Page 18 of Rushing Into Love

The silence of the lot was broken by the sharp, shrill piercing of the fire sirens next door. Red and white flashing lights strobed the parking lot. Bree jumped back, startled. The moment of intimacy vanished.

“It’s only the fire department,” I reassured her, patting her arm. “Happens all the time.”

“Whew, that scared me.” She put her hand to her chest, took a deep breath. “Well, I guess I should go, it’s getting late. My sister will start to worry.” She glanced at her watch.

“Yeah, I should probably head home, too.” I tried not to sound disappointed.

I walked her to her car and helped her in, gently closing the door behind her.

She pulled away into the night and I stood alone in the empty parking lot, white emergency lights blaring down on me from next door.

5

Bree

Damn it. Why did there have to be an emergency call right then?I moaned silently as I drove down the dark road leading to my sister’s house.I was so close to kissing Ryder!

It’s probably too soon to be getting involved with someone new anyway,an annoying voice chirped. If that news hits, you’ll look even worse.

Gnawing on my lip, I shook my head.

But you’re not the one in the wrong, remember? Pax cheated on you, so who cares?another voice reminded me. It was pretty evident what my Id wanted me to do, if I subscribed to Freudian psychology.

Pulling into my sister’s dark driveway, I cut the engine.

But what about my career?I rested my head on the steering wheel and exhaled, long and hard.

There had to be some way to skirt the Pax issue, move on with my life, and still salvage my career. He’d made the mistake of cheating, but surely I was in the clear now, since I’d broken up with him back in LA? I mean, no one was going to find me in Peachtree Grove.

Yes, this could work. I just needed to lay low for a few more days and let Pax move on.

I didn’t want to blow it with Ryder. I’d actually had a real connection with him—and it didn’t hurt that he was also freaking hot. I was pretty sure a guy like him wouldn’t wait around forever.

* * *

Buzz,buzz. Buzz, buzz.I flopped a hand out of bed, silencing my cell.What time was it, anyway?It had to be early.I was still exhausted; my body hadn’t really adjusted to East Coast time yet.

Rolling over, I grabbed my phone off the nightstand. Eight AM on Saturday morning and I already had three missed calls and two urgent SOS texts from my friend and personal assistant, Ally, in LA.

Call me!!!

It was only five AM there, so this had to be an emergency.

“Hey, Ally, it’s me. What’s up?” I murmured into the phone, my voice still quiet with sleep.

“OMG, I’ve been trying to call you for like, an hour!” she screamed. “Where were you?”

“Sleeping. What’s the big emergency that has you up so early?”

“Not an emergency, anopportunity,” she strung out the word for effect. “Like, a huge one for you. I got you an interview! OnLA Today!” she trilled, proud of her good work.

I sat straight up in bed at this news. “What? How? When? Why?”

“The interview’s next Wednesday. Make-up call is 4:30 AM,” Ally said. “It’s so crazy. I was at a party after work and I happened to run into the host, Layla something or other?”

“Layla Lowerty,” I supplied, picturing her jet-black hair and kohl-rimmed eyes.

“Yeah, her. She’s got such an interesting look, you know? So anyway, I ran into her when I was getting a drink at the bar—a Club Soda with lime, I’m still doing Whole30—and I happened to casually mention you. Like, I have a friend who does a relationship podcast and it’s really taken off, and she was like, cool. Would she want to be onLA Today? And I was like, yeah, sure, she’d love to!” she finished in a whirl.

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