Bo’s dad...
She looked away from the picture and sat down in the wooden chair in front of the scarred table that served as Michael’s desk at the Stand. She knew his company’s address and had driven by the building a few times. She’d bet the desk here wouldn’t be found in the basement of that place.
“You got a second?” she asked him.
“Of course.”
“I... Last night...Bo’s father gave me the creeps.” She told him about the man’s glances, the way she’d caught him looking at her breasts. Every time he spoke to her his words had been completely innocuous, but there was an undercurrent that made her uneasy.
“Did you talk to Bo about it?” Michael’s frown eased the tension she’d been feeling. He was taking her seriously.
As she’d known he would.
“I started to in the car on the way home,” she said. “But he interrupted and told me not to take offense at his father. Said he’s always been a big flirt but that it meant nothing. He said his dad flirts with old ladies and little girls equally. It’s just his way.”
“Where are they from?”
“Indiana.”
“And they’re leaving today?”
She loved that he remembered that she’d told him they were only in town the one night.
“Yes.”
“Then I guess you don’t have much to worry about,” he said.
He was right. Bo wasn’t his father. And it wasn’t like Indiana was just around the corner.
Nodding, she stood. When she noticed a tiredness about him, in his eyes, she sat back down. If she didn’t get her hair done, the evening would go on.
People would be bound to notice—those in her circle always did, since looks were an important part of television work—but...the party would still happen.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. I’d tell you if I found something.”
“I’m not talking about me. Something’s bothering you.” She might barrel through life in such a way that she didn’t always notice the little things, but Michael was...Michael. She was different around him.
In a good way.
The way she was with Lacey.
Yeah. The thought slid into place. Michael was like Lacey. He saw the real her. Treated her like the person she was inside.
And he could calm the whirlwind that was her life.
His shrug hurt her feelings.
“Michael.” She set her bag down on the floor and crossed her arms.
Her stance didn’t seem to affect him, so she waited, watching him.
Nothing.
Fine. She pulled her phone out of her purse. Pushed the speed dial for the salon and canceled her appointment.
She’d missed the cancellation window and would have to pay for the appointment but didn’t give a whit.
“You said you have time.”
His chin bent slowly and came back up. An acknowledgment if not really a nod of agreement.
“A friendship works both ways or it’s not a friendship,” she said. Now that she understood why he meant so much to her, she knew her role. It was the same with Lacey. Sometimes you had to push those used to caring for others to accept caring for themselves. You had to be diligent.
To show them that they came first, too.
She’d learned the lesson the hard way—had almost lost her other half because of it—and was never going to forget it.
“I agree,” he said.
She remembered something else.
“You told me the other day that when we had time you’d tell me how I’m good for you.”
Let him think it was still about her. That he was needed.
She’d get him to see that if she confided in him, he needed to confide, too, or they weren’t really friends. That if he didn’t lean on her, she couldn’t lean on him anymore, either.
She had this one.
She also really wanted to hear what he thought he was getting out of their relationship. As far as she could see, it was pretty much nothing so far.
Just like her sister had given and given and given and received so little in return all those years they’d been figuratively joined at the hip.
Then Kacey had helped Lacey get the only thing she’d ever wanted. A life partner with whom she’d come first. And last, too.
If not for Kacey’s pushiness, the pretty much outrageous way she’d maneuvered Lacey into getting Jem to add the room she wanted on to her home, Lacey would probably still be living in that house all alone.
Albeit with a lot more visits from Kacey...
Michael was staring at her.
“You just said you’ve got a second,” she reminded again. “So what is it I do for you in this relationship?”
“The truth is going to make me sound like someone I’m not,” he said, as though he’d revised his earlier assertion that he’d tell her.
And while she wanted to know, getting him to confess was more a means to an end—the end being making him tell her what was bothering him.
But then she thought about what he’d just said. What if the truth was that he only spent time with her because of her looks? What if he was attracted to her?
She felt the blood draining from her face and then returning in such a rush she was hot all over. This felt like the scene with Simon, Doria’s on-screen best friend telling her he was falling for her. Was that what Michael was going to say? So like her...barreling right on ahead without taking the time to think everything through.
Her first instinct was to tell him she had to leave. And yet if she and Michael really were friends, if she was going to be the type of friend—the type of woman—she wanted to be, she had to be willing to sit with him no matter what he had to tell her.
To listen.
And to work through whatever issue he had. Or they had. Anything else was not enough.
“The point of friendship, Michael, is to trust. I trust you with my failings. I trust you not to judge me as a spoiled and selfish bitch who’s so desperate for attention she falls for gorgeous men who fawn all over her.”
He cocked
