Page 41 of Falling Into Forever
She places her palm in mine, and I lift her easily. The scowl on her face feels right, and it makes my soul lighter than it’s been in a long time. How can her scowl make my entire body zing to life with happiness?
Saylor stops in the middle of the dock, and my pulse picks up when my gaze lands on a bear of a man blocking our exit.
“So it’s true?” he growls. He’s too far away for me to read his features, but there’s a familiarity between them that makes fire creep up my spine. This must be Grady.
“Showtime,” I whisper.
“No, Grady. It’s not,” Saylor says with a sigh while also dropping my hand. What the hell? We have a plan to follow. “But we have to pretend like it is. I screwed up at that interview, and he’s got his own…” She peers up at me, but my shadow makes it too dark to read her expression. “Stuff. It makes sense that we work together to fix everything.”
I hate that she’s confiding in him. Hate that he gets this unguarded piece of her I no longer have.
“America’s sweethearts, Sass? Honest to fucking God.” Grady doesn’t hold back. It must be why they get along so well. Saylor wants direct, honest, and brutally real. It’s why she works so well with Kate.
His gruff exterior isn’t what I remember from high school, but it’s who Saylor trusts.
Unease coils in the pit of my stomach.Real.Who is the real Dante Thompson now? I’ve been running from him and the emotions he didn’t want to face for years, but that’s who I must find if I want a second chance.
“Did you eat?” he asks as she walks closer. I follow behind, but with a distance between us that feels catastrophic.
She glances over her shoulder and shrugs. “Sort of.”
He holds out a paper bag with grease stains on the bottom, and I can smell the fried food from here. Even if this isn’t a romantic relationship, it’s clear that he cares about her. A lot. And based on her more relaxed demeanor, she cares for him too. That means he’s someone I need on my side.
“Thompson, you’re bringing home a metric ton of baggage that took years to undo. I hope you know what the fuck you’re doing. Same goes for you, Sass.”
She walks to him, and he wraps her in a hug while whispering something I’m too far away to hear. The sight makes my heart shrivel up and catch fire right inside my chest. She isn’t stiff or uncomfortable in his arms. She fell into him like he was her safe space—like she trusts him—and everything in me wants to cry out because she’s not even like that with Ainsley anymore.
Something happened between these two to form this kind of bond, and now it’s not only distance separating us. It’s misunderstandings and mistakes causing a chasm far wider than the miles separating Connecticut from California.
Yeah, Grady. I’m beginning to understand exactly how much baggage we’re wading through.
Sometimes in life, you have to free fall and hope that someone will catch you on the other end. For Saylor, I’m willing to take the leap and trust and pray that she’ll be with me when we land, because it’s time we buried our ghosts.
CHAPTER11
SAYLOR
“AHollywood golden boy walks into a bookstore and falls…”
If I could shoot my sister with eyeball lasers right now, I would. At least the intensity of my glare makes her stop talking.
“This isn’t funny, Ainsley. And it’s not a joke. It’s only been four days, and I’m already climbing the walls.”
“I mean, it’s kinda funny. Who would have guessed your sass would land you in a relationship with America’s favorite celebrity sidekick? WithyourDante, of all people.”
“It’s not a relationship. It’s a situationship. It’s…”
“It’s about to get real,” a deep male voice says. How the hell does his tone wrap all the way around my body like that?
I keep trying to figure out how I got here, but it’s all a blur. I mean, how did I go from a live-streamed network interview to a situationship with the only man to ever break my heart, to living with him in my tiny hometown that’s about to be overrun with paparazzi?
“This isn’t normal. None of this is normal,” I mutter. I jab my pointer fingers into my temples and rub small, hard circles there.
Can anyone else feel my anxiety? I swear it’s shooting off me like fireworks.
I lift my head right when Dante takes the sunglasses off his face, and my stomach hollows out because he removes the Hollywood mask right along with them. It’s the first time I’ve seen it happen. But it’s distinct. It’s how he carries himself and the sexy-but-guarded expression he keeps plastered to his face. When he sheds all that, I’m left with the boy who taught me to drive. The man who stayed up late with me in college so I could study for finals.
I’m left with Dante.
