Chapter 28
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Eva took a shaky breath and pressed both hands to her cheeks as she stared at the last page of her finished script. The words had poured straight from the heart during the last five days she’d been tucked away in Charleston with Owen.
“I’m done.” Emotion squeezed in her throat, and she swiped at the tears on her cheeks.
Owen sat in front of his laptop at the bar counter of the pub he owned. She’d learned he was a man with a lot of skills, apparently; one of which included making ridiculously delicious cocktails.
The pub was closed down in the winter, so they’d been staying in an apartment he had on the second floor. Luke hadn’t been too concerned about a threat, but he’d wanted her with one of his people until everything blew over. Well, that’s what Owen had said on their drive from D.C. to Charleston.
“You really banged out an entire script from start to finish in five days?” He came next to her and brushed a strand of blond hair from his face.
He had the whole Charlie Hunnam look going for him.
Intimidating, but super sexy. Of course, he wasn’t Luke, and she highly doubted any man would ever measure up to him.
“It’s amazing what you can do when you’ve almost died.” She closed her laptop and sniffled, trying to stifle the tears.
“You didn’t write about what happened, did you?”
Amusement spread through her, warming her cheeks at the sudden nervous look on his face.
“No one would believe that story.”
“You’re probably right.”
“I scrapped the movie I’d been writing before I met you guys, though. Inspiration sort of seized hold of me when we got here.”
“This place can do that,” he said, his eyes now focused on the wall at her side, and she followed his gaze to see what had captured his attention.
It was an old framed photo of two people, but how could she not have made the connection sooner . . .? “Is that you? You’re so young.” A smile found her lips, and she faced him again.
“Yeah,” he said, his voice flat.
“Who’s the guy next to you?” Concern had her skin breaking out into goose bumps, and she crossed her arms.
“My brother.” He cleared his throat and blinked as if ushering away whatever thoughts were on his mind.
“Oh?” Relief swelled in her chest. “It’s hard for me to imagine you running this place alone, while working at Scott they’d all gathered at a moment’s notice when she’d put in the request.
She was fortunate to have them.
Her older brother, Harrison, had his back to everyone, his palm resting on the mantle above the lit fireplace in her father’s office. “People will find out you’re here. The real you. It’s probably not a good idea to stay much longer.”
“That’s okay,” she said softly, letting them know for the first time her decision to return to her old life. “I’m done hiding. I thought it was what I wanted, but”—she stretched her arms, palms up—“I miss you guys. I miss being part of this family.”
“Are you serious?” Her mom was on her feet and striding to her. She wrapped her arms around her. “Finally.”
Harrison faced her now. “What about your show?”
“I spoke with everyone yesterday and let them in on my secret.” She smiled when she pulled back from her mom.
“The director figured me out a few months after I started, but he assumed I had wanted my privacy.” She’d been in shock when he’d dropped that bomb on her, but also relieved that her lie of a life had been paper thin.
“I’m going to keep working on the show for as long as they’ll have me, but I’ll need to do a better job of safeguarding my life from now on. ”
“We’re happy to have you back, sweetheart,” her dad said from behind his desk. He was never a man for hugs and big emotions, but she loved him for who he was.
Her mom clapped her hands together before glancing at her dad’s fourth wife. “Well, I think this is cause for celebration. Let’s have a party this weekend.”
“I’m not really up for that right now,” Eva said and looked to her older brother for support.
“Yeah, she’s had a stressful few weeks, apparently; let’s just be glad we have her home,” Harrison said.
“It’s up to you.” Her mom smiled.
“Could I have a word with Dad alone?” Eva glanced around the room, and her family scattered. She waited for the doors to close before she went to her bag resting against one of the bookshelves that lined the wall.
Her gaze lifted as she reached inside, catching the spine of a Tolstoy novel on the shelf, and her heart shriveled in her chest.
“Are you okay?”
Shoving thoughts of Luke from her mind, she stood upright with the printed screenplay in hand and slowly approached her father’s desk, terrified of losing her nerve.
He reached for his glasses and slipped them on when she placed the pages in front of him.
“Crossfire?” He read the title aloud.
She tucked her hands in her khaki pants pockets, not sure what to do with her cold fingers as she fought the nerves tangling in her throat.
“It’s about a man caught in the moment of indecision—love or career.
He thinks he can only have one choice, not realizing he can have the world if he only wants it bad enough. ”
“Is there any action?” He started flipping through the pages.
“Of course.” She looked skyward for a moment, corralling her thoughts so she could string together the right words.
“I want to make a movie with you, Dad. It’s been my dream, and I’m so proud of this script.
I couldn’t get myself to hand it over to anyone else first without at least seeing if you wanted it. ”
He removed his glasses, his green eyes narrowing. “Sweetheart, I’ve been waiting a lifetime for you to ask me.”
“But I don’t want you to say yes because I’m your daughter.” She placed a palm on his desk for support. “I needed to know I had what it takes to be in this business—”
“I get it. I did the same thing when I was your age.”
His words had her taken aback. “What do you mean?”
He motioned to the armchair in front of the desk, and so she took a seat.
“I was in my late twenties, and your grandfather was this famous producer, as you know—but I always feared I’d be living in his shadow. So, I changed my name and went out on my own for a few years, which is when I met your mother.” He smiled. “She fell in love with me without knowing I was a Reed.”
“And then what happened?” she asked, surprised that she’d never known of the story.
“I was failing miserably on my own, and so she convinced me to go back and be who I was born to be.” He laughed. “Basically, I needed my name to make it anywhere in the industry.”
“But you’re incredible. That’s not true.”
He shrugged. “Maybe that’s the case now, but when I was young, I swear I didn’t know my left from my right sometimes.
I realized I needed to be in my dad’s shadow to learn enough so I could cast my very own someday.
” He stood and scratched at his white beard.
“I never wanted to eclipse your light, though. And I never could. You shine so damn bright. You know that, don’t you? ”
Eva was on her feet, wiping the tears from her face yet again as he came around and reached for her arm. She’d never heard such words from her father, and maybe she never knew she had needed them until now.
“What I’m trying to say is I want nothing more in the world than to make a movie with you.” He looked into her eyes, his experience obvious, not so much from the wrinkles, but from the depth of his green irises.
“If it’s shit, you’ll tell me, though, right?”
He laughed. “I’ve always been honest with you. This time will be no different.”
She nodded and smiled. “Okay.” A tiny bit of happiness filled her heart when her dad hugged her—something he hadn’t done in years. “Let’s do this.”
When she left his embrace, his gaze softened even more. “Why is it you still don’t look happy?”
She wished she could tell him in figuring out who she truly wanted to be, she’d fallen for someone she could never have.
He pointed to the script. “Is your story about a certain someone who may be the cause of whatever’s eating at you right now?”
She gave an innocent lift to her shoulders. “Maybe.”
“Tell me, then . . . how does the story end?”