Page 53 of Reel Love

I type:I’m on-call.

Like a doctor?

Something like that. I borrow her phrase and return it to her.

We aren’t being honest, are we?As if she has to ask.

We’re carefully peeling back a layer,I say.At our pace.

Agreed.

I promise not to judge you if you tell me the truth,I assure her.

Maybe one day.

Same here.

How did I let Ben talk me into yet another gathering where I’m the ninth wheel? I already know the answer to that question: Ben. He’s as persuasive as a puppy dragging his own leash to the door and then looking up at you with those pleading eyes. It’s a brand of charm I’ll never acquire, and also, apparently, one I’ll always succumb to.

This time the barbecue is at Ben and Summer’s. I offered to bring a side dish, so I come bearing my mom’s famous potato salad. I made the salad this afternoon after taking a group of marine biology interns out onCatching Wishes. We trawled the waters and, not surprisingly, everyone held the sea cucumber on that tour. I partner with the UC schools to offer hands-on opportunities several times a semester. It’s a nice break from everything else I do with my degree and experience.

“Hey! Hey! Hey!” Ben answers the door with his arms open wide. “Look who’s here! He didn’t shy away, babe!”

Summer steps up behind Ben, extending her hands for the bowl of potato salad.

She looks at her man-child of a husband and says, “I told you he would be here.”

Then she looks at me. “Stevens, I told Ben you’re a man of your word. If you say you’ll be somewhere, you show up.”

“Thank you.”

“Come in. Come in,” Ben says, stepping aside. “Everyone’s in the back yard. Also there’s a friend of Summer’s here.”

I barely process Ben’s comment. And then it occurs to me what he just said.

Noooo. They aren’t trying to fix me up, are they?

“Don’t worry, man. I’m not on a matchmaking mission. Not exactly. She’s cool and we thought you’d like to meet her. No pressure.”

He follows this promise with a wink at his wife which he probably does with the intention of making me feel assured. It has the opposite effect of the one he's going for. I feel set up. I’m not big into surprises—especially not when I’m out of my element already. I have half a mind to tell Ben I forgot to turn off the stove, or I’m possibly coming down with an ocean-borne bacterial infection. I think I hear my mom calling me.

No. She’d one-hundred percent be behind Ben on this one.

I give Ben and Summer a forced smile that I hope looks more natural than it feels. Then I take a deep breath and walk through their house and out the back door.

Nothing could have prepared me for what I see when my feet hit the back porch. I should have known. An examination of facts would have helped me narrow down an accurate conclusion. Whether I would have been prepared is another question entirely. I wouldn’t. Nothing ever really prepares me for seeing her.

Alana Graves is standing next to one of the two outdoor tables in Ben and Summer’s back yard. She’s leaning a hip casually against the tabletop, holding a drink and chatting with Kalaine. Her blond curls perfectly frame her face and fall past her shoulders. Her bright eyes sparkle. She’s a magnet—the sun, drawing everything into her orbit, but keeping us at just the right distance, because who could handle the overwhelming reality of getting too close to her?

On Joel’s boat, I learned to tone down my responses. She started to feel like someone I knew, just another woman—a gorgeous, captivating woman with not only a beautiful face and body, but a sharp wit and clever mind. I saw her vulnerability and it made her human. Then I ran into her at the cove—my cove. And I had an unexpected moment of complete calm, the after-effect of being underwater in my favorite environment. I mustered confidence and evenlanded a joke.

But this? Her here, in the midst of my friends? She’s shining brighter than the crepuscular rays from the sol at the center of our universe. No wonder they call celebrities stars.

“Stevens!” Bodhi shouts over to me.

I’m glued to the back porch, unable to move.

“Are you just going to stand there gaping, or are you going to help us grill over here?”

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