day.
“I think I’d better get home,” I said.
He nodded. “Then I’ll drive you.”
“No, you don’t have to—”
“Izzy, what kind of date would I be if I didn’t walk you to your door?” His smile was charming and sweet, and…
Confusion had me taking a step away from him. He’d been making comments like that for hours now. Referring to me as his date—once he’d even joked that I was his girlfriend. It was all part of this act we had going on...but try telling that to my heart.
I might be having a mini-panic attack over my warring emotions, but Henry seemed perfectly at ease as he gave me another award-winning smile. “Plus, we still have script notes to go over. I haven’t forgotten I owe you a meeting. Want to grab a coffee and go over your pitch plan before I bring you home?”
“The script is at my place.”
Another cocky smirk graced his flawless face. “I assume you have coffee?”
I nodded.
“Perfect, we’ll meet at your place.”
I swallowed. Great, having Henry Landon in my bedroom is exactly what I need to snap out of the fantasy I’d been living in all day. Not!
It was getting harder and harder to remember that this was fake. I was having too much fun, and being around him was too easy, and the way he’d talked about his family problems was too relatable, and this attraction I felt toward him…?
That was way too real.
I wasn’t sure I’d ever been so hyper aware of another human being before. I’d never been so overwhelmed by a guy’s scent, or the heat coming off his body, or the way the slightest touch of his skin against mine could set off freakin’ fireworks inside me.
But physical chemistry wasn’t everything, right? And sure he’d proven to be surprisingly sweet and thoughtful, but his friend Leo was the one who’d made me laugh out loud this morning with his email. He was the one who seemed to understand what I was thinking better than I knew myself. We’d become more than just writing partners. We’d become friends, and maybe...maybe something more.
So then, why was my heart beating like a drum when Henry twined his fingers through mine and tugged me so close my hip brushed against his thigh?
Why had I spent the better part of this afternoon wondering what it would be like if today hadn’t been fake, if I’d really been his girlfriend, if going to a party together was just another day in the life of our relationship?
Henry led us toward the gate leading to the valet stand in the Maxwell’s curved driveway and I tried not to get nervous about the fact that I was about to be alone with him in his car.
Nothing could happen. I knew that. I mean, we were just working together, and for all I knew he was still in the middle of something with Elena and—
“Are you okay?”
I looked up to see him watching me with concern as we reached the valet.
“Fine,” I said with a smile that felt too big. “It was just a long day, that’s all.”
He slipped an arm around my waist and tugged me toward him so I was partially resting against him like it was the most natural thing in the world.
The crazy part?
Resting against him felt like the most natural thing in the world.
The thought had me pushing away from him just as the car was pulled around and Henry opened the passenger side for me before the valet could.
“Thanks,” I murmured.
For the first half of the drive back to my neighborhood, we sat in silence. Not awkward silence, necessarily. I got the feeling we were both lost in thought.
We both broke it at once.
“Henry, I—”
“Izzy, I should have—”
We both stopped and looked at each other before bursting out in a laugh.
“Sorry,” he said. “What were you going to say?”
I shook my head, heat already creeping up toward my neck because...I didn’t even really know. I just wanted to clear this tension between us because I’d never been one to ignore a problem, and whatever this was between us…
Well, I wasn’t sure I’d call it a problem, but it was complicated. I had a crush on the two men involved in the script that could make or break my career. If that didn’t sound like trouble, I didn’t know what did. “I was just going to say…”
I like you.
I like Leo.
I’m so freakin’ confused right now.
“I just wanted to say thank you for bringing me. I had