I stared at the kitchen countertop for a moment, then shrugged. “I have no intention of coming back to live here,” I said. “I guess I’ll have to get ajob, or something. I don’t need the money, but I need a way to spend my time that isn’t sitting around Nate’s boyfriend’s Porn Palace.” I glanced up to see Jack giving me a look I couldn’t interpret. “How about you, JJ? After this is through…what are your plans?”
He shoved another pierogi in his mouth and tried to talk around it. “Ashully,” he said indistinctly, “I’ve been thinking about that.” He swallowed, took a long drink of Mrs. Kaczmarek’s lemonade, and then wiped his mouth. “I stayed in this town through a misguided sense of loyalty. I had a job offer in New York once, and maybe it’s still open. Either way, I’m thinking…it’s time to move on from here.”
“Oh.” My heart plummeted.
“But since you seem to be over the City of Angels too, I wondered if you’d like to come with me.”
Suddenly all JJ’s chewing and drinking and looking around the kitchen like the curtains were really fucking fascinating made sense.
He wasnervous.
“Come with you?” I repeated.
He stuffed more food in his mouth and nodded at the window. “If you want,” he said around the mouthful, and shrugged.
“Why not?” I said airily, and slid my foot between Jack’s, where they were hooked over the bottom rung of his barstool.
“Really?”
“Why so shocked? If you were only asking from politeness—”
He jumped up and wrapped his arms around my waist, pulling me close. “There’s nothing polite aboutme, Trouble. You really mean it?”
I looked up into those light blue eyes, the color of the very edges of a wide blue sky, the color of freedom. “I absolutely fucking mean it.”
He kissed me, tasting of the potato and cheese from his last pierogi, and I kicked my way off my stool, winding my legs around his waist so he had to pick me up.
“Oof,” he said, breaking lip contact. “You’re heavier after all those dumplings.” He turned to seat me on the counter and pushed the plates aside. “You’re sure, though? Really sure? I’m not offering a whole lot of stability, if that’s your thing.”
“Fuck stability. I have a whole trust fund from my acting days. Craig Wyatt ran a hard bargain back when he was representing me. We can live off that for a while if we have to. We can do what we want.Gowhere we want.”
Jack’s eyes crinkled as he smiled. “You won’t have to endow me with your worldly goodsjustyet, Trouble. I have a nest egg of my own, put away for a rainy day.”
I ran a hand through his hair. “If it’s raining, you’ll need your hat.”
“It’ll be dangerous,” he said softly. “We won’t be able to live loud, not like you’re used to.”
“I don’t care.”
The way Jack looked at me then made my heart hum, like it was vibrating so fast it was going to burrow its way right out of my chest and into his. He got the nervous look back in his eye, licked his lips like he was trying to find the right words, and then he took a breath.
But before he could say anything, Mrs. Kaczmarek came bustling back into the room. “I’m sorry to interrupt,” she said blithely, ignoring the fact that we were just about making out on her kitchen counter, “but I meant to remind you, Miller: your father called and wanted you to get in touch with him as soon as you could.” She smiled as Jack quickly helped me down off the counter. “It might need to be aprivatecall,” she said diplomatically.
“I’ll, uh—go call him from the lounge,” I said. She touched my arm as I went past.
“I reallyamsorry to interrupt,” she said quietly. “And you know, your father doesn’t know you’re here. If you’d rather…” She let the suggestion hang in the air. If I’d rather my fatherdidn’tknow I’d been there, the staff would cover for me.
But it was time to grow up. When I talked to my father, I could also tell him I was leaving. Do him the courtesy of saying goodbye—not that he or my mother had ever done the same for me. But Jack was right. Nothing was holding me in LA these days. My acting career had ended a decade back. Annie was gone, along with any possibility of making up with her. I’d miss Nate, but our friendship wasn’t exactlydeep.
Jack offered a way out, an opportunity to change my life’s direction from aimless Hollywood party boy to becoming someone who might actually be an interesting person. I wanted to take the new path that had opened up for me, even if it was a risk. Even though I had no idea what Jack and I would do, where we’d go, we’d have each other.
“Thanks, Mrs. K,” I said sincerely, “but it’s time I had a conversation with my father.”
“Hold up,” Jack said, hurrying over to me. He shielded me from Mrs. Kaczmarek and pressed something hard and cold and unwelcome into my palm. “I told you to take this everywhere,” he said softly, reprovingly, as I looked down at the gun in my hand. He must have taken it with him from the apartment.
“Yeah, I know, but—”
He stopped me with a serious look, tipping my chin up so I looked right at him. “Listen to me. If we’re doing this—leaving LA, heading out together—it’s something you’ll need to get used to. Trouble follows me around, and it’s not always the nice kind, like you.”
