Page 82 of Hollywood Undercover
She shook her head. “I’m not trying to fall asleep onyou.”
“Let’s try this some other time. I’m beat, too. You go ahead, get somesleep.”
“Don’t think I can’t still beat you,” she said, yawning again. “Okay. Another time is fine. Hey, about tomorrow, I think I’ll take you up on that offer to introduce me to your contractor. That will be a big timesaver if they’reavailable.”
“Not aproblem.”
“The clean-up crew finished today, but that puts me a little behind schedule. The sooner I can get the repairs started, thebetter.”
“Cool. Whenever you’re ready in the morning just let me know. By the way, I have a friend who wants to meet you. Two of them, actually. Beth and Clint. Clint’s a retired firefighter I’ve known for years, and Beth is his girl. Maybe we can hang out with them tomorrow after we get back from running thaterrand.”
Alexandra seemed puzzled and reluctant. “Why do they want to meetme?”
Sebastian eyed her closely, wondering if he could pull this off for Clint, and possibly for Alexandra’s benefit too. Back when he had suggested Clint and Beth should meet Alex Roberts, he was sure this game would have already been done with. Plans had changed when Alexandra told him she was leaving Tucson, so Sebastian had called it off. Now that she was staying at his house, it made sense to squeeze in the dinnermeeting.
“Can you keep a secret?” he asked, knowing full well he wasn’t going to tell her the realreason.
“Sure.”
“My friend Clint is a big fan of your cousin, Lexxi Rock. When he heard you were related to her, he begged me to introduce you so he can feel like he met Lexxi by proxy. Don’t mention it if you do meet him, though. He will deny his secret fascination with celebrities at all costs, and then he’ll hold it against me for a while. The guy’s a big, burly firefighter. He doesn’t want to come off like a superfan.”
Alexandra perked her head up, alarmed. Sebastian pretended not to notice. He glanced at hiswatch.
I’m sure she knows she can’t fool a Lexxi Rock fan the way she believes she has fooledme.
Alexandra’s face was on magazines, splashed across websites and all over MTV and celebrity TV news programs. It would be impossible for a discerning fan not to see the striking similarities between Alex Roberts and LexxiRock.
I wonder how much longer she’ll stick to her act. After she meets Clint, she won’t be able to keep thisup.
Hopefully she won’t be too upset with me if he innocently outsher.
Alexandra agreedreluctantly.
Amused, Sebastian smiled. “Well, it’s late and we’re bothtired.”
“Yes. I’ll head up too. I could use a full night’ssleep.”
“Is the guest room okay? I thought I heard you moving around in the middle of thenight.”
Standing to leave, Alexandra nearly dropped her laptop at the question. “Yes,” she answered in a snap. “It’sfine.”
He gave her a puzzled look, trying to figure her out. He followed behind her as she nervously climbed the staircase. Pausing on the second floor landing, he said, “I’ll be upstairs if you need anything. Enjoy your night,Alex.”
“Goodnight, Bash,” shemumbled.
This isridiculous.
No, it’spointless.
She’s not going to clue mein.
Sebastian was so sure Alexandra would have told him by now. She seemed so close that night at the hospital, after the fire. For some reason, she wasn’t ready to be honest with him, and now they were right back where they started. He had gone along with it because she had a good reason for hiding her identity in the beginning. The thing was, she had been around him for over a month, and she was going back home in aweek.
Why hide fromme?
What does she plan to do, wait until the day she leaves so she doesn’t have to faceme?
It occurred to him that perhaps she was holding off to save his feelingssomehow.
Maybe I let her to take this gay thing toofar.
For fuck’s sake, she could be in my bed rightnow.
He decided right then—if Alexandra didn’t fill him in within two days, he would confront her. It couldn’t be any worse than watching her leave with this new wall she haderected.
