Authors: Gemma Brooks
“So have you lived here your entire
life?” he asked. “Rock River?”
“Yep,” I said. “Born and raised.”
“When they told us we’d be filming some
scenes in Iowa, I wasn’t sure what to expect,” he said. “But so far your little
town is very, uh, quaint. The people are pretty nice. Everyone’s been really
welcoming so far.”
“Great,” I said. “I’m glad to hear that.
How long are you in town for?”
“Just another week I think,” he said.
“Depends on how quickly we get these scenes shot.”
“It only takes a week to film a movie?” I
asked, confused.
He laughed, revealing the most dazzling
smile I’d ever seen. It was even better in person than it was on a movie screen
or in glossy pages of a magazine.
“No,” he said. “It takes a lot longer
than a week. We just shoot some key scenes here. Everything else is shot on a
sound stage back in L.A.”
“Oh,” I said, laughing sheepishly. “That
makes sense.”
I lingered a bit more as my feet felt
cemented by his presence. I didn’t want to leave. I didn’t want to go back to
Piper and Luke who would ask me fifty million questions and giggle and laugh
and make a scene. Hudson was seriously cool, and he was talking to me, and I
didn’t want him to think I was just some pathetic fan.
“I work at the Brown Bag Diner,” I said.
“It’s just off the south side of the square on Main Street. If you ever get
hungry, we have pretty good nightly specials.”
I couldn’t believe I’d just said that. It
sounded so lame.
“Yeah, I think I drove past that last
night,” he said. “You guys don’t have a lot of restaurants in this town. We
were looking for a place to eat, but everything was closed.”
“Sorry,” I said as I bit my lip. “Everything
closes around here by nine. That’s a small town for you.”
“Well, I’ll just have to make sure I eat
dinner earlier,” he said. “Not a big deal.”
I wasn’t sure how much longer I could
make small talk with him. I didn’t want to bore him or intrude any longer than
necessary.
“Okay, well, it was really nice meeting
you,” I said with a smile.
He sat up, as if he didn’t want me to
leave, and his face fell a little.
“You have somewhere to be?” he asked as
his eyes scanned around the room. I watched as his gaze fell upon Luke and
Piper, and he realized they’d been watching us the entire time. “Those your
friends?”
I turned around, embarrassed, and hung my
head.
“Sadly, yes,” I said.
“Is that guy your boyfriend?” he asked,
drawing out his words. “How long have you been with him? Wait, let me guess,
you’re high school sweethearts.”
“Nope,” I said. “Just a friend.”
He smiled a Cheshire grin and tossed back
the rest of his drink. “I see.”
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I know they’ve been
staring the whole time. They didn’t think I’d come and talk to you.”
“If I buy you another drink, will you
talk to me a bit longer?” he asked. “I don’t know if I want to send you back
there quite yet.”
It took everything I had not to let my
jaw drop to the floor.
“Um, sure,” I said as I tried my hardest
to play it cool.
“Another Jack and Coke?” he asked.
I nodded as I bit my lip.
“Hank, move your ass,” he said as he
nudged the big guy next to him. “Let the lady
have
a
seat.”
“Oh, yeah, yeah, here you go,”
Hank
said as he stood up and offered his bar stool.
“Thank you, Hank,” I said with my sweet
little Iowan smile.
While Hudson turned away to order my
drink, I flipped back quickly to look at Luke and Piper. Piper’s eyes were as
round as saucers and Luke’s flippant, overly ambivalent attitude was clearly
beginning to fade. He turned his back towards me, and I would’ve killed to see
his face in that moment. Was he jealous?
“So,” Hudson said as he reached over and
placed his hand on my knee and leaned in towards me. “What do you do for fun
around here?”
I laughed. “It depends on your definition
of fun.”
“Try me,” he said. “I like to think I
have an open mind.”
The music pumped loudly in our ears, and
I was beginning to grow annoyed by it. I wanted to have a real conversation
with him. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity and it was being destroyed
by some bad eighties hairband music, the clinking of beer mugs and the
obnoxious laughter of drunks.
“It’s really loud in here,” he said as if
he had just read my mind. “Do you want to go somewhere and talk?”
“Um, sure,” I said with a nervous grin.
“I’m staying at the Wild River Lodge up
the street,” he said.
“Yep, I know exactly where that is.” I
stood up and grabbed my purse, clutching it under my arm. He downed the rest of
his drink and sat the glass down gently on the bar. He raised his hand in the
air as if to thank the bartender for his good service and then headed towards
the door.
I spun around, waved at Luke and Piper,
and walked out behind him. I couldn’t believe that was actually happening. It
was all so surreal.
“I hope you don’t mind if we walk,” he
said.
“Not at all. It’s just a couple of
blocks.” I trailed behind him for several steps before he abruptly stopped and
waited for me to catch up with him. Part of the walk was alongside a
seldom-busy highway, but tonight there happened to be more traffic than usual.
“Walk on this side of me.” He grabbed the
crook of my elbow and pulled me to his opposite side, away from oncoming
traffic.
We walked mostly in silence, the gravel
kicking beneath our every step, and within a few short minutes we’d arrived at
the lobby of the Wild River Lodge. The look on the night clerk’s face when he
saw me walk in with Hudson Smith was completely priceless. I expected rumors to
be swirling around Rock River by noon the next day.
I followed him to the elevator where we
kept a safe distance between us, and I couldn’t help but notice the height he
had on me. In person, he looked much taller than he did in the movies. He
wasn’t nearly as tall as Luke, but he was still a good six feet tall. Then
again, everyone was tall compared to my 5’4’’ stature.
“Just to your right,” he said as the
elevator dinged and the doors parted. “Room 478.”
I headed towards his room, my heart
thumping hard in my ears.
Hudson swiped his card and held the heavy
door open for me. The smell of a freshly cleaned and sanitized hotel room
filled my lungs. The chilled air sent a shiver down my spine as he reached over
and flipped on the lights. One king-sized bed rested smack-dab in the middle of
the room along with a sofa, nightstand and dresser. Floor to ceiling curtains
covered the far wall and hid the sliding glass door that led out to a private
balcony.
“Nice suite,” I said.
He smiled and said nothing.
I stood with my arms crossed awkwardly
down at my hips, almost paralyzed with anxiety.
“Make
yourself
comfortable,” he said as he pointed to sofa.
I walked over and took a seat, crossing
my legs and trying to appear relaxed and comfortable. I was pretty sure I
looked like a complete, nervous moron.
He pulled his keys and wallet from his
pockets and splayed them out on the dresser before walking over to the sofa and
sitting down next to me. He widened his hips and leaned back as he placed his
hands behind his head, fingers interlocked. Every move that man made was so
smooth, so fluid.
“This is much better,” he said. “Now I
can actually hear myself think.”
“Totally,” I said. I was tongue-tied and
couldn’t think of a better response.
“So,” he said as he took a deep breath.
“You have a boyfriend or anything?”
“No,” I said. “Not at the moment.”
“And you’re how old now?” he asked as he
raised one eyebrow.
“Twenty-three,” I replied. “How old are
you?”
I pretended not to know.
“Thirty,” he said with an exasperated
sigh. “Getting old.”
I laughed. “That’s not old at all.”
“It is in Hollywood,” he replied. “It’s
ancient. All these young guys keep coming in with their jacked bodies and
chiseled faces. It’s hard to keep up.”
“I doubt that,” I argued. “You’re, like,
Hollywood royalty. You’ve been around a while. People know you. You’re a
household name. You have staying power.”
“You’re beginning to sound like my
manager,” he laughed. “Anyway, we don’t have to talk about me. I get tired of
talking about myself. Tell me about you.”
He lowered his arms down to his lap where
they rested confidently. He turned his entire body and shifted towards me.
“What do you want to know?” I asked with
a half-smile.
“Anything,” he said. He seemed captivated
by me, but I couldn’t help but wonder if it was all an act. He was a famous
actor after all.
My face turned ten shades of crimson as
the spotlight fell upon me. I didn’t usually like talking about
myself or my boring little Iowa life
.
“Don’t be shy,” he said with a laugh.
Again, it was like he could read my mind. “So I know that your name is Brynn,
you’re twenty-three, you waitress, you have a couple friends, and you’ve lived
in Rock River your entire life. What else can you tell me?”
“God, when you say it like that, it makes
me sound pathetic,” I huffed. I placed my hands on my cheeks, which were
burning red by then.
“I doubt you’re boring, and I don’t think
you’re pathetic at all,” he reassured me as he reached over and pulled my hands
away from my face. He inadvertently pulled me closer to him in the process.
“Do you get a lot of random women
approaching you when you’re on location?” I asked, changing the subject.
A smile spread across his full lips, and
he tossed his head back and nodded while I tasted the irony in my question.
“I didn’t want to be that girl,” I said.
He shrugged as he if he understood.
“I have something really silly to tell
you,” I said. I looked up at him to gauge his receptiveness. His eyes honed in
on mine with an intensity that burned even brighter than before. “It’s really
embarrassing actually.”
“What?” he said. “Now you have to tell
me.”
“Maybe I shouldn’t say anything. It’s
really silly.”
He reached over and grabbed my hand,
playfully swinging it and inadvertently pulling me closer to him. “You have to
tell me now. You brought it up.”
I bit my lip and opened my mouth, waiting
for the words to slip out. He was leaning towards me, waiting to hear my silly
secret.
“I had the biggest crush on you when I
was younger,” I said. I closed my eyes, scrunched my face and inwardly cringed.
I couldn’t believe I’d just admitted that to him. I figured any second now he
was going to look at me like I was some silly fan girl and tell me to get the
hell out of his hotel room.
“You did?” he asked with one eyebrow
raised.
“Yeah, like I had a poster of you on the
back of my door that I’d kiss goodnight every night,” I said with a wince. I
crossed my fingers that maybe he’d think it was more endearing than creepy.
“That’s sweet,” he said, the corners of
his mouth curled up. “I’m really flattered. Let me guess? The poster was
me
with a leather jacket and gelled hair. I’m leaning
against a tree with my leg kicked up behind me.”
“That’s the one!” I exclaimed. “How did
you know?”
“That was the biggest seller,” he said.
“I ordered it from the back of a Tiger
Beat,” I admitted. “Ten bucks plus shipping.”
He laughed and locked his hazel eyes into
mine for a moment. He hadn’t asked me to leave, so I had that going for me.
“I never thought I’d actually meet you,”
I said. “And I don’t want you to think I expect anything to happen. You know,
since we’re in your hotel room.”
Now the word vomit was happening. I
couldn’t stop.
“I hope you don’t think I’m throwing
myself at you,” I continued. “I’m not like that. I just wanted to meet you.”
He studied my face intently while I
rambled on, making excuses for my brazen behavior that evening.
“I don’t have any expectations,” I
blathered on.
“Brynn,” he interrupted me. “Stop.”
I zipped my lips, not knowing where he
was going with that.
He reached his hand up and cupped the
side of my face as if I were some sweet, naïve girl that he felt sorry for. He
cocked his head to the side and suddenly I found his lips mere inches from
mine. A second later, he leaned in even closer and pressed his mouth onto mine.
My heart skipped a beat and lightheadedness
fell over me. For the past seven years, Luke was the only guy I’d ever
fantasized about kissing. But in that moment, Luke was the farthest thing from
my mind.