Page 63 of Not You Again
“Like what?”
“Like you still—” She clamps her mouth shut and shakes her head. “I’ve just told you my mom marries to divorce for money, and you know I plan to—”
Something sharp lodges under my ribs at her point. She’s going to divorce me for money, too.
“It doesn’t have to be this way,” I murmur, begging her to see it my way. She can stay with me. I’ll help her achieve whatever she wants to. As the idea comes to me, I offer. “You said you needed investors, right? I can do that; I have the means to invest in your company.”
The look that crosses her face is painful. She averts her gaze. “Kit, you don’t understand.”
“Help me understand, Andie. Please.” I want nothing more than to understand. “I’m on your team, remember?”
“I have to do this on my own.” She turns her eyes back to me. Steely determination lights them up. “My mom relies on the graces of whoever will say I do. Her life is in their hands, and at their whims. She did the best she could with what she had, but I—I won’t do it. I won’t leave my life up to anyone but me.”
“You know I wouldn’t do that to you,” I insist, hoping she sees how serious I am.
“Do I?” she asks, determination giving way to something softer. The rawness in her voice reminds me of how we used to be—fearless and fiery and together. Until we weren’t, and it was my fault. I broke more than her trust that night. She rearranged me on a molecular level, and it seems my leaving did the same thing to her.
“I do think we can move on from the past that shaped us.” My voice is stretched thin, and I’m desperate to hold onto this tenuous truce we’ve reached. “I think we can build the life we want. You can travel with me and make dresses for brides around the world. I can help you build your business, and we can eat dinner together every night. Make a family that doesn’t have to worry like we did as kids. I know it feels unimaginable after everything we’ve been through, but I believe we can do it. Let me help you.”
Her voice breaks. “Kit—”
“What do you need from me to know I’m in this with you?”
She runs her finger down the buttons on my shirt, and her lips tilt into a small smile. “You saved me from the horror show that was dinner. It’s a good start.”
I rest my forehead against hers. “Are we really still at the start?”
She sighs. “I feel like we’re getting—”
A door slams in the hall. Shit. If we tripped some sort of silent alarm and the police come searching, we can’t stay. It takes everything in me to push off the counter and let her slide to the floor.
She holds out my jacket. “Let’s just … go home.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIXANDIE
“Where the hell did you two run off to last night?” Jeremy Levine paces our show-furnished living room. He’s shorter than I expect him to be, with all the power he yields at Optimax. Apparently, our stunt last night was worth enough to call the executive producer down from on high.
Kit and I sit next to each other on the tiny couch, hands folded in our laps. So close to touching, but not quite.
I think we can move on from the past that shaped us. His words won’t leave me. They’re too earnest, too full of hope. My stupid heart wants to wrap itself up in them, as if they can protect me from cruel twists of fate. It wants to believe he meant them with his whole heart. Even though I know how this ends, I find myself hoping against all hope that maybe we always were meant for each other. As if such a thing exists.
Kit subtly shifts next to me, just enough so our thighs barely touch. My eyes fall to where the heat of his leg sears into mine. I swallow.
Kit clears his throat. “The cameras got to be too much. We had to get away. I’m sorry for not simply telling that to your crew.”
“My crew is under orders to keep filming for the full day,” Jeremy fumes. His tie clip glints in the sunlight pouring in the windows as he makes another turn of the room. “They can’t put the cameras down, because it’s in their contract. Just like it’s in your contracts to be fully present while filming.”
Kit’s leg presses ever so slightly against mine. I clench my hands more tightly together and say as calmly as I can, “Being filmed for that many days a week and that many hours in a day is exhausting.”
“You think my crew isn’t just as exhausted?” Jeremy bends closer to me, to get in my face.
“Maybe they need a break too.” I clench my jaw and stare him down. I made a deal with myself a long time ago that I would never be beholden to a man, and damn it all to hell if I’m going to start now.
“They signed on for this, just like you did.” His face turns an alarming shade of red.
“I don’t know how you expect us to connect as a couple in any authentic way when—”
“You’re not the first couple to ever be on this show!” he booms, and—fuck me—I flinch. Kit’s leg presses hard into mine and his hand flies to rest on my knee. “We have been making this show for years now; we know how to match couples and have them connect on camera!”