Tria doesn't speak. She looks like a scared kitten in a corner. Rain walks around with two bigger bags that she's pulling behind her.
"No, I am. I've got to be in New York for a signing tomorrow."
My eyes are glued to the luggage in her hands instead of her face.
"And you need five bags for that?"
My jaw tenses as Tria scurries around me, hurriedly getting out of dodge as she makes her way to her car.
Rain takes a deep breath that says something I don't want to hear. What just happened?
"No. I'm going to be staying there for a while. I've got some business to do."
I look up and walk toward her, refusing to just let her leave. "What are you doing, Rain?"
She forces a smile and shrugs. "I just told you."
"No, you just told me some bullshit. I'm not letting you go. I've spent eleven years wanting to be with you, and now you're... What's going on really?"
She blows out a harsh breath, and she turns around as she messes with her luggage, giving me only a view of her back.
"I don't see this working. Maybe too much time has passed, but it's just... It doesn't feel right."
My heart explodes into a thousand little pieces. It's as though all the oxygen in my lungs is painfully ripped out, and my world breaks apart right in front of me. I'm forced to sit down on the uncomfortable chair by the door while Rain avoids looking at me.
"Look at me and tell me you don't love me."
"I didn't say I don't love you, Dane. I said this isn't working."
"Fuck that. Look at me and tell me to my face, now, Rain!"
She tenses in front of me, and I wait to see her eye twitch with a lie. Then I can figure out what the hell is really going on. Slowly, she turns to face me with too many unshed tears in her eyes for me to see her blues clearly.
"This thing between us won't work. I know that. I'm sorry. I really am, Dane, but I have to go. This is me doing the right thing instead of drawing it out, because it's not meant to be."
Not once. Not once did her eye twitch. No. Fuck no. Please, God, no.
"Rain," I murmur in a rasp whisper, and her eyes start dropping the tears she can no longer hold on to.
"I have to go, Dane. I'm sorry," she says through a strangled, hoarse tone.
She drags her suitcases by me, and the door shuts behind her as she leaves me. My body has shutdown. Nothing makes a damn bit of sense. Yesterday she loved me, today she's leaving me.
By the time I get to my feet, Rain is already gone. The girl I've loved for eleven years left me because I wasn't the one she wanted... again. I barely had her long enough to lose her.
Chapter 16
RAIN
"You still don't like Dean Easton?" the impatient and exasperated producer asks.
After a month of filming, he shouldn't even bother to ask that question. Where do they find these stick-up-the-ass actors?
"This guy doesn't act... I don't know. I can tell he's acting. He's not as genuine as Dane... I mean, Dean. Everyone has to see his love for her without it being spoken. Right now, I'd almost think the guy could spell it out and not sell it. And his walk is terrible. Dane—Dean, would never walk like that. His walk is effortlessly graceful and sexy. He doesn't try; it's just natural."
He groans as he takes several notes. I'm sure they're regretting giving me so much input on this, but the books for the Easton Boys have sold like crazy. There are only four in the series, but every one of them has flown off the shelves. The movie has to be as close to perfect as possible to escape the terrible reviews that would ensue otherwise.
"Maybe you could bring the illusive Dane Sterling up here to explain to our Dean what he's doing wrong."