“We won’t be able to go out, though. Not for lunch or anything.” Surely he wouldn’t want to be cooped up at home for a weekend.
“I can get any restaurant in town to do takeout for us.” He seemed certain that this was what he wanted, and I wouldn’t turn down an extra few days with a man who knew my body so well. And had also gotten to know my mind pretty well too. A man who I enjoyed sharing my day with, who could make me laugh, who not only didn’t mind my yoga pants but found them sexy. I liked Matt. And I wasn’t so sure I wanted him to disappear from my life all of a sudden.
I bit back my grin. “Only if you promise me a lot of sex.”
“Now that’s the easiest promise I’ve made in the last month.” He pressed his lips against mine. I tightened my leg, pulling him toward me.
Would it be as easy as he made it sound, sneaking into his house and not being seen? A famous guy was the last person I’d want to date if that was even what he was suggesting, which I wasn’t sure about. But I wanted to let him go even less.
Fifteen
Matt
Sitting out on Lana’s deck while she worked was one of my new favorite things to do. She was curled up next to me on a long bench, sketching jewelry designs while I made notes on a book I was reading. The sound of the ocean was incredibly soothing, and I’d grown so used to it that I’d decided to look at real estate in Malibu when I got back to LA. The only problem was Lana wouldn’t be there sharing the view with me. I’d never been interested in just hanging out with a woman, which wasn’t to say I wouldn’t take naked-Lana over dressed-Lana any day of the week, but just being with her was better than I’d ever thought possible.
“It’s going to rain again,” she said without looking up.
“How can you tell?”
“You can’t feel that shift in the air? Must be those ions or something.” She glanced across at me and grinned. Christ, she was beautiful.
We hadn’t mentioned her coming to visit me in LA again since we’d talked about it a few days ago, but I could tell she was thinking it was a possibility.
As if on cue, the sky rumbled. She raised her eyebrows. “Told you so.”
“You right about everything?”
“I wish. I’d love to be able to tell the future.” She looked away and blushed, but I couldn’t figure out why.
“What are you thinking about?” I swiped her hair off her shoulders and cupped the back of her neck.
“Nothing. How’s the book?” She lifted her chin toward my current read, The Brothers, about kids growing up in the Midwest who discover a body.
“It’s not a kids’ book though?” she asked.
I shook my head. “No more than Stranger Things is a show for kids.”
“I love that show,” she said. “It’s unadulterated entertainment but you can see respect for the audience.”
I grinned. “Exactly. So much stuff now is dumbed down. But you can tell the things that are made for ratings compared to other things that are clearly made by people who want to be real fans of the end product. This,” I said, jiggling the book, “would make an awesome movie.”
“You keep saying that,” Lana said, concentrating on her drawing again.
“Because it’s true.” It was the second book I’d read since coming to Maine that I could see on the screen. If not a movie, then maybe as a Netflix series. “You’d have to get a director who wasn’t afraid to be a little dark and you couldn’t aim it at kids. As soon as you do that, you lose what this book is about. Kids are sophisticated.” I pulled her legs onto my lap. “This book could be about me and my brothers, growing up and on our bikes in Gary, getting up to God knows what. But we weren’t na?ve. We knew exactly what was going on. We knew the auto mechanic at the corner of Virginia Street and Fifteenth sold drugs and stolen phones. We knew my dad’s best friend fooled around on his wife. Adults underestimate kids. And the scriptwriter would have to understand how worldly the characters are in this text despite their age.”
Her smile grew wider.
“What?” I asked.
She shook her head. “I like to hear you talking like this. With passion. It suits you.”
“It’s this book. It would make such a great movie.”
“Has the author sold the rights?” She tilted her head and continued to sketch.
“I doubt it. It’s a book about four kids who stumble across a murder. Not the sort of thing that gets snapped up by studios and production houses.”
“Maybe you should think about seeing if the rights are available.”
I placed a bookmark between the pages and lay it down next to me on the bench, tugging her feet toward me. “You think?”
She nodded. “Yeah. You could be the one to get it made. It’s often the oddball choices, the movies that take a risk, that do really well.”
I chuckled. “Hardly. I’m a pretty face. I don’t get books turned into movies.” Brian was forever telling me how lucky I was that I’d made it when so many models tried to break into acting all the time.
“Don’t a lot of actors produce?” She glanced up at the roof of the porch as if impatient for the rain.
“When they’ve been in the business a long time. Earned their stripes.”
“You don’t think you’re there yet?”
I’d never really thought about going behind the scenes. “Well, I’m all about the franchise at the moment. Everything’s aiming for that.”
“Because that will make you a lot of money?” she asked. I’d talked a little about my future career plans and Lana understood my goals.
“I guess that’s part of it. I like to be able to give my family what they’ve never had, so none of them have to worry. But for me it’s more than that. It’s about being the best. About getting to the top.”
She nodded. “And after you have that?”
My plan was always to make as much money as I could while I was hot, then make a graceful exit. “I’m not sure I’ll ever be producer material. I was a model, remember?”
“I’m looking at you. I don’t need to remember. That doesn’t mean you can’t be a producer.” She pulled out the blanket from underneath the bench and began to unfold it. “But you like this book. Can’t you option it or something? Is that the right word?”
“Yeah, it’s the right word.” How could I explain that it wasn’t as easy as she was making it seem? “The author is unlikely to sell their rights to me. I don’t have a production company or studio backing or anything.”
“Doesn’t mean you can’t get all those things. Surely you have contacts?”
I lifted my arms as she placed the blanket over both our legs. Despite the fresh breeze, I wasn’t cold, but I liked that she was trying to make me comfortable. “Yeah, maybe.” I could mention it to my agent, I supposed. The book was phenomenal, but I knew the lack of adult male leading roles meant it wasn’t likely to ever get to the big screen. But if Lana believed in me, then maybe it was worth a try. “You think it’s possible?”