Janis scrunches her face and shoots me a disapproving look. “This isn’t like you.”
“I know.”
“You’ve got ten minutes to get your crap together.”
“I know.”
“So remember who’s boss. Dawson may be some ridiculously famous A-lister with a killer bod and a face to die for, but he’s part of the human race like anyone else.”
“Right.”
“We’re all equal.”
I pull in an affirming breath and nod again. “Exactly.”
“And besides,” Janis adds. “He’s the one who set this up. You’re not chasing him; he’s chasing you.”
“I guess…”
“You feel better?”
“A little,” I say.We’re just human, all of us.I suck in another deep breath and hold it, letting the oxygen seep into every part of me before exhaling, long and slow.
My limbs go lax. My heart calms. My mind is still. “A lot better,” I amend. “Thank you. I needed that.”
“Sure thing. But I still want you to do one thing while you’re there.”
I glance over. “What’s that?” I’m certain she’ll say something about Transform Inc until I spot that impish look in her eye. “Keep it out of the gutter,” I urge.
She grins. “Okay, I’ll scratch what I was going to say and suggest you make out with him. A lot. Whenever you get the chance. What was that you used to say? Something about thebliss of his kiss?”
Yes, I used that phrase to describe Dawson’s dreamy kiss on at least a few occasions. An image of his full and glorious lips comes to mind. His kiss most definitelyisbliss.And those hands—the way he slips them over my hips and squeezes me closer to him. A thrill of pleasure spreads through me, and I bask in it like Muffin sprawled out in the sunlight. Making out with Dawson is a very real possibility.
Yet so is getting my heart broken, an inner voice warns. I hate that voice. I wish it would just shut its face and let me have a moment of ecstasy. I want to label it the voice of fear but I inwardly know the voice of reason is more accurate. Being attracted to Dawson, harvesting a deep, meaningful connection, was never the issue. His priorities, on the other hand, were.
I grit my teeth as a rush of hot regret stings me to the core. “Never mind,” I say. “I’m not better. I’m worse. I can’t make out with Dawson and walk out of his life again, unfazed.”
“Who says you have to walk away?” Janis asks.
Her question is infuriating, but I stifle my kneejerk response—everyonewith a brain, I want to say. “If I hadn’t signed that contract…scratch that. If I didn’t care about my reputation as a business owner, and yours too,” I add, “I’d get right out of this contract. Court, fines, you name it—I’d be willing to pay it. But our reputation—that’s the one thing I can’t risk.” I may be an artist, but I’m also a businesswoman in the industry. I know what breaking a contract could do in a situation like this; it’s not an option.
“I’mgladyou can’t just walk away,” Janis admits. “You have a real second chance with Dawson Cain. Enjoy it. Make it count, like they said on the other seasons, remember?”
I don’t exactly plan on doing that, but I nod anyway. If Idogive Dawson a second chance, it will have to be after I’m convinced that he’s changed. And that’s assuming he’s really doing this for me and not for some other purpose, like his career.
I feel doomed. Depleted. Destined to walk the path of the broken-hearted in six days’ time. But then a glimmer of hope shines. I have the Dawson Dam, right? Sure, it might have cracked a little while I let myself remember how yummy his kiss was, while I let myself imagine kissing him again.
But I’m in charge of my actions. I imagine a smooth, hard layer of cement blocking not only my heart, but my mind too—Dawson has a way of reading it somehow, knowing, like nobody else, the thoughts and emotions looming there.
It’s okay, Brinley. You’ve done this once before, you can do it again.
I nod, believing that voice with all that I have. Six days, that’s all I’m bound to. This Dawson Dam has lasted me two years, surely it can hold out for one week more.
CHAPTER5
Dawson
I’m not going to lie—they did a good job on this pad, and I’m not easily impressed with homes. Across the front yard by the curbside, the contestants of last season’s show wait with a minuscule filming crew. I’ve ventured to the doorstep to drop off my luggage and stop myself from hyperventilating over the fact that I’m about to see Brinley.
