BONUS EPILOGUE
Ryan
One Year Later
Walking into the round-table reading, I grinned when I saw the spot next to Adrianne conveniently left open. I wasn’t nearly as late as I thought I was going to be. There were still three more seats open besides the one meant for me. I made a beeline for it and pulled out the chair. “It’s sweet that you saved me a seat,” I said and sat down.
Adrianne gave me a look that was a mixture of exasperation and fondness-her signature expression for me. “Why do I put up with you?” she asked.
“Ooh, someone didn’t get enough sleep last night.” She wasn’t usually so snarky to start with. I normally had to get in one or two inappropriate comments for her to get there.
“Addie is teething,” she said with a sigh. “She’s been sleeping through the night so well, and now it feels like we’re right back where we were months ago.”
I let out a low whistle. “I do not envy you.”
Adrianne rolled her eyes. “Being a parent is worth some sleepless nights, you jackass.”
I put my hands up in an “unarmed” gesture. “I’m sure it is,” I said. “I’m just not . . . fond of not sleeping.”
She couldn’t argue that one. I knew that the lack of sleep was the hardest thing for her to deal with after she had the baby. Even with three
other parents helping out, Princess Addie was a handful and a half. “How’s Foster and Ethan?”
Adrianne snorted. “They’re doing well. They’re both out on assignments today. Callan’s out in the waiting room.”
I knew that. He’d basically glared a hole in me as I came through. “He still hates me,” I said. “Almost two years of loyal friendship, and your dude seriously still hates me.”
“Find a woman,” she said with a shrug. “He’ll stop thinking you want to sleep with me.”
“I’ve dated other women since we’ve become friends.”
“Oh, please,” she said. “You’ve gone on two actual dates and had I don’t know how many hook-ups. Not exactly ‘finding the love of my life’ type stuff.”
“Just because you found the loves of your life in a security office doesn’t mean I will too,” I hissed at her, keeping my voice low. Adrianne’s love life was something of a secret that everyone knew, but nobody talked about. She never dated anyone and was only ever seen in the company of her ridiculously handsome security team, but she had a baby. The production company didn’t talk about it because they didn’t want anyone to talk about it, but it was the gossip around town.
Not that Adrianne cared. She was truly a happy woman. She loved her guys and their little girl, and her first Falconi movie went so well that they ordered four more. They were creating a cinematic universe just for Dr. Falconi and her adventures. We’d already gotten the second in the can, and this meeting was for the third in the series. As much as I might say that I didn’t envy her, I did. Not only did she have a hugely successful career, but she also had a family that loved her immeasurably. I’d never found anything close to that. King of the One-Night Stands. That was me.
“You never know when you’ll find love,” Adrianne insisted, but I just shrugged her off.
The door to the conference room opened, and the remainder of our cast arrived. Michael Dean and Thiago Herrera joined us in the second movie as Dr. Falconi’s allies and fellow superheroes, and Adrianne had complained throughout that movie that they’d “stolen” me from her, but having male friends who didn’t hate me was nice. We had a weekly poker game at which I thoroughly trounced them . . . most of the time.
The last person through the door was Kai Warner. He and I were best friends growing up, and he’d come out to California to get a job in the tech industry. He had been my unofficial roommate for a few months when I dared him to go to the cattle-call audition for the movie. He walked away with a second audition, and then after a third, he was cast as the big bad, alongside me, for the movie. He sat down on the other side of me, glaring. “You could’ve waited for me this morning, dude,” he grumbled and dug out his script.
“I had a workout at four a. m.,” I said. “Were you getting up?” Kai made a face. “Fuck that.”
Adrianne’s hand shot out across me. “Hi, I’m Adrianne,” she said. “Ryan has told me so much about you.”
He shook her hand. “Likewise,” he said. “Though he failed to mention how hot you are.” Which was an absolute lie. I’d shown him her Insta account.
Her smile went a little cold, and she withdrew her hand. “Thank you, but I’m not interested.”
I snickered, and Kai glanced at me. “Nice going, bro.” “Shut up,” he hissed.
Thiago had taken a seat directly across from Adrianne. Michael sat beside him. “Don’t bother with Adrianne, dude,” Thiago said. “She’s our untouchable Goddess Divine.”
Adrianne rolled her eyes at all of us. “Can we stop commenting on my looks, please?” she asked primly.
We all sat up a little straighter after that. She’d said the magic words. She was a good sport about our teasing for a while, but she had a point where she wasn’t having fun anymore, and she let us know. “Where’s Lee?” Michael asked. “I figured he’d be the first person here. Table reads are like crack to him.”
“He had a meeting with the producer,” one of the PAs said without looking up from her paperwork. “They hired a new PR person, and they wanted to introduce her to him. He should be here soon.”
Lee wasn’t the best when it came to public relations. He would never do anything to hurt a movie that he was directing, but he wasn’t . . . subtle about anything. If he was having trouble with an actor or didn’t like a choice that the production company had made, the world was going to know about it. The only reason he hadn’t been fired was that his movies
were box office gold. The production company had him on the hook for two more Falconi movies, so they had to keep him from running his mouth too much for just a little while longer.
As if by using his name, we’d conjured him, the door opened, and Lee and a woman stepped into the room. “People,” he announced in a tone that was both annoyed and bored, “I have been shackled to another PR person for the duration of this film. She’s here to make sure none of us offend anyone. This is Tinsley Cole.”
Tinsley. Cole.
Someone could have sucker-punched me, and it would have been less of a shock. “Whoa,” Kai said from beside me. “Is that-”
I nodded. “Yeah, that’s Tins.”
Kai and I grew up with Tinsley. She wasn’t a friend, per se, but she was nice to us. She was a part of the “popular” crowd while Kai and I were involved in our school’s theater group. She was on the homecoming court, and we all voted her for prom queen in our senior year. I’d had what could be considered a massive crush on her, but I didn’t tell her about it.
She and I attended the same college and mostly ignored each other until we ran into each other at a party. There had been a lot of flirting and a little drinking, and I took her to bed that night and woke up alone the next morning. She steered clear of me after that, so I assumed she didn’t want a repeat performance.
After so many years of not seeing her, I didn’t know what to expect, but she was just as beautiful now as she was then. Her shock of red hair was longer now than before. She had styled it into careless waves that made her green eyes all the more noticeable. She had on a suit that was tailored to her lush body and a bright red lip that shouldn’t have worked against her paleness and freckles but did anyway. Fucking gorgeous.
Her eyes landed on me, and her smile wobbled slightly. “Ryan,” she breathed out, and her painted lips forming my name sent a zing down my spine. “It’s nice to see you again.”
“Likewise,” I said, grinning, before I reached over and slapped Kai on the shoulder. “You remember this guy?”
Kai shook me off. “No, she doesn’t-”
“Kai!” Her smile warmed considerably. Well, fuck me, I thought. We’re already starting off on the wrong foot. “I remember you as a backstage kind of guy. I had no idea you were interested in acting.”
“I have no interest in it at all,” he said. “Ryan made me audition, and I guess I exude ‘dangerous psychopath’ energy.”
She laughed, and it was a musical sound. “I don’t know about that, but I’m sure you’re wonderful.”
Thiago stood and shook her hand. “It’s lovely to meet you, Ms. Cole,” he said. “I’m Thiago Herrera.” She looked like such a tiny thing compared to him, and a slight flush crept across her cheeks.
“Nice to meet you too,” she said.
Michael followed Thiago, shaking her hand, but he didn’t have near the same smooth confidence. Michael was a quiet guy. In the year that I’d been hanging out with them, he didn’t say much at all, but Thiago told me once that he would do anything for a friend in need.
“I apologize now for Lee,” he said to her. “He’s . . . brash.”
Tinsley’s smile sharpened a little. She glanced back at Lee, who looked for all the world like a boy who’d gotten into trouble with his parents. “I’m sure Mr. Wynne and I will get along just fine,” she said. “Leave it to me.”
Finally, her gaze went to Adrianne, who stood up and went to shake her hand. “Adrianne Montoya,” she introduced. “It’s nice to meet you.”
Tinsley looked a little starstruck. “My son is going to lose it when I tell him that I met Dr. Falconi today,” she said. “He’s such a big fan.”
A son? “Oh, you have a little boy,” Adrianne cooed. “I have a daughter who just turned one.”
Tinsley tsk-ed. “I remember that age,” she said. “Lots of sleepless nights?”
Adrianne groaned. “More than I can count. How old is your boy?”
“He just turned seven,” she said. A seven-year-old son? Without my wanting to, I did the math, and my heart stuttered in my chest. Surely, Tinsley had met and gotten married after the night we shared in college. Surely, that was the explanation. “His name’s Lucas,” she told Adrianne and pulled out a phone to show her a picture.
Adrianne looked at it, and then her eyes shot to me. “He’s handsome,” Adrianne said and came back to her chair when Lee started loudly complaining about getting on with the table read. “He’s really handsome,” she said again.
Fuck, I thought, even as I tried to shake that feeling away. My stomach turned into a knot that would not let go. This could be bad.
Next series coming soon!