54. Chapter Fifty-Four
And the email that goes out to the Love Is in the Air Fan Event ticket holders says, “Due to her filming schedule, Christina Malloy will not attend this year’s event; however, Graham Crowley, who was not scheduled to be in attendance, will be there.”
* * *
When I pull up in front of my parents’ house, it’s dark. I look at my watch. It’s eight o’clock. I can’t imagine they’re in bed already.
I pick up my phone from the cup holder and text my mother with Loki on the seat behind me, pacing as if he wants to go in too.
Are you awake?I text.
A few moments later, my mother texts back. What’s the matter?
She didn’t answer my question, but she did answer my text. I’m in front of your house.
I don’t get another text. Instead, I see the living room lights turn on, and then the porch light. Only another moment later, the front door opens, and my mother is standing there in her pajamas.
I chuckle to myself.
I step out of my car and open the door to the back seat. Before he jumps out, Loki studies me.
He has to know I’m conflicted.
I give him a nod, and he jumps out of the car and hurries up the front steps. As I close the door, I watch as my mother crouches down and snuggles my dog, and then they both wait for me—watching me.
“I didn’t mean to interrupt you,” I say.
“Who says you’re interrupting me?”
“You’re already in your pajamas. The house is dark.”
She puckers her lips, but her eyes are light. “We went to bed early,” she says with a rise of her brows, and there’s a hint of something that makes my skin crawl. I don’t want to know what she means by that.
The look on her face changes to one of concern. “Honey, what’s wrong?”
I run my hand over my jaw and let out a breath. “I saw Christina.”
Her eyes light again. “You did? She looks good, doesn’t she? Did you meet Dolly?”
I let out a snort. “Yeah. She looks great, and Dolly is sweet.”
Loki’s ears perk up at Dolly’s name. Shit, my dog is in love too.
“But you wouldn’t be standing on my front porch if it had been a good meeting, now, would you?”
And that’s why I’m here. I need my mother.
She steps back to hold open the screen door, and Loki and I pass into the house.
“Go to the kitchen. I’ll make us something to drink.”
Loki and I head to the kitchen. I sit down at the table as my mother gets Loki’s bowl and fills it with water first. Once she sets it down, and he begins to lap at it, my mother takes down the box of dog treats she has, and Loki swiftly moves to her, forgetting his water.
She hands him the treat, rubs his ears, and returns the box to the cabinet while Loki takes up space on the kitchen floor with his treat.
“Christina and I had lunch last week. She said she’d started filming, and that Penelope Mondragon is a genius,” my mother says as she turns on her electric kettle and pulls down two mugs and her tea box.
“She is a genius. This is Christina’s ticket. She’ll be sought after now.”
My mother nods as she carries the mugs and the teas to the table and sets them down before taking the seat next to me. “But I didn’t take it that she was happy,” she says.
“Why wouldn’t she be? She has everything she wanted.”
Twisting up her lips, my mother shakes her head. “I don’t think she does.”
“What’s missing?”
She rests her hand on my arm. “You.”
I want to believe that, and especially since it’s coming from my mother.
“I don’t think she’s missing me.”
“I think you’re wrong,” she says as the kettle signals that it’s ready.
She stands and walks to retrieve the kettle. When she returns to the table, she pours water into each mug before she sets the kettle on the table and sits back down.
“Sweetheart, I know what she did. She gave you up so you’d go to Italy and do the movie. Right?”
I study my mother. How close did she and Christina get? Did Christina tell her everything?
“Well, yes. But what do you know?” I ask.
A line forms between her brows and she shakes her head. “I don’t know anything. I just assumed that’s what she did. She’s miserable without you.”
This is it. This is where I come clean. “Did you know that our relationship was a PR stunt?”
She blinks hard at me. “I don’t understand.”
I sit back in my chair and cross my legs, and then my arms. “A rumor got started that we were seeing each other. Our agents thought it was a good thing to run with because the ratings of our movies are higher than another pairing. They knew I wanted the action film, and that Christina wanted the Penelope Mondragon film. With us in the public eye more, it got us exactly what we were wanting.”
“So, your relationship was fake?” she asks as she moves the box of teas between us.
I draw in a breath. “Yes.”
She resigns to the conversation over the tea and sits back in her chair to watch me. “Wait,” she says, waving a hand in front of herself as to erase what I’ve said and to start over. “I’m very confused. You asked her to marry you.”
“I did.”
“You did that for a role? Are you kidding me? Were you going to marry her and have fake kids or something?” Her voice rises and her nostrils flare. She’s angry.
That makes me laugh. “No. No. The deal was we would post pictures of us and have PDA in public. That was supposed to be it. But I fell in love with her. I didn’t know it would be possible, but I did.”
My mother’s face softens. “Graham,” she says as she presses her hand to her chest.
“But I think it was one sided.”
She shakes her head. “Oh, no. I don’t think so. That woman loves you. She’s still in love with you.”
“Part of the stipulation to getting the role was that I stop dating her.”
Crinkling up her nose, my mother turns her attention back to picking out a tea packet. “They made you date and then they made you break up?”
“Not our agents,” I say. “Her father.”
With the tea packet in her hand, my mother lifts her eyes back to me. “Why would he do that?”
“Because he’s a control freak, and so is her mother.” I set my feet on the ground and lean my forearms on the table. “It’s like they keep Christina to themselves. I mean, her dad doesn’t give two shits about her. He doesn’t respect her career. He doesn’t even acknowledge her when she’s around. And her mother,” I begin, and my voice rises.
I look behind me to see that I was loud enough Loki’s ears perked up, and I probably woke my dad. But I don’t hear him stirring.
“Her mother uses her for free publicity for her spas.”
“That’s shameful,” my mother says.
“But after all of these lies, and us actually loving each other, and even getting engaged, it wasn’t enough. He wrote it in the fucking contract,” I say, and she swats my hand.
“Mouth.”
“I can’t help it. I couldn’t have the role if I was with her.”
“But you were engaged. And you got the role.”
I’ve confused her further. “Yeah, well, then he produced the Mondragon movie and gave her the same ultimatum.”
“Bastard.”
Now I know I woke my father when I laughed hard at that.
“I hadn’t signed the contract. I would have given it all up for her.”
My mother’s gaze softens, and she rests her hand on mine. “But she didn’t do the same?”
Pressing my fingers to my eyes, I shake my head. “She signed her contract, gave back the ring, and broke it off with me.”
“She wanted the movie more?”
I study my mother. “I think she did it so I got my movie,” I say, admitting the truth that I’ve always felt inside and confirmed by what Milo told me. “I thought she loved me. But tonight?—”
“She knows the deal with your movie? Has she talked to her father? I mean, what harm is there in the two of you being together if the movie is a bust anyway?”
The smile on my mouth is instant. She gets it. What in the hell would it ever matter if we’d been together or not?
“What do I do? I want her. I want her for life—and her dog.”
“You do know your dog is in love with her dog, right?” she says, and we both look at Loki who is now napping on her kitchen floor.
“I thought that might be the case.”
“If you date, or even get married, they fire you?”
I shrug. “I’d breach the contract.”
“How important is it to you now?”
I consider that for a moment and then look her in the eye. “It’s not.”
Her mouth turns up in a supportive smile. “But her movie...”
“Right.” I think about that. “I’ll wait it out. And then I’ll go to her father and tell him how I feel. I’ll ask for her hand if that’s what was missing. I’ll take it without his blessing—that is, if she’ll have me.”
My mother lifts from her chair and pulls me to her. “Don’t let her go. You don’t need her father or your agents to make it in this town anymore. You both have solid footing. I don’t see why you shouldn’t be together.”
And that’s why I came here. I needed to hear that from the only other woman I love.