CHAPTER 5 DANNY
I don’t shoot until tomorrow, but I decide to swing by the set today anyway since I know Alexis is back in town.
Gregory took her from the airport directly to the studio, and I figured it wouldn’t hurt to pretend like I just stopped by to check shit out when the truth is I’d love to find her trailer and hang there when she’s between scenes… or however all this works.
I easily find her trailer once I get past security since it’s marked with A. Bodega, and I glance around and find myself alone. I walk up the three steps and knock quietly on the door, and it opens a beat later.
She stands there in all her perfect glory, and she yanks me inside. She slams the door behind me, pushes up onto her tiptoes, and meets my lips with hers. I sling an arm around her waist and haul her in close, and she jumps up and links her legs around my waist as she cups my jaw between her hands.
“God, I missed you,” I breathe against her lips, and she opens her mouth to mine as our tongues batter together.
She pulls back and looks into my eyes, and I see something there.
Something I haven’t seen before—not when she’s looking at me, anyway.
I can’t quite identify what it is, but it’s something along the lines of fear.
“What’s wrong?” I ask immediately.
“How do you know something’s wrong?”
“It’s all over your face, Lex. You can’t hide from me.”
She lets out a sigh and drops her legs, but I don’t let her out of my arms.
“What’s going on?” My voice is full of the alarm I feel pulsing through my chest.
She clears her throat. “I, uh…my dad—well…” She’s stuttering, and this nervous girl isn’t the confident woman I’ve come to know.
“It’s okay, Lex. Whatever it is.” I press my lips to her forehead to give her the comfort I know she needs.
She bursts into tears, pulls back from me, and starts fanning her eyes. “Shit. My make-up. They already did it, and I can’t mess it up. I have to go to the studio soon.”
“What’s going on?”
She sniffles as she tries to regain her composure, and her eyes dart around the room before landing back on me. “My dad…it was scary. The whole thing was scary. And he’s the only family I have left, so I have to do what’s right, and, well, that’s...”
“You’re scaring me, Lex,” I say quietly.
“I told him I’d marry Brooks.”
“You what?” I breathe, sure I heard her wrong.
She closes her eyes and nods. “I have to. It’s for him. He said it would make him so happy to know I’m taken care of—”
“But I can take care of you!” I roar.
“I know that, and you know that, but he doesn’t. He trusts Brooks and says it’s for the brand and the merger, and I need to just do this one thing.” She sounds so unsure of herself, and I know this isn’t the Alexis I’ve fallen in love with.
She went to California for a few nights, and somehow, they sent back the wrong person.
“Don’t marry him.” I’m begging, but I don’t know what else to do.
“I have to. It’s for my father.” She sniffles, then steps away from me, further out of my grasp, to grab a tissue. She wraps it around her finger to blot the inside of her eyes. “He’s the only family I have left.”
“It’s emotional blackmail, Alexis. For him to even ask you is emotional blackmail.”
She nods. “I know it is. It’s about control. It’s about playing on my obligations and fears and guilt. But the why doesn’t matter. The fact is that I agreed to do it.”
Marry me instead.
I’m tempted to say the words but can’t quite get them out. I can’t make this harder on her than it already is, not when she’s hurting and scared.
My role here is to take care of her, and I will do that in whatever way I can. But I’m terrified I won’t be able to do it for much longer—not if she’s married to another man.
Have I been a fool all along? Does she even love me?
When my eyes meet hers, I have to believe she does.
Still, this hurts. It stabs a knife right into my guts, twisting and turning until I can no longer bear the pain.
“How long?” I ask quietly.
Her brows dip. “Until the wedding?”
I lift a shoulder. “Yeah. Until the wedding, but also…how long did you agree to stay married?”
“We didn’t get into the finer details,” she admits. “He originally said January, but after this whole health scare, he said he wants to move it sooner.”
“And for how long?”
She shrugs. “I won’t stay with him longer than a year. My dad told me as soon as my last name is Donovan, he’ll sign over my contract to another agent. So as soon as the merger is finalized, I imagine the divorce will be next.”
I walk over and pull her back into my arms because it’s my instinct. It’s what I have to do to try to lessen the pain screaming through me. “I hate this, Alexis.”
“I know. I do, too. Believe me. But I don’t have a choice.” She’s getting emotional again, and I don’t want to make things worse even though I think this is the worst idea in the history of terrible ideas.
Ask her to marry you.
The voice in my head is pulsing at me, but I can’t bring myself to do it. Not yet. She’s here for the next week with me.
We can make this work.
I have time.
It’s short and limited, but I have some, and that’s what I have to bank on right now.
I blow out a breath as I try to dredge up the courage to say what I need to say, but a knock at the door stops me.
She glances at me and then at the door, and I move back behind the door as she pulls it open.
“You’re needed on set, Ms. Bodega,” a female voice announces.
“Thank you,” she says. “I’ll be right there.”
She closes the door, and I’m still standing there right behind it.
The pain in her eyes slices through me as she says, “I’m sorry, Danny. I understand if it’s not right for you to hang around waiting for me.”
I reach over and haul her back into me. “I will wait forever for you if I need to.”
She tips her head back, and I lean down to kiss her.
I just pray there are many more of these kisses to come and that we aren’t staring down at the inevitable end.