Chapter 22 #2
“They have a father, Chris. And it’s not you.
” The words landed like a gut punch. Like she had reached into my head, pulled out every thought I hadn’t even dared to say out loud, and shut it down before I could even process it.
I took a step back, reeling. Of course, they had a father.
Of course, she had a whole life before I crashed into it.
I knew that. But I was selfish enough to ignore it—because I wanted them to be mine.
I didn’t want to think she had been married for all those years, and her kids had been raised by someone else.
Someone who had everything I wanted and managed to screw it all up.
If I ever met the guy, I was punching him in the balls.
“I understand,” I murmured, trying to hide how much it stung.
“I’m sorry…” she said softly. I must’ve looked as wrecked as I felt because her voice lost some of its edge, and her expression shifted.
I shook my head, trying to force a casualness I didn’t feel.
“I know I’m not their father, and I’m not your husband. But aren’t you a little curious to see what we could be?” The thought of us kept me awake at night. If we could have even a fraction of the life I’d seen in my dreams, I would be the luckiest man alive.
I wasn’t usually the hopeful type, but if the universe made the trouble of bending for us to see each other before we even met—how could I not believe there was some version of this where we worked?
“It’s complicated,” she murmured, barely meeting my eyes.
“Is it?” I shot back. I was done tiptoeing around this.
Jules could plan and overthink all she wanted, but that wasn’t me.
I didn’t care about logic or what made sense.
I moved with my gut, and my gut told me one thing: we were supposed to be together.
“It’s crazy, for sure,” I continued, my words spilling out now.
“The whole ‘I know you from a dream’ thing is definitely freakish, but complicated? I’m single, and you’re single—”
“Except you’re not single,” she interrupted.
I let out a frustrated groan, rubbing the back of my neck.
“Really? This again?”
It was a PR stunt. The thought blazed through my mind, but I didn’t say it. Maybe if she were in the business, she would see it more clearly.
She crossed her arms. No more avoiding my gaze. Her eyes locked onto mine.
“I didn’t see any news about you and Anna breaking up.”
I sighed. She wasn’t wrong. But Vanessa was in charge of the narrative, and I knew better than to mess with her plans. My career was the only thing that had mattered to me for so long, and I wasn’t ready to compromise it. At least, I hadn’t been before.
“Blaze…” I used the nickname because I knew what it did to her, and if there was ever a time to use every weapon in my arsenal, it was now. I stepped closer, my hand found her waist, and I felt her body tense under my touch.
“We’re just two people who want to be close to each other,” I murmured, my voice low, coaxing. “I’m done fighting it… so can we just…?”
I didn’t let her answer. I knew her too well; she’d start overthinking, and I couldn’t give her the time to spiral.
I kissed her before her thoughts could drown her.
My lips crashed into her with a hunger that even caught me off guard.
For a second, I felt her hesitate, but then she gave in.
She melted against me, her arms around my neck, holding on for dear life.
We broke the kiss, but our lips stayed close, our breath tangled, neither of us ready to pull away completely.
I whispered, “I don’t believe being together could ever be wrong when our bodies do what they do when we’re close.
” I’d had my fair share of… encounters. But what Jules and I had was art.
It was something that transcended reason or explanation.
Before I could stop myself, I kissed her again, like I couldn’t stand the thought of being apart for even a second longer.
Everything else disappeared. The complications, the noise, the questions—all of it faded away. All that mattered was her. Us.
I guided her toward the kitchen counter, my hands sliding down her back, pulling her closer with every step. Her fingers tangled in my hair, her body pressed against mine, and for a second, I thought maybe we could have this.
Then a voice shattered the moment like glass.
“Oh shit!”
Jules and I broke apart, breathless, and caught completely off guard. Our heads snapped toward the doorway where Carol stood, her eyes wide with surprise. Quickly, she spun around, her back to us.
“I’m sorry!” she blurted.
Jules pressed a hand to her chest, trying to steady her racing heart. She adjusted her hair, smoothed her clothes, and finally said, “It’s okay. Just… come in.”
Carol hesitated, then turned back around dramatically, her hands covering her eyes like a kid who walked into the wrong room.
“The kids asked for more blueberries. Luckily, I offered to come get some.” I couldn’t help but smile at the way she overdid it, though Jules looked far less amused. With a sigh, she took the plate from her sister’s hands and added more blueberries.
Carol, however, wasn’t done. She gave Jules one of those knowing, sisterly looks, her lips curling into a sly smile. Then she mouthed, “Nice!” and threw in a wink for good measure. I had to bite the inside of my cheek to keep from laughing. Jules rolled her eyes and flushed a deep shade of pink.
“I’ll take these,” she said while brushing past Carol. Then she looked at me. “You should go.”
I crossed my arms. “We’re not done talking.”
Carol didn’t miss the opportunity and smirked.
“Is that what the kids call ‘talking’ these days?”
Jules shot her another look, this one so sharp that Carol wisely glanced down at her shoes, pretending to suddenly find them fascinating.
She turned back to me, “I have to take the kids to their father’s.” She hesitated like she didn’t want to get the words out, like saying them would hurt me. I appreciated that. But we still needed to talk. “We can talk later,” she continued.
“Do you want me to wait for you here, or…?”
“On the phone.” Her words came out too fast. She bit her lower lip as if she could still taste me there, and I got the message loud and clear.
She didn’t trust herself to talk to me in person.
I bit back a smile. Personally, I didn’t see the problem with continuing this conversation while lying naked in bed, but I would always respect her wishes.
“I need your number again. I had an… accident with my old phone.”
She raised a brow. The question hovered on her lips, almost made it out, but she let it die there.
Instead, she left the plates on the counter, reached for a Post-it and pen from the refrigerator door, wrote her number, and stuck it directly onto my shirt, right across my chest. Her hand stayed there a second longer than it needed to.
I placed mine over hers, not to stop her, just to… maybe slow her down.
“I’ll call you then.”
“Okay.” She said, sliding her hand out from under mine like she didn’t want to leave, but had to. She picked the plates back up, turned toward the stairs but then stopped, looking back at me over her shoulder. “But call. Don’t text.”
I grinned. “Yes, ma’am.”
She disappeared up the stairs, and I exhaled, shaking my head. As I reached for my coat, Carol spoke.
“Don’t take it personally. She’s very protective of the kids.”
I nodded, absorbing her words. I forced a small smile and replied, “As she should be.”
“And of her heart,” Carol added softly. “She looks strong, but when she gets involved, she really gets involved. And when it crashes… she crashes… hard.”
“I understand.”
“She also didn’t have the best experience with people in your industry,” she added. “So… she’s cautious.”
“It’s a tough industry,” I admitted. A world full of egos and assholes.
I knew that firsthand. “But she’ll have to face it if she wants to sell her scripts.
” I gestured toward the folder on the coffee table, the one I’d been eyeing since last night.
I wanted to read it. The way Jules brushed it off as a hobby didn’t sit right with me.
If she was a screenwriter in the dreams we shared, maybe it wasn’t a coincidence.
But when she told me not to touch it, I didn’t.
Carol’s voice snapped me out of my thoughts.
“I don’t think she’ll try that again.”
I turned to her, curious. “Again?”
Her voice shifted; it was quieter now.
“She almost sold one of her scripts once.” She avoided my eyes like she didn’t want to go there.
I straightened up, fully focused now. Jules never told me that.
She let out a slow breath, her eyes darkening.
“This producer… he tried—well, he wanted more than her script. And the day before she was supposed to meet with a director and some up-and-coming actor to finalize the deal, he tried to… get it. Very forcefully.”
I felt my entire body go rigid.
“She pulled the plug immediately, obviously,” Carol continued. Anger in her eyes. “But he didn’t take it well. He made sure she couldn’t sell the script to anyone else.”
A sharp, burning wave of anger surged through me.
“That’s awful,” I said, forcing myself to keep my voice steady.
I didn’t want to scare Carol, but what I really wanted to say was, “Who is he?” And, “Don’t mention my name to the cops when they come asking about his mysterious disappearance”.
The thought of someone trying to force themselves on Jules, of treating her like that, disrespecting her, hurting her, made my blood boil.
Unfortunately, I’d heard stories like this before. The industry had no shortage of predators, and each one made me sicker than the last. If I ever found out who he was, I wouldn’t hesitate to end his career with a couple of well-placed phone calls.
“Yeah, it was… But that was way before the kids, about… twelve years ago. She stopped writing for a while after that. Only recently, she started again.”
Twelve years. My mind was working overtime, sifting through memories, trying to piece together why that felt significant. Why it felt familiar. I glanced at the script again, my thoughts spiraling. My body was there, but my head was somewhere else entirely.
I needed to get home.
“Thanks, Carol,” I said abruptly, pulling myself out of my thoughts.
“For what?”
“For convincing her to give me a shot instead of helping her drag my body,” I said, only half-joking. I felt like maybe we bonded this morning. If I’d managed to break through some of Carol’s walls, maybe I could do the same with Jules, even though her walls were… astronomically taller.
“I did no such thing,” she said, raising an eyebrow.
“Yet.” I grinned and touched her shoulder as I moved toward the door. “But you like me now. I can see it in your eyes.”
“Oh no, did she hit you in the head with a pan after I left?” she shot back. “You poor thing.”
I didn’t turn around, but the smile was still on my face.
“See you later, little sis,” I said, knowing it’d get under her skin.
“Ewww… you take that back,” she called after me.
I laughed as I stepped out the door, closing it behind me.