Page 18 of Chance of Romance
She gestured as she spoke, her color high, the most animated he’d ever seen her. He was kinda digging an animated loud Sabrina, even though she was freaking out. “My agent took that Hollywood Love Guru thing and ran with it, booking me on talk shows in LA next week! I’m beside myself. Claire’s on the phone with the talk-show producers right now, making sure they know of our connection and that certain topics are off-limits. She’s smoothing the way for me.” She wrung her hands together. “Logan, you know I would never use Claire for her fame. Look at this article. Who could’ve said this? Who would’ve known?”
She tapped on her phone and showed him. He read the short piece and handed back her phone, his brain quickly connecting the dots. “I told the security guard at theSunshine Americastudio my full name and that Claire Jordan was my sister-in-law. She’d put me on the list to get me backstage. Someone must’ve talked to him. He was just speculating on the rest of it.”
She shook her head. “How can gossip from a security guard get me on the most popular talk shows?”
“Two words—Claire Jordan. And love. Okay, three words. Her name is gold, and she’s such a good person she wants to let you have a little of that golden glow. It won’t hurt her reputation to be linked with you, as a success story with a strong marriage.”
Her eyes widened. “That’s exactly what she said!”
“There you go.”
She stared at him for a moment, seeming lost in thought. She took a deep breath. “Okay, leaving freak-out mode now.”
He laughed.
She laughed a little too. “I’m moving my vacation up a couple of weeks to fit the talk shows in.”
“Look at you, shy girl.”
She blushed bright pink. “I guess I have you to thank for getting me through the first one. Now I’m on my own.”
“You’ll do great.”
She smiled at him, a gentle warm smile that he felt in his bones. Affection, maybe even some feeling for him? He couldn’t remember her ever smiling at him like that before, and now she’d done it twice. Once at the TV studio this morning when he’d first arrived backstage and now. But then her words erased any shadow of a doubt about her true feelings. “I really do feel bad about Olivia. I don’t mind explaining to her the truth about that article linking us and my own part in sort of panicking in the middle of my first-ever TV show appearance and throwing you under the bus.”
Sabrina was twenty-six, younger than Olivia, but so much more mature, wanting to talk the whole thing out like adults. He was sure Olivia would sooner tear Sabrina’s head off than have a rational adult conversation. “No,” he said. “She’s the one who has to get over her issues.”
“What issues?”
“Jealousy, suspicion, general mistrustfulness.” He let out a breath, more wound up about Olivia than when he’d walked in here. “She’s always been like this. I’ll fix it when I see her in a couple of weeks.”
“You sure you want to wait that long?”
He lifted one shoulder up and down. “Nothing else I can do. I already explained myself.”
She pushed her chair back from her desk, and he lost her sweet scent. Worse, she crossed her legs and rested clasped hands in her lap, back to her reserved professional counselor mode. Untouchable porcelain doll. Her tone was cool and calm. “Sometimes people need to hear it more than once, maybe in a different way.”
He scowled, unreasonably irritated with her help. “What different way? Sabrina is my friend. No, I’m not cheating on you. How many ways can I say that?”
Her brown eyes were full of sympathy, her tone gentle. “I hope she’ll come to her senses soon. Sorry I put a wrench in the works.”
He calmed down. Sabrina could always smooth the rough spots. “It’s okay. Maybe things weren’t as solid with Olivia as I thought. Guess I’ll find out.” He stood and tapped her desk. “I never told you this, but talking to you has helped me through some stuff, so thanks.”
She smiled, her professional reserved smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes. “That’s what friends are for.”
“Yeah,” he muttered, turned and headed out the door. Except he’d never had a friend like her, never been able to talk to anyone like he could with her. And, for the first time, he didn’t feel a weight off his shoulders when he left her office. Every step away felt difficult, plodding and heavy.
Was he really going to move to San Francisco and say goodbye to Sabrina forever? After hearing Olivia’s reaction to Sabrina, he knew there was no way Olivia would understand why he wanted to keep that connection long distance. He hadn’t realized until today just how much their friendship meant to him. What exactly did he hope to gain from hanging onto that connection? And what would he lose if he let her go?
