Page 21 of Falling Like Stars

“Don’t you get tired of being asked questions?” I arch a brow. “You aren’t interviewed enough?”

“I hate interviews. But I’m not getting tired of your questions.”

“What’s the difference?”

“This is real,” Zach says. “Probably the first real conversation I’ve had in a long time, ground rules and all.”

“Your friends don’t talk to you?”

“Is that your official question?”

I study his hesitancy. His willingness to trust me with private information. “It’s off the record,” I say, and he relaxes.

“I don’t have many real friends anymore. A few buddies back in St. Louis. But my circle seems to have dwindled with all the Eva drama. She didn’t like me going out and I got so fucking exhausted arguing about it. Poor rich boy problems, right?”

Zach lays his arms on the edge of the tub, then rests his chin on the back of his hands. I do the same.

“I don’t know,” I say. “I’d imagine it’s hard to make friends, not knowing if they’re interested in you or just being near you.”

His brows rise, his expression appreciative. “Correct. It’s not all bad. I have my team and we’re close. I call them my California family.” He smiles ruefully. “A family I pay to stick around me. So yeah, I like your questions. And I’m pretty sure it’s my turn.”

“Mine were off the record.”

“This whole convo is off the record,” he says. “Unless you’re a spy for The Scandal Sheet.”

“You got me. Being a PA is just a cover.” I nudge his arm. “See? You don’t have to worry about my career after all.”

Zach grins. “Nice try, but you’re done stalling. It’s my turn. When was the last time you were scared shitless?”

Right now.

The thought pops into my head uninvited. And makes no sense anyway. What’s to be scared of? But I’m waging a constant battle against that aura of safety Zachary exudes. It tempts me to spill my guts to him because with him, it’d be okay…

I clear my throat. “Getting more personal, these questions.”

“We’re leveling up. But you can always pass,” he adds gently.

I think for a moment, shuffling through a catalogue of moments that left me breathless with terror. Most involve the night Josh was hit. His shoe in the road. The blood. His memorial and all the people crying—his mother, broken forever—because I’d been fucking cold. Or any number of long, dark nights where the grief lurked like a wolf, ready to tear me to shreds if I made eye contact…

“Um, the first morning my mom didn’t get out of bed after my dad died,” I tell Zachary, marveling that this is the easy memory. “I had to get ready for school on my own. I was thirteen and old enough to handle my own shit, but just eating breakfast alone in that quiet kitchen… Yeah, that was scary. Because I already knew in my bones that my mother wasn’t going to bounce back and that my childhood was officially over.”

Zach nods, his eyes even softer now. “I can see how that would be really scary.”

I take a long pull of wine. “Right. So. Your turn. Same question.”

He traces his finger in some water on the cement next to him. “Vancouver, three years ago. Eva and I had a fight—an epic one. The kind in which things were said that cannot be unsaid and where she…” He lets that sentence die. “That’s when I had the first real fear that we weren’t going to make it. That she wasn’t the same person I’d fallen in love with.” He sighs. “Cheesy, right?”

“No,” I say. “It’s sounds honest.”

“We had a whole life planned out, or so I thought,” Zach continues. “Hollywood was just one part of it. I thought we were going to build something real. Marriage, family, kids…something lasting.” He shakes his head, his eyes distant. “Watching that fall apart was hard.”

He’s hot, rich, and famous, but what he really wants is one woman to love forever.

I stare at this strange creature across from me. A hundred questions clog my brain, most of them some version of “Is Eva crazy?” But then, maybe family life isn’t what she wants. Hell, I can’t imagine it for myself. Maybe she can’t either.

Zach’s phone lights up with a text.

“Speak of the devil.” He sighs and silences it, then turns it face down. “She wants to talk. I don’t know what about. It’s supposed to be over, but I keep getting sucked back in.”

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