Page 170 of My Five Daddies

“Oh god,” she groans. “I haven’t thought about Stinky Marty inyears.”

“That asshole never showered after gym class. Not evenonce.”

“We all paid for hismistakes.”

We laugh together and for a second, it feels normal between us. The feelings we both have, complicated by time and distance and anger and resentment, seem a little less sharp. The more we talk about them, the more it feels like we’re getting it all out. And maybe that’s what she needs, to get it allout.

She glances down at her phone and sighs. “Look, I have to go. I’ll think aboutdinner.”

“I appreciate that,” I say. “I promise I’ll be on my bestbehavior.”

“Yeah, I’m sure you will be.” She smiles up at me as I grin at her. I want to kiss her so badly, but I know I can’t. Not yet at least. She’s still angry and still holding on to something, but she’ll let it all go eventually. She just needs to understand that I wasn’t leaving her. I never meant to leave her. I thought it would be better if I cut it off, but god, I was so stupid backthen.

“See you tomorrow, movie star.” She grins at me and walksaway.

I watch her go, yearning to touch her skin again. Soon, I’ll taste her again, and show her what she’s been missing all theseyears.

But for now, I’ll try and be patient, although that’s not my strongsuit.

8

Tara

Every timeI’m ready to write Jackson Hendricks off, he does something that surprisesme.

Our little conversation from a couple of days ago keeps playing in my mind. We haven’t had time to really talk since then, but I just keep seeing the way he looked at me, like it was the old Jackson all over again. I haven’t seen him so much as talk to Holly either, which makes me think that I was just being stupid the otherday.

Still, I just keep thinking about how I don’t really know him. He’s been through a lot overseas, and it’s made him harder. I don’t remember him having such an edge before he left, but there are scars on his skin and inside of him that I’ll likely neverunderstand.

And yet… that old Jackson is still there. It makes me wonder if the old Tara is still inside of me,too.

I’m sitting home alone after work, tired and a little stressed, going over the script again. We’re in a critical part of the film right now, and we have to make sure we get these action scenes just right. They’re long and grueling on Jackson, I can tell, but he doesn’t complain at all. In fact, he walks around set and keeps everyone’s spirits up. He encourages the stunt guys and basically acts like a high school football quarterback in the locker room or something. Which I guess is basically what heis.

My phone buzzes and I ignore it for a second, finishing up what I’m doing. When I finally pick it up, I frown at the message on myscreen.

“Car’s out front, come hangout.”

It takes me a second to understand that it’s from Jackson. We exchanged numbers early on in this, since I’ll need to get in touch with him for workstuff.

I unlock my phone and type a message back. “What are you talking about?” Isend.

“The crew is all hanging out, and I think you should be here.” His response comes quickly, and I bite mylip.

I don’t normally hang out with the crew. Honestly, I’m not usually invited. The script girl is considered the director’s pet, and the crew typically doesn’t mingle with that side of production. They’re afraid I’ll dime them out to Lionel or something like that, which isn’t the case at all. On past films, I just accepted that as part of the job and movedon.

“I don’t know,” I type back. “I’m tired and we shoot earlytomorrow.”

“Come on. There really is a car outfront.”

I sigh and stand up, heart beating fast. I go to our front door and sure enough, there’s a black town car sittingthere.

“You’re crazy,” I type to him. “I can’t just walk out thedoor.”

“Sure you can. It’s easy. Come on, Tara girl. Come have a littlefun.”

I stare at the text for a second. “Fuck it,” I say out loud tomyself.

I run into my bedroom and get ready as fast as I can. Obviously I don’t have time to go crazy with it, but I get changed into something a little more casual and I manage to fix myself up enough to be presentable. When I’m done, I head outside and get right into thecar.

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