Page 21 of Lovers at Seaside
“Polly?” She couldn’t hide the surprise in her voice.
“You mentioned her last night. You said, ‘Parker can’t do things like cry, or curse, or eat an entire jumbo bag of M&M’s and watch horror movies until her eyes nearly bleed without being judged. Only Polly can do that.’ I thought she might be your sister, but you said you had no family.”
“I…She’s…” She looked up at the starry sky, wanting not only to share her past with him, but also to climb out from under the weight of it. Before she could talk herself out of it, she said, “I’m Polly.”
“Oh. Is Parker your stage name? Is that what they call it?”
She was shocked and relieved by his unfazed reaction to what felt to her like ahugereveal. “Yes. My real name is Polly Collins. My agent said Polly was too ‘Pollyanna.’ ‘Being Polly’ means being a normal person without worries about paparazzi or bad press, being able to go out with friends like we did tonight, without constantly looking over my shoulder. Which, by the way, you were right about that place. It was dark, loud, crowded, and I totally blended in with everyone. But it’s not like that where I live. Paparazzi come out of the woodwork back home, in the grocery store, restaurants, beaches. They’re everywhere. I want to be Polly so badly sometimes I can’t see straight.”
She pressed her hand to her chest, breathing deeply. “Wow, it feelssogood to say that out loud. I’ve spent my entire adult life pretending to be Parker and, for much of that time, wishing I could be Polly in public, even for a day.”
“I really like this side of you, whoever you are right now. Polly, Parker,Parky. Yeah, maybe that’s a better name for you.”
“Donotcall me Parky.” They both laughed at that.
“Thanks for trusting me enough to tell me. I won’t out you to the press.”
She playfully nudged him with her shoulder. “You joke, but you have no idea what this feels like. Do you know how many people I’ve kept that from? Directors, producers, actors.”
“And a lowly steelworker got it out of you,” he teased.
“Lowly nothing. You’re more talented at what you do than half the actors I know are at acting.”
He shrugged, a humble smile curving his lips.
“I’m telling you the truth. I created that two-year contract because you and Hunter are so talented. Your work is striking. When I saw the model of your gazebo, I wanted to climb inside it with a good book, a comfy blanket, and some chocolate and hunker down for a month.”
“Then I’ll have to build you one for the yard so you can do just that. And I’m pretty sure Christmas would be upset if you didn’t hunker down with him.” He put his cheek beside hers and said in a low whisper, “I might want to do some hunkering myself.”
Yes, please.“Build me a gazebo and I might let you. Did you always know you wanted to work with metal?”
“I never wanted to do anything else, so I guess you could say that. My father owns a hardware store, and he didn’t have much free time when we were growing up, but he made time to help us find hobbies we enjoyed. Probably to keep the chaos level down. I’m sure we were a handful. He built Sky a small shed that they made into an art studio. Bought Matt every book under the sun and taught Pete to refinish boats. It’s a little embarrassing to admit, and if you ever tell this to Hunter I’ll deny it, but I always thought Hunter was so cool, you know? He’s always been a bit surly, rougher around the edges than Pete and Matt. He wanted to forge metal, and I pushed my way into the lessons.”
“You’re so confident. I can’t imagine you thinking anyone is cooler than you. You were probably competitive and wanted to do it better than him.”
He laughed under his breath. “That’s probably what I should have said, but it wouldn’t be true. He’s my older brother. I looked up to him. Wanna know a secret?”
“Who doesn’t love a juicy secret?” She loved these intimate glimpses into his youth.
“I still think he’s pretty cool.”
Hearing such a virile man admit something like that, she found him even more attractive. “And I had you nailed as such a tough guy.”
Christmas ambled over and stretched out on the blanket by their feet. Grayson slipped off his shoes and rubbed his foot along the pup’s fur. “I am tough.”
“Yeah, I can see that,” she teased.
“What? How can you resist him?” He leaned forward and petted Christmas’s head.
“I can’t.”Just like I can’t resist you.
GRAYSON DIDN’T KNOW what it was about Parker that made him feel like he wanted to tell her all his secrets, but the caring look in her eyes drew the truth right out of him.
“I’ve always played my cards pretty close to my chest, but that’s impossible when I’m with you. With you, I’m more like my mother was. She couldn’t hide her emotions if her life depended on it, and you bring that out in me. No one has ever done that before.”
“I think your mom would be happy that you’re taking after her,” she said sweetly. “You must miss her.”
“I do. I miss a lot of things about her, like the way she’d hum when she was hiding something. She was terrible at keeping secrets, even about birthday presents. She’d nearly burst, wanting to tell us what they were.” He smiled with the memory. “And her homemade steak pie, which sounds really bad, was delicious. But what I miss most is that feeling of walking in the door and seeing her face light up, even when I was a teenager and a pain in the rear. Or when I’d call her on the phone and hear a smile in her voice, you know? Like she could push aside the annoying things we did and see the good in us all the time.”
