He started the ignition; 4 Doors Around, the music on his MP3 started up, and he reached to turn it down.
“Hey!” Leah cried, stopping him with a hand to his wrist. Michael froze, looked at the slender hand on his wrist. “Is that 4 Doors Around?”
“Yeah—you know them?”
“Know them? I love them,” she said, looking at him. “How did you know?”
Her question confused him for a moment, but then he realized she thought he’d played it for her. He resisted the urge to take full credit for doing exactly that—but there had been enough lies between them. “I didn’t,” he answered honestly. “I just happen to like them, too.”
“Oh.” She actually looked disappointed. Her hand slid away from his wrist, back to her lap. “That’s really . . . another very weird coincidence.”
“Not so weird,” he said quietly. “We always liked the same music, remember?”
Leah looked straight ahead.
“Ramona Priest. Radioslave. Borrowed Time,” he reminded her.
“The soundtrack to The September Affair,” she added so softly he could barely hear her.
“Excuse me?”
“You remember? The movie you slept through?”
“Like I could ever forget that,” he said with a chuckle. “You played it nonstop for weeks to punish me.”
“I did not,” she said, lifting her head and smiling at him. “It was just a couple of days. You’re exaggerating.”
“I don’t exaggerate. It was at least a week,” Michael said, and smiled as he reached across the console, absently stroked the back of her hand with his finger. “Do you still like martinis?”
Leah’s smile faded. “Michael . . .”
He removed his hand. “Civil. I swear to God, civil. But where’s the harm in a drink?” he asked quickly before she could refuse him. “That’s what civil acquaintances do. They have drinks, they talk, they catch up with each other.”
“Except that we’re not exactly civil acquaintances,” she reminded him.
“We’re more than that,” he said, feeling, strangely, a little desperate.
She shrugged.
“Come on, Leah. You’re just as curious about me as I am about you, and don’t try to deny it. It’s written all over your face.” He waited, hoping his ploy would work.
For some reason, of all the things he’d said, that made Leah smile. “Okay, I won’t deny it. But just so we’re clear here, Lucy is far more curious about you than I am, and I have a duty to report.”
“Oh my God. Good ol’ Lucy, huh?”
“Yes, Lucy,” she responded, her voice full of warning.
He remembered Leah’s best friend, a brash and funny redhead who was totally into Leah’s business. Neck deep. Michael chuckled and shook his head. “I swear I can’t win. So how is the old girl?”
“About to get married, if you can believe it,” Leah said with a funny shake of her head. “I never thought I’d see the day Lucy got married.”
“Christ, me either,” Michael agreed as he backed out of his spot. “I always had her pegged for the man-eating type.”
“She is the man-eating type. So where are we going? No place too dressy, okay? I don’t want to sit there feeling more like a geek than I already do.”
Thank you God. That was one small victory that had him feeling just one step away from dancing on the hood of his car. But Michael played it cool as he put the car in drive. “There’s a great place on Montana Avenue—very casual, very laid back,” he said, and pointed the car in that direction.
Chapter Ten
LEAH had always suspected she had an unnatural tolerance for suffering. One need only look at her history to see it—foregoing the education her parents would have given her and struggling to put herself through school. Collapsing completely when Michael had dumped her. Subjecting herself to auditions over and over again, only to be told she was too fat or too tall or too blond. And now, hurtling up the 405 with the one man on Planet Earth she never wanted to see or speak to again.
But dammit, he was so good-looking and so earnest, and he smelled so good, just like she remembered, that it had been impossible to say no. But she was on to him—whatever he thought would come out of it, it would be nothing.
They chatted—civilly—about the film as they drove, and while Leah was managing to answer his questions—yes, she did scale the wall today, and no they hadn’t started blocking the three battle scenes—all she could think of was how crazy she was, how absolutely stupid to think anything good could come of this, and how Lucy was going to absolutely howl when she told her. Only Lucy would be howling with laughter. Leah just hoped she would be able to howl along with her.
And what the hell was he doing in a T-bird, the car she was supposed to have? She couldn’t help but imagine that if they had managed to stay together back then, she’d be living in some great place in Brentwood, driving the T-bird, owning tons of great shoes, and hosting dinner parties for big-cheese studio execs.