The Trouble with Marrying a Movie Star (6 page)

"Hell, yeah it was! I could picture it now…"

"Wade!"

"Sorry. Frank likes the girl, too. Oh, well."

"He does?"

"He likes all women. Amy was easy and available. She had a thing for Drew too." He blurted out nonchalantly.

"You don't say."

"Yeah," he chuckled as if he was remembering something. "Drew always ignored her in the beginning, which you could tell Amy hated. She would go crying to him, in the end. He would try to be nice. I guess he didn't want to be a complete ass to her. Yet, he usually communicated with her through Frank, or over the phone. He wanted her gone a while ago, but he was doing Connor and me a favor. He told us no—at first. He didn't want anything to come between our bond, but his former assistant—before Amy—got married and was expecting her first child at the time. Frank was the one to finally convince him to give her a try."

"He told me it was Frank that he was doing a favor for."

"He was. He had it bad for the girl, but Drew was doing us a favor as well."

I sat down on the bed. I needed to hear this story. "How Wade?"

He placed the bag down and made himself comfortable as he leaned up against the wall. "Connor and I went through the police academy together, and later down the line, he became my partner. You know what that means, they are now family. We had each other's backs." He paused, deep in thought, before he continued. "Connor took a bullet for me." He untucked his dress shirt, showing me a small scar along his side. "He pushed me out of the way of a dealer's bullet. I was lucky enough to just get this scar. Connor ended up in the hospital for over a week."

My God. The thought of Wade being shot reminded me of the nightmares I had as a little girl of Dad not coming home. "You were lucky."

"And his name is Connor. Taylor and I took care of everything while he recovered—that was the least I could do—and the Hughes's made Connor an honorary family member. Rebeca was already very fond of him, but when he protected her son…. Andria, when both my parents passed away, the Hughes's were all I had left as family. Years later, Connor decided to leave the force and start-up his own security company. He has a handful of guys that he trusts, and they work VIP events. I use his company when Drew needs more protection, and when you and Drew came out," he smiled. "We called Connor to find a bodyguard for you, but Andrew didn't trust anybody but Connor and me. I couldn't leave him open, and you needed an experienced guy. So, Rebeca suggested asking Connor personally to protect you. We didn't think he would take the assignment, he was the boss after all, but, he would do
anything
for Rebeca."

"How does Amy fit in all of this?"

"Oh, yeah, she used to work for Connor, but he fired her. She was causing dissension among his men. Actually, he conned us into taking her. He had never asked for anything before. We pushed, and Drew accepted. But Drew told Frank that he was entirely responsible for her."

"She really screwed that up."

"It was a matter of time. Anyway, I owed Connor my life. He can ask for anything and I will make it happen."

"This whole time I thought Andrew was being a pushover."

"Drew is a nice guy, but he isn't
that
nice. You'll see once the honeymoon period is over."

"What are you saying, my sweet, naïve, boyfriend isn't nice?"

"Naive? Oh, you are in for a treat. That sweet guy you're speaking of has made Frank's life miserable ever since Amy started neglecting her job."

I laughed in disbelief. It felt like I had to twist Andrew's arm into thinking about firing her. "You must be talking about someone else. Not Andrew."

He leaned back choking out a laugh. "Drew has made Frank do everything Amy hasn't. He seems to really enjoy throwing her shortcomings in his face. Whatever she messes up, Frank has to fix it."

He walked over, looked me straight in the eyes, and grinned. "Little Andria. I will have to school you on the ways of your boy."

"He's never said anything about that before."

"Drew wouldn't. He likes to handle things on the down low."

"Down low?" I laughed out.

"He handles things behind the scenes. A man has to make a good impression when he's courting a lady."

"I see. What exactly has Andrew,
handled
lately?"

"Nothing that you need to worry your head over."

"Well, maybe I need to have a chat with said boyfriend. He has a few more things to handle."

"Be my guest," he smirked.

I stood up as Wade walked over and grabbed the rest of my luggage. I took one last walk through around the room, and made sure we hadn’t forgotten anything.

"Is this everything?" Wade asked as I walked into the main room.

"Yes. I know you're ready to go home to Taylor."

"Yeah, just not sure if Taylor wants me home," he said sadly.

I touched his arm. "She loves you! Of course, she wants you home."

He forced a grin. "She says that I smother her."

"Ummm…well…you probably do," I smiled back, shrugging, "but it's for a good cause. That's what expectant fathers do. Get on their pregnant wives’ nerves." His face turned down. "Hey, I'm sure when she looks back at all of your doting, she'll appreciate it."

He grabbed the rest of the bags while I opened the door. Wade gave me a true dimpled smile, and then put on his game face. We were about to face the vultures.

"Andrew, have you been making Frank do Amy's work?"

He looked at me surprised, and then answered. "Yes, why?"

Wade and Connor stood in front of us as we headed down to the hotel lobby in the cramped elevator. "Why didn't you say something?"

"What was I supposed to say?"

I looked over at Connor, turned my head towards Andrew's ear and whispered, "You knew I thought she was incompetent."

"I did, but I'm surrounded by incompetence every day. She was a minor nuisance compared to some of the others."

"Well, maybe you need to find competent people to be around."

He raised a brow. "I'm working on it."

The moment that the elevator doors opened, it was pandemonium. Flash bulbs blinded us, as Wade and Connor plowed Andrew and me through the waiting crowd of paparazzi. Andrew pulled me into his side as we followed closely behind the two bodyguards.

"How long have you two been together?" One yelled out.

"This way!"

"Andrew look this way!" They yelled out in unison.

Andrew leaned down to my ear and said, "Are you okay?"

I nodded.

He kissed my forehead, and the flashes increased. Then I heard several loud squeals from the other side of the hotel lobby. I turned towards that direction and saw a group of girls screaming and laughing while some were crying and comforting each other. "Andrew!" The girls yelled out.

That caught his attention and he said, "Hey guys," signaling over to where they were standing. Wade and Connor changed course and headed over towards them. The girls started screaming louder as we approached.

"Thank you so much, Andrew." One said.

"It's epic that you're doing this."

"I'm happy to," Andrew answered as they shoved their magazines or papers at him to sign.

"You're so pretty," another voice ranged out.

Andrew began to laugh as he nudged me. "Baby, she's talking to you."

I know that I looked shocked, while I stared at the girl who was smiling at me and then handed me a pen.

Andrew shook his head amused, and said to the young girl, "I think she's pretty beautiful too."

I looked up, and he placed a chaste kiss on my lips. There was a collective swoon before more screams and giggles. Behind us, I heard Connor yelling, and turned in time to see him tell one of the paps to, "Back up!"

The two men were chest to chest, although it looked as if Connor was winning the battle of whatever man thing they were doing. He scared the crap out of me sometimes, and the expression on the pap's face was priceless when Connor snarled at him. The guy immediately stood down, and cowered into the others. "I thought so," Connor said turning around. He then winked at me. What could I say? He was good at his job.

Andrew continued to sign autographs and took pictures with the girls. One man with a painting of him stood quietly to the side and held it out. Andrew walked past, said nothing, yet signed it as he continued to walk through the line of fans.

"Are you headed back to LA?" One of the girls asked.

"We'll be there soon."

Wade said, "Time," and Andrew thanked everyone for coming out to see him off and for their continued support. After, we exited the hotel to the awaiting cars.

There were no paparazzi to greet us in DC. Everyone assumed we were going to LA. Arriving at a private airport may have helped as well. The Hughes's were wealthy. They all had a jet club membership that entitled them to have private jets at their disposal. I couldn't imagine how much the membership cost, and it didn't matter what size of the plane. One of the large carriers offered the program, and all you needed to do was make a reservation and walk up to your plane.

We were staying at the condo in the city for the weekend. I was flying back to Dallas on Monday to start packing up the things that I wanted to bring to Virginia. I had to be in LA by the end of that same week to sit in on a few casting meetings. The studio wanted to push production ahead of schedule. From what I knew about Grant, he was all about the profits. If he could cash in on anything, like the free publicity Andrew and I were creating, he would. He was a shrewd businessman and was considered to be a shark in the business. He would suck your blood dry if it brought in more dollars. Andrew said the man was respected in higher circles.

The jury was still out for me on that one.

We met Erin and Miles at the concert arena. Andrew was wearing his normal disguise, and thought since we would be with a large crowd of people, he wouldn't be recognized. He had even given Wade and Connor the night off. Yet, no one would have guessed that I would be the one to be recognized. Andrew was correct about blending into the crowd of people, though. It was only when we sat down that the person next to Erin and Miles noticed us. "Hey Babes. Isn't that the broad on that magazine in the bathroom?"