to move on. “You have to trust me too. When I called, you should’ve told me what happened.”
She fiddles with the radio knob. “You know why I didn’t?”
“You were afraid I’d be mad at you.”
“No.” She squeezes her eyes shut and I can’t help reaching over to skim my knuckles over her cheek. My heart practically jumps out of my chest when she leans into my touch. Finally, she opens her eyes, staring into mine. “I didn’t want to do anything to mess with the recording of the album.” She touches her temple. “To take you out of your creative headspace.”
“Mallory, I appreciate that, but—”
“You don’t understand. I didn’t want anything to delay you finishing the album and coming home.” Tears shine in her eyes and she glances down. “I didn’t want you to be away from me any longer than you had to be.”
I wish we weren’t in the car so I could pull her into my lap right now. “I hate being away from you too, you know that, right?”
“I do.”
She sniffles and a hint of a smile flickers over her lips. “Except for making up with you last night. I want to forget that the last forty-eight hours even happened.”
“Couldn’t agree more.” I rest my hand on her leg. “Come back to Vancouver with me.”
“What? I can’t. I have to be on-set Tuesday.”
“So? That gives us two days. I can’t keep going these long stretches without seeing you. It’s making me crazy.”
“I hate it too.”
I reach over and capture her hand, tugging on it until she looks at me. “I love talking to you every night. But it’s not the same. I need to see you. Touch you. Otherwise, I’m miserable and can’t think straight.”
“Chaser.” She cups my cheek, rubbing her thumb over my ever-present scruff. “I’m always a little lost without you.”
“Let’s make a pact.”
“What kind of pact?”
“No more than…two weeks without seeing each other. No matter what.”
“That’s so long.”
“We’ve been through worse.”
“Ten days?” she counters.
My chest squeezes—she’s as into this idea as I am. “It won’t be easy.”
I lean in, pressing my lips to hers to seal our deal. “Ten days.”
Chapter Forty-Four
Mallory
Tuesday morning, I arrive at the studio early. Pamela slides up next to me in the parking lot, flashing a fake smile. “How was your weekend, Mallory?”
God, I want to strangle her.
Instead, I smile sweetly. “Lovely. Chaser came home and surprised me. We had an amazing time together. Truly electric.” Well, that’s one way to put it. “Then I went back to Vancouver with him.” I yawn, and hold up my arms, in a long, lazy stretch. “I got back late last night and I’m exhausted.”
She blinks rapidly and purses her lips together.
“Well, we’re going to be late. Come on!” I pull my script out of my bag and flip to my one short scene for this week’s show. It’s going to be a boring couple of days of sitting around doing nothing most of the time.
“Can you believe this?” Billie, one of my fellow “lifeguards” wags her marked-up script at me. “One week I’m possessed by demons. Now, I’m supposed to break up a fight between two rival gangs with the power of my boobs? Who writes this shit?”
I cast a furtive glance around before joining in on her laughter. Good grief, it’s like we’re all begging to be fired from this crazy show.
“Now, Billie.” I adopt the haughty tone of a movie critic. “It shows true artistic creativity that two historically chauvinistic criminal organizations were willing to listen to the heartfelt advice of a five-foot-two inch blonde-haired pixie,” I say with a straight face. “That would totally happen in real life.”
“Holy!” Her eyes bug out and she explodes with laughter. “You should be writing the scripts, Mallory.”
I bet she wouldn’t find it as funny if she knew how much experience I actually have with such criminal organizations. It was part of why the script seemed more over-the-top idiotic to me than usual.
Will I mention it at our table read today? Nope.
“Hey,” Cindy greets me with downcast eyes. “Uh, your friend canceled this weekend. I hope I didn’t do something to—”
“Oh my God, no.” I squeeze her shoulder and she finally looks up at me. “It had nothing to do with you. Honest. I’m sorry I even roped you into it.”
“Okay. Cool. I was worried.”
I open my mouth, then close it. I don’t want to talk about the weekend here. Where certain people might overhear. “Everything is fine,” I promise her.