Page 123 of Last Fall

“Turns out he had been watching your seatmate the entire flight. He said he hit all his red flags as atroublemaker.”

It was strange how relieving it was to hear someone else confirm something I already knew but secretly feared wasn’t true. I knew Tony was a cold manipulator, but there was that small part of me that always wondered if maybe I waswrong.

“You have no idea how happy I am tohearthat.”

She smiled kindly, watching the line of passengers as they streamed off the flight. “I’m sorry you had to sit next to him the whole flight. How long has it been since you lastsawhim?”

“Three years,” I said as I let out a long stream of air. “Thank you so much foryourhelp.”

She patted my hand. “Women have to stand up for each other. It was my pleasure to assist youtoday.”

I stumbled off the plane last with a heart pounding erratically. Even though Mariah assured me Brian would follow Tony and make sure he stayed far away from me until he left the airport, I didn’t really believe it. I kind of thought maybe I was having a heart attack but I had to be too young, right? The off-pattern beating had to be because of the world’s worst panic attack. Lights blurred and sounds softened under the roar in my ears. If I didn’t know better I’d think I was asleep and having one of my wackadoo underwaterdreams.

I somehow made it to the restroom without mowing over a small family with my luggage, slammed into the first open stall I saw, and collapsed on what I hoped was a relatively cleantoiletseat.

Tony.

Fucking hell.If ever there was a time to swear like a sailor, thiswasit.

I felt like I needed a hot shower to scrub him from my skin. Now that he wasn’t sitting right beside me, forcing me to keep my defenses up, it sank in. He booked that flight onpurpose.

He found me and used one of his many connections to get seatedbesideme.

Son of abitch.

Oh, he’d swear up and down it was a coincidence. Fate. But really? No way. Tony knew the right people to pull those strings and if he’d been keeping tabs on me this whole time all it would take is a public kiss to send him intoarage.

My kisswithErik.

I dug out my phone and waited for it to reconnect to the tower, thencalledErik.

“You’ve reached Erik Cassidy. Leave a message and I’ll get back to you as soon asIcan.”

I glanced at my watch. He was probably in warm-ups and wouldn’t get this forhours.

“Hey babe. I made it to LA. I hope your game went well.” Then I took a deep breath. “Call me as soon as you get this, okay? I need to talk to you about something.” I wanted to tell him everything right here and now but I was also keenly aware of the toilets flushing beside me. “Loveyou,baby.”

Flush.

I shoved the phone back away and decided to use the toilet for what it was actually for, then rolled my luggage out to the sink, freshened myself up a bit, and steeled myself to go back out into theworld.

I was in LA for a reason after all. A damn good reason. And I wasn’t about to let Tony take that from me. Besides, I had a car and an assistant waiting for me. I would beperfectlysafe.

I found them waiting for me at baggage claim as planned. Lucy Davis worked for Lily & Kaine Productions, but she was serving as my liaison during the trip. We spoke several times over email and on the phone so in a way I felt like I’d alreadymether.

“It’s so nice to meet you in person,” she said warmly. “We have a busy evening planned so I hope you’re not too jet-lagged.

From there I was whisked to the office where we reviewed the script changes, set and costume designs, and an early listen to some music samples from Nora Phillips, the exact composer I’d hoped we’d get for thesoundtrack.

After that it was cocktails and dinner with the director andmystars.

Yeah, I was totally star struck meeting Lily Lawrence and Scott Kaine. I fully admit to giggling andblushing.

“Aren’t you used to this?” Scott asked, laughing. “Chris said you’ve been around the team foryears.”

“I didn’t know anything about baseball when I met Chris and Erik, and by the time I understood I already knew them pretty well, so I skipped that phase, Iguess.”

“So let me get this straight,” Colt, Lily’s incredibly handsome husband asked, “You’re friends with Scott’s brother,Chris?”

---