My Life With The Movie Star (8 page)

CHapter 10

The next morning came fast. I was shocked that I wasn’t more hung-over. Thank goodness Gray had only bought the best type of alcohol and nothing cheap. I got up and showered. Lisa and Travis were also up and looking for something to eat.

“What a night,” Lisa said. “I guess it pays off to have you as my best friend. Look, we made JS Online.”

Lisa pulled me over to my computer where she showed me the JS Online article about us, which included pictures of Gray. The article wrote about how exciting it was that Gray was in town and how surprising it was that he had chosen a small Midwest city to party in. She also pulled up TMZ, and sure enough, they had the same pictures. This would be my first run-in with the infamous paparazzi.

“When did reporters show up last night?” I asked.  I hadn’t even noticed any.

“Nowadays with camera phones anyone can send pictures to a newspaper or website and get paid for it.” Lisa stated. “Where do you want to meet up for Fish Day?”

“I don’t know. Why don’t you guys just come over here again? It will be easier for you to park, and then we can all just walk down,” I suggested.

Fish Day had been my excuse for inviting Gray to Port Washington. It was the city’s biggest festival of the season. The city originated as a fishing village, and every year the citizens had gotten together to celebrate what they had caught. The fishing industry had all but died out in Port, but Fish Day was still celebrated on the third Saturday of every July. The city always had a sizeable parade, as well as concerts and an enormous firework show. I was glad that
the day was finally here but sad too knowing that I had less than twenty-four hours with Gray before he had to go back to LA.

Lisa and Travis showed back up promptly at 5 p.m. The four of us headed down the bluff and walked past the carnival rides.

“My agent would die if he saw the condition of those rides,” Gray chuckled to himself.

“I will protect you from the carnival rides,” I teased.

Gray reached for my hand, and I enjoyed strolling with him through the festival. We all walked to the food tent and ordered fish fries’. Gray noted that this was the best he has had since he landed in the states.

We were having a terrific time eating and drinking when I felt a strong tap on my shoulder. I turned around to see Rachel, the friend I hadn’t spoken to in months.

“Hi Rachel,” I said nervously, wondering what she wanted and knowing it was Gray that had caught her attention.

“Hi, Abby and Lisa,” she said sternly. “Abby, aren’t you going to introduce me to your friend?”

“Gray, this is Rachel. Rachel, this is ...”

“Grayson Edwards,” she said, shaking his hand. She glared at me. “Where did you two meet?”

I knew she was wondering why he had any interest in me. “Well, it’s a long story. I met him in June, at a convention in Dallas,” I answered.

“I saw your picture on the internet today,” Rachel said coldly. “Looks like you all had a fine time last night.”

“We did,” I snapped back.

Rachel looked at Gray holding my hand. I could see by her face that she was furious. I knew she would have loved to come with us last night. I was starting to feel guilty I should have invited her , but she had been unavailable for so long I
just got caught up in the moment and forgot.  Rachel suddenly turned to Gray.

“Aren’t you dating that girl from
Texas High
?” she asked him with an accusing tone.

“No,” he said, “I never dated Holly.”

“TMZ sure has a lot of pictures of you guys getting cozy. Just last week one was snapped in Beverly Hills of you and Holly leaving a club at 1 a.m.”

I felt a twinge of jealousy. I had never thought to look at TMZ until Lisa pulled it up today. Had he gone to a club last week with Holly? He didn’t seem to think much of her earlier when I brought her up.
I looked up at Gray for his response.

“Not that it’s any of your business,” he answered in a more angry tone, “but that was a publicity shoot for the movie. Studios always do that when a movie is a few weeks old. It keeps the teenagers interested. Completely staged.”

“If that’s what you want Abby to believe,” Rachel said.

“Enough, Rachel!” I said, my voice was raised and shaky. I wanted to protect Gray from this conversation before things got out of control.

“Your life,” Rachel stated. “I was just trying to show you he’s a player. That’s all I’m saying.”

“You have said enough,” I snapped back. I looked over at Lisa, and she jumped up and guided Rachel away from our table.

I turned to Gray and could tell he was no longer himself.

“I’m sorry about that,” I said apologetically. “She used to be a close friend and a while ago we stopped talking. You know how girls can be so mean to each other.”

“Do you check out TMZ?” he asked.

“No, Lisa showed it to me today for the first time. They had published our picture from last night.”

Gray looked down at his hands and the smiled up at me. “I don’t want you to think of me as a player,” he said. “The studio makes us do dumb stuff like that. It’s all in my contracts. I can show them to you, if you would like.”

“That’s not necessary,” I said. “I believe you. I have no reason not to believe you.”

“Abby, I just want you to know that as long as you’re in my life, I’m not going to see other women. I’ll let you know when those responsibilities come up in the future. I should have told you….”

“Don’t worry about her,” I said. “I haven’t seen any guys since I started talking to you either,” I replied. I could not believe that Grayson had essentially asked me to go steady. Well, I don’t think it’s called “going steady” when your adults, but the feeling was fantastic. He only wanted to see me!
The mood had gotten somber after Rachel’s outburst.

“Let’s change the subject,” I said. “I invited Lisa to come with me to LA. I figure I need my own assistant when I’m out for the VMA.”

That lightened Gray up a bit. His eyes sparkled again, and he flashed me his sexy smile. “Does that mean you’re coming then?” He asked.

“
I’ll go with you,” I replied.

“Thank you. That means a lot to me.”

The rest of the day went off without a hitch. We listened to the band playing at the band shell. Lisa and Travis took off before the fireworks; she knew that I only had a brief amount of time before Gray left. I would have to remember to thank her tomorrow. She had been a massive help all weekend; I owed her one.

The night became cooler as the sun went down. Grayson put both his arms around me to keep me warm. We watched the fireworks by the lake, and then decided to walk
back to my place. I didn’t want the night to end; it was perfect.

Chapter 11

The next morning, I woke early and couldn’t get back to sleep. I didn’t want to wake Grayson up, so I carefully got ready without disturbing him. Even when he was asleep, he looked hot. I took a quick peek at his abs before I jumped in the shower. I didn’t think I would ever get used to running my fingers over them. I decided that come Monday, I would start working out so I could also have killer abs for him. I noted that if I’m going to all these events, I should lose ten to fifteen pounds anyway, just to fit in with everyone else.

Grayson woke up and started to pack. I watched him pack up all his things out of the pink bathroom. I looked at him with my cutest pouty face. Maybe he would stay longer if I asked.

“Do you really have to go today?”

“Unfortunately, I do,” Grayson replied. “I will be on location starting Wednesday. We are already shooting the sequel to
Texas High
.”

“There will be a sequel?”

“I
t’s a series of books – about five of them I think. Should be great fun to shoot,” he said sarcastically.

“Will you be in Texas then?”

“No, silly,” he said with a chuckle. “We shoot on site in LA. I will be home for most of this shoot. There are just a few external shots on location in Texas.”

“Is Holly in this again?”
             

“Yes, she comes back as my love interest. Abby, please don’t worry about Holly. I’m with you. If I wanted to be with Holly, I would be.”

“Who’s the better kisser?” I teased.

“You are, by far. I love your kisses.”

“You
what my kisses?” I asked, poking fun at the L-word.

“I love your kisses. Silly girl,” Gray said and then kissed me deeply.

Unfortunately, I had to watch him pack up the rest of his things and get ready for the airport. The ride was remarkably quiet. Neither of us knew what to say to each other. I parked my car and walked him into the terminal to check his bags. Soon enough I had to walk him over to TSA to check in. I looked away from him, my eyes full of tears. I hoped he was also sad to leave me.

“I’ll miss you so much,” I gushed as I threw my arms around his neck. “Thank you for the best weekend of my life. You made me feel like a princess – and thank you for all my gifts. I can’t wait to see you in LA.”

Gray gently kissed the top of my head. He then cupped my face and kissed my lips. How close we had grown over a couple days. I guess the weeks of phone calls had helped to develop our relationship. How silly I had been to think he wanted me only as his friend.

“I love you, Abby,” he said gently. “I know it’s too soon to feel that way, but I do; and I wanted you to know before I left.”

“I love you too,” I replied. We kissed. It was a lovely long embrace. We both knew that it would be awhile before we could be together again.

I had a hard time letting go of him; the TSA guard almost had to drag me off him as Gray went through security. As soon as he was gone, I ran for my car, tears streaming down my face. He loved me, and I loved him.

The car ride home was long. I could barely see the road through my tears. When I got home, I lay down on my bed and cried my eyes out. I knew I should be happy that someone loved me, but the distance seemed like hundreds of thousands of miles. As much as I trusted him, knowing he would be shooting the sequel to
Texas High
and kissing Holly every day did not make me feel better about the situation.

Chapter 12

Argh, Monday morning. What a horrible start to my week: a week without Gray. Well, not entirely without Gray; I had a dozen roses on my desk with a sweet note thanking me for the incredible weekend and telling me again he loved me. I also had my camera full of pictures to upload on Facebook first thing: proof that our relationship existed – that he existed in my life.

I emailed Melanie a couple. She would get a kick out of my weekend. I would call her in a bit and ask for the VMA’s off. They were three weeks away, and they would be three extremely long weeks for me. I would have to throw myself in work and ignore the lonely feeling I had at home. Melanie called me almost the moment after I hit send on the email.

“Good morning,” I said.