Chapter 25
Chapter
Twenty-Five
ISABELLE
W hat I really want to do is kiss Adam. Like, a for-real kiss. Because that tiny brush of our lips wasn’t enough.
Not even close.
But the moment has been broken, and now we need to face reality. I could probably look up the interview myself, but for some reason, hearing about it from my dad will be an easier pill to swallow than watching it and cringing.
I sit on the floor next to Adam, still feeling the waves of chemistry buzzing between us even though I’m not touching him anymore. I dial my dad’s number and put it on speakerphone.
“Isabelle!” his voice rings through the room.
“Hey, Dad,” I say. “Adam’s here too. You’re on speakerphone.”
“Hello, Jim,” Adam says, his rich voice rumbling in my chest.
“Oh, good. It will be easier to talk to you both at the same time. Have you seen the interview yet?”
“No.” I suck in a breath. “How is it? ”
“It’s creating quite a buzz. Adam, you should’ve let me know that you were going to make an appearance.”
“I wasn’t planning on it,” Adam says. “But when Allegra was only focusing on your other daughters, I needed to steer the conversation back to Isabelle.”
“What do you mean?” Dad asks.
“Didn’t they tell you what the interview was for?” I ask.
Dad pauses, just long enough for me to question his next words. “No. They just said they wanted to interview you.”
“Jim, come on,” Adam says, his voice hard. “You’re an experienced manager. You must have known that they weren’t interviewing Isabelle for herself. They wanted an inside story on her sisters.”
I glance over at Adam, filled with gratitude. I’m not used to being defended like this. When it comes to my family, my sisters always had the limelight, and I was pushed aside. Now, having my dad as my manager creates friction that wasn’t even there before. But having Adam stick up for me is a new sensation, and probably means more than he’ll understand.
“Fine,” Dad says, his voice sharp. “I knew. But I wanted Isabelle to get a chance to practice interviewing before it was her turn. I didn’t expect you two to turn it into a viral marketing scheme.”
“That wasn’t my intention,” Adam says, rubbing his forehead with his hand.
“Well, that’s what happened. You haven’t been seen since you were on the red carpet of the Goldies, and now you show up with Isabelle and your scar on full display for the world to see.” Dad lets out a loud breath. “But it’s not bad. There’s a lot of speculation about the two of you. And while I have my reservations, as Isabelle’s father, a fake relationship between the two of you wouldn’t be bad for publicity.”
“What?” I squeak out .
“Absolutely not,” Adam says firmly at the same time.
I narrow my eyes at him. “What’s wrong with being in a fake relationship with me?”
His mouth drops open, then he shuts it. “It’s not… That’s not what I…”
“You two can discuss it,” Dad says. “But my phone is ringing off the hook. Everyone wants a statement about what the two of you are doing together. And pulling off a fake relationship wouldn’t be hard, given the way you two were making googly-eyes at each other.”
Oh, my lord. I do not need my father commenting on my “googly-eyes” at Adam. Especially not after we barely kissed, and that was for real. Now he wants us to be in a fake relationship?
My head is starting to spin.
“We’ll discuss it,” Adam says, filling my silence. “But we’ll look at the article first.”
“Sounds good,” Dad says. “I’ll text Isabelle the link now.” He pauses for a moment. “Isabelle, take me off speakerphone. I want to speak to you privately.”
I hit the button and hold the phone up to my ear. “Is everything okay?” I ask.
“I wanted to ask you the same thing,” he says. “Are you all right? Are you being treated well?”
I smile. Once a dad, always a dad. Even though being my manager has complicated our relationship, I’m grateful that his heart is in the right place. “Yes. I’m doing great, actually. Adam even coached me last night for the interview.”
“He’s not being too rude?”
I look over at him, his eyes full of curiosity and concern, words I never would have used to describe him when we first met. “Not at all. ”
“Good. Hopefully the roads clear in the next couple of days and you can leave that place.”
A few days ago, I would have agreed. But now, being here with Adam feels safe. The beautiful prison has turned into a refuge, a haven from the prying eyes of Hollywood. And I realize…
I don’t want to leave.
And it’s all because of Adam.
“I’ll get in touch tomorrow,” Dad says. “Have a good night.”
“Bye, Dad,” I reply. I hang up and look at the phone in my hands.
“Is everything all right?” Adam asks.
I look back up at him and nod. “He just wanted to make sure I’m okay.”
Adam pauses for a moment. “And…are you?”
I hold his gaze and smile. “Yes.”
The side of his mouth lifts in a grin, one of the few I’ve gotten from him over the last week.
My phone buzzes in my hand, and I shift my focus down to the screen. A text from my Dad comes through with a link. “Here we go,” I say, opening the message and clicking on the article.
The headline reads, Adam Stone Makes His First Appearance in Months!
Below is a screenshot of Adam looking straight into the camera. I’ve been cropped out.
I scroll down to the text, where the article mostly talks about Adam’s appearance, the fight he got into with Tristan, and the mysterious scar over his eye. Which is still a mystery for me, too. The last paragraph of the article finally mentions me.
Adam will be appearing in a movie with Isabelle Lovett, younger sister of supermodels Joanna and Catherine. The rom-com will release on the Family Entertainment Network, a far cry from Adam’s typical action movies. Release date TBD.
Underneath is a screenshot from the interview, where Adam is standing above me and I’m looking up at him, like he’s my everything.
No wonder my dad says we could make a fake relationship work.
But that’s it. That’s the only reference to me, even though I talked to Allegra for twenty minutes about my path to becoming an actress.
So much for an article about me.
“I’m so sorry,” Adam murmurs next to me. “I didn’t mean to take all the attention away from you.”
I shrug my shoulders, brushing it off. “It’s all right. You were just trying to spin it in my direction.”
“But it still didn’t give you the focus you deserved.” His hand runs down my arm. “I wasn’t thinking.”
I look down at where his hand rests, wrapped around the soft skin inside my wrist. An apology from Adam means so much, especially considering where we started. I look back up at him, his eyes filled with concern. “It’s okay.”
I’m disappointed, but probably less than I would have been if he hadn’t stepped in. Because then the article would’ve just been about my sisters and nothing about me at all. At least this way there’s a small buzz going about my connection to Adam.
He stands. “Come with me.”
I furrow my brow. “Where?”
“To the theater.” He runs a hand through his hair, looking like he needs to brace himself for what he’s going to say. “Let’s watch something to take your mind off of all this.”
I stand and laugh. “Don’t look so excited. You don’t have to watch something with me. ”
“It’s not that,” he says. “I actually…don’t mind your movies. I used to watch them, more than you probably expect.”
“Oh?”
He swallows. “The theater was my special place with my mother. We would watch movies together after all my younger siblings went to bed.” He smiles again, this time a little sheepish. “Classic musicals were our favorite.”
My mouth drops open. “That’s why you have so many of them!”
He nods. “But I haven’t been in there since she passed.”
“Oh.” My giddy mood turns into something a little more somber. This is a big deal for him, for multiple reasons. Not only is he willing to go back to the room that meant so much to him and his mom, but he’s sharing this with me and telling me about his experience with grief. He hasn’t said much to me about her yet other than last night when he explained that he went into acting after she died. And now it makes even more sense—it was something special that he shared with her, and he wanted to continue to feel her presence in some way.
I exhale and take him by the hand. “Let’s go. But you get to pick the movie.”