I frown. “What, no one at all?”
She shakes her head. “I never knew my dad, and I cut my mum off when I was sixteen.”
“Youcutheroff?”
She nods. “I’d just got fired fromHollywood House. When I got home, I found out that most of the stuff in my bedroom had gone. Clothes, photographs, toys. Turns out she’d been selling it online.” Her face twists. “She’d also sold most of my baby pictures to the press, and she was halfway through writing a tell-all book about my childhood.”
“Jesus.”
She shrugs. “It wasn’t a big deal. I moved to LA when I was thirteen, and I barely saw her after that. We have an arrangement now; I send her enough money to retire in a mansion, and she refrains from making up stories in the tabloids.”
My throat aches. I can’t imagine being betrayed like that, especially by your own family. My mum still demands that me and all of my siblings Skype her once a week so we can all eat dinner together.
And Briar’s all alone.
She fidgets in her seat. The silence stretches out. I sigh. “Look, is something bothering you? Honestly?”
Her eyes trail to the blue privacy curtain. Her face hardens. “He’savoiding me.”
“Matt?” That’s not what I expected. “He does that, sometimes. He’s horrendous with emotions.”
Her jaw clenches. “He never forgave me. For what I did to Nin.”
I frown. “He did.” I study her. “Did he tell you what happened on our last celebrity job?”
“He said that the girl sexually harassed him.”
I nod. “It bothered him more than he’d ever admit. Even to himself.” I remember that assignment. Watching him get tireder and jumpier every day. Of course, he’d never accept that a seventeen-year-old girl could faze an elite soldier.
“Well, yeah. I figured. If I went to set, and the director kept shoving his hands down my pants and dragging me onto his lap, it’d fucking affect me, too. Just because he’s a big strong man, doesn’t mean that wouldn’t screw with his brain.”
“It definitely jaded him when it comes tocelebrities. He’s wary, now. Of rich, entitled people throwing their power around. Using people.”
“Hm.” She considers that. “If it’s not Nin, why is he being weird? Was it the panic attack? Is he that freaked out by mental health episodes?”
“It’s definitely not that.” I think of how to word this.“It’s very difficult for him to watch people suffering,” I say carefully. “When you told him how you’ve been feeling… it upset him, a lot.”
“That’s dumb.” She stabs a tomato violently. “It’s nothisfault.”
“Matt has a tendency to blame himself for other people’s pain. But trust me. He cares about you a lot. More than he’d like to admit.”
Her mouth twists unhappily. She puts the salad down and runs a hand over her face. “I just feel so stupid,” she mutters.
“Stupid? Why?”
“For freaking out like that. Collapsing on the bathroom floor, and then crying all over you. You guys have been through Hell and back. When you were a soldier, I bet you used to live like this every single day. Always looking over your shoulder. Always on guard.”
“It’s not really the same thing,” I say gently. “We were at work. It was what we signed up for. We were unsafe, but we were holding guns, too. We got to shoot back.”
She just frowns, looking down at her lap.
Without thinking, I reach across and take her hand, pressing it between mine. Her fingers are soft and warm. She raises an eyebrow, but doesn’t try to move away. “I know you’re scared. But I also know you can handle whatever this bastard has to throw at you. You're more than strong enough to deal with this.”
She studies me for a few seconds. “You really think that, don’t you?” She says softly.
“I think you can handle anything,” I say honestly. She looks at me, an expression I can’t read crossing her face; then she leans forward and presses her mouth to mine. I go still. She smells sweet, like candy, and the blonde hair falling loose from her ponytail tickles around my face. It’s a quick, firm kiss, and she’s pulling away before I can really register what’s happened. She leans her head back against the headrest and contemplates me, her blue eyes daring me to say something. I just hold her gaze, trying to ignore my heart pounding painfully in my chest.
“Thank you,” she says quietly. “You can go now. I’m going to sleep.”
