Page 49 of Kiss Me, Darling

“So she’s angry, but she also wanted the rich kids who moved in to suffer,” I summed up.

“Yeah,” Chris agreed. “The good news is that it’s over. She has no other family and claims to have acted alone. Contention Security always believed it was one person, so that matches.”

“Did anyone ask her why she stopped in the yard that night?” Scott asked as he took my hand and moved it to his leg where he held it tight.

“Actually yes. She says her dog is buried there and she couldn’t bring herself to leave without stopping to see him,” Chris explained.

That was sad. “So no more bodyguards?” I asked hopefully. I was so ready to finally, truly be alone with Scott.

“No more bodyguards,” he assured us. “Tonight the house is yours, and from now on the security cameras will only be used when necessary.”

* * *

The repairsto the dock were complete, so we grilled dinner on the deck and took our cocktails down to the end of the dock to watch the sunset. The tide was up, so my toes just barely brushed the water as I swung them back and forth. The water was warm and the air hot. But there was a nice breeze so it wasn’t terribly uncomfortable.

Plus, the company was pretty great.

“Tessa and I had a long talk today.”

Scott slowly turned to me. “About what?”

“I’m going to give her a promotion. To operations manager. She’ll officially run the California office and take lead on the logistics of running two teams.”

His eyebrows rose in question. “What does that mean for you? Isn’t that kind ofyourjob?”

He was right, it had been up to this point. Getting the production company off the ground took every one of my skills to the breaking point. But part of that was building a competent team around me. Tessa was the key to that.

“She’s been doing a lot of this for the last year. I’ve slowly increased her responsibilities and this week was really the final test. She passed beautifully. And that frees me up to take a larger role in the creative process.”

“The writers room?”

“Sometimes. Project development, writing, and having a heavier hand during production and post-production, too.” I’d been itching to get my hands deeper into the projects, not just overseeing everything from a tower above. “I’ll finally be able to stay with a project from idea to finished product, without getting pulled off to put out fires in every other arm of our company.”

“Does this also give you more flexibility with your schedule? Say, to spend your holidays here?”

I leaned into his side, resting my cheek against his comforting shoulder. “I suppose that could be arranged.”

We sat quietly, his arm around me, as the sun sank into the horizon. “I don’t want to forget this,” he said.

“Forget what?”

“What matters. Every day has a purpose. It used to feel like a to do list. Things I had to check off. I was always in a rush to catch up. Read a script, act a scene, do an interview. I was going through the motions, and most of those motions were things I put there because I thought I needed to do them. I didn’t have intention or purpose. I want to wake up every morning the way I’ve learned to wake up here. With gratitude first, then with a purpose. It was so easy to get sidelined when things went wrong because I didn’t know my goal. Those pictures came out and I froze. I didn’t know what to do. My to do list was broken and nothing on it could fix things. If it happened again? Now? It wouldn’t matter at all. What do pictures or bad reviews mean to my life? Nothing. If I wake up with the goal to spend time with you and practice a scene...that’s all that matters that day.”

I craned my neck up to find his eyes. “I love that. I’m stealing it. Wake up with gratitude and find a purpose.”

The sun disappeared. The last sliver of glowing orange vanished. The sky was still an entire palate of beautiful colors that would begin to fade over the next hour, but the sun was gone and the day was done.

“Tomorrow’s brand new,” Scott said as he kissed the top of my head. “Let’s make it great.”

* * *

When the newcouch arrived we decided to finish what we started. The living room was complete from the light blue walls to the driftwood coffee table. The kitchen was clean and modern with it’s grey and white design. The game room ended up getting a projector installed for movie nights after I lobbied over the ridiculousness of a family with a movie star and production company not having a specific space for movie watching. A concrete pad was going to be poured for the hot tub.

That meant the house was well on its way to being a home...as long as you didn’t go upstairs. My pinkish room was the only one truly decorated. And even though I salivated to decorate the common space and the library, we decided to give each of the bedrooms some personality before we left. We’d tackle the other rooms later. It gave us something to look forward to.

We gave each room a slightly different color scheme (with the help of Annie.) My favorite was the blue room.

“Thank goodness this is the only room we picked a dark color for.” We were on the third coat and it finally looked right.

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