Page 33 of Lost Love Found

“No, no more nightmares. I don’t think I’ve slept more than a couple of hours all week.” She huffs out a humorless laugh. “Wow. Thank you. Thanks for staying with me.” Finally, her eyes meet mine and again, we’re back. It’s just us, eye to eye for a few seconds until she looks away.

“I’m gonna make us some breakfast. Why don’t you take a long shower and relax?” I reach over and kiss the top of her head again, then get up.

“Adam, you don’t have to. I’m so sorry about last night. I don’t know how to thank you.” Her fingers are in knots on her lap. I wish she could just relax, just be and not feel like she needs to always thank me.

“Elaina, please stop apologizing and thanking me. Now go. Shower. I’ll see you soon.” I walk out of her room shaking my head, wondering whether I’ll ever be able to get her to stop overthinking, stop needing to say the perfect things and just trust me. Fully.

I make eggs, bacon and toast. The coffee was already programmed to be brewed at 10 a.m. and it doesn’t surprise me that she left the house yesterday with her coffee machine all ready to go for the next morning. My girl doesn’t mess around with her coffee.

I smell the coconut and honey before I see her walk in. She has black leggings and a cropped sweatshirt on because she must want to torture me with her flawless backside. I take everything out of the oven where it was staying warm, and before I can turn to grab plates, her body is pressed against mine. I feel her fingers run through my hair, face is tucked into my neck, and the warmth of her breath on my skin. Every inch of her is against me, down to our toes.

“I don’t deserve you.” And as quickly as she was there, she’s gone.

“Yeah, no. We’re gonna talk about that just as soon as we both have some food in us. Then we’re gonna talk about last night. Then we’re gonna talk about Mitch, that asshole…” I'm just about to launch into another rant when my phone vibrates in my pocket. I glance at the screen and groan—it's Sandra, my publicist. I send her call to voicemail, but before I can stuff my phone back in my pocket, the angry buzzing starts up again.

“Pick it up. Go ahead. She wouldn’t be calling right now if it wasn’t important.” Lainey is right, but I don’t want to talk to Sandra in front of her. I don’t want any talk of this fake relationship she’s suggested to come up because I haven’t told Elaina about any of that–mostly because I don’t want it to happen at all…

“Hey, Sandra.”

“River, you brat, I’ve called you five times this morning. Do you have any idea how early it is here? Why are you ignoring me?”

“I was just making breakfast. I wasn’t ignoring you.” Except I was…

“You know I wouldn’t call unless it was important, so get your head out of your ass and get ready to listen.” If she wasn’t the absolute best publicist out there and our family hadn’t known her for so long, I would never stand for this shit. But she gets away with it. I don’t even mind.

“I know, I’m sorry, Sandra. I won't ignore your calls again.” Elaina's eyes widen in surprise and her mouth twitches into a smirk as I grovel to my publicist. She hastily bites down on her lower lip to stifle her laughter.

“Have you seen any of the gossip sites this morning? Has Lainey?”

“I haven’t seen anything, no. What now?… Lainey? Why?” Now she’s really perked up. Lainey's lips move in a silent whisper as she mouths something to me. I try to focus on her, but it's useless - Sandra has launched into a story that's impossible to ignore. I strain to hear what she's trying to tell me, but I can't make out the words.

“We’re going to need to talk to her, River. It’s you two all over every gossip blog this morning. Is she there? Put me on speaker.” How the fuck did she guess I was with Lainey?

“OK, hang on. Just… don’t say anything embarrassing. Please.” I put the call on speaker so Elaina can hear.

“Lainey, honey, are you there?” Sandra is already far sweeter to Elaina five words in than she has been to me in all of our 15 years together.

“Yeah, hi Sandra. I’m here.” Her eyes widen and she looks at me for a clue as to what’s going on. I shrug my shoulders and lift my hands in the air, my lips forming the words 'I don't know'. She nods slowly in understanding.

“OK, I’m going to get right to the point. There’s a video of you two from last night. The first part is of River kissing your neck, and you look like you’re quite enjoying it, my girl. But who can blame you, right?” Sandra laughs and clears her throat. Elaina’s face turns red with a mix of rage and embarrassment. I’m now mouthing I’m sorry to her, already worried about what’s going to come from Sandra next.

“And the next part is of you walking out of the bar and getting into a car with Adam. The tabloids are going crazy making up stories about your relationship.” She pauses, while Elaina gasps, bringing her hands to her mouth. “Lainey, I don’t know how much River has told you, but he’s been getting a lot of heat lately for how secretive he is about his love life. Or lack thereof.” I clear my throat loudly, letting Sandra know to shut up already. “Studios are threatening not to bring him onto projects because of the negative publicity. They don’t want movie premiers to become more about his personal life than about the project. I had suggested he find himself a nice girl to pretend to date, since he’s as picky as they come.”

“Sandra! Come on!” My voice is gruff. What the fuck is she saying?

“OK, so what can I do to help?” Lainey is still looking at the phone as though I’m not here.

“River isn’t going to like this…” Sandra knows this isn’t an option. No way.

“No, Sandra. We talked about this. If I wouldn’t do this with a stranger, what makes you think I’ll be OK doing it with someone I actually care about?” I’m already saying too much, but I need to be clear that I will not bring Elaina into this.

“I don’t know what else we can do here. I know you two are just friends, but the video speaks for itself. Riv, the way you kissed her neck..."

“Tell me, Sandra. Tell me what I can do, and I’ll do it,” Lainey cuts in, swatting my hand away when I reach for the phone.

“We’re gonna need you to pretend to be River’s girlfriend, sweetheart.” A heavy silence hangs in the air. I watch as Elaina's gaze slowly shifts, her eyes finally meeting mine. She pauses for a moment.

"OK."

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