Chapter 19
“What the hell is wrong with you today?” Jordan asked Gigi after a grueling morning taking surfing lessons from a local pro while the cameras tracked their every move.
“Huh? Nothing’s wrong with me.”
“Do you know how hard it is to film witty dialogue when the other person in the scene has nothing to say?”
“I said stuff.”
“Not enough, Gigi, and you know it. What’s going on?”
“I’m just tired, and I suck at surfing.”
“We both suck at surfing. That’s the whole point. We’re going to have to redo this entire morning because you wouldn’t engage. And Mason doesn’t even want me surfing now that we know I’m pregnant. I promised him I’d be super careful, so I don’t want to have to do this again.”
“We can redo my parts and splice them. You’re all set.” Gigi wanted to scream because redoing her parts would keep her on the island even longer. After last night, she wanted out of there as soon as possible. Today would be a perfect day to leave.
Matilda approached the two of them, loaded for bear. “That was terrible. We got jack.”
“My fault,” Gigi said, squirming inside the confining wet suit. “I’ll make it up to you.”
“You’re damned right you will. I should fine you for your lackluster performance today.”
“I’m not allowed to have one off day in an entire summer?
Fuck that shit.” Fuming, Gigi walked away and ignored Matilda’s demand that she come back.
She went straight to her car and had backed out of the parking space before the show runner could catch up to her.
Fuck it all. Fuck everything. And mostly fuck Cooper James and his sweet tenderness and gorgeous face.
He had no right to do this to her, to knock her so far off her game that she’d forgotten how to be funny.
Her job was to be funny, and she couldn’t do that when her head was all over the place.
She was finished with him and this goddamned island and everyone who lived here. It was time for her to go home, where things made sense.
Except, for a little while longer, “home” was here on Gansett Island, right next door to the man who’d caused her to be so out of sorts.
As she sped away from the day’s location, she knew she was being a brat, but there was no way she could find her groove today, so she was doing everyone a favor by stepping away.
She’d send a text to Matilda to apologize later and would be back to work in the morning with a new attitude.
The show had given Gigi something she’d never had before—serious financial security.
Her law practice kept the lights on and allowed her to lease a gorgeous car to help sell herself as a Hollywood player, but the truth was that until Jordan had asked her to join the show and be her comic relief, Gigi hadn’t had much of a financial safety net.
That safety net was one more reason to love Jordan.
She’d known what it would mean to Gigi to have that cushion and had included her in the show.
At the beginning, neither of them could’ve possibly known the show would be a runaway hit that would make them both into major celebrities with huge followings and all the associated nonsense that went with stardom.
One of those things was big-time endorsement deal offers that were waiting for both of them in LA.
They were wanted for cosmetics, shapewear, swimsuits, liquor and cars, to name a few.
In short, they had their pick of what they wanted to do and had put off making any decisions until the season on Gansett was in the can.
With the end of filming in sight, they’d be under pressure about that before much longer. And with Jordan expecting the Gansett fire chief’s child, there was a very good chance that she wouldn’t be going back to LA at all.
Now that she’d stormed off the location, Gigi was at a loss as to where to go.
If she went back to Jared’s, there was a chance she’d run into Cooper, and she didn’t want to see him.
Not now when she was feeling so raw about what’d happened between them last night.
And just for the record, it wasn’t at all like her to freak out about sex.
To her, sex was transactional. Everyone got off and went home happy—most of the time, anyway.
A lot of the guys she’d been with wouldn’t know how to get a woman off if their life depended on it.
Cooper hadn’t had that problem—or any other, for that matter.
The man was a god in bed and out. That was the problem.
She didn’t want to have found the unicorn.
That stuff was for other women, not her.
She had no time or patience for all the crap that went along with men and relationships.
Gigi didn’t do relationships. The word gave her hives, for fuck’s sake.
Relationship.
It was so pretentious and full of loaded guns pointing at vulnerable hearts.
If you didn’t get involved in relationships, you couldn’t get your heart broken.
That seemed rather simple to her in concept, but with her two closest friends settling into relationships that had forever stamped all over them, Gigi had tried to keep her scorn and contempt well hidden.
Just because her friends had found their forever loves didn’t mean Gigi was suddenly interested in the same for herself.
And why in the hell was she even thinking about that shit?
It was all Cooper James’s fault. If he had just done what he was supposed to do and gone through the motions with the usual wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am routine, none of this would be happening.
She wouldn’t be in trouble with Matilda—and probably Jordan, too—and she wouldn’t be looking for a place to hide out so she could avoid running into him.
Why’d he have to do the whole sweet, tender routine? Why couldn’t he be like every other guy who wanted to get his rocks off and to hell with what the woman wanted?
Ugh, she was furious with him! Yes, she was well aware that her anger was ridiculous.
The man had given her multiple orgasms, after all, and that alone made him special.
However, she didn’t want him to be special.
She wanted him to be a late-summer fling with no strings attached.
Wasn’t that the very definition of the word fling?
After driving twice around the road that ran the perimeter of the island, she pulled into the parking lot at the bluffs—the scene of the crime, if you will—rolled the windows down and killed the engine. As the warm summer breeze blew through the car, she took a deep breath and let it out.
She was being completely foolish, and she knew it. But if she held on to the anger, she wouldn’t do something stupid, like go find him for another round of unicorn sex.
“You are not doing that, Gabrielle. Do you hear me? You will not have sex with Cooper James ever again. That is my final word on the matter.”
Enough of that madness, she thought, reaching for the cell phone she’d left in the car during filming, intending to send a message to Matilda. But then she saw one from Cooper, and like the idiot she was where he was concerned, she devoured his words.
Dear Gigi, last night was amazing. Completely and totally AMAZING.
For me, anyway. I sort of get the feeling that you don’t agree, and I think I might know why that is.
You’ve been very vocal about what this is and what it isn’t.
I respect that. I respect you. We both have lives that take place far away from this island—and far away from each other.
It would be easy to look at this thing between us as nothing more than two ships passing in the night on their way to bigger and better things.
But here’s the thing… I’ve never met ANYONE like you.
And I’m not talking about the larger-than-life public persona that’s Gigi Gibson.
I’m talking about YOU, Gabrielle, the woman behind the flash.
I think you’re magnificent, and all I want is to spend as much time with you as I possibly can for as long as I possibly can.
You make me laugh. You make me think. You make me want like I’ve never wanted before.
You make me crazy. You make me happy. You have me reconsidering my life plan so it can include you.
I’m sure this message is making you boiling mad because we weren’t supposed to be about THIS.
Trust me, I didn’t want THIS either. But here we are.
I’d like to bring you dinner tonight so we can talk.
Would that be okay? I hope so, because I have so much more I want to say to you. Love, Cooper
Gigi wiped tears from her face and then reread the message two more times.
Love, Cooper. Swoon.
Gigi Gibson did not swoon over any man! But this man… Dear God, he was killing her.
Her phone chimed with another text from him. PS, I can see that you’ve read my text, so now I’m just suffering. You don’t want me to suffer, do you? Do you?
Now she was laughing and crying. Goddamn him.
She started typing. Goddamn you.
After she sent the text, he replied with laughing emojis. My heart can’t take all this romance.
This is NOT a romance.
Feels like it could be.
I don’t do romance.
I know, but jeez, Gigi, maybe we ought to give it a try, just this once, to see what it’s like?
No.
Yes.
No.
YES.
Cooper…
Gigi… I like you. I REALLY like you, and I want to be with you.
You’re just a little boy. You don’t know what you want. There, that ought to piss him off and get things back on track.
I think I proved to you last night that there’s nothing little about me.
Goddamn him. Goddamn you.
More laughter emojis.
You’re not taking me seriously, Gigi wrote.
I’m taking you more seriously than I’ve ever taken anyone.
You weren’t supposed to do that.
I know, but…
I don’t want this.
I know.
So???
Can I see you?
Gigi shook her head as she responded. No! You’re radioactive now.