Page 10 of Hollywood Fairytale

“I feel the same way and that’s why I want to talk to the director of Night Shadows and maybe the executives of H@T about changing the schedule. It’s never been done, but we won’t know until I try.”

“What will we do if they won’t?” I hated to ask, but if Luke was shooting in LA for five months out of the year for Night Shadows and wanted to do a movie or two, I wasn’t sure how we’d ever see each other.

“We’ll figure something out, but let’s not worry about it until we know for sure. I’ll try to explain the situation and make them see reason.”

“I’ll try not to worry.”

5

“Can I ask you something?”Luke asked the second I sat down on the couch after putting Mason to bed.

“Of course, you can ask me anything.” I answered, turning my body toward him.

“I know you said in time you’d open up and I don’t want to rush you.” His eyes were wide as he watched me. “If you don’t want to answer something then don’t feel you have to, but I want to know everything about you. The good and the bad.”

“Well, now you’re starting to scare me.” Yes, there were things I hadn’t told Luke, but only because I never spoke of them. To anyone. I was sure there were things that I didn’t know about him too. Even though Luke knew me better than almost anyone after spending so much time getting to know one another via the phone and emails, there was only so much you could say in the amount of time we’d known each other.

“Nothing to be scared of. I promise that nothing you say can or will ever make me leave you.”

When I said nothing, he smiled at me, pulling my feet into his lap and started to massage one beginning at my heel and working up to dig his thumb into my arch.

“Why don’t you ever talk about your parents?” he asked, not knowing that the question would break my heart.

Tears instantly filled my eyes and even though I knew it would be hard to talk about my parents, I knew now was the time to tell Luke about them.

“My mother hasn’t been a part of my life since I was a small child. When my mom and dad first separated, I lived with her, but she had an abusive boyfriend who did very bad things to me and once my dad found out, I was taken away from her.”

“Fuck, Alex, what did he do?” Luke asked, abandoning my foot massage to pull me onto his lap and wrapping his strong arms around me. “You don’t have to talk about this if you don’t want to. I… I never thought it would be anything like this. I thought maybe it was a fight or something. Never…” He choked on his words and squeezed me tighter against him. “I never…”

My face had been stuffed into the crook of his neck until his words cut off, but I had to look at him when I heard the pain in his voice. I wasn’t prepared to see the agony etched across every inch of his sad but handsome face.

“Hey!” Sitting up straighter in his lap and cupping his cheek, I tried to smile but knew that I failed. Talking about my parents would be hard, but I had to be strong. “It was a long time ago. I’m fine now.”

His eyes were so sad and beseeching it made me want to cry, but I needed to show him that I was okay and had been for a long time.

“Are you really?” he didn’t believe me.

“It’s just something I don’t like to talk about.”

“I can understand that. Did Decker know?”

Tilting my head to the side, I wondered where he was going with this. “Yes,” I answered hesitantly.

He looked over my shoulder, his mouth opened and closed until he clenched his jaw. The muscle twitched once before his gaze came back to me. Was he upset that Decker knew? “I need to know…” he swallowed once heavily and then continued. “I don’t want this to be difficult for you, and we never have to talk about it again after this night, but I need to know if you were… what kind of bad things?” His eyes darted to the side, but just as quickly came back to me. His next words were spoken in an agonizing whisper. “Did someone touch you?”

The moment those words came out of his mouth, Luke squeezed his eyes shut. I hated that even for a moment he thought something so terrible had happened to me. If it had I couldn’t imagine who I’d have turned out to be. I wouldn’t let him think that had been my fate for even a second longer.

Rubbing my thumbs over his stubbled cheeks, I looked him square in the eye to make sure he could tell that I was telling him the truth. “No, Luke, no! Nothing as horrendous as that. I was neglected and beaten, but never that. I believe that’s the reason I hate crying in front of others. When I would cry about something that’s when he’d take out his frustration out on me.”

Shaking his head, Luke’s eyes finally opened looking bleak. “You were still only a little girl. No one should ever go through what you went through especially when they are so young. I’m so sorry that happened to you and I understand why you wouldn’t want to talk about it. Thank you for trusting me with that.”

“I trust you with my life.” I answered honestly.

Hugging me to him once again, Luke spoke against the top of my head. “Can you talk about your father? If it’s too much I understand, but I’d like to know about him someday.”

“It’s okay. I want you to know, but it’s hard to talk about him and you know my aversion to crying in front of others.” I closed my eyes and blew out a deep breath. “I’m getting better though. At least I think I am.”

His arms tightened to protect me from my past as he rested his cheek on the top of my head. “I think so too.”

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