Chapter 6
Present day
Ethan waited until Julia was out of sight before sitting down heavily on the bed, barely registering the ominous creak it made beneath him.
Julia. Gem. Julia.
Julia fucking Schaeffer.
At the mere mention of her name, never mind the sight—the goddamn smell—of her, infiltrating this whole place, he could practically see the flip-book of melodramatically sepia-toned photos flickering through his brain as the memories of his childhood and formative years with her ran on a loop.
The playdates as kids, summers at the lake, navigating awkward years in middle school, coming out of their shells in high school, college in New York City, working at the restaurant.
He shook his head as it all came to an abrupt stop with the final image he held in his mind’s eye, the one he reserved for particularly acute moments of self-reproach and masochism.
The one of her face the last time they’d seen each other.
Closing the gray-matter photo album with an abrupt mental snap, he scrubbed his hands over his face wearily.
It had been a long drive after a sleepless night, following an extremely long day, following an even longer week, and the truth was, he was simply not emotionally equipped to deal with any of the feelings that were swirling inside him at the moment.
He had expected it to be awkward, had expected things to be tense and for it to dredge up all the uncomfortable feelings human beings could experience, combined in one exquisite moment of extended discomfort, but what he hadn’t really expected, probably stupidly, had been the shame.
It was well-deserved, of that he had no doubt, but to have it arrive in such a brutal onslaught all at once was really just… something.
He had been mentally preparing himself for all of it—or so he’d thought—on the five-hour drive up to the cottage.
He’d had a speech planned; he had practiced his meditative breathing, the CBT exercises given to him by his therapist; he’d even created semi-hallucinatory role-playing situations as he drove, giving himself worst-case and best-case scenarios, which he first acted out in the role of himself and then as Julia…
And still, nothing could have prepared him for actually seeing her.
It had been so long that he’d somehow managed to convince himself it wouldn’t matter. Eight, almost nine years was enough time to erase the impact a person had on you, enough time to move on from their effect.
Maybe that was true for some people.
But there was something about Julia—Gem.
Even now, the names intertwined in his mind, with no rhyme or reason for when he’d think of her as Julia and when she would be Gem, the two intrinsically linked.
Something about her would always be inextricably connected to Ethan’s psyche, something that had burrowed in him so deep that her effect on him was like a sleeper agent, lying dormant for as long as it needed to until one day, it activated.
Pulling up the driveway, Ethan had felt the familiar ache of bittersweet memories creeping into his chest. The cottage—no, the bed-and-breakfast, he corrected himself—looked just as it had before, yet somehow entirely different as well.
It wasn’t just the carefully chosen upgrades Julia had made; it was the way the place felt alive, a testament to her vision.
The ache in his chest wasn’t just nostalgia; it was pride, even if that pride was tinged with the sting of regret.
The red cedar exterior had struck him immediately, the same color it had been during his childhood summers but now fresh and vibrant, a contrast to the weathered boards he remembered.
As an adult, he could finally appreciate the blend of classic and rustic architectural details, giving it both charm and a sense of permanence within the landscape.
Even the gardens. His mother had always tried to maintain them, but had never had a knack for it.
It was Julia’s mother who’d had more of a green thumb, which had obviously proven itself to be genetic.
The flora surrounding the space was restrained yet abundant.
He had almost been able to see Julia’s hand in every detail, as though she’d willed the land itself to flourish under her care.
The trees surrounding the property loomed like the same quiet sentinels they had always been, their green leaves edged with golds and auburns.
The other cottage, a short walk away, was now impossible to see.
He’d even looked out toward the horizon, trying to peer around the bend of the lake to confirm that yes, only one dock remained.
It was as if the old Schaeffer cottage no longer existed, had never existed.
Ethan had shifted in his seat then, his grip tightening on the steering wheel as his gaze returned to the main house.
Although he’d dreamed of coming back here, in his quietest, most self-deprecating moments, it hadn’t been like this—not as a guest and certainly not as someone who needed Julia’s help.
It was a sharp reminder of how poorly he’d handled everything all those years ago.
Julia had deserved better from him then.
She still did now.
Sighing heavily, Ethan mentally returned to the present moment and flopped backward onto his bed, which could only be called a double in the most ambitious of circumstances. The impact sent a jolt upward through his body, but he barely noticed it.
Yes, it was fucked seeing Julia again. Julia and the cottage.
This was something that needed to be acknowledged.
Acknowledged and then swept aside. He’d known it was going to be fucked.
That was why he’d done all those self-help audiobooks on the drive up, why he’d mentally prepared himself for this from the second he had dialed her number a few short days ago.
The ask was huge, and it was going to have an emotional impact on both of them.
They needed to do what they could to get through the next few days in one piece and hopefully salvage some semblance of decency and self-respect when their time together was over.
Sitting up again, Ethan grabbed his suitcase and unzipped it, pulling his laptop out. In order to get past the emotional turmoil roiling in his guts, he needed to get focused. And focus right now meant making sure things were in line to begin the next stage of his plan.
Pulling up his email, he regarded their faces: Katy Nils and Noah Booker.
The twentysomething actors had been on his radar for a while now.
They’d starred together in a successful superhero movie almost two years ago, and since then, it had felt like the two of them had been everywhere, exuding the perfect amount of Gen Z apathy with a side of flirtatious will-they-won’t-they banter in all their recent interviews.
The sequel to their movie was due to come out near Christmas, and excitement was already generating for the much-anticipated film.
But Ethan had known from the start that those two could be even more than buzzworthy if they all played their cards right.
They could skyrocket into superstardom with the right photos and the right setting.
Getting them both to leave their individual publicists and sign on with Fordham PR had been the first move, one that had gotten him many accolades from Henry.
Of course, Ethan could have never predicted how desperate he would be to bring his plans for Katy and Noah to fruition until the disaster of the last week took place.
That was where the bed-and-breakfast came in.
Julia would use the easy hospitality she’d honed over the years, and Ethan would use his skills of manipulation—for good, not evil—to create tabloid-worthy scenarios of the two young stars that would have audiences clamoring for more.
Both the celebrities were on board, thankfully, though for different reasons.
Katy, formerly a teen model who had more recently become an actress who’d starred in a few Hallmark-style romantic comedies for popular streaming services before hitting it big with Noah, had been mitigating negative press regarding her father’s treatment of her income—that is, the way he’d been spending it, mismanaging the majority of her multimillion-dollar fortune.
She had recently dismissed him as her manager, acquiring a financial bigwig who would do a much better job with the young celebrity’s earnings, but it had led to some bad blood among her family.
And when desperate people no longer had access to the money they’d been used to, they turned to the sources that would give it to them. Namely, the tabloids.
Katy’s team at Fordham had been keeping the vultures at bay fairly successfully up until this point, but it was a story that was bursting at the seams. She knew she needed something else for people to talk about, and fast, before the bad press derailed her upcoming project and directed focus to areas where it was not wanted.
Noah, for his part, with his relatively slight build and baby-faced good looks, wanted to be taken more seriously as an actor.
Initially a child actor, he’d been propelled to superstardom in a series of movies about a boy who’d found out he had the power to bring books to life.
The series, a fantasy epic spanning four films, each with the name Spellbound woven into their titles, had been hugely popular and had solidified Noah’s cultlike fan base, probably for life.
In terms of fame and fortune, it was all well and good, but as a talent in his own right with a desire to move on to different things, Noah was desperate to be seen as something more than just a kid with magical powers. So when the chance came to reinvent himself in a new genre, he’d grabbed it.
In their breakout superhero series, Katy and Noah had starred as teenagers by day and heroes by night who knew each other both in costume and in real life—without realizing they were secretly one and the same.
The first movie, Double Blind, had been a hit.
The second was due to be a bit grittier, earning that teen rating.
If Noah played his cards right, this could be his chance to show the world that he was no longer a kid. And with Katy on his arm for the foreseeable future, the relationship would cement him as an adult actor—a grown-up with grown-up interests.
Ethan had contacted them shortly after the disaster with Emily and Greg had hit the airwaves, and luckily for him, neither had seemed too eager to part ways with him despite the scandal.
It hadn’t taken long for Ethan to convince both of them of the plan after explaining they would meet up at Julia’s place and see how things went.
He had promised that nothing would be released without their approval and that all integrity and professionalism would be maintained—in fact, it was in the contract he had sent over for their approval.
Katy had initially wanted to bring her own entourage, but Ethan had convinced her that he, Julia, and the staff at the bed-and-breakfast—which, admittedly, he might have misrepresented as being slightly more plentiful—would act as chaperones and witnesses and maintain all standards of propriety throughout the week.
It helped that the two actors were friends; they had an easy rapport between them, which was evident in interviews and in person.
Neither felt threatened by the other, and there was a comfort level there that transcended a regular professional relationship between coworkers.
The way they ribbed each other while still being supportive and caring reminded Ethan a bit of him and Gem when they had been younger.
Something that he would only admit to himself in the deepest recesses of his mind, and barely even then.
Either way, he was trying to be cautiously optimistic and avoid thinking about all the ways this could spectacularly blow up in his face.
Sighing heavily, Ethan took one last moment to double-check and make sure the nondisclosure contracts had been properly signed and that the actors’ flight from Los Angeles was still on time to arrive tomorrow morning, studiously avoiding the other 3,684 emails in his inbox.
He didn’t even want to know what they were about, and he knew avoiding finding out was likely for his own good—if not professionally, then at least mentally.
Glancing at the number in the sidebar once more—3,686 now—Ethan closed his laptop decisively and got up.
He debated changing out of his travel clothes, but thought better of it.
He had kept Julia waiting long enough. It was time he faced the music and attempted to set the tone for the remainder of the week.
Was it awkward? Sure. Did it dredge up old wounds he’d thought long resolved and forgotten? You bet. Was it going to be hell trying to get through the week without talking about any of those painful memories? Absolutely.
But if Ethan was anything, he was a professional, and he knew Julia would be, too. There was too much riding on this for either of them to screw things up. He didn’t know what her stakes were, but they must be high for her to even agree to do this for him.
So they would slap on their best PR faces, and they would get this done.
Together.