“Sometimes you just feel like a real man.”
“I am a real man.” I knock on my chest as if proving that I’m real and not some holographic projection.
She giggles, then rolls her eyes and reaches for her sweet tea. “I just mean sometimes, like right now, you just feel like a regular man in a regular small town, on a date with a regular lady like me. I have to constantly remind myself that you’re none of those things.”
A pain twists in my gut. “I am those things… This is a small town, and I’m on a date with you.”
Her lips form a flat smile as she gazes past me, out at the water. “Yeah, but we both know this isn’t a real date.” She wiggles her fingers in the air.“You’re a celebrity.”
I stare at her, waiting until her eyes rise up and catch mine. How is it possible to feel so happy and yet so sad at the same time?
“You make me want to quit acting,” I say.
Her eyes widen. Mine do too, for that matter.
Did I really just say that?
“Um... what?” she says, her voice barely a whisper.
Every instinct I have tells me to quickly backtrack over my words, deny what I just said, laugh, and make it a joke. That would be the right thing to do—the safe thing. The career-saving thing. Just deny it and move on with my life, leaving this beautiful woman here in a small town where I found her.
Sometimes my instincts are right, but sometimes they are just plain wrong. Sure, logically speaking, the correct thing for me to do is to let Annie go and never see her again. But my heart has taken over my body, sitting itself in the driver’s seat and demanding that it be in control for once.
“I really like you,” I say, my voice also a whisper. “But…”
“I know,” she says before I can finish my sentence. “But it doesn’t matter because you’re an actor with a big fancy life and I’m a small town girl.”
She smiles and pats my hand before picking up her fork again. “It’s fine, Trevor. I mean, I had a little crush on you too, but that’s over. It’s no big deal. Let’s just have fun tonight, okay?”
My chest constricts. Everything she just said was wrong. I was going to say:I really like you but I’m not sure how you feel about me.
I guess it’s good that she interrupted me because now I don’t have to make a total fool of myself. Now I realize that she doesn’t feel the same for me, that it was just a short-lived crush for her, and not a life-changing love like what I feel.
I take a breath and force all those years of acting classes to come together right now and help me pretend that I agree with her. That I totally feel the same way.
“Yeah,” I say, keeping my voice calm and level. “Let’s just have fun tonight.”
CHAPTER17
Annie
I’m proud of myself for saying what needed to be said. For clearing the air and metaphorically pulling all the mud out of the water so that I could see clearly again. I had to say something. I just couldn’t stop thinking about how this whole night with Trevor was basically a date that I had asked him on. Dates have implications… Dates are a romantic event between two people who like each other and have romantic intentions.
I had to nip that in the bud immediately, or else my stupid heart would have spent the entire night swooning over this impossibly gorgeous man. My lips would suffer with that tingle of desire from wanting to kiss him again. I wouldn’t be able to focus on anything all night if I’d kept up with the pretense that this is a date. So I did what I had to do. I told him we’re just friends, and this night is just for fun, and it means nothing.
Technically, I lied when I told him I no longer have a crush on him, but that’s just because it’s hard to turn off a crush instantly. My intentions are good. I can’t crush on him. He’s a movie star. I’m just me. And this is Julie’s night, after all. I need to focus on Julie. The last thing I should be doing is letting my thoughts go wild with wonder over what Trevor thinks. He had kissed me back, after all. If he’d thought I was ugly and boring, he’d have pushed me away and never kissed me.
And even though none of that matters because me trying to date a movie star would never actually work out, it brings me a lot of joy to know that he kissed me back. Maybe one day when I’m eighty years old, sitting around and talking to my grandchildren, I’ll tell them of the time a famous movie star kissed me. And they’ll want to know who, and we’ll Google his name—and he’ll be old by then but his movies will remain forever.Oakbrook Lakewill still be around, probably on some streaming TV service, and I’ll be able to point to the parts of the film that have my body and Andrea’s CGI face, and I’ll say, “That’s your grandma!”
I’m lost in thoughts of this imaginary future when Trevor leans over so close I can smell his cologne, which pulls me right back to the present. “Does every diner in Texas make such good food, or is it just this one?”
I chuckle. “I think this one is special. No one makes food this good.”
“I’m going to miss it when I go back home. The food, and the service. Everyone is so friendly here.” He pats his stomach, which from my point of view looks like it’s still flat and perfect. “My trainer would kill me if he saw me eating this.”
“Is your trainer here in Sterling?” I ask. For all I know, personal trainers travel with their famous clients to keep them in shape on the road.
He grins an evil but delightfully sexy grin. “Nope.”
