Your Endless Love (The Bennett Family 9)

“How come you’re such a pro at it?”

Val plays with her glass, shrugging. “Practice. You should’ve seen me and Lori when she realized she’s going to be a single parent. I’ve had my own pity parties too, obviously.” She sighs, sipping from her

glass. “Some people just stumble onto their happily ever after, and others only find shitty ever after. At least we have Mr. Pinot.”

“Hear, hear.”

I twirl my glass, watching the wine swish inside. Oh, what I wouldn’t give for that cheesecake with caramel topping. I wonder if I can have Preston send me a portion along with my bag, then push the thought away.

Nope, not even cheesecake is a good enough reward to risk Preston giving me more details. I don’t want to know. Should I have pushed more today? Gone to Alex even if he hadn’t wanted me to? Would he still have decided the same? Could I have changed his mind?

I gave Alex my heart. Why couldn’t he take care of it the way I wanted to take care of his? With a lot of love and dedication? Was that so much to ask? My chest burns, and I swear my heart stings, as if someone is drilling and drilling inside it. I blink back tears, sipping my Pinot. I’m so tired of heartbreak, of putting myself out there only to have my heart stomped on. Something must be wrong with me, deep down, I just know it. Why else would my love not be enough? I break out in a cold sweat, even as my insides churn and burn.

“Summer, whatever happened is not the end of the world. You can start over.”

I try to muster a smile for Val, but my entire face feels wobbly. I don’t want to start over. I wanted to love that man for the rest of my days. And even though my heart feels like it’s splitting in two, I can’t bring myself to even imagine anyone else but him. Why couldn’t he value that?

“Crap, Pinot won’t cut it tonight,” Val says, inspecting my cheeks, which are stained with tears. “I’m going to run to the store and buy some Ben & Jerry’s. My go-to flavor for such occasions is strawberry cheesecake?”

“Oh, that’s a good one. But I also love caramel. Buy all things with caramel. And I need hugs. Lots and lots of hugs.”

Chapter Thirty-One

Alex

The roar of voices in the hotel’s conference room grows deafening when Amy and I step inside. The clicks of cameras form a constant stream that rises above the voices.

The reporters only grow silent after we take our places at the table. I glance sideways at Amy. Her hands are shaking in her lap. My nerves are strung tight too, but this is the only way forward. When the sound technician announces the mics are ready to go, I clasp the one in front of me, bring it to my lips. Amy gives me a thumbs-up, her smile tight.

“Good evening, everyone. Thank you for showing up at such short notice. Amy and I appreciate it. We’ve called you all here to address the rumors that have been flying around lately. They’ve been overshadowing all the events Amy and I’ve attended, whether together or separate. It’s been overshadowing our work on Bree Shannon, and that’s a shame. We want to put an end to the speculations, give you information right from the horse’s mouth.”

I’m not looking at anyone in particular as I speak, my gaze simply sweeps through the crowd. I’m definitely not looking at Preston.

“Two months ago, our breakup made tabloid rounds, but the truth was, we’d been over a long time before that.”

I nod at Amy, who grips her own mic tightly and begins to speak.

“We’d been trying to make it work for months, but we were struggling. We fell out of love gradually.”

Preston waves his hands from the back of the room, but I purposefully ignore him. No one will stop the conference while Amy and I keep talking.

“Not only that, but we fell in love with other people,” she continues, her voice stronger. “There was no cheating, no lies. We just weren’t meant for each other.”

The crowd erupts all at once, firing off question after question. I talk until my throat feels like sandpaper, regurgitating the answers Amy and I agreed upon beforehand. This could be career suicide for both of us, but it’s a risk I just have to take. No more lies. All the spin-offs in the world aren’t worth these lies. Summer is right. Honesty is the best policy. I’m doing this for her, and for us. I don’t want us to have to hide anymore.

I barely convinced Amy to go along with me. We both perused our contract with the studio to make sure we wouldn’t be outright breaking it, but the execs will be livid nonetheless that we’ve taken matters into our own hands, going directly against their directives.

The conference lasts well into the night. Once the shock of the announcement settles, everyone wants to know who the significant others are.

“Mine is an actor,” Amy says coyly. “Alex here went after a civilian. And she’s very lovely.”

I won’t reveal Summer’s name before talking this out with her. Amy gives me an honest smile. Despite our spotty history, I’m grateful to her for doing this, even though this isn’t her favorite option.

After I stated my case, she said, “Well, you won’t budge on the fake romance things, and my career is in the toilet as it is. I suppose this can’t get worse. But Preston said he’s trying to talk the execs into reconsidering your spin-off. They won’t give it another thought after this.”

“It’s a risk I’m willing to take,” I assured her.

We didn’t tell anyone from our teams what we were planning to announce so no one could stop us.