Page 32 of To Love Jason Thorn

“Well, okay. You scared me; I thoughtsomeone was strangling you.”

“Yeah, nothing that exciting.”

“Being strangled is exciting to you?”

“Not for me, but definitely for somepeople. Don’t knock it ’til you try it and all that.”

He seemed to think about it for a second,then cleared his throat before speaking again. “Ok, we are not going anywherenear that. You shouldn’t even know about stuff like that.” I did a ladylikesnort but he ignored me. “You never answered my texts last night.”

“Yeah, I didn’t want to bother you.” I gotup and went to stand next to the window, counting the cars that passed on ourstreet.

“I was the one who texted you; why would Ibe bothered when you actually went ahead and answered them?”

“It was late. I just thought you would beoccupied, or out. Why did you say you were calling again?”

“You’re terrible at trying to change thesubject smoothly, little one. From now on, you can answer my texts whenever. Iforgot to tell you yesterday, but please make sure no one else gets my numberfrom your phone, all right? It’s pure hell when somebody gets a hold of it.”

“If you are worried about my friends, don’tbe. Lucy is the only one who knows my password and she would never do anythinglike that. She might’ve looked a little crazy with all the jumping andscreaming yesterday, but she isn’t someone who would steal your number and thenbother you.” I paused and thought about it for a second. “However, she mightgrope you if she ever sees you again so you can worry about that if you want to,but that’s as far as she would go. Still, if you are regretting giving me yournumber, I can delete it right now.”

“This trying to get rid of me thing is ahuge blow to my ego, little one. I hope you’ll stop before you do somepermanent damage.”

“I didn’t mean to sound…well, mean, I justdon’t want you to worry about it.”

Feeling too wired to just stand in oneplace, I started pacing the living room from wall to wall. Why wasn’t he justtelling me what he thought of the book? Even if he’d read a few pages, surelyhe would have an opinion on it.

“I’m not worrying, and the reason I’m callingright now is because I wanted to let you know that I talked to Keith, the guy fromthe movie studio, and they will send the optioning agreement to my agentinstead of directly to you.”

I stopped my pacing. “What? Why would theydo that?”

“Because I don’t want them to takeadvantage of you. Tom will go over the contract for us then we’ll meet at myhouse so you can sign it if you are happy with everything they are offering.Just let me know when you’ll be free and I’ll arrange it. It needs to be in thenext few days because I have to leave for Canada on Friday. I’ll be out of townfor a few months.”

“Oh,” I mumbled, mostly to myself. Thatlittle piece of news settled down in the pit of my stomach, so I bit down on mythumb and tried to come up with the right thing to say. “This is too much,Jason. Despite what I said yesterday, I’m sure you don’t have this kind of timeon your hands to babysit your old best friend’s little sister.”

He coughed and roughly cursed on the otherend of the line.

“You okay?” I asked.

“Yeah. Sorry. Look, this isn’t about Dylan.This is about you. Wouldn’t you let Dylan help you if he was in my place? Atthe very least, you can see me as a stand-in for your brother. I won’t letanyone take advantage of your work, Olive. You’ll get what you deserve andnothing less.”

What he’d just said hurled me back to myheartbroken fifteen-year-old self again. It looked like no matter how much Igrew up, he would never see me as anything but a sister.

I dumbly nodded and realized he couldn’t seeme through the phone so I forced my mouth to open and give him the words.

“Thank you, Jason. I appreciate it,” Isaid, in a dull tone. “Uh, I have to go right now. My friends are waiting forme, but I’ll text you to let you know which days I’ll be free. You can arrangethe time according to your schedule. I don’t want to be a bigger burden then Ialready am.”

“Little one,” he said, softening his tone.“You couldn’t be a burden to me even if you tried.”

“Thank you. Goodbye Jason.”

Before he could say anything else, I endedthe call then powered off my phone completely.

It was a childish and stupid move, but Ididn’t want to risk hearing his voice again on the off chance he decided tocall me back while I was busy feeling sorry for myself.

Later that night, after I had a long talkwith my mom, I learned that she had asked Jason to look after me. Since he wasbeing cast as Isaac, she had thought we would be working together. I had toexplain to her that I wouldn’t be involved in the filming process.

After doing some research on the subject,I’d already learned that no director wanted the author to get in the way of howhe wanted to shape the movie. He was the big dog and it would mean nothing tohim whether the author was happy with the process or not.

Details of the movie aside, I wasn’t surehow I should feel about Jason helping me out as a favor to my family.

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