When Dreams Come True (The Star Series Book 1) (9 page)

A crowd had started to build around them, and Lissa felt trapped in the small space. She couldn’t go forward through the line, and she couldn’t back out. People were starting to cram in closer to her as even that early weekday morning, the store was starting to get busy.

The flashes from cell phone cameras started going off and women started yelling questions at her.

“Is Will in town?”

“When are you going to see him again?”

“Is he a great kisser?”

“When is the movie coming out?”

“Where will it be shot?”

“Does he wear his leather villain costume for you?”

Her phone started to ring but she didn’t want to bring it out of her pocket, afraid it might actually be Will. Who knew what would happen then. The need to get out of there was strong. “Excuse me,” she pressed as she tried to move out of the lane. She looked at the checker, an older woman she’d always talked to whenever she came in there. It was one of the times she was thankful she was a creature of habit and always went to the same person. Lissa hoped she would be able to do something. “Can you help me?”

Carol, the checker, nodded and picked up the phone, saying some kind of color code happening at her checkout. She tried not to laugh at their list of colors and what each code meant. ‘Code Maroon at checkout three, girlfriend to famous person is being mobbed. Send backup in. She looks scared enough to pee her pants.’

Between the staff and the sheriff sub-station being right there, they cleared out the women and took her to the back room of the store. Sitting down, she caught her breath and tried to relax. They offered to just give her the food in her cart because of the incident, but she wouldn’t accept it, so they were going through her cart and manually creating a receipt for her so she could pay.

Looking at her phone, she saw it
was
Will who had called. She wished she hadn’t missed his call just as her phone lit up again. She quickly answered, and thankfully it was Will.

“Hello, darling.”

“Hello, yourself. I wasn’t expecting you to call now.”

“They have to rebuild part of the set. It didn’t quite work out as they were expecting.”

“Are you okay?”

“Oh yes, fine, actually, but you… you don’t sound normal. What happened?”

“Nothing, just finishing up at the grocery store.”

“Why don’t you call me when you get back home? I’m in my trailer so we’ll be able to video chat.”

“Great, I should be finished soon.”

“Ma’am,” the sheriff said from the door. “We’ve filed your report and dispersed the crowd, so you should be able to leave now.”

“Melissa, what’s going on?” Will questioned from the other end of the phone.

“Nothing. I’ll be home soon.”

“Melissa…”

“We’ll talk soon.”

“Darling, you can bet your sweet arse we will.”

The call ended.
Shit
. They’d had some heated battles before about different opinions, but she knew he was pissed. He was wicked smart and his brain moved at lightning speed. This might end up being their biggest battle, and she knew better than try to keep the entire truth from him.

“Sorry, ma’am. I didn’t realize you were on the phone.”

“No problem. Can someone help me get this to my vehicle?”

“Yes, ma’am. If I can have your keys, I’ll pull your vehicle around to the back and load it up for you. We’ll also make sure no one follows you out of the parking lot.”

“Wonderful. Thank you.”

Before she knew it, she was on her way home. She kept a lookout in her rearview mirror but no one was following her. Pulling into the garage, she started to load the bags up on her arm and bring them into the house. As soon as she walked into the kitchen, there was Hannah, on the phone and scowling at her. Trying to play it light, Lissa set down the bags as she blew her a kiss and quickly walked back out to grab more groceries.

When she came in with the second load and sat them down, Hannah stopped her. “I’ll get the rest and put it all away. You need to go video chat with Will.”

“How pissed is he?”

“Well, considering neither one of us knows exactly what is going on, but you’re all pale and shaking, I’d say not as pissed as he’s going to be.”

“Great.” She turned to go to her office.

“Lis, are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. I’ll fill you in after I talk to Will.”

As soon as she walked into her office, she could see the light blinking on her laptop letting her know Will was calling. She hit a button and his face filled the screen. He was still in costume and very angry. “What happened?”

“It wasn’t much of anything.” She went to her small refrigerator and pulled out a bottle of water, taking a long drink of it. She didn’t want to sit down and have to look him in the eyes, so she turned the laptop around so he could see the rest of her office. She walked over and opened the wall of glass doors which led out onto the balcony, letting in the warm air. She must’ve been suffering from some kind of shock, because she was a bit cold.

“Melissa Emily Loring, answer me now. Tell me exactly what happened.”

“Fine, I just went to the grocery store.” She started organizing the files on the small table. “While I was standing in line at the checkout, someone recognized me. Before I knew it, I was surrounded by people yelling all kinds of questions at me and taking my picture. The store called in the authorities for crowd control and to help me get what I needed and leave.”

She snuck a look at him from the corner of her eye. He was sitting there, his eyes narrowed at her and his arms folded across his chest. Her lips twitched as she thought he truly looked like the royalty he had played in movies, displeased and ready to lay down the law.

“Why don’t you sit down?”

His voice was calm, and she knew she was in trouble. The man was brilliant and could think faster than most people, so of course he’d seen through her and had already figured out what he was going to do. Knowing she couldn’t put it off any longer, she sat down and looked to the side, fiddling with the pen and paper she had left there.

“Look at me.”

Sighing, she looked right into the camera.

“Damn.”

“Will, I’m fine. Really.”

“No, you’re not. Do you honestly think I don’t know your face better than my own? I can see you are most definitely
not
fine. You were scared, more scared than you’re letting on. I should have thought of something like this happening.”

“Okay, yes, I was. I’d never been in a situation like that before. I never expected anything like that to happen. But now I know and I can be ready for it, try to do something to prevent it.”

“Oh, you can bet your sweet arse nothing like that is going to happen again. I’m waiting for a reply to my email from my people. You’ll have a security team.”

“Now, wait just a min—”

“Yes, Melissa, you
will
have a security team. There is no way I’m going to leave you without someone
I
trust around to make sure you are safe.”

“For all we know, this was a one-time situation.”

“Do you really believe that? Think about it. What happens when we start spending more time in the public eye together? What happens when your movie starts filming? When it’s released? Then what? You still think this is just a ‘one-time situation’?” His voice shook with anger. “I will
not
allow you to be in that situation ever again.”

“Whoa, wait, you will not
allow
it? Listen here, buster. I can take care of myself. I was caught off-guard today, but that won’t happen again. And if I decide to have a security team,
I
can certainly choose
my
own. Hell, I have Betty Boxer in the house. I’ll just take her out with me all the time.”

Will’s voice calmed down; he was changing tactics. “Yes, well, that’s all fine and good. And while I know you are perfectly capable of choosing your own protection, do you not think it might be better to allow me to help since I have more experience in this than you do?”

“And you don’t know Tucson. Things like this normally don’t happen. Do you know how much time big celebrities spend here? Sir Paul and Linda McCartney had a house here and spent time here, Oprah has been here. This was not normal.”

“That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have help. In fact, I’m thinking you need more help than just Hannah.”

“What? Where the hell is that coming from?”

His eyes narrowed and he moved closer to the screen. “You, my darling, have been very clever in the past month or so, using lighting, or lack thereof, and certain camera angles when we’ve been chatting. Today, you forgot about that and I can see you clearer than I have in weeks. You need someone to take care of you.”

“I’m fine.”

“No, you aren’t. Hannah told me how much you’ve been working, and not sleeping or eating. There is only so much you’ll
allow
her to do. I know you have a whole team who helps you with your business, so you need to start
allowing
them to do more of the work they are capable of. You need to
allow
Hannah to make sure you are eating right. Then you are going to
allow
the security team to make sure you’re safe when you’re out, which you’ll be doing more of.”

Lissa sat back in her chair and crossed her arms over her chest. “Is that all? Or are there more things I’m going to have to
allow
?”

“Yes, you are going to have to allow for the fact I care deeply for you, which means I’m going to want to make sure you’re safe and cared for. You don’t have to like it, but just give me the privilege of taking care of you. Don’t you understand it kills me I’m not there with you every single day? That I’m not there to hold you when you need me to? My being was created to take care of you. It has nothing to do with the fact you are perfectly capable of doing it yourself. My soul screams out to cherish you.” His voice shook with emotion.

There was nothing she could do; she melted at his words. “Will… I don’t like to impose…”

“I know you don’t, but you’ve got to learn to let people help you. It’s okay to ask for help.”

Everything Lissa had been feeling, along with pushing her physical and emotion well-being to the brink for the past three months, crashed in on her. Almost immediately, the tears she’d always held back, especially while talking to him, started to fall from her eyes.

“Darling, please don’t.” Through hazy tears she saw him lean closer to the camera, as if he wanted to reach out and touch her.

Shaking her head, she held up a hand. Giving herself a moment to try to stop the tears, she took a deep breath. “I’m sorry. It’s just everything. I’ll be okay.”

“Lissa—” There was a knock on his door and he turned away from her. “Yes?”

“They’re ready for you on set, Will.”

He sighed. “I have to go. We’ll chat again, as soon as I’m free.”

With eyes full of tears, she nodded. “I’m sorry.”

“Darling, you have nothing to be sorry for, except for being stubborn.” He smiled. “Please, let me help. I’ll make sure everything goes through Hannah so you won’t have to worry about anything.”

After they said good-bye, she looked up and saw Hannah standing there.

“Damnit, do you know how hard it is to chew you out when you’re sitting there crying?” She walked over to her and put her arms around her. “Come on. I’ll yell at you later but for now, let’s get you to bed. You need some sleep.”

Lissa allowed Hannah to help her up, get her to her room and into bed. “Thank you. I don’t know why I’m such a mess.”

“I could tell you. Do you want to hear the long or short version?”

“Shut up.”

Hannah closed the drapes. “Get some rest.”

“Thanks. Love you.”

“You, too. Now, get some rest.”

Lissa fell into a dreamless sleep within seconds of Hannah leaving the room.

A few days later, Hannah was standing at the front door waiting for Will to show up. Beau had been in contact with her and they’d planned everything. They both knew Will and Lissa needed to see each other. After the incident at the grocery store, Lissa had been down on herself and Will had become irritable. There was another issue on the movie which ended up giving Will two days to come out to see her. They hoped it was going to be enough to get them through the next two weeks before they could spend more time together. The movie he’d been working on had one delay after another, and shooting was running behind schedule.

They talked quietly as she led him through the house and to Lissa’s room where he set his suitcase down. She knew they were going to want to spend every minute together, and that included sleeping.

“Wow,” Will said as he walked over to the windows which filled two of the walls. One of them directly faced the mountain and a rock wall with cactus clinging to it. The other set of windows framed the mountain range to the east, where you couldn’t see any other homes.

“When we were looking for a house, she didn’t like this one too much. She said it was too modern for her, but then she saw her office, and she was sold. By the time we got back to her bedroom here, she was telling the real estate agent to make an offer.”