I saw and heard the cameras going off but pretended to ignore them as I led her to a table a safe distance away from the row of windows in the front.
“I could eat a horse.”
“That’s a kinda dicey thing to say for a farm girl.”
“Oh hush you. I just meant I’m starving, I think I’ll have a burger.” Get the hell outta here. I raised my brow and looked her over-over the top of my menu.
“What, no freshly mowed lawn and bean sprouts for lunch?” She grinned and patted her stomach suggestively and I almost fell out the booth. I thought it would take at least another six months for her to accept but here she was, the one bringing it up.
“Okay one side of beef coming up. If he’s anything like his dad he’s gonna be one carnivorous little beast. I’d be surprised if you didn’t start eating the shit on the hoof.”
I love making her laugh the way she was now. That light that comes into her eyes and brightens up her face does strange things to my heart.
For the next half hour I made sure she forgot that there were strangers staring at us and documenting every second, every detail of something as simple as lunch.
I started to imagine our life together, my damn kid’s life in that fishbowl. Didn’t these people know how dangerous this shit was?
I understand that this is all part of her fame, but there has got to be something I could do to make this shit easier for her.
She had no idea as she sat there enjoying her burger and fries that I was rearranging her life. I wasn’t above using her present situation to my advantage.
There had to be some judge in this town with half a damn brain who’d give her a restraining order. The more I thought about it the better it sounded. I knew an even better way to get what I wanted.
By the time we were ready to leave I was feeling better. I didn’t even try to walk through the asshole who got in my face as we headed to the car. I couldn’t hold back the glare though and that was enough to have him backtracking fast.
I made some calls while she went back to filming and set things in motion. If her handlers knew what I was about they’d boot my ass outta the state.
I knew damn well they loved her being hounded. I’d heard her manager say that the more exposure she had the more popular she’d remain in the public eye. I say the public can enjoy her in the movies she make and leave it at that.
I saw some of my work in action when we left and there were only a handful of carrion swarming around, they didn’t get the memo. I give it until the next day.
She was so upbeat I didn’t bother bringing up the fact that we were closing in on her stalker asshole. I’d finally found a way to reverse hack him and though I still didn’t know what he looked like, I knew where he was and where he was heading; right at her.
I listened to her babbling back there and couldn’t believe that my ears hadn’t started bleeding. The girl gets away with shit I’d never have let slide if she were anyone else.
“So, you gonna pee on the stick when we get home or nah.” She stopped in the middle of her diatribe and growled at me. “We’re not talking about that now remember?”
“That’s your deal, I wanna know.” She hadn’t said anything since lunch when she touched her stomach and I felt like a giddy teenage girl because she wasn’t completely freaked out.
When you think about it, this whole thing was on steroids. It felt like I hadn’t taken the time to breathe since I accepted my feelings for her.
I can’t believe that after years of taking things easy, always making sure there were no surprises lingering around the corner to bite me in the ass, I’d done this thing that would change my whole life and done it without a second thought.
Maybe that’s what being in love does to you. Turns shit upside down and have you doing shit that makes no damn sense.
As we pulled into the driveway I realized how crazy the whole thing was. It’s this fucking town, where everything exists under a veil of distorted reality. I could use the excuse that I’d got caught up, but I knew that wasn’t true, that’s just not me.
“Ha, I thought you said you already knew.” I watched her ass as we headed inside and my dick got hard. That little twist in her walk going up the stairs didn’t help matters any.
“Get those shorts off baby and lean over the bed.”