Chapter Fourteen
An eggy, cheesy aroma wafted through Hazel’s house, courtesy of a vegetable-packed frittata, fresh from the oven. She leaned in and inhaled deeply, sprinkled more cheese over the top, added a pinch of cracked black pepper and garnished it with a large sprig of continental parsley. Smiling to herself, she snapped a photo, poured out a glass of dry chianti and dropped onto a chair with a contented sigh. Hazel was just about to start eating when there was a tap at the door. She tossed a tea towel over her dinner as nerves filled her stomach.
‘Your dad’s here, Harry.’
The little dog raced in front of her, his tail wagging wildly. She shook out her shoulders and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear before swinging the door open. Ethan was standing on the mat, his hands jammed into his pockets. He looked miserable.
‘Sorry about this,’ he said. ‘Thanks for hanging onto him, I wasn’t sure how late I was going to be.’ He bent down and ruffled Harry’s head. ‘Hey little dude, are you ready to go?’
Hazel’s brow furrowed. For the first time, Ethan hadn’t bombarded her with dimples and a dazzling smile. Even his biceps seemed less inflated.
‘Are you okay?’ she asked.
‘I think so?’ He sighed. ‘It was a bit of a shit day on set.’ He breathed in deeply, his face brightening. ‘Smells great in here, though. What’s cooking?’
She glanced over her shoulder at the food waiting for her, then back to Ethan and the weight so obviously resting on his shoulders.
‘I made a frittata,’ she said. ‘Doris next door has chickens and she gave me some fresh eggs. It’s only just out of the oven. You’re welcome to stay – I’ve made enough for at least four.’
His eyebrows pulled together, then he glanced down at Kevin, curling between his legs. He scooped the cat into his arms.
‘Kevin would obviously like you to stay,’ Hazel said.
Ethan’s brows lifted with a tiny arch. ‘Only Kevin?’ he asked.
His tongue touched his bottom lip and her eyes followed it there.
She looked back up to find his bright blue gaze locked firmly on her, and that’s how they stayed as Hazel’s lungs emptied and she forgot how to breathe. Then Kevin began to purr and Ethan looked down, pressing his face into the cat’s fur.
Saved by the purrs. Maybe Kevin did have her back.
‘Sorry if I was a little weird this morning,’ Ethan said, his fingers buried in Kevin’s fur. ‘Ronnie randomly showed up on the sand outside my house. Caught me completely off guard.’
‘That is awkward,’ she said. ‘You had every right to be weird.’
‘So I was weird, huh?’ A small grin lifted one corner of his mouth.
‘A little bit.’ She pressed the tips of her index finger and thumb together.
He leaned against the doorjamb, resting his head against the wood.
‘Anything to report?’ Ethan asked. ‘Has Harry been a good boy?’
‘He’s always a good boy.’
‘Takes after his owner.’ His lips twitched into a smile.
‘Why do I find that hard to believe?’
And why is he staring at me like that?She shuffled nervously.
He placed Kevin on the floor and the cat trilled as he stretched up, his paws on Ethan’s leg.
‘I will never get over Kevin liking you,’ Hazel said. ‘It’s bizarre.’
‘I’m not sure how to take that.’ Ethan cocked an eyebrow.
‘I didn’t mean it in a bad way.’
‘I’m glad to hear it.’
His gaze lingered on her again, electric blue and intense. A trickle of sweat ran down the back of her neck.
‘I also don’t think I thanked you properly for the other night,’ she said. ‘For supporting me and—’
‘Telling Logan to fuck off? You did it first.’
She grinned. ‘I did, didn’t I? You know, I’d wanted to do that for about a year. But thanks for making him actually fuck off.’ A low laugh rumbled in Ethan’s chest and her body thrummed with the sound.
‘How did it feel?’ he asked. ‘To say the words you’d held in for a year?’
‘I’ve been thinking about that. I wish I’d chosen better words. But I guess they did the job.’
‘Well,’ he scooped up Harry, ‘I should let you get back to your dinner. I’ll take a raincheck if that’s okay?’
‘No problem. Hey, wait here for a sec,’ she said.
She went to the kitchen and pulled out a tub of sugar cookies she’d baked earlier that day, put a few in a zip-lock bag and handed them to Ethan.
‘You look as if you could do with a cookie.’
A smile she hadn’t seen before touched his lips. Softer, sweeter, less blinding. Completely beautiful. He lifted the bag and looked inside.
‘Wait, are they in the shape of stars?’ The soft smile rapidly transformed into his far more familiar smirk.
‘A coincidence. It was the only cookie cutter in the drawer.’
‘That sounds like fate to me.’
They gazed at each other for a moment, the humid night air crackling around them.
‘Are you sure you don’t want to come in?’ Hazel asked. She suddenly craved his company.
‘Oh, I want to. But I won’t.’ He smiled gently. ‘Thanks for the invite though, and the cookies. It means a lot.’
Ethan dropped onto his bed with a groan. He should have been going for a run, or a swim, or both. He should at least get his arse moving and have a shower. But all he wanted to do was lie there and block out the day, maybe even wallow a little. Harry jumped onto the mattress beside him and Ethan rolled onto his side, snuggling against the little dog.
‘Why am I okay with you, Harry, and not with other dogs? Why couldn’t you have been my co-star?’ He wished he’d thought of that earlier and figured out a way to change the script.
Change the script.
That was what Lena was storming up there to do. He didn’t want to get a reputation for being difficult. He wasn’t difficult. He was the easygoing guy, always ready to do whatever was good for the project. Ethan sat up and dragged his T-shirt over his head, tossing it towards the chair. It missed, landing on the floor. He stared at it. Being the easygoing guy was exhausting.
He sagged back to the mattress. He should ring Sera. She’d know exactly what to say to make him feel better. She’d put the whole dog incident into perspective.
Grabbing his phone from the bedside table, Ethan knocked the bag of Hazel’s cookies onto the floor. He shifted Harry, reached down with a grunt and retrieved the cookies, placing the bag in the middle of his chest as he began composing a text to Sera.
Ethan: Hey. Are you around? I had a shit day and really need to hear your voice. Can I call?
He frowned, shook his head, grumbling ‘Need to hear your voice?’ and deleted the message. He started again.
Ethan: Hi Sera. Need dog advice. Got time to talk?
As his finger hovered over send, his gaze moved to the bag of cookies still sitting in the middle of his chest. Six perfect stars, their tops lightly dusted in icing sugar. He pulled the bag to him, turning it over in his hand. Then he glanced back at the unsent message, deleted it and tossed his phone onto his pillow.
He opened the bag, took out a cookie and bit into it. It snapped between his teeth with a crisp crunch, then melted on the tip of his tongue, all sugar and butter and everything he knew he shouldn’t want but wanted so badly. He moaned. Hazel was a good cook. He licked the sugar from his fingers one by one. She was a good, surprisingly kind, hot and sexy cook, and he might be more than just attracted to her. He finished the cookie, grabbed another and went out onto his balcony. Ethan looked out at the ocean, the moonlight dancing on the small waves, and crunched through the second cookie, savouring each bite.
He didn’t need to call Sera. He knew what he needed to do.
Hazel placed the last of the dishes into the drying rack, wiped her hands on the back of her shorts, flicked off the kitchen lights and headed to her bedroom to settle in with an episode of The Bear, her current cooking show obsession. She tugged on her pyjamas, wondering how Ethan was doing and if she should check in with him. He’d looked so low when she’d first opened the door. Not that it made him any less stunning. It almost made him more stunning, somehow. She rolled her eyes. Typical, that she’d think him more attractive when he was wan and miserable. Some things never changed.
She tossed back the doona, laughing at herself as she crawled between the cool sheets. Kevin slunk into the room and leapt silently onto the end of her bed, curling up into a sleek black ball. Hazel froze, the sheet still grasped in her hand. Not only was he in her room at the same time she was, he was on her bed at the same time she was. That hadn’t happened since… She struggled to remember. Maybe forever. What had got into him?
She shuffled carefully towards the bedside table and had just grabbed the TV remote when her phone dinged. She delicately slid her other hand towards her phone – moving as slowly as possible to avoid disturbing Kevin – and checked her messages.
Ethan: Hey. Can you grab Harry from set tomorrow?
Hazel sat up, wincing when her foot got dangerously close to Kevin’s side of the bed. ‘Sorry, Kev,’ she whispered. Her lips twitched into a grin as she quickly typed a reply.
Hazel: Why? Are you going to have more bikini-clad women at your place tomorrow?
Ethan: Ha ha. No.
Hazel: Couldn’t resist. What’s going on?
Ethan: Production have been bugging me about organising a security pass for you. We can do it then.
Hazel: Okay. Just tell me where and when.
She thought for a moment before sending another text.
Hazel: How are you doing? Are you feeling any better?
Staring at her phone, Hazel waited for his response.
Ethan: The cookies helped.
Three more dots bounced at the bottom of her screen, then a photo appeared. It was Ethan in a full pout, with Harry’s face pressed against his cheek. She stared at the photo, her lids fluttering. His shoulders were bare and filled the screen. Golden smooth skin, ridges of muscle, pink and pillowy pouted lips and those all-caps blue eyes, the bluest she’d ever seen them.
She shook her head. How did anyone look like that?.
She glanced at Kevin, then at the photo of Ethan radiating from the screen of her phone, then back to Kevin again. She nibbled thoughtfully on her lip. Then, with a swallow, she very carefully shuffled herself around so that her cat was behind her and took a selfie. She sent it to Ethan, adding a black heart emoji, which she deleted, then added, then deleted again, before huffing angrily at herself, adding it a final time and hitting send.
Ethan stared at the photo of Hazel and Kevin. At Hazel’s creamy shoulders, naked except for the thin straps of her singlet top, pink of course, and at the way her blonde hair was pushed into a very, very messy bun. Her floral doona was bunched up behind her, soft and inviting, and her face was fresh and clear and clean, as if she’d just finished her nightly beauty regime. The heart was for Kevin, of course, not for him. But still, at the sight of that heart and the knowledge that he would now be seeing her tomorrow, his shitty day melted away like her cookies on his tongue.
Ethan: See, he does you. Night, Hazel.
He tapped on Hazel’s photo and hit save.
Hazel mashed her lips together as she read Ethan’s message, the corners of mouth creeping up into a smile. She glanced at Kevin, curled into a tight ball by her feet, then flopped against her pillows with a lightness in her chest that she couldn’t identify, and didn’t want to try to.