Page 108 of How to Kiss a Movie Star
My heart stops. I’m pretty sure Nate is still out front, and he wouldn’t let anyone approach unless he trusted them. Could it be Flint? The way my chest suddenly aches tells me just how much I want it to be.
Summer gets up to answer the door, but it isn’t Flint.
It’s his mother.
Hannah Hawthorne smiles wide as she sets a gift basket down on my coffee table. “Well, this looks like fun,” she says as she surveys my very messy living room. Soda cans, red vine wrappers, an empty ice cream carton.
I jump up and start scrambling around the room, picking up trash. “We’ve been watching movies all day. Had I known you were coming, I would have—”
Summer shuts me up with a hard stare and pulls the trash I’ve collected out of my hands. “Just sit down and stop being a weirdo,” she whispers.
“Don’t clean up on my account, Audrey. I don’t want to interrupt your movie. But I come with news.” She motions toward the basket. “And a few things from the farm.”
Lucy and Summer disappear into the kitchen. “Oh. That’s really sweet of you.”
“There’s some goats’ milk soap, some fresh apples—first of the season, and they’re delicious—and a box of almond pillow cookies that are going to be your new favorite. Lennox makes them,” she says easily. “But he doesn’t give them to just anyone, so you should feel pretty special.”
I pick up a bar of soap and lift it to my nose. It smells like apple blossoms and spring sunshine. “I don’t know what to say. Thank you.”
We settle onto the couch, her warm gaze putting me at ease despite the tension I initially felt at her arrival. “I hear you had a bit of a scare earlier this week.”
I nod.
“That’s actually the news I mentioned earlier. Flint wanted me to tell you Ed Cooper was arrested. Hedidviolate his parole when he left California, so the cops have been looking for him. They found him early this morning at a motel up in Hendersonville.”
Relief washes over me, and I close my eyes. “That’s really good news.”
She smiles. “I thought so too.”
“But you didn’t have to come all this way just to tell me. Nate could have—”Oh.It suddenly occurs to me why Hannah is here. Flint told me he’d have Nate keep his distance so my life could feel as normal as possible. A visit from his mom is still significant, but it’s more personal—morenormal—than an update from his security team.
“Flint askedyouto come,” I say.
Hannah nods. “I’m sure it’s tough to get used to having security around all the time.”
“Yeah, it’s definitely different.”
“Audrey, it won’t always be like this. You’ll get used to some things, but people will get used to you, too. If I’ve learned anything watching Flint make his way in Hollywood, it’s that the internet has a very short attention span.”
I don’t know if it’s the warmth of her voice or the fact that I’ve been watching movies all day full of Flint in all his glory, but my heart suddenly feels like it’s going to burst. Instead, I start to cry. Which is justridiculous.Before Flint, I would go months without shedding a single tear. And now I’m a freaking water fountain.
“Oh, honey, come here,” Hannah says. She pulls me into a hug, rubbing my back while I hiccup and sniff and leak tears all over her shirt.
“Seriously. I have no idea what’s wrong with me.”
Hannah smiles as I pull away. “I’m pretty sure I have an idea.”
I laugh as I wipe away my tears. “But it’s worth it, right?”
“What, love?” she asks. “Or loving someone like Flint?”
I shrug. “Both?”
Her expression shifts into something soft and tender. “Audrey, that boy has been a ray of sunshine every day of his life. He’s worth everything. And love? Well, that’s just plain fun. Of course it’s worth it.”
Hannah makes me try an almond pillow cookie before she leaves, and she was right. It’s definitely my new favorite cookie.
I walk her out to the porch, watching as she walks down the stairs and toward her car. But there’s one more thing I need to ask her.
