Chapter Thirty-One
“You can’t be serious.” Elizabeth took a breath.
Hank could hear her startled gasp through the line. It was Saturday morning, and he was in the gym at his rental. He put the phone on speaker and turned off the treadmill.
“This is an important audition. Blackie says Robin Hood is up for grabs, and you have a great shot at the role. Don’t you care?
You have to be all in, Hank. You’re letting your infatuation with this restaurant owner distract you.
You wouldn’t believe the flood of social media posts and reporter calls that kiss-cam generated.
We have to be careful how we play this, or the press will have a field day. ”
“Her name’s Bethany, and I’m not distracted, Elizabeth. I’m returning to LA, aren’t I?”
“The only reason you’re returning is because she agreed to come with you. It’s like you’ve totally forgotten how important your career is to you. To all of us.”
“I’ve not forgotten my career. I just took a temporary hiatus. It’s not like there was anything exciting happening until this audition and the awards ceremony.” He grabbed a towel and wiped the sweat from his forehead.
“Hank, we’ve all worked far too long and far too hard to watch you throw your career away. You can’t take a hiatus when you don’t have a steady income. Now’s the time we have to maintain your heartthrob image and work really hard to land your next gig.”
Hank plopped onto the sofa and dragged a hand through his hair.
He set the phone on the table in front of him and eyed it like it was a scorpion about to strike.
“You’re not telling me anything I don’t know, so you can skip the lecture.
I have something more important to discuss.
Have you been meddling in Bethany’s personal life? ”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Elizabeth sounded exasperated.
Hank watched the waves crest the shoreline outside the window of the rental property he called his temporary home. “So you didn’t talk to her ex-fiancé?”
“I didn’t say that. I ran into him once in town. He’s got his own television show. It’s always wise to make connections with other celebrities. You never know when they’ll come in handy.”
Hank rubbed his chin and shook his head, although he knew Elizabeth couldn’t see him. “Did you tell him Bethany’s business was in financial trouble, and she’d entered a contest?”
“The subject may have come up. We talked more about what you both had in common and how you could help one another. I told him you’d purchased the building his ex-fiancé used to own.
He expressed interest in featuring Bethany on his new television show.
That’s all. Seemed like a win-win for all of you, which you know I always strive to achieve. Why are you getting so worked up?”
Anger, hot and hard, pulsed through his veins, surprising Hank. When was the last time he’d felt this passionate about anything? “I don’t want her hurt, that’s why. He confronted her today, and it wasn’t pretty. She was badly shaken up.”
“You mean to tell me he lied about wanting her on his show?”
“No, I mean, she doesn’t want anything to do with him—which is totally understandable.
The guy took her and her brother for a ride—stole their life savings and used it to move to New York and break into television.
He’s a real jerk, and I don’t want him around her.
So do me a favor and don’t meddle in her affairs any further, okay. ”
“Okay, okay. Calm down. I won’t meddle as you call it, although I prefer to think of it as helping her achieve her goals and achieving ours at the same time.”
Hank gripped the couch cushion and worked to keep his voice even.
Elizabeth was only doing her job. “I shouldn’t have to tell you this, but I will anyway.
Please keep your interactions with her and her brother to a minimum.
I want them to have an enjoyable time in LA.
Regardless of what you think of her, or how she might impact my career, Bethany’s a good person.
I don’t want to see her hurt any more than she already has been. ”
“Right. Like hanging out with you in LA won’t hurt her? I’ve seen the way she looks at you. The woman’s half in love. What’s going to happen when she’s all the way there after you show her a good time? You’re not the settling down type, Hank. You think that won’t hurt her?”
Hank rubbed his aching head and took deep breaths to try and slow his thumping heart.
“It won’t happen.” But even as he said the words, he recognized the lie.
Didn’t he want Bethany to fall for him? Didn’t he hope to take things further?
He was male after all, and she was an attractive female.
Their relationship wouldn’t remain platonic forever.
A memory of her as she’d looked the other morning in the kitchen at Grandma Lou’s came into his mind as if he’d conjured the vision from a crystal ball—her face white, her lips puffy as if she’d been gnawing on them with worry, her gray-green eyes half afraid, half longing, wide with unshed tears.
She had gazed at him like a recovering alcoholic with a bottle of booze—knowing she must not have it, while at the same time, realizing it was within her grasp, and difficult to resist. Elizabeth was right.
If Bethany didn’t have feelings for him yet, she would soon. It was only a matter of time.
Elizabeth let out a grunt. “You pay me to be straightforward, so that’s how I’m going to be.
Bethany Parker isn’t Melanie Wilson or any of your other starlets.
She won’t understand your lifestyle, let alone accept it.
She won’t know how to handle the press. She won’t move to LA and leave her family behind when you crook your little finger.
You can tell yourself she won’t fall in love with you, but she will.
And then she’ll cry her little heart out when you’re forced to leave her behind. Is that what you want, Hank?”
“No, of course not. I don’t want to hurt her.” But wouldn’t he, if he continued his pursuit?
“That’s what will happen, unless you’re prepared to give this girl a ring, relocate to Cleveland, and throw a big fat white wedding. And we both know marriage and weddings aren’t high on your list of priorities after your crappy childhood.”
“Okay, point received. Listen, I gotta run.”
Hank ended the call and paced back and forth between his weight-lifting bench and the windows. Outside, a seagull perched on the cast-iron patio table, basking in the sunshine and looking for a handout.
He picked up a pair of forty-pound weights, turned to the mirror, and curled his wrists, flexing his biceps.
He wanted to ignore Elizabeth’s words. What did she know about relationships? As far as he knew, she’d never had one. She was a classic workaholic who never made time for dating. She couldn’t possibly know if Hank was capable of a committed relationship or not. Could she?
His stomach twisted and his arms ached. A vein stood out in his bulging muscles. Sweat dripped down his face. He placed the weights back on the rack, breathing hard.
Bethany was an adult. She knew what she was getting into coming to LA with him, didn’t she?
He gazed at his reflection in the mirror.
It was hard to lie to himself. She was halfway in love with him, and what he felt for her went way beyond friendship.
He might almost believe he loved her if he thought he was capable of that emotion.
He had promised her she would be safe with him, and he’d meant it.
But the longest any of his relationships had ever lasted was six months.
Bethany wouldn’t be safe if she fell in love with him.
And she would. It was in her eyes, in the way she looked at him, in her smile, in her kiss.
He grabbed another white towel from the stack and wiped the sweat from his forehead.
He cared about Bethany. More than he’d thought he could ever care about someone else.
But Elizabeth was right about him. He never stayed in love for long.
He always went through a period of infatuation, but eventually, he grew bored, and they would fight, and that ended the relationship.
Melanie had said the problem was him—he wanted his own way and wasn’t willing to compromise.
He grimaced at his reflection. He only ever hurt the women who fell for him.
He wasn’t capable of loving another. He didn’t have the gene that other men seemed to have that allowed them to settle down with one woman.
He would be an absentee husband like his father, invested in his career and not paying attention to the people who loved him the most.
He balled the towel up and made a basket into the hamper as a hard ache settled in his chest. In the end, he would destroy her. And despite all his other failings, that knowledge wasn’t something he could live with.
Bethany slapped the eraser against the chalkboard easel and wiped yesterday’s menu from the board. Now that she had made the decision to leave Grandma Lou’s for the weekend, she was eager to make the trip.
She wrote the lunch special in her curvy handwriting—which she thought looked like a little girl’s, but Travis said looked friendly—and suppressed a shiver of excitement.
She was going to see Hank’s home—all the places he loved.
She and Hank would get to know each other better, grow closer.
He would reveal sides of his life the public didn’t get to see.
Maybe her wish under the stars had a chance of coming true after all?
Maybe they could have their own happily ever after?