Page 76 of Heavy Shot

She fixed him with a side-eye. “Kline? Are you trying to convince me we’re having an affair? Because I know better. And it will look just fine because unless you go advertising, I’m not at the hotel with you, no one will know. I’ll be with you at the premiere. I’ll be with you at the after party. I’ll be with you in the car back to the Bowery and you’ll go in the back entrance so no one will see you, and I’ll go home.”

“Anyway,” she added. “I’ve got business. I’m taking a few meetings while I’m home. Clara’s got a new team working for me out of the Manhattan office, and there are some brand deals to close. I can’t believe how much interest I’m generating since she took over my socials! She’s amazing! Now, I’ve just got to find my footing in LA. I still feel like I’m tripping over myself there.”

“It’s because you’re so poised,” Kline told her. “You’re professional and perfect. In LA, you need to be breezy and ethereal.”

“I should learn how to surf.”

“Surf?” Kline laughed, thinking back to what Thad had said to him.

“Yeah. It’s a good workout and it’s semi-social.”

“I was thinking about taking it up. Want to do it with me?”

She looked him over dubiously and he said, “Actually, a friend suggested it to me to help me get out of my own head. He said it would center me in my body and force me to ground myself, but I’m kind of afraid of looking like an arsehole. If you go with me, I may still look like an arsehole, but I’ll look like an arsehole that can pull Jill Parker.”

Her smile made his throat hurt sometimes. “Yeah. Let’s learn to surf. Worst case scenario, you piss me off and I drown you.”

“Going down with you on top of me? What better way to die?”

She swatted at him with her free hand and both of them laughed.

Jill Parker

Late on a Thursday morning Jill dressed for her lunch date with Kline wondering silently over the still sleeping August. At Roland’s suggestion, she’d bought a car. “You can’t walk in LA,” he’d said, “And you need a way to get around that doesn’t involve Herr Hall.” So, she’d let him take her to a few dealerships and chosen a silver Mercedes convertible, then had nearly taken out August’s gate driving it up to his place. She was going to need some practice.

He'd hated her new car and had utilized his special brand of snark regarding it, then was quiet and withdrawn most of the evening. She'd known him forever and was well aware that he was prone to moods and sulks—she'd been the cause of plenty of them—but he hadn't had one since she'd been in LA, so it was disquieting.

Her last therapist had talked with her extensively about the fight, flight, freeze, and fawn responses that came with childhood trauma like hers. Jill had learned that she was a fawn. At the slightest hint of upset in a partner, she would drop everything to try to appease. When fawning didn’t work, she fled, like she was about to do. It was only to lunch, but she was still sneaking out before he woke up.

She’d been following August around like a puppy, trying to make him laugh, or at least smile since she’d come back from Kline’s Lone Star tour, but ever since the talk they’d had about Rhiannon, he’d been distant. He was angrier about Kline than he had let on, and he was furious when she’d agreed to the premiere junket. She’d come too late to the realization and was in London before she could appease him. Still, she had a job to do, and it was only going to get worse when everyone had to watch Kline grinding on her up close on the big screen. She groaned aloud at that.

Devil had been hard enough to do on stage every night where every physical scene was very carefully choreographed and rehearsed to take place under a sheet, on a bed, set far enough back on the set to give the impassioned characters some privacy. This was going to be very different. Close-ups, retakes, Kline between her legs while he was kissing her. She shivered and wondered if she could wear her surfing dive skin?

She decided to ask him if he was concerned about it at all. He’d done love scenes for movies before. He knew a hell of a lot more about this than she did.

She'd spoken with Kline briefly and arranged to pick him up in her new car, which he found hilarious. “Like a giraffe on roller skates,” he’d said.

Driving in through the front gate, as Kline had given her his pass code, Jill encountered a line of his fans and greeted them all with a smile and wave, then halted the car long enough to sign a few autographs before going through. Kline met her at the door with a wide, sheepish grin. “Kill anyone?"

"Not yet," Jill sniffed, rolling her eyes, "but the day is young."

"Come on in. I'll show you around before we go."

They met Kim and Jack on the tour of the living room, where Jack took up with them, giving his commentary on the house and his favorite places. He remembered Jill from the restaurant and was associating her with the memory of a day out with his father, so her presence was exciting and welcome. She seemed delighted by his attention and took his hand to follow his lead off and away from his father, whom she stuck her tongue out at.

"You just lost another girlfriend," Kim observed dryly.

"Oh, she'll be back," he said mocking her tone, "just wait until she finds out he can't pay for lunch. He may have looks and charm, but I have looks, charm, and money."

Kim laughed and shook her head, then went off to start Jack's lunch. When Jill and Kline finally left, it was after she'd had a share of goldfish crackers and some juice. Jack had insisted. "He's such a good host," she smiled, putting on her sunglasses and securing her hair clip.

Kline had settled into the passenger seat, making a great show of putting on his seatbelt. "Gets it from me."

"Certainly gets his love for shiny things from you," Jill said, as she guided the car down the drive, "and toys."

Kline laughed. "Yeah. He keeps me young."

"’Cause you're so old."

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