Come A Little Bit Closer (The Sullivans #7)(17)

It had been more than a week since he’d sought her out in her office and caught her saying embarrassing things about his hands up her skirt to George on the phone. For the first few days after their conversation, she’d been edgy anticipating how Smith might make his next move.

But as each day passed into the next, she became more and more certain that despite what he’d said about not giving up, in the end he’d decided to take her refusal to date him at face value.

She was happy about it. At least, she tried to be happy about it, if for no other reason than the simple fact that she should be happy his attention had come and gone so quickly. It meant she could relax and keep her focus where it belonged—on her sister—rather than on a man who was too seductive, too damn alluring, for her own good.

An hour later, after double checking that her sister had everything she needed for an Elle fashion shoot the following morning, Valentina yawned behind her hand and headed back to her on-set office to collect her laptop. Tatiana wasn’t the only one who’d be on the beach the next morning at sunrise for the photo shoot. Fortunately, no one would be taking Valentina’s picture, so that meant she could put in a few more hours behind the computer tonight at home without anyone giving her grief about the dark circles under her eyes come morning.

She opened the door to her trailer office and the fresh, delicate scent hit her first.

One perfect lily of the valley was laid across her laptop. The little white flowers that ran up the length of the stem were so beautiful her breath caught in her throat.

There was no note attached...but that didn’t stop her from understanding that she hadn’t been forgotten at all, because she was all but certain that the flower had come directly from the patch in Smith’s front garden.

And judging by the stem’s ragged end and the way a couple of the blooms at the bottom were slightly smushed by big hands, he’d picked it for her himself.

Jo, the heroine of Gravity, had a dream of owning a flower shop, and there was enough of the language of flowers in Smith’s movie for Valentina to know what the meaning of this particular flower was.

Sweetness.

She didn’t bother to try to convince herself that Smith had given her just any random flower. No, she’d spent enough time lying to herself lately, and she was too tired right now to do it yet one more time.

Smith, she knew with a certainty that sent a fragile warmth moving through her chest, knew exactly what he was doing. He could have sent her any message in that language, could have given her a yellow rose for friendship or a pink rose for desire. Even, perhaps, a red-petaled impatiens to signify that he, too, was losing patience.

Instead, he’d given her a flower that spoke to something else entirely, to hopes and dreams she hadn’t ever thought to let become reality.

It would be safer, better in the long run no doubt, to put the flower in the trash and let the overnight cleaning crew take it.

Carefully, Valentina lifted it and inhaled deeply. No one had ever given her a flower before.

And she couldn’t possibly throw away something so beautiful.

Chapter Seven

The next day, after Tatiana’s photo shoot wrapped, Valentina got on a plane to Los Angeles for a meeting with George and the Japanese fragrance company to iron out the final details of her sister’s upcoming trip to Asia.

George had clearly intended to prod her further about Smith, but when he saw that she was too tired to rise to the bait, he dropped it and kept on track with business instead. Four hours flew by and when she rose to pack up her papers and head back to the airport, George put an arm around her as they walked out to the limousine.

“Reports from the set have been fantastic.”

“Tatiana is brilliant in the movie, George. It’s definitely going to be her big breakout role.” She smiled at him. “Get ready to start working even harder.”

“It looks to me like you’re already working too hard.”

“I just didn’t get enough sleep last night,” she countered.

He raised his eyebrows. “Is there something you need to tell me about a certain hot star...and my favorite business manager?”

“Absolutely not!” Valentina said with a little too much heat.

“You’re a terrible liar, you know, Val.”

“I’ve been so careful not to encourage him, but he’s—”

She clamped her mouth shut as she realized, too late, that she’d just confirmed George’s suspicions.

“If you ask me, you most definitely should encourage him. I know I certainly would.”

She was afraid to open her mouth again: who knew what she might admit to this time?

“You did a great job raising Tatiana,” he said softly. “So good that she’s a remarkably kind and steady movie star.” George was one of the few people who knew their family situation. “But now you need to take some time for yourself, too.”

She couldn’t admit just how off-kilter his words made her feel. It wasn’t a sacrifice to manage her sister’s business affairs, not by any stretch of the imagination. Besides, lately her brain had started a disturbing pattern of filling in the few gaps she had with Smith. His laughter, the dark eyes that always seemed to zero in on her in the middle of a crowd, the easy way he had with everyone on set, from the camera operator to the cleaning crew.

“Actually,” she said slowly, “I have been taking some time for myself.” She took a deep breath before saying, “I’ve written a screenplay. And—” Oh, this was harder than she thought it would be. For all that she hadn’t thought she was afraid of rejection, maybe she was. Just a little bit.