Page 10 of Irish Getaway

Evelyn Coleman was a world-famous actress, undoubtedly straight, and so far out of Claire’s league that it was laughable. Her crush had to remain just that. A harmless crush that she somehow had to keep Evelyn from seeing, because the last thing Claire wanted to do was make her feel uncomfortable.

“Yesterday, I was wearing shorts,” Evelyn said, taking her away from her thoughts. “And this evening I can’t get warm.”

Claire’s heart pounded as she met Evelyn’s eyes caramel brown eyes. She swallowed, forgetting how to speak.

“But,” Evelyn said with what sounded like a happy sigh, “What I can get used to is starving the paparazzi. A month without any new photos of me to analyze.”

Claire took a sip of wine. “Tabloid nonsense?”

“Always. I’ve had two page spreads trying to figure out what’s happened to me,” Evelyn said.

“How do you mean?”

“Every other week, they’re suggesting I have some secret disease or drug problem or you name it.”

“But you look great.” Claire wasn’t afraid to say it, and she couldn’t imagine Evelyn reading into it. It was simply a fact. She always looked great.

“Hm,” Evelyn said. “I look like the forty-seven years of age that I am except that no one knows what that looks like in Hollywood. I’ve never had plastic surgery or even botox, so when they compare a photo of me accepting an Oscar at thirty-five to me on the way to the airport at forty-seven with no stylist or makeup artist in sight, it creates quite the contrast.”

“Please tell me you don’t pay attention to any of that.” Claire searched Evelyn’s eyes, and she had a feeling that even if she said that she didn’t, deep down, it did affect her. “You have to know that you’re beautiful.”

“Even like this?” Evelyn asked with a smirk, her hand gesturing towards her body. “In sweatpants and an old hoody? With no makeup?”

“Especially then,” Claire said softly, before she could stop herself, and she had to hope that Evelyn hadn’t noticed the longing in her voice.

Evelyn glanced up in surprise, meeting Claire’s gaze. For a moment neither spoke, the crackling fireplace the only sound. “I feel like I’m at a disadvantage here,” Evelyn said. “You know where I’m from, what movies I’ve done, who I’ve dated. I don’t know anything about you.”

“What makes you think that I know anything about you?”

“You’re telling me that you haven’t looked me up since I arrived? Or maybe before then?”

Claire’s lips tugged into a smile as she spoke. “Okay. Maybe I have.” Even though Claire had seen just about everything Evelyn Coleman had been in, she’d spent a few minutes on her Wikipedia page the other night. No matter how pointless it was, she couldn’t stop herself from feeling a little bit jealous of the long list of men that she’d dated at some point in the last twenty-five years.

“See?” Evelyn said as she took a drink. “Now, tell me something about you.”

“Like what?”

Evelyn pressed her lips together as she thought. “Let’s say the roles were reversed, and I googled you. What would I find? Any scandalous headlines?”

Claire laughed as she exhaled. “I don’t live the most exciting life. But I grew up just a few minutes from here, and I knew from a very young age that I loved horses. I have two brothers.” She honestly couldn’t think of anything else to say.

“Married?”

“No.” Claire took another drink, Evelyn’s question making her think about her exes. “Oh, well, maybe there would be a scandalous headline actually.”

“Oh?”

Claire crossed one leg over the other. “I think my girlfriend in college was probably my only attempt at a normal relationship, but then she moved to Australia. After that? I ended up dating a married woman. I’m not exactly proud of it, but yeah… That’s what you’d find if you looked me up.”

Evelyn visibly swallowed. “So, you’re bi?”

“No. Well, I think I assumed that I was for maybe a month, but then I realized… No. Just women. So, I came out when I was seventeen. This is a typical rural area, so I was afraid, honestly, but I wasn’t the first. I’ve been lucky that it was a non-event really.”

“A married woman, huh?” Evelyn asked before she sipped her wine.

“When we met, I had no idea. She was from New York, and she’d be here every few weeks for business. Sometimes, I went with her when she had to go to London or Paris. It was never really going to work, but then when I found out about her husband… That was it.”

Evelyn nodded. “I’m sorry to hear that. That you didn’t know.”