Page 59 of Claim to Fame

“Then why stay?” Ethan asked. “If it’s so awful, why stay?”

“It’s notawful.It’s different. There are as many good things as there are bad. And my friends are there. My work.”

Ethan’s eyes narrowed, the muscle in his jaw ticking. “The same work that judges you by the way you look and sends hoards of photographers to stalk you?”

“It’s part of the job,” Hannah said. Was he honestly upset with her for liking the City?

“It’s a shitty job.”

She pulled her hand out of his, his words landing like a papercut across her heart. “Ilikemy job.”

“Do you?” he challenged.

“Who’s ready for dessert?” Tessa asked, handing Julie off to Jamie as she got to her feet.

Around them, the conversation moved on—to the new exhibit at the university art museum and the teenager who fell asleep in the middle of Caleb’s homily last week—but Hannah felt frozen, rooted to the spot by Ethan’s glower. She wanted to rewind, go back to only a few moments before when she’d felt warm and fizzy with happiness. How had they gone from that, from Ethan accepting her invitation to join her at the premiere and celebrate his birthday in New York, to this coldness? How had the City she called home been an asset one moment and a strike against her the next?

And why did she care so much? They hadn’t discussed the future, but with each passing day, this was feeling less and less like a fling and more like somethingreal.The thought should terrify her but, she was startled to find, the thing that scared her the most was the idea of leaving Aster Bay and never again feeling the way she felt when she was with him.

But if he really thought so little of her home, of her career, how could they possibly work?

Chapter Sixteen

The drive back to Ethan’s house was quiet and cold. Hannah curled in on herself and leaned against the passenger side door, as far away from him as possible. He didn’t understand it. One minute they were talking about a trip to New York—atemporarytrip—and the next she was practically dying to go back to the job she’d claimed she wasn’t sure she wanted anymore. Not that he’d expected her to uproot her entire life for him after a few days, but he was having an awfully hard time not seeing her eagerness to return to Manhattan as willingness to leave him behind.

What did you expect? She already told you she didn’t want a relationship.

And even if she did? Could he really expect her to give up her career, her life, for him?

A nasty voice niggled at the back of Ethan’s brain, reminding him he hadn’t even been able to convince the mother of his child to stay with him in Aster Bay. What chance did he have of Hannah—bold, beautiful, celebrity Hannah—wanting him enough to stay?

He pulled his truck into his driveway, gravel crunching beneath the tires, and turned it off, scraping his hand over his jaw. It wasn’t her fault he wanted more than she did, that he’d foolishly thought he might be able to convince her to try with him. The things he had to offer, this small town life, could hardly compare with her world in New York. He knew that. And yet…

“I’m sorry,” he said, his voice gruff as though he hadn’t spoken in ages. “I was an asshole back there.”

She eyed him warily. “Why?”

He dropped his head back against the head rest, closing his eyes. “I don’t like thinking about you leaving.”

He heard her shifting in her seat next to him. “I’m not leaving yet.”

“But you will eventually.”

“You’ll come with me. Unless you’ve changed your mind about going to the premiere.”

He turned to look at her. “Of course I’ll go with you. But that’s a weekend. That’s not real life.”

“Neither is this,” she said.

“To me it is.”

She searched his face, brow crinkled in thought, and then she was climbing into his lap, swinging her leg over his hip and straddling him. He slid his hands up her thighs, the loose fabric of her sundress bunching beneath his hands.

“I like your life,” she whispered as she ghosted her lips along his jaw.

His heart pounded in his chest, naïve, reckless hope unfurling itself behind his sternum. He chased her lips with his own, catching them in a soft kiss that only made him want more.

“I likeyou,” he said back.

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