Page 38 of Nothing Heals Me Like You Do

“Maybe you’ll even watchGimme Shelterwith me,” she joked.

“We’ll have to see about that.” Justine didn’t smile. “I will watch all of your other movies, though.”

“You know you’re going to be my date for the premiere?” Sienna blurted out.Oops.That event was many months away. Who knew what might happen before then?

“What?” Justine did paint on a grin now. “Me next to you on the red carpet?” She shook her head. “I don’t know about that.”

“Why not?” Sienna could easily picture it, although she understood that a lot of other people—Justine included—might not be able to.

“I truly don’t know. I haven’t thought about it at all. It’s weird enough that you’re now shooting this movie about my life, that you’re playing my ex, and that we’re also seeing each other. Honestly, for my own sanity, it’s best that I don’t have a lot of spare time to think all of this through.”

“For the record, I can totally envision us on the red carpet together,” Sienna said. “And it would be an honor to walk it with you.” It would be the greatest honor of Sienna’s life to turn up to theGimme Shelterpremiere not only as its co-star but as Justine’s date—or partner, even.

“I’d only be obliterated by your dazzling beauty and star quality,” Justine said.

“Not a chance in hell,” Sienna said. “I know you don’t care about clothes and makeup and red carpets, and movies for that matter, but when the time comes, you will be the one to dazzle on that red carpet. There’s not a single doubt in my mind about that.”

“Really?” Justine’s features softened; her voice was as light as a summer breeze.

“Definitely,” Sienna said, meaning it from the bottom of her heart. Because she saw Justine’s pure, authentic beauty, and not just her magnificent cheekbones, which had probably never been accentuated with the right kind of makeup, or her face that always radiated the hard-won wisdom she carried inside herself, but the beauty of her soul—and the infinite kindness in her heart, despite the life she’d lived. A life that could just as easily have turned her bitter and cold, but Justine was the exact opposite of these things. She was also clueless about certain things, which was endearing, really, and very stubborn about others, which was also a quality to greatly admire. There wasn’t much about Justine that Sienna didn’t admire and the more time they spent together, the deeper her affection grew.

Chapter20

“So.” Sienna was sitting between her sister and Alexis in the back of the car. “Before we arrive, I need to tell you something.” She turned to Alexis, because her sister already knew—although Taissa surely didn’t know how fond Sienna had grown of Justine these past couple of weeks.

“Shoot.” Alexis was all glammed up in that quietly luxurious way that was all the rage these days. She would turn a lot of heads tonight.

“Um, well, I’ve been spending a lot of time with Justine lately.”

“Did you do more volunteering at the shelter?” Alexis didn’t have a clue—and why would she.

“No.” Sienna should have, but she’d been too busy, in between shooting the movie, whiling away the hours in bed with Justine. “It’s different. We’ve been, um…”

“They’ve been hooking up,” Taissa blurted out.

“What the hell?” Sienna shot daggers at her sister with her eyes.

“I’m just trying to help,” Taissa said matter-of-factly. “We’re almost there.”

“Wait. What?” Alexis said. “You’ve been hooking up with Justine? Since when?”

“Since the day we met,” Sienna said, a warm glow spreading through her.

“No way.” Alexis angled her body fully toward Sienna. “All this time?”

“Yeah.” Sienna threw in her best smile. She didn’t know how she would feel if things were the other way around—it was impossible to think of without a violent pang of jealousy coursing through her. “It was very casual at first, but now, it’s, like, a thing.”

“They’re inluuurrve,” Taissa said.

“Are you?” Alexis knotted her eyebrows together as though that was the strangest news she’d heard in a long time.

“We, um, like each other a lot,” Sienna stammered. “I thought you should know, going forward with the shoot, and also because we’re going to this show together tonight. It’s not something I want to lie to you about.”

“Are you actually in love with her?” Taissa asked.

Yes, Sienna wanted to scream, but the back seat of this car was not the place for that. She and Justine had broached the subject and neither of them seemed very reluctant to admit to their growing feelings, yet it was still so early and delicate.

“It’s early days, but we’re kind of officially dating now, so,” Sienna said, wholly unable to wipe that stupid grin off her face.

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