“Yep,” she said, shifting her weight from one hip to the other and then back again. “I’m a . . .” She made a gesture with her hand. “A wife of an old guy.”
He laughed. Leah didn’t. “Oh,” he said, smiling sympathetically. “I get it. Not a coveted role.”
“Maybe by middle-aged character actors,” she said with a smile. “I’m kidding. It’s great work and fabulous exposure for me. If they’ll just give me something I can sink my teeth into—” She caught herself. Now was really not the best time to discuss the stagnation of her career. “So, ah . . . what about you?” she asked. “What are you up to these days?”
“Pyramid climbing.”
“Excuse me?”
He grinned at her look of confusion. “Scaling ancient pyramids. Don’t laugh—it’s a lot harder than it looks.”
Leah had no idea how hard it looked—she’d never seen it or even imagined it. “I’m not laughing, I’m crying,” she joked. “It does beg the question . . . why are you scaling ancient pyramids?”
She heard Michael’s throaty laugh in spite of the loud music, and it drifted through her on a soft, slow wave. “Because it’s there,” he said with a wink.
“Ah.” She couldn’t think of a single thing she’d ever done, just because it was there. Maybe now was the time. Maybe today was the day she finally danced out on that fragile limb and jumped up and down a couple of times, just because he was here, just because she might never have this chance again. She had to do it. She had to tell him she’d made the mistake this time, and took a fortifying sip of wine. “So, Mikey . . .”
He raised a brow over his smile. “Yes?”
“I’m glad to see you. I’ve wondered about you.”
His smile faded a little. “About Bellingham, you mean.”
“Right, Bellingham.” Except that wasn’t right, and she looked at her glass of wine as someone pumped the music up. “No, not Bellingham. After Bellingham,” she said, lifting her gaze again. “I’ve been thinking.”
This was the moment she should say what she’d been thinking, but Leah couldn’t get the words off her tongue.
Even worse, Michael couldn’t hear her. He leaned forward and said loudly, “What did you say?”
“I’ve been thinking,” she said louder.
He nodded.
“And . . . and I’ve been thinking that you were right,” she shouted. “I was wrong, Michael, I was really wrong. I never gave you a chance, I jumped to conclusions, and I wasn’t very open.”
Michael blinked. He looked extremely surprised. Or was that mortified? Hell, there was no going back now. “I’m sorry for being afraid. I really did want it to work—I mean, I still want it to work. I do, Michael, I really do!”
Now he looked so stunned that she began to panic. What was she thinking? Shouting at him to take her back in the middle of a big party full of people she worked with? It was insane. Michael looked as if he wanted to crawl into a hole.
The panic swelled in her, and Leah was suddenly talking, her tongue, which wouldn’t work a moment ago, now moving with lightning speed ahead of her brain. “I know what you must be thinking,” she blurted. “That whole thing with Adolfo—”
“Juan Carlo.”
“Juan Carlo. That whole scene was pretty weird, sure, and yes, I was upset—but then again, I’m not usually held hostage—”
“Whoa,” he said, putting a hand on her arm with a laugh and uneasily looking around them to see if anyone heard.
“But I’m over it now. I am. I said some things I really didn’t mean, and I’m sorry for that, and the only thing I can say is that I was sort of freaking out, but it’s behind me, and I want it to be behind us.”
He nodded, but still he said nothing, and his silence was killing her.
“Okay, you’re going to force me to say it,” she said moving closer. “The thing is, I don’t feel shiny anymore, and—”
“Shiny?” Nina said from somewhere next to her, and Leah caught her breath, closed her eyes, and let her head drop back in sheer frustration. “What a weird thing to say,” Nina laughed. “What does it mean?” she asked as she stepped in between Leah and Michael.
“Nothing,” Leah said, trying to smile. “Just a joke. Sort of. Not really a joke, but a . . . saying.”
Nina laughed and beamed a smile up a Michael. “So I take it you two already know each other?” she remarked, and slipped her hand into Michael’s.
They were holding hands. They were holding hands. Leah couldn’t stop staring at their hands, unable to speak or to think.
“We know each other,” Michael said.