Page 34 of For My Finale
“You should fight it,” Lilah said.
Blossom couldn’t think of anything to say, any way to explain that she couldn’t fight it. Not just her. Not Blossom Baker.
Their hands brushed as they walked, just for a brief electric moment, and Blossom’s breath caught. There was a second where nothing happened.
Then Lilah glanced at her sideways and lifted an eyebrow. “Are you flirting with me?”
Blossom flushed. She was unclear on whether or not this was a serious question. “No,” she said quickly. “Not at all.”
Lilah snorted. “Good. Flirting with a famous movie star would be crazy.”
She was clearly teasing, and Blossom forced out a laugh. But it felt just a little too hollow. Maybe because Lilah was absolutely right. Liking her was ridiculous. Why on earth would someone like Lilah Paxton ever be interested in… well, in someone vaguely normal.
They turned into their lane, and Blossom sighed with relief. She was ready for this walk to be over. Until she saw what was standing in the front garden.
Billy.
“Oh no,” Lilah said, taking one look and bolting toward her own front door. “Nope, I’m done with creatures for today.”
“He’s harmless,” Blossom shouted, laying a hand on Billy’s back.
“I don’t care,” said Lilah, unlocking her door. She glanced back. “The door’s always open if you want to talk about that cafe stuff,” she said, before going inside and closing her door.
Blossom sighed and stroked Billy’s nose. “At least someoneloves me,” she said.
Billy huffed in reply.
“Fine, alright, come around to the kitchen window, I’ve got your carrot,” she said.
As she went into the house, she felt more conflicted than ever. It was like the world was forcing her to change. And she didn’t like it.
Chapter Fourteen
It was only as Lilah was scrubbing mud out of her own trousers in the kitchen sink that she realized that she actually had something to do. Alright, it might not have been what she’d have chosen to do, but she was busy.
She’d gotten up at a decent time, she’d made herself breakfast, here she was cleaning up some sort of animal manure from her trousers, and she still had her boots to deal with after. She checked the kitchen clock. And then there was a rehearsal tonight, her first real one.
She’d probably need to get some shopping in, too.
She went back to her scrubbing. Her days were somehow getting fuller, time was shrinking down again to its normal pace. And all that with none of the expensive distractions that Hollywood had once offered her.
There was movement out of the window, and she saw Blossom lugging a heavy basket of wet laundry toward the washing line.
There was her savior, if she was being totally honest. Blossom was the one who’d seen her, heard her, who’d put her on a path toward something. Perhaps not real meaning yet, but at least she wasn’t sitting on the living room floor plotting cutting her own hair or something equally ridiculous but vaguely interesting to fill the time.
She scrubbed a bit harder at a particularly stubborn stain.Of course, without Blossom she wouldn’t be standing here scrubbing a pair of pants that were probably beyond saving, but at least the girl had tried.
She glanced up again and then her hands dropped into the hot, soapy water as she found herself staring out into the garden.
Blossom was now pinning out her washing. Reaching up to grab pegs, to throw shirts over the line. Her long legs stretching, tanned and lithe in shorts, the sun catching in her messy dark hair. She bit her lip as she dropped a peg and bent to get it and Lilah had to force herself to look away for fear of doing something untoward.
Blossom was effortlessly beautiful, in the kind of way that didn’t seem aware of itself. This wasn’t the first time that Lilah had noticed. But it was the first time that she’d had a moment to herself to drink the sight in. And something deep in the pit of her stomach was goading her to do something about it.
She sighed, shaking her head. No. Not appropriate.
She wasn’t going to do that. She might not be the smartest person alive, but Lilah was self-aware. She knew that she was a tornado of a person and she knew that Blossom deserved better than that. She also knew that people had a tendency to do things that they might not otherwise do just because they were sitting next to someone famous.
Lilah didn’t want that from Blossom. Didn’t want Blossom doing anything just because she was Lilah Paxton. It was always hard to tell when someone was interested in her versus being interested in her persona. Anyway, why would a totally normal and non-crazy person like Blossom want anything to do with the juggernaut of chaos that was Lilah Paxton? Lilah grinned to herself. Unlikely that Blossom would want to upend her life to deal with an ex-actress and the trappings of fame, right?
