“I’m Ms. Montoya’s bodyguard,” I said with a tight smile. “I can’t guard her body out here.”
The assistant held firm. “Mr. Cheswell will keep Ms. Montoya safe, sir,” she said and pointed to the chairs across the way. “If you take a seat, they’ll be back out in a few minutes.”
I wanted to argue, but Adrianne motioned me toward the waiting chairs. “It’s okay,” she said. “I won’t be too long.”
Unhappily, I sat and watched as she disappeared behind the door. Crossing my arms over my chest, I did my best not to glare at the assistant at her desk. It wasn’t her fault, after all, but my mood had soured considerably.
Still, I noticed that the assistant kept glancing at me and pretending not to and then furiously returning to her computer. So, maybe Adrianne wasn’t wrong about my being intimidating. After ten minutes, she still hadn’t come back out, and I was on a hairpin trigger.
“Sir?” It was the assistant. She had, obviously, gotten over her fear. Now, she was eyeing me in a way that, before Adrianne, would have had me flirting and asking for her number.The kind of guy women want to climb, Adrianne had said.
“Can I get you anything?” she asked. Her voice was smokier now. “Sparkling water? Coffee?”
“No,” I said. “Thank you.”
Her brilliant smile dimmed with disappointment. “Well, if you need anything at all,” she said.
I gave her a tight smile. “Thanks.”
Another ten minutes, and the office doorfinallyswung open. I stood as a red-faced Adrianne came out. Tears threatened to fall down her cheeks, but she was doing an admirable job of holding it in. “Adrianne?”
She shook her head. “Let’s go, okay?” she said stiffly. Her eyes begged me to comply.
I nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”
Adrianne didn’t say anything all the way back to the car. As soon as she was safely tucked into the passenger seat, the tears that she had been holding back began to fall.
“What happened?” I asked. I reached for her hand, and she clung to me.
“Grant wasthrilledabout the publicity,” she said. “They want more of it.”
“Which means what?”
Adrianne looked absolutely miserable. “They want me to ‘lean in’ to the tabloids.” She rolled her eyes. “They didn’t say that I have to date Ryan, but they want us photographed together outside the studio.”
“Absolutely not.”
“That’s what I said, but it was... heavily implied that if I didn’t, they would find someone else to play Dr. Falconi.”
I swore out loud. It was Hollywood—this happened all the time—but somehow, I was still shocked that they would threaten her place in the movie over something like this.
“I don’t know what to do,” she said softly. “This movie could be a huge gateway for me, and Ilikeplaying her.”
“You can’t let them fire you.” As much as the whole situation was repugnant, Adrianne’s losing her role would be worse. She would regret it, and it might get her blacklisted from other projects.
Adrianne sighed. “They gave me until tomorrow to make a decision,” she said. “Can we, maybe, forget about it for a while? Get Foster and Callan and do something fun?”
“Absolutely.” I kissed her hand. “Anything you want.”
12
FOSTER
“Just a little further,” I said, practically bouncing in the driver’s seat. “I promise, you will not be disappointed.”
“You said that thirty minutes ago,” Adrianne piped up from the backseat. She was curled into Ethan’s side in the back. Callan sat in the passenger seat beside me. Ethan had called as they were leaving from the studio and told me and Callan to think of something fun to do for the rest of the day.
It was pretty easy to come up with a plan. By the time they got home, we’d loaded his truck with beach supplies. After a short stop at my place for my surfboards, we headed toward the beach. “We could have been at the beach in less than an hour, you know,” she added after a moment. “Head west, and you’ll hit water.”