Winning Hollywood's Goodest Girl

“What…are…you…a…marathon…runner?” she says when we make it to block five, a slow pant making her pause between each word.

“Tommy John’s Kickboxing,” I say simply. “It’s how I maintain my dad bod.”

She laughs through a wheeze, so I slow to a stop and pause as we approach an awning for a diner that we can hide under.

She wipes her face with the backs of her hands and sighs at the respite. “My God, I thought I was in shape.”

“Only five more blocks.”

“Five?” Her eyebrows practically hit her hairline. “Dear God, how do you live in a place like this?”

I laugh. “Well, normally, I take a cab.”

“Why do the cabs hate me?” she whines dramatically.

“It’s the rain. It throws shit off. Do you want me to carry you?” I offer.

“Carry me? For five blocks?”

“Yeah,” I say with a little shrug. “Or, at least as far as I can manage.”

“God,” she sighs, hanging her head. “This is embarrassing. I’m lost, I’m wet, I’m cold, and you don’t even know if you’re going to be able to carry me all the way.”

I smile. “At least one of those things is usually a good thing.”

“Not that kind of wet!” she yells, slapping her soaked sweatshirt sleeve at my chest.

“Hey!” I say innocently. “How do I know?”

“Lord Almighty, I suddenly feel like I’m in a scene from a frat movie.”

“Is it dry?” I tease. “Or is it wet?”

She gives me the finger and grabs my hand, pulling me back into the rain and back in the direction of my apartment. She doesn’t know where she’s going, but I’m impressed by her initiative.

It’s amusing, to say the least.

“Okay, okay, I get it. You can’t wait to get me back to my apartment, but at least let me lead the way. It’ll take us longer to get there if you keep going the wrong way.”

“I’m going the wrong way?” she yells, frustrated, and I smirk.

“No.” I jerk her hand and start to jog again. “I just wanted to lead.”

Her laughter trails behind us as we run in the rain for five more blocks and into the lobby of my building.

I can’t help but shake like a dog as we step into the dry building and are immediately hit with a blast of air conditioning.

“Come on,” I direct, grabbing her hand and guiding us into the elevator. She raises her eyebrows as I hit the button for the top floor.

“Fancy.”

I chuckle. “Only the best.”

“Right.”

We ride in silence all the way up to the top floor and step off into the hallway in front of my apartment.

Now that the sound of the rain is gone, the silence between us is deafening. Everything suddenly seems a lot more real.

I pull out my keys and unlock the door, holding it open for her to walk inside in front of me.

“Okay, holy shit,” she says softly. “I was joking when I said fancy before, but I can see Reba wrote that song about you. Your mama moved you uptown, huh?”

I chuckle. “My mama moved me to New York. I moved myself uptown.”

She bites her lip and raises an eyebrow.

“And to be fair, I guess I should say my dad moved us to New York. He was ambitious, to say the least.”

“That’s not a bad thing.”

“No,” I agree. “It’s not. There’s just more to life, in my opinion.”

“Wow. All this from his spot in the middle of a multimillion-dollar living room.”

I shrug. “I guess I’m a complicated guy.”

“You always were,” she says.

“What do you mean?”

She shrugs. “I don’t know. You were always brawling with Luca, which, for him, I understood. He was a broody kid. But you…you always had a big fat smile on your face. Seems like you still do. So, I’m not quite sure why you were always putting your fists to his face.”

“Simple. He was always putting his fists to mine.”

“Somehow, I have a feeling it’s more complicated than that.”

I jerk one shoulder. “Maybe.”

She looks around the room curiously, the water from the street running down her arms and dragging her clothes so hard they hang off of her body.

“Why don’t you go take a shower?” I suggest. “I know you’re wet in a way that you probably just want to feel dry, but the warm water will feel good. I’ve got some clothes you can change into.”

“Something from one of the twenty?” she questions cheekily.

I shake my head. “Just something of mine. I don’t make a habit of keeping women’s clothes around.”

“Well…” She pauses and flashes a playful grin. “Good to know you’re not into wearing them, I guess.”

“Never became one of my hobbies.”

She laughs. “Okay. I guess I’ll shower. Point me in the right direction?”

“Just down that hall,” I say, pointing to my right. You’ll come to the master bedroom at the end, and the bathroom’s easy to find from there.”