Page 35 of Tangled Up In You

But she was already walking away, though Conor held onto her fingers until the last second as she gravitated toward Gavin.

Even as Sophie soaked in the sight of Gavin, she could feel the heat of someone else’s gaze on her. Out of the corner of her eye, she realized that it was the actor Robbie Vera. Still, she couldn’t stop the primal reaction she felt from seeing Gavin again. He’d filled out his frame with a muscular torso and broad shoulders. His longish, wavy brown hair was pushed back from his face and the sensual shape of his mouth was exactly as she remembered.

“Would you look at this tasty bit?” Robbie murmured. “Fellas, I call dibs.”

“Damn, she is a fresh young thing,” one of his crew replied.

“I’d hit that,” another said.

Sophie barely heard the bro-banter. Instead of acknowledging it, she said, “Gavin?” and held her breath.

After a prolonged moment, he met her eyes.

She waited for him to break out into a grin. To grab her and hug her. To level his unique brand of intense attention upon her so that it felt like they were the only ones in the room.

But he did none of that. Instead, his blue eyes were flat, indifferent. And he didn’t seem surprised to see her. Had he already seen her and decided to ignore her? Incomprehension and disappointment coursed through her.

“Hi,” she said brightly, forcing herself to go through with this reunion whether he was interested or not. “I saw the show. You guys were great.”

“Thanks,” he said shortly and adjusted his arm around the blonde, who in turn smiled triumphantly at Sophie.

“You know this girl?” Robbie asked, taking a step closer to her.

“Used to,” Gavin said.

“Used to?” Sophie repeated in a disbelieving whisper.

“Sweet. That means I’m all in,” Robbie said, oblivious.

Again, Sophie ignored the actor and kept her eyes on Gavin. “Are you in town long?”

“Few days, then we’re off to the next city, next show, next girl,” he said and squeezed the blonde. She rewarded him with a high-pitched giggle.

Sophie was frozen silent for a moment, her heart aching at his callousness. It didn’t seem possible that this was the same guy who had spent a year loving her.

“Well, good for you,” she finally said, ignoring the taunt of his response. “Do you have time to catch up? I’d love to talk.”

“Em, I don’t know. Our schedule is pretty crazy.”

That answer was so cold.Hewas so cold. It wasn’t like him. Something was off, but she could see in his blank expression that he wasn’t going to back down from this frosty reception of her.

She eyed the girl at his side. “Yes, I can see how busy you are.”

“Listen, ‘lil bit,” Robbie said, stepping in between her and Gavin, “rock stars are cool and all, but you know actors are where it’s at in this town, right? You wanna get out of here? I got a sick new place in the Hills. We could break in the pool. I won’t even mind if you keep your panties on. At first.” His gang laughed obnoxiously at this.

Did this kind of pick up line actually work? Because all it did was annoy her. She realized that he would keep persisting, if only to get a reaction out of his friends, so she finally looked the actor in the eyes. “I’m. Not. Interested,” she said firmly and his friends let out a chorus of “oohs” and laughs.

Robbie wasn’t a good enough actor to hide his irritation at being shot down in front of an audience. “Shit, I didn’t want your flat-chested ass anyway.”

She was flat-chested only in comparison to the girl still claiming Gavin. Still, his jab made his friends howl. Sophie looked at Gavin, hoping he’d come to her defense. But at the same time, the others seemed to sense the tension between them and looked expectantly at him. They clearly wanted him to back up Robbie.

Gavin held up a hand to Robbie but that was as far as he went to defend her. Instead, he told her, “I can’t do this. Okay? I can’t do it.”

Her eyebrows came together in confusion. “What do you mean? Can’t do what?”

“This. I can’t do this.”

“You hear that?” one of Robbie’s boys said. “Buh-bye!”

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