“Ahh yes, but let’s exchange numbers in case you’re ever in LA I could show you around.”
“I would love that,” Allie says.
“Only if I’m invited,” Leo adds.
“Obvi,” Charlie says with an exaggerated valley-girl voice.
They all crowd in the kitchen as Allie searches for something to sign. Duke reaches for my hand and leads me to the front door. He scratches his temple. “My brother’s … a lot.”
The corner of my mouth quirks up. “I can see that. You sure you’re going to be all right this week?”
“Nope. Charlie absolutely exhausts me, and LA is not my kind of place.”
My stomach lurches. I’ve been so preoccupied with my impure thoughts about Duke that I forgot how difficult he said being in the city was for him. I wrap my arms around him and pull him to me. “You call me if you have a nightmare, I don’t care what time it is. You hear me?”
“I’ll be fine?—”
I cup his face in my hands. “You hear me?”
He pauses, his lips parting. “Heard.”
We touch our foreheads, and I give him a quick kiss as Charlie swoops in to whisk Duke away. Duke grabs his leather duffel and gives a half-hearted salute to Allie and Leo who are waving to them. I stand on the porch watching the brothers disappear into the night. I can’t see the machine, but the thrum of the helicopter kicks up wind that spreads down the hill.
I already miss him.
The porch creaks behind me when Leo turns to me. “How you doing, my darling?”
Allie leans over. “You look like a woman who is in love with a man who got into a helicopter with his movie star brother.”
“I—I’m just tired.”
“Too tired to watchNine of Diamondsand make some popcorn?” Leo asks.
“Not at all,” I say.
They usher me back in, and for a moment, everything feels okay again. We watch the movie like we are at a slumber party and our parents are out of town. Leo finds some beers in Duke’s fridge and then makes the best buttered popcorn ever.
Later, when the lights are out and Allie and Leo have gone to their rooms, the house settles into silence. I curl under the sheets, but sleep won’t come. Jameson’s sprawled across the foot of the bed, snoring softly like it’s his job.
I groan, toss off the blanket, and stare at the ceiling. My chest aches as I’m trying to piece together exactly when it happened. How did Duke work his way into my heart that was, up until now, like a kingdom with a reinforced gate and a moat too wide to cross? If it hurts this much to think about being without him for a week, how am I ever going to make it back to New York?
la la land
DUKE
I definitely leftmy heart on the ground in Colorado and can’t help but watch out the window as the ranch gets smaller and smaller. Charlie is predictably silent now that there’s no one new to perform for. I hear ice clinking in two glasses, and Charlie hands me a glass of bourbon. Normally, I’d refuse, but I could use a drink right now.
Charlie sits back and takes a sip. “Mom didn’t mention you had a girlfriend.”
“I don’t.” I do not want to discuss Roxanne with him.
His eyebrows tent. “That’s not what I saw.”
“Yeah, well, it’s complicated.”
“How?”
I groan and set my glass down in the cupholder beside me. “Are we really going to do this?”
