Page 50 of Always a Chance
“It’s just a milkshake, Johnny.”
“Just a milkshake, she says.” He turned to Aidan. “Can you believe this woman? There is no such thing as just a milkshake. They’re the universal cure for everything.”
My cheeks heated. “Not everything.” Milkshakes couldn’t cure what hurt after the accident. No matter how hard I’d tried, nothing could. I stopped drinking them years ago because they reminded me of the entire Kelly family.
He was about to say something else when Aidan cut in. “We should get the final questions over with.”
I nodded, pulling out my phone and setting it on the table.
“Johnny,” I started, finding the place I left off in my notes. “Your readers will have one big question when all of this comes out. Do you regret the decisions you’ve made?”
He was quiet for a long moment. “I regret that I lied to my readers, the people who trusted me. Sometimes, I even regret selling that first book, writing the first word. Life would certainly be easier if I hadn’t.”
“Then why did you do it? Why lie?”
“It was for my books, the characters who deserved their stories told. Not the money. It’s not like I chose this lie. My publisher didn’t want to push a man in the romance genre.”
Aidan put a hand on his arm. “That’s enough of an answer. Talia, you can’t print that. The publisher is already going to be angry with this decision, but if that quote goes into your article, Johnny will never get a deal again.”
As much as my editor would love such a juicy quote, I knew what Aidan said was true. Publishing was a small world. “It’s off the record, I promise.”
“Thank you.”
I hit the record button on my phone to stop it. “Look, guys, I promised I wouldn’t write anything that hurts Johnny, and I meant it. Give me something good and none of the bad will be needed. I’m on your side.” My eyes met Johnny’s as my lips refused to add that final word on. Always.
Because I hadn’t always been on his side, not when I hated him from afar, blamed him, and still struggled not to. Not when I both wanted to kiss him and slap the permanent smirk off his lips.
I asked a few more questions before the food arrived. Johnny couldn’t know, but I wished I’d gotten a milkshake. When we finished eating, Aidan headed out to a meeting with Sheryl, the Trinity stand-in, leaving me alone with Johnny.
He insisted on paying, and then we stood on the threshold, staring out into the pounding rain. There was no lightning yet, but it was only a matter of time.
Johnny looked to the sky, a faint smile on his lips. “Come on. I have an idea.” He sprinted out into the rain, and I followed him, throwing myself onto the leather seats when he opened the car door for me. I set my phone in the cupholder and leaned back.
When he dropped into the seat beside me, I turned my head to look at him. Hair stuck to his forehead, and his clothes were molded to every curve of his body from the strong arms to ridged chest.
His eyes turned heated as he tore them away. “Stop that.”
“I’m not doing anything.”
One corner of his lips twitched up. “You know very well what you’re doing.”
We were out on the road before I asked, “So, what’s this grand idea of yours?”
“Patience, Padawan.”
I reached over and tweaked his ear. “Nerd.”
“Takes one to know one, babe.”
And just like that, we were back to the people we used to be.
24
JOHNNY
I wasn’t sure this was the best decision, but I’d questioned a lot lately. When we were kids, Talia loved the rain. As in, she was obsessed with it. I could still hear the rock hitting my window in the early morning hours of her twelfth birthday. It was raining buckets, and I’d been enjoying a dream curled in my warm comforter.
Tanner had walked in and told me that if I didn’t tell my girlfriend to go away, he’d throw me out the window to join her. My brother loved me.
