Page 61 of Hollywood Fairytale

“We could order in. I don’t mind. You know I like to have you all to myself.”

I could see the war going on behind his eyes, but eventually being tired won out. “Alright, take those shoes back off and let’s call in a pizza. I’ll meet you downstairs.”

Promptly, I took off my heels before my feet could start hurting and took the stairs two at a time, to get to Luke as quickly as I could. I desperately wanted to know how his meeting had gone and to tell him my news.

When I found him, he was sprawled out on the couch with his eyes closed, but the moment he heard my footsteps his eyes popped open.

Turning on his side, he patted the spot he’d cleared for me. “Come snuggle up next to me, my beautiful wife.”

Happily.

With my head resting on his chest, I could hear his heart racing. Luke was nervous, but I had no idea what there was for him to be anxious about.

Instead of talking, he ran his fingers through my hair. If he didn't start speaking soon I'd likely fall asleep. The last couple of weeks I'd been dead tired, but we'd been busy. Luke had finished taping the series finale of Night Shadows, while I planned a party for the cast and crew, entertained Mason, and packed up what stuff we were taking back to Fairlane. The day after the party we flew back to Missouri and Mason went to stay with his dad and grandparents for two weeks. Two days later we were back in LA for Luke to meet with a director and movie producer who wanted him to be the male lead in a book trilogy they were making. We’d been there for a week and were set to fly back to Fairlane tomorrow.

I woke to the doorbell and Luke sliding out from behind me to answer the door. Blinking the sleep away, I watched his retreating form. After three years, I was still hot for my husband. Probably even more so. Our friends liked to joke with us about how sickeningly sweet we were together and how I always wanted to jump Luke.

I licked my lips as I watched him come back with two pizza boxes that smelled heavenly.

“Was that for me or the pizza?” he smirked as he set the boxes down.

“Most definitely you. You left this morning without waking me up.” My bottom lip stuck out in a fake pout for only a second before it quickly changed into a smile.

“I’m starved.” I moaned around a mouthful of my pizza.

“Me too,” he said around his slice. “You wanted your chicken supreme, right?”

I nodded as I finished chewing a bite. “I can’t believe we almost left without having it. I’m going to miss the food here. Maybe we should open up a restaurant or three in Fairlane, so we have more options.”

Eyes wide, Luke stared at me as he opened and closed his mouth a few times.

I couldn’t help but laugh. “I’m only kidding. Although it would be nice if there were more restaurants by us.”

He nodded but kept quiet as he ate, which wasn’t normal for him. For every minute that went by, my anxiety started to increase at what could possibly be keeping him quiet. His eyes followed as my knee bounced up and down. From the moment I met Luke, we always had something to talk about. I couldn’t take another second of silence.

“I know you were hungry, but you’ve got to start talking because I’m over here about ready to lose my mind on what could possibly be wrong.”

“There’s nothing wrong.” He wiped his hand off on a napkin only to then run his hand through his hair. “I didn’t sign on to do the movies.” He shook his head as it was his turn to watch me gape. “From the beginning I’ve always told you I’d do anything for love and family.”

Sitting my pizza down, I made my way to his side of the couch and straddled him. “You have, but surely there’s got to be some way for you to do the movie. I know how badly you wanted to do them.”

His hands moved to my hips, his thumbs brushing against my lower back. “They want to film the movies back to back all in Canada.” His eyes shut for a moment as he took in a deep breath and I wanted to cry. He wanted that role more than any other and now he was hurting. When he opened his eyes, I only saw resolve reflecting back at me. “When I told them I only film during the summer months it was all they could do not to laugh at me.”

“Then they’re assholes.” I wanted to yell, but I knew it wouldn’t help matters any. I needed to keep calm for Luke.

His lips tipped up into a small smile. “Not really, and they did try to work with me. They offered to do the first movie next summer, and then the other two starting the summer after that.”

“I’m sorry, Luke.” I cupped his cheeks and pressed a light kiss to his full lips. “I’m sure there’s some way we can make it work if you really want the part.”

Wrapping his arms around me, he pulled me flush against him. “I want the part, but if I do these movies it will change our lives forever. Yes, we’ll be set for life with money, and my career will skyrocket.”

“But?”

“The sex scenes are not what you’ve seen me do before. I did put in for you to be there for all the scenes, not that it matters now. The book fans will either love it or hate it and if they love it…”

“You’ll be known everywhere you go and it will be hard to maintain the level of privacy we have now.” I finished for him.

“I like what we have now.” He leaned his head back on the couch and looked up. “It’s a lot to put up with. If you’re still okay with it knowing what you know now, and you think you can get Decker to agree with Mason being gone that long, I’ll call them back. They said they’d give me until the end of the week to decide before they offered it to someone else. What do you think?”

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