transition it away from me.”
“It sounds like you’ve made your decision.”
He shook his head and leaned back, his elbows on the stair behind him. “Not at all. I like the steady work of television. I like playing the same guy. I get to really get into the role. The producers have been cool about letting me work in our off time. Hell, when they found out I was up for this role, they offered to work around me.”
She understood the problem he was facing. “But you have a shelf life.”
“Most actors do. I’m never going to be a character actor. I’m not that good. I’ve got ten years maybe before I have to transition.”
“TV is kinder,” she pointed out.
“It is. But if I have a shot at doing something more, shouldn’t I take it?” Jared asked.
“It depends. What do you want? Stop listening to all the other voices. I get that you have about a hundred voices playing through your head at any given moment. You’ve got the people who work for you. You’ve got the producers. You’ve got an entire small industry that has built itself around you and you feel the weight of it. You’ve got the inner voices. The ones that tell you you’re not good enough and all this is going to go away tomorrow. The ones that tell you if you make one wrong move, you’ll be done.”
“Heard those, have you?”
She’d been an artist once. She still heard some of them. And some of them, the ones that had felt dead and gone, those had started whispering to her. They’d started telling stories again. “Yes. So now I’m going to tell you what you have to do. You have to shut them all out and hear the only voice that matters now. Yours. What do you want? Not what’s going to placate the most people. What