Bad Boy Brody(72)

“Just in time,” I said to Gayle, who was standing patiently on my doorstep.

Just as I shut the door, the journalist cut to a new segment, drawing my and Gayle’s attention. “And we have new images of Morgan Kellerman, the rumored new love interest of Brody Asher.” She turned to her co-anchor. “What do you think, Josh? Sizzling or not?”

“Not just sizzling, Julia.” The guy crooned to the television camera. “But hot, hot, hot sizzling! I have to say, I totally get how this mystery woman trapped our own Brody Asher.”

“You think Bad Boy Brody is no longer? You think this vixen has tamed our bad boy?”

“I don’t know, Julia.” The co-anchor laughed.

I was disgusted, so I tuned out their continued gossip and went to turn off the television.

Gayle came in, shutting the door.

She trailed behind me as I returned to the bedroom to finish packing.

She lingered in the doorway. “You’re leaving?”

“Are you surprised?” I stopped and turned back. “My next project is lined up. Schedules are booked, and we start shooting next week. Why wouldn’t I go back?”

She looked at a loss and then sputtered out, crossing her arms over chest. “You run everything by me first.”

I shook my head. “I run everything work-related by you first. My going back now, going early, isn’t business. It’s personal.”

“But—”

I waited for her to finish her thought, and then I waited some more. Eventually, I raised an eyebrow. “Yeah?”

“I don’t think you should be attached to Morgan Kellerman.”

Ah. There it was.

Gayle hadn’t said much on the topic in the beginning, but it’d been two months since we left. Finn connected Morgan and I on the phone a few times, but it wasn’t enough. I knew about the bikers who spotted her on the hill. I knew the press had been pushing to get more shots of her. I knew they had to install a gate at the end of the driveway, but I knew the rumors hadn’t gone away. They only intensified. There were reporters, bloggers, and radio hosts all vying to get information. I told myself I should stay away to keep the attention away from her as much as possible, but the fact that I hadn’t been at Morgan’s side these last two months astonished even myself.

I was supposed to be there, not here.

I sighed, turning back to my packing. “I’m doing the superhero movie.”

“That isn’t what this is about.” She came to my side. “Please, Brody. Think about this.”

“What’s the issue?”

“It’s her.” She flung a hand toward me. “It’s you. Forget this media storm that you tried to stop. It’s coming. I told you that before we left the estate, and I stand by my feelings. Matthew Kellerman wanted this. I guarantee it.”

“It doesn’t matter anymore. It’s happening. I’m going back. I’m doing the movie, we are going to finish shooting, and then I’m going to New Zealand for the next project.”

“And then to Iceland for the project after that.”

They hadn’t booked me for just one superhero movie. They hired me for two. It was what every actor dreamed of landing. The franchise was a moneymaker, and it would ensure my career for years.

I was going to do it. And I was happy about it. But I couldn’t ignore the bittersweetness of it all.

As if sensing my thoughts, Gayle murmured, “She’ll never go with you. She’ll never leave those horses or those mountains.”

“I’ll bring her horse.”

She snorted. “You’ll bring a mustang with you to every place you shoot?” She chided me softly. “It would be traumatic for the horse and the girl, and you know it.”

“What do you want me to do, Gayle?” I clipped out.

“I want you to go to Montana. I want you to find her, be with her. I want you to love her because you already do, and when you’re done with Unbroke, I want you to get on that plane for New Zealand, and I want you to forget her.”

Forget her.

Forget someone I loved, but I hadn’t said the words to her.

I’d been apart from her and had been aching every minute of the day because she wasn’t by my side.

“That’s easy,” I murmured back.

She looked relieved.

“It’s just like losing Kyle all over again, only worse.”

She tensed, her eyes closing.

“She’s in me already, Gayle. I forget her, and that means I rip a part of myself out when I go.”

I scanned my room. I was mostly packed. Grabbing the last of my things, I put them in the bag, slung it over my shoulder, and then grabbed a baseball hat and sunglasses. It wasn’t a great camouflage, but I’d be in first class, so I just had to make it through the airport.

“You’ll send the rest of my stuff? What I’ll need for the movie?”

She nodded, her head hanging low. “Yeah. I will.”

She had a key to my home. She used it when I wasn’t there, and I did trust her, but I placed my hand on her shoulder when the doorbell rang again. That was the driver.

I squeezed her shoulder lightly. “I came back to L.A. to find peace about Kyle’s death. I met with Cheryl, and I did that. I stayed because I knew you needed me here for all of the meetings.” But those were done. I bent and brushed a kiss to her cheek. “I’ll see you in a week.”