“Keep telling him I’m busy.”
“Will do. Since you’ve got a charity dinner at eight o’ clock with the Girl Scouts Foundation, I’ve booked a room at the hotel next door so you can change beforehand. We’ll need to rehearse your speech at least five times today and you’ll need to sign a hundred cookie boxes before the event begins. I’ve whittled the publicist candidates down to two, so when do you want to meet with them to decide which—”
“Can you pick one for me, Joan? I trust your judgment one hundred percent.”
“Not a problem. Do you want to reschedule your interviews? You don’t have to throw yourself into everything so soon. You don’t owe anyone anything.”
“No. I’ll be okay. I need to do this.”
She frowned. “In that case, I snagged you a few meetings with eight potential endorsers this week. They want you to look over the—”
“I’ll do them all. I just want to be kept as busy as possible. Can you make sure that happens?”
“Absolutely.”
I smiled through my interview on The View, dodging their not-so-subtle attempts to pry into my personal life.
I completed each of my radio and late night talk show interviews with a renewed sense of restraint and class—remembering all the techniques Joan had taught me over the past few weeks: “If an interviewer starts to get too personal, redirect the question towards them,” “If they begin to speak on a subject you’re uncomfortable with, smile, politely change the subject, and speak about whatever project you’re there to promote,” “If you ever get uncomfortable during an interview, look towards Joan and give her ‘the look’ so the interview can come to an end.”
I didn’t have to use “the look” all week, but there were times I was really tempted to. To all the interviewers, Phillip Hartford and Matt Sterling were the hot topics in my life, but the only man I could think about was Ethan Lockwood.
Each time I climbed back into my SUV, each time I went back home to my apartment, and each time I lay in bed at night, images of our time together in Fayetteville crossed my mind.
I cried any time I was alone, and even though I was livid with him, a part of me wished he was there to hold me, to tell me that things were going to be okay.
Chapter 26
Ethan
The board meeting dragged on and on—corporate sponsorships, European expansions, employee pension plans—and all I could think about was kissing Selena and hearing her voice.
I was erratic. Angry. Hurt.
I was also extremely confused as to why these feelings were starting to surface.
I’d only known Selena for a little over a month. I’d known Jade—dated her, traveled with her, did everything with her—for two years and I was over her in two weeks.
I hadn’t slept in forever, and I was crankier than I’d ever been: My executive assistant slid my daily updates under the door for fear of me taking my pain out on her. The company employees avoided looking at me directly and didn’t bother greeting me in the hallways.
“Mr. Lockwood? Mr. Lockwood?” the regional development chair tossed a pen in my direction.
“What!” I snapped.
“During your extra time in Arkansas were you able to get the official recipe for that cherry bourbon pie?”
“No. I was not…”
“Oh well. We’ll just stick to what we have then,” he shrugged. “Sweet Seasons is closed anyway, so people won’t have much to compare it to after a while. Next order of business: It’s come to my attention that Starbucks is opening an underwater café in Florida. Anybody have ideas on how we can beat them to it?”
I drifted into my own thoughts again, wondering if Selena would return my phone calls, if she would ever speak to me again.
“You know,” Barry threw a mint at my face and sat across from me, “I preferred the days when you actually pretended to listen in board meetings. Now you’re not even trying.”
“I messed up, Barry. I should’ve told her about Autumn Wonder as soon as I found out Sweet Seasons was her mother’s shop.”
“Why don’t you call her?”
“I can’t just call her. Her assistant screens all her calls now…Since she’s ‘Selena Ross’ again I guess I don’t matter anymore.”
“Whoa! It was Selena Ross?” Barry practically lost it. “The actress? In Fayetteville?”
Am I the only one who didn’t know who she was?
“Yes,” I felt a tug in my heart.
Why do I keep feeling that? And why does it happen every day?
“Wow, you are officially the luckiest guy I know…What was your reason for not being upfront with her again?”
“I was supposed to be undercover when we first met. I didn’t know she was Selena Ross until I had an intern look her up. We didn’t start dating until after I’d already sent all the pies…And then she told me all about her mom’s bakery but…”
“You’re in love with her, aren’t you?”
Impossible…