Just To Be With You

“No, I’m ready to go.”

Tatiana reached for the printout of the two scenes Smith had emailed her, and when Serena didn’t take one out, too, started to hand her the extra copy she’d made.

“Oh no, Serena doesn’t need that. She has it memorized, don’t you, sweetie?”

Working hard to push her irritation away at the way Genevieve kept speaking for her daughter, Tatiana said, “Great. So, why don’t we—”

Her doorbell rang again and she stopped in the middle of her sentence. She gave the two women sitting on her couch an apologetic smile. “I wasn’t expecting anyone, but if you’ll just give me a second, I’ll find out what they need.” Who could be coming to see her now that Serena and her mother were here? More than that, who even had her Seattle address apart from her family and manager?

Through the peephole, the sight of Ian standing outside her front door was the very last thing she’d expected...and the very, very best.

She flung open the door, grinning like a fool. A lovesick one. “Good morning!”

But he didn’t say a word or smile back at her. His gaze ran over her from head to toe, as if he needed to make sure she was really standing there in front of him. He was beautiful as always in his suit, but when she looked closer, she realized he wasn’t quite as pressed and perfect as always. In fact, from the windblown look of his dark hair and the scuffs on his usually polished shoes, it looked like he’d jogged to her condo from his office. Which was totally crazy, because why would he do something like that? Especially after the way he’d shut her out the previous afternoon.

“Ian, what’s wrong?”

“Why weren’t you at the office today?”

“I had a meeting this morning, remember? I told you yesterday that Smith called and—” She grimaced. “I didn’t tell you, did I?” Her grimace turned into a full-blown groan. “Sorry, he texted me during one of your meetings, and I meant to tell you afterward, but with everything that happened yesterday, I obviously forgot.”

It occurred to her, suddenly, that Ian was probably missing a whole host of really important meetings to come and track her down. “You came all this way to find out why I didn’t show. Why didn’t you just call my cell?” Maybe, just maybe, it was because he cared more about her than he wanted to admit?

He reached into his pocket...and pulled out her phone. “You left it on the couch in my office. Actually, it was inside the couch by the time I found it.”

Oh, so that was why he’d blown off work to come to her house—he hadn’t been able to reach her by phone. “Thanks.” She knew her voice sounded a heck of a lot flatter than it had just a few seconds ago, but it was the best she could do at the moment. “I was wondering where I’d put it.”

But when she reached for it and he put it into her hand, he closed his fingers over hers and didn’t let go. She looked up at him in surprise, and what she saw in his eyes had her breath catching in her throat.

“I was worried about you, Tatiana.” She watched him war with himself for a few seconds before he finally said, “Yesterday, I didn’t deal well with the situation in my office. Not with any of it. And especially not with you.”

Oh my. He had melted her heart from the very start, even though he’d been working so hard the entire time to keep his distance. But now that he was finally speaking to her straight from his heart, without any walls up, she realized just how much harder—and farther—she’d fallen for him than she’d been aware of.

Tatiana had never been in love before. But as she stood with her hand in Ian’s and his dark eyes holding hers with such intensity, she now knew with perfect clarity that she was all the way there.

“Ian,” she began, just as Genevieve’s voice sounding from the living room behind her reminded her that they weren’t alone.

“You’re busy,” he said as he started to pull his hand back. “I’ll let you go.”

“Please, stay.” She kept his hand in hers, knowing instinctively that once he went back to the office, all of his walls would build back up, and likely be even more impenetrable. Thinking fast, and talking even faster, she said, “Since you’re already here, I’m sure Smith would love your opinion on this read-through, too. In fact, I know he’d be thrilled to have a third party here who can look at things totally objectively.” Realizing he had no idea what she was talking about, she dropped her voice so it wouldn’t carry to the women sitting in her living room. “Serena Britten is a really well-known model who auditioned for a part in one of Smith’s new movies. He thinks she’s good, but working with models can be...” How could she put it nicely?

“A pain in the ass?”

Tatiana remembered what she’d learned online when she’d looked up Ian all those months ago—that Chelsea had been a model. She paused, before nodding. “Yes, that’s why he wanted to get my opinion.”

“Only about her acting skills?”

“Mostly that, but also how I think she’ll do in the mix in rehearsals and on set. I haven’t seen her act yet, but I like her. And it would really help if you’d be willing to watch us run through two short scenes and give your opinion, as well.”

His phone rang then, the specific tone that meant it was Bethany calling. Finally pulling his hand from Tatiana’s, he answered it. “Yes, she’s at home, and she’s fine.” He listened to something his assistant said, then asked Tatiana, “How short are the scenes you’d like me to watch?”