One To Watch(119)

Bea’s pulse sped up—was he here after all? She looked wildly toward the stage door, thinking of how good it would feel to hold him, to tell him that, after all of this, he was the only one she wanted.

“I’m sorry to tell you that Asher declined our invitation to be here.”

“Oh.” Bea’s voice caught in her throat, and she couldn’t say anything more.

“But we do have a surprise guest—a certain celebrity who’s made it quite public that he’s interested in making your acquaintance. From the new film Lieutenant Luxembourg: Blast from the Past, please welcome Chris Evans!”

As a movie star made his way to the stage to give her a friendly hug hello, Bea swallowed her hurt over Asher and tried to stay in the moment, to marvel at the absurdity of her life. To think that less than a year ago, she was lying in bed, counting the days until Ray would be visiting for the Fourth of July, and now here she was, on live television, exchanging niceties with a Hollywood superhero because some publicist or executive had thought it would help sell movie tickets.

Or maybe, Bea stopped to remind herself, he actually was interested in dating her. As she gazed into his dreamy blue eyes, she couldn’t rule it out completely.



Three thousand miles away, in a cozy rental house utterly buried in mess and half-packed moving boxes, Gwen and Linus sat rapt in front of the TV.

“Dad!” Linus screamed. “Will you please come in here for one minute?? It’s IMPORTANT.”

Asher rushed in from the kitchen, packing tape still in hand.

“What is it, buddy? Is everything okay?”

“We need you to see something,” Gwen said matter-of-factly, but when Asher saw whose face was on the TV, he turned quickly on his heel.

“Come on, guys, we’ve been through this. No Main Squeeze stuff, okay?”

“But Dad, they ASKED her about you,” Linus emphasized. “She was so, so sad you weren’t there.”

“I’m sure you’re exaggerating,” Asher clipped. But looking at the screen, he noted that Bea did seem upset, even as she chatted with a handsome man Asher vaguely recognized as a popular film actor.

“Linus isn’t exaggerating,” Gwen responded. “No one in history has been that disappointed to see Chris Evans.”

“I don’t know,” Asher mumbled, but Linus broke in.

“Dad, it’s not even debatable. She loves you!” He leapt off the couch, wearing a bright-red T-shirt he’d fastidiously bedazzled with fringe and sparkles.

“Guys, give me a break,” Asher pleaded. “It’s complicated.”

Gwen turned off the television and gave her father a knowing stare. “You’re the one who told us to be open-minded about how much Bea could change our lives for the better, even if it felt scary. Did that advice only apply when it felt scary to us? Are you too afraid to take a risk in order to be happy?”

“Why are you so invested in this?” Asher asked, sinking onto the couch. “Aren’t we happy already, just the three of us?”

Linus climbed onto the couch and curled up beside his father.

“But Dad, you’re not happy. You haven’t been happy since you came home.”

“That’s not true,” Asher protested, his voice breaking ever so slightly. “Being with you two makes me happy every day.”

Gwen sat down on Asher’s other side. “Dad, come on. It’s obvious how much you miss her.”

Asher appraised his daughter. “You’re a little terrifying, you know that?”

“Just promise us you’ll think about it, okay?” Gwen pressed.

“I promise,” Asher said. “But for now, I’m tired of thinking—and packing. You guys want to watch a movie?”

“It’s my turn to pick!” Linus jumped up. “Can we watch Bringing Up Baby?”

“Dad said we can’t watch that anymore,” Gwen chided.

Asher paused for a moment. “I think it might be okay tonight.”

Gwen opened her mouth to say more—but then thought better of it and grabbed the remote instead.

“Can we make microwave popcorn?” she asked.

“I’m on it.” Asher got up to grab a bag. Once he was out of earshot, Gwen grabbed Linus to whisper in his ear.

“It’s gonna happen,” she said.

Linus’s eyes got wide. “What is?”

Just like her father, Gwen’s lips twitched into a barely perceptible grin.

“Everything we wanted.”



Once the reunion show was done, Bea was really and truly finished with her responsibilities for Main Squeeze—sure, there were a couple of interviews left to give, and she’d have to appear on a red carpet from time to time, but for all intents and purposes, it was time to go back to her real life, and she was absolutely thrilled. A few days after the reunion show, Bea realized she had an entire day with nothing on her calendar, so she decided to treat herself to an L.A. day of fun. She put on a breezy Mary Katrantzou sundress in a Technicolor mess of floral patterns and drove around aimlessly in Kermit the Car—top down, breeze in her hair, Taylor Swift turned all the way up.

Before she really realized where she was driving, she found herself heading west on Wilshire, and after a few minutes, the rows of LACMA lanterns came into view.