Celeb Crush (14 page)

Damn it.  Why does everyone think I can act that well?  But because Aunt Susan is watching us with a happy smile on her face, I laugh like Megan said something funny.  “Fine by me,” I say in a possessed tone of voice.

Thus, our temporary truce is reestablished, and all is right in the world.  I burn through the party favors like a boss—until we discover that I accidentally stuck Mary’s tube of rash cream in one of the boxes.  I suggest leaving it in as a surprise to an unsuspecting wedding guest—but I am overwhelmingly outvoted, and we have to go through all the boxes to find the tube.  What was your rash cream doing on the table with all the candy, Mary?  Yuck.

I’m happy to escape  and run a few miscellaneous errands for Megan.  I drive around town picking glitter out of my hair and nails, and checking my phone for any texts.  I have a few from Nate about his newest target, a Brazilian supermodel—but none from Luke.  He would have landed by now.  It’s not like he keeps me updated on his every movement, but it would be nice to know that he arrived safely.  Whatever, though.

I have dinner with Ellen at this restaurant called Iggy’s.  The food is good but greasy.  I go through half a tree’s worth of napkins wiping my mouth and fingers while fielding calls from Talon about the camping trip.  It’s driving me a wee bit crazy.  When Talon starts rambling about the contents of his tackle box, I hand my phone over to Ellen, and start stuffing my face with fries.  I’m so glad Luke gave me the keys to the gym before he left.  I’m going there tonight.  I have a lot of aggression to work off.

The next day, Megan finds herself plastered across the internet, known as “LG’s Mystery Blonde,” whom is rumored to be carrying the spawn of the hottest actor in Hollywood.  She’s both flattered and horrified.  Horrified because she made the mistake of reading the comments section.  I read them with her, and it amazes me how so many people can spell so many words wrong, but spell “whore” correctly every time.

Fortunately, none of the pictures online have a clear shot of her face.  Either her hair is in the way, or she’s blurry and turning away from the camera.  There are several shots where Luke is purposefully shielding her with his body.  Isn’t that nice?  Oh, look—there’s me.  Well, I’m pretty sure that’s my ear.

I call Nate to find out what the official word is on the pregnant Mystery Blonde.  He tells me that Jessica and her crew are going to ignore it, but that he’s refuting the rumors on his own social media accounts, at Luke’s request.  I’m guessing that’s for Megan’s benefit, in hopes that the press will drop the story.  Nate also tells me that he thinks my cousin is hot, and that’s when I hang up on him.

I discover late Friday night why Luke hasn’t been in touch:  he’s been busy becoming the number one trending topic in the country.  I skim over stories about Luke’s wild L.A. nights of fighting, street racing, and co-star hook-ups.  Thankfully, there's no mention of anyone being sent to the hospital, or jail.

I click on the first link.  It says that Luke allegedly got into a scuffle at a celeb party with fellow heartthrob and car enthusiast, twenty-two year old singer Jackson Frazier—and his entourage—over…hmm, the affections of Luke’s My Soul for You co-star, Kat Vandevere.  Luke was pulled off Frazier before he could stomp the tiny pop star’s face into the ground (I’m paraphrasing here), and Frazier was able to limp away from the encounter.  No charges were filed, thank god.  Why would Luke pick a fight with such a little guy, anyway? No pictures of the altercation, so I don’t know if I believe it.

He was a busy boy, I see.  When he wasn’t throwing punches, he was street racing in San Pedro.  Allegedly, that is.  Sources claim Luke was there but managed to peel out before the cops came. That one I believe, though there weren’t any pictures accompanying the article.

The third item is the most interesting.  Various sites claim that Luke hooked up with his onscreen love interest, Kat Vandevere—aka Alexa in the My Soul For You series.  She is the only girl alive that Luke’s fandom wouldn’t mind him being with.  I’ve met Kat a few times, and she’s one of those girls that you have to pretend to like because she’s so beautiful and cool—but secretly you burn with jealousy, and hope the world soon discovers some fatal flaw of hers.  She’s a pretty good actress.  Maybe not of the same caliber as Luke, but definitely an up-and-comer. 

I have some insider knowledge on their relationship.  During the filming of the first Soul movie, Luke pursued her pretty hard—but Kat wanted to be more than just a fuckbuddy, so she refused his advances.  Somewhere along the line, they ended up good friends.  They actually get along really well, and have great chemistry.  I asked Luke once if he secretly loved her, and he totally brushed the question off.  I know she’s been busy doing some voice work, but according to the pictures I’m looking at, she apparently found time to hang out with Luke.  There aren’t any pictures of them kissing, or anything.  Just dozens of shots of them leaving the same restaurant together, or standing around and talking outside of a bar.  There’s a picture of a smiling Luke with his arm around a laughing Kat, and right next to it is a picture of Luke and his Mystery Blonde.  Half of Megan’s face is covered by her hair, but the part you can see looks constipated.  Ha, ha.  According to the gossip blog that posted the side-by-side, LG broke poor KVan’s heart by getting the beautiful blonde girl he’s cheating on her with pregnant.

Oh, the scandal.  But it’s good publicity for everyone involved—except for maybe for Megan.  Then again, I bet she’s secretly thrilled.  She wishes she were really carrying Luke’s love child!  Because how hilarious would that be if she slept with another one of my boyfriend’s, right? 

My fake boyfriend.  Luke’s not my boyfriend.  I’m going to sleep now.  I have to pick up my fake boyfriend in six hours.  He might be mad at me…and I get to go camping with him and two nine year old boys this weekend.

Should be fun, I’m thinking.

Chapter 12

Like a good employee, I pull up to the curb just as Luke comes out the doors of the airport.  He seems to be back to his old self, and we’re both willing to ignore any lingering tension.  I ask him what happened with Frazier, and he mutters something about the kid being a douche to Kat.  He doesn’t seem to want to talk about it so we discuss his dinner meeting with Mark Silverstein instead.  Luke says it went good and he’s probably going to do the movie.  He sounds pretty excited at the prospect of working with the director, who has several blockbuster action movies under his belt.  I wonder how he’ll do with a horror.  It’s kind of a risky genre, if you ask me.

Talon texts me about every five minutes, wanting to know when we’re coming over, until finally I scream “Never!” and try to throw my phone out the closed window.  Luke laughs at me, and I almost throw
him
out the window.

We stop at Ellen’s so he can shower and grab his stuff, and then we jump into his truck to pick up the boys.  On the way there, I check the weather forecast on my phone because with Oregon you never know what you’re going to get from one day to the next.  It claims that it will be sunny with a high in the eighties, all weekend.  Awesome.  I like the rain, just not when I’m sleeping outdoors.

The boys greet us like big eager puppies on a sugar high.  Dalton is Talon’s brother from another mother, with dark skin and eyes.  He thinks I’m the shit since that time I showed them how to build a potato gun—which we promptly tested out on the neighborhood bullies.  It was a smashing success, if I do say so myself, though no one was seriously injured.

Like Talon, Dalton isn’t the least bit impressed that Luke is a world famous actor.  They help Luke load the truck up with the camping gear.  Uncle Charlie was nice enough to get everything out the night before so we didn’t have to waste time digging around in the messy garage.  He even insisted on buying all the food and supplies for our trip.  I go in the kitchen to grab the bags of stuff.  Wow, he really went all out; I have to make a couple of trips to get everything.

I stop to talk to Aunt Susan before I leave, and swear to her that I’ll keep a close eye on the boys, and make sure that they shower and brush their teeth before they go to sleep.  Why this is so important to her, I don’t know.  I wouldn’t care if they ran around naked, so long as they didn’t do it in front of me.  Or anyone else, for that matter.  It’s probably for the best that they keep all their clothes on.  I know I’m going to.

You know who else should keep all her clothes on?  Megan.  I go back outside to discover her perched on the truck’s tailgate, swinging her endlessly long and tanned legs as she chats with Luke.  She’s wearing little white shorts and a hot pink bikini top.  You can totally see her perky nipples through the thin fabric.

Luke, to his credit, isn’t ogling her.  But then girls are constantly lifting up their shirts for him, so maybe he’s just not that impressed.  If he’s ignoring Megan’s nipples, so can I.  I mumble a greeting to her, and start putting the perishables in the cooler sitting in the driveway.

“I wish I could go with you guys,” Megan says wistfully.  “I haven’t been camping in forever.”

“So come,” Luke invites her in that persuasive voice of his.  “There’s plenty of room.  Right, Andi?”

I look up with a smile in which you can count all my teeth.  “Absolutely.”

Fortunately, Megan is shaking her head.  “Thanks, but we have too much to do here.  And with Bran in a cast, it would be impractical.  I would like to one day, though, before the baby’s born.”

“Yeah, the four of us will have to go sometime,” Luke says, leaning against the back of the truck, next to where I’m standing.  “There are some gorgeous spots in Joshua Tree that I think you’d like.”

I snort discreetly.  So he thinks he knows her well enough to know her camping preferences now?  Ha!  And of course he had to mention Joshua Tree—when he knows how I feel about that place after the spider incident.

Both Megan and her nipples seem excited about this prospect.  But before she can respond, Talon comes skidding to a stop in front of her.  “Nipples!” he shrieks, pointing at her chest with both index fingers.  He cackles and runs back into the open garage.

Megan looks down at herself, and her cheeks turn bright pink.  With a little squeak, she scrambles off the tailgate and makes a run for the house.  Luke watches her go then turns to me with a grin.

“Enjoy the show?” I say with a wry look.  I go back to arranging the packets of hotdogs so they’re covered in ice.

“What, the nipples?”  He shrugs.  “I’ve seen them before.  Not hers, specifically—you know what I mean.”

“Right.”  I smirk at him.

Luke smiles, but his gaze is uncomfortably intense.  “You know what I’ve never seen on another girl before?  A pair of eyes, as dark and shiny as yours.”

I roll my dark shiny eyes at him.  “Real smooth, super star.  You’re lucky you’re famous.”

Luke laughs that deep throaty chuckle that reaches and down tickles me in all my girl parts.  Clearing my throat, I turn my back to him to hide my flustered face.  I go to pick up the cooler so I can put it in the back of the truck—but then I feel Luke’s hands close around my waist.  He picks me up and moves me to the side like I’m a toddler in the way.  I huff at him but he ignores me, the muscles in his arms barely having to flex as he hauls the cooler up.  I could have done it.  It wouldn’t have been pretty, but I would have managed just fine.

Megan comes back out just as we’re finished loading the truck.  She’s wearing her green and yellow Oregon Ducks shirt and a sheepish expression.  “Can I talk to you for a second?” she asks reluctantly.

I follow her to the side of the house where she immediately begins spewing apologies at me.

“Oh, my god—I swear I wasn’t trying to flirt with him!  I just came back from Bran’s cousin’s house, and Lucas was right there.  I wouldn’t—”

“Calm your nipples down, Meegles,” I interrupt, using an old nickname for her.  “It’s fine.”

Megan immediately crosses her arms over her chest, appearing mortified.  “Okay, whatever.  Um, just to let you know—he didn’t even look at me like that once.  That’s why I didn’t know that my…you know.”

“I know.”  I shrug slightly to show her that I don’t think it’s a big deal.

“So…”  She stares down at the ground, playing with the hem of her shirt.  “Thanks for taking the boys camping.  I felt so bad for Talon when we told him that we had to cancel the trip.  We planned it, like, months ago, and he was really disappointed.  So, um…yeah…”

“Yeah—no.”  I wave my hand around.  “No big deal.  I like camping.”

We are so awkward.  I feel like we should be scuffing our toes in the dirt while trying to work up the courage to ask the other one to the freshman dance.  Someone has to put a stop to this because it’s just painful.

“Well, they’re probably waiting for me,” I say, abruptly turning away. 

“Yeah, okay.  Have fun camping!”

“You, too,” I automatically reply. 

It doesn’t make sense, but I’m not going to take it back.  I escape to the truck where Talon and Dalton are yelling at me to hurry from the backseat of the cab.  I think they’re having a contest to see who can be the loudest.

“It’s not too late to back out,” I say to Luke while putting on my seatbelt.

“Are you kidding?”  He starts the truck and grins over at me.  “We’re gonna have a blast.”