“Fame.”
As an entertainment lawyer that had grown up in Los Angeles, she could safely say that fame was real. It was very real.
“People think they want it,” he continued. “They chase it. But when they get it, it doesn’t give them what they want. It doesn’t fulfill them. It doesn’t bring them happiness. From what I’ve seen fame can be very lonely.”
Wow. That was basically exactly how she’d felt after she’d gotten the partnership and had a million dollars in her bank account. Feeling like he was getting a little too close to home, Grace teased, “You know a lot of famous people?”
“My sister-in-law is Shayne Fox.”
Grace’s eyes widened slightly, and she turned around so she was facing him. She wasn’t used to people surprising her, but he just had.
“Your sister-in-law is Shayne Fox?” As soon as she asked the question, she remembered that her own sisters had gone to Shayne’s wedding. Shayne had married a firefighter who lived in Hope Falls, that must be his brother.
“Yes.” His deep voice vibrated through her, and she felt his thumb tracing circles around her lower back. “Now I have a question for you.”
Can you kiss me? Yes. You can absolutely kiss me.
“What?” The single word came out as a breath as she tried to speak over the lust clogging her throat.
“What’s your name?”
Grace was already closing her eyes in anticipation for lips touching hers when the question he’d asked registered in her brain. Her lids flew open.
“My name?” she asked at the same time it dawned on her that she didn’t know the half-naked man’s name whose arms she was wrapped in.
How was that possible?
“Your name,” he repeated, his dark chocolate stare melting her from the inside out.
Her heart pounded against her rib cage. She’d told him her life story, cried in front of him, and was lying beside him in her bra and panties and she didn’t know the man’s name. Maybe she really was having a mid-life crisis.
She voiced her panic aloud. “Oh my god, I don’t know your name?”
The easy grin that spread on his face soothed the internal freak-out that she was having.
“Hi, I’m Easton Bishop.”
“Hi, I’m Grace Noelle Wells.”
“Grace Noelle,” he repeated reverently.
She sucked in a sharp breath when she heard him use her middle name. She hadn’t even realized that she’d told him what it was. She never told people her middle name. Ever.
* * *
Easton watchedthe color drain from Grace’s face after he repeated her name. He hadn’t meant to upset her. He wasn’t even sure what he’d done wrong. Just seconds ago, he’d been sure they were about to kiss, and it dawned on him that he didn’t even know her name.
“Did I say something wrong?”
“No, sorry. I just…I never tell people my middle name.” Grace inhaled a shaky breath and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “I haven’t been called that in a long time.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you.” He hated that he’d obviously brought up bad memories for her. He’d just thought that the two names together really suited her. Grace Noelle.
“You didn’t do anything…” She shook her head and sighed. “My mom used to call me and all my sisters by our first and middle names. Not when we were in trouble or anything. All the time. She used to say two names are always better than one. I think she just liked using them both because they meant something to her. She named all of us after Hollywood starlets and Christmas, which were two of her favorite things.”
Easton’s left corner of his mouth tilted up in a half-grin, thinking that her mom sounded like a very interesting woman. “That’s quite a combination.”
“She was quite a character. She was a hopeless romantic who believed in fate, and happily ever after. When she loved, she loved hard and forever.” There was a sadness in Grace’s eyes that Easton didn’t miss, but almost as soon as it appeared it was gone again. “Christmas and the Golden Age of Hollywood were two things she loved.”