Finding Chris Evans: The Hollywood Edition (10 page)

Marty was still talking. “Don’t worry—I have Aubry carry your passport just in case—”

“Marty.” The hard tone of his voice cut his manager off mid-sentence. “I’m not flying to New York without Trina.”

Marty’s expression set like concrete. “I thought we took care of this—”

“
We
didn’t take care of this and
we
are not going to. She’s the mother of my child. I’m pretty sure she’s also the love of my life, so you’re going to need to do something for me if you want to keep being my manager. Butt out. Don’t bother her, don’t talk about her and you sure as hell better never try to keep her away from me again. Or we will be done. You’re an amazing manager and I am grateful for everything you’ve done to get me to this point—but if I’m choosing between my family and my career, my career is going to lose. So you don’t want me to have to choose. Trina’s going to be my family whether she wants more with me or not, but I want her to want more and I’m not going to wait until it’s convenient for my career to ask her for it. So you have two options. You get onboard or you get the hell out. You can manage my career, but I manage my life from here on out. And she stays. So you either get her a ticket to New York with us, or you reschedule those morning shows, because I’m not going without her.”

He didn’t wait to see Marty’s reaction. It didn’t matter. His manager would either get with the program or he would get lost. Right now all that mattered was Trina.

Chris jogged back toward the drop-off area, hoping she would be there, but already fishing his phone out of his pocket and pulling up her number—now that he had it again.

But when he burst out onto the sidewalk, like a miracle her car was still there. Right where he’d left her.

“Trina!”

He raced around the front of the car, willing to throw his body in front of a moving vehicle if she tried to drive off without him, catching sight of her stunned face through the windshield—then he was opening the driver’s side door and she was gaping up at him, swiping at the moisture on her cheeks—moisture that made his heart leap up into his throat and scratch at it with angry claws.

“God, baby, don’t cry.”

“I wasn’t,” she insisted, frowning up at him irritably. “What are you doing? Did you forget something?”

“Yes.” He took her hand, tugging her out of the car and to her feet. “You.”

“Me?” her voice cracked softly.

“I love you.” Piercing relief met the words, like he’d been waiting to say them for a lifetime. A car honked at them and he pulled her out of the street and up onto the sidewalk, taking both her hands and spinning her to face him. “You make me feel real and alive in a way I haven’t felt in far too long. I don’t want to just be your coparent. I want to be your family. I want to be there for you. And to have you be there for me. No more Marty in the middle. Just you and me.” His gaze flicked to her belly. “And the little addition. If it’s you or my career, then it’s you. But if you’re willing, I want to try to have both—and I want you to remind me every day what’s really important. Because it isn’t the fame or the success. It’s us. It’s having someone who makes every day brighter. You can come with me to New York or I can go with you to Chicago, but I’m not walking away this time. I think I fell in love with you the second I saw you in that alley in Chicago and I want to spend the rest of my life loving you, Katrina Marie Mitchell.”

She stared up at him, her jaw loose, her lashes clumped together with the tears she’d refused to acknowledge.

A bolt of uncertainty streaked through him at her silence, his heart rate accelerating until he wasn’t sure whether he was about to have a heart attack or a panic attack. “If that’s what you want.”

If that’s what you want…

Christian Taylor Evans was standing in front of her offering her forever with an adorably uncertain expression on his face. As if she would say no. As if some part of her heart hadn’t been begging for this moment since the first time he smiled at her.

It was everything she wanted---the scope of it so massive she felt like her body wasn’t big enough to contain this much emotion—and suddenly there were tears hovering on her eyelashes again, but they were happy tears, spilling over onto her cheeks until she realized Chris was still holding his breath.

“Yes,” she whispered.

Relief washed over his face, chased by a huge grin. “Yes?”

“That is what I want.
You
are what I want.” She took a deep breath, letting it out on a relieved puff of air. “Thinking of you flying away again just about broke my heart. I want
us
, Chris.”

He lifted a hand to her face, cupping her jaw. “I want that too.”

“I was so alone before I met you. And then everything changed. I think I fell in love with you that first night too. You weren’t part of my plan, but life doesn’t go according to plan, no matter how much I might want it to and with you, for the first time, I feel like the unexpected is even better than I could have planned for.”

“My life is crazy,” he warned her. “Lots of travel, people recognizing me and feeling like they have a claim on me because they know me from TV. It’ll spill over onto you, but I’m selfish and I still want you in my life even if it’s going to be nuts.”

“Just promise me you’ll still be my Chicago Chris. Promise me you won’t let Hollywood swallow you up.”

“Never. And if I do, I fully expect you to kick my ass back into line.”

Tears welled again and she swiped at them. “I was afraid you didn’t want more. That we were just that one night—”

“That night was fate.” He grinned. “And I want forever.”

“Me too.” Maybe they could really make it. A sudden thought made her grin. “Really, we owe it to Ellie to try, since she had to dodge security to give us a chance.”

“I’ll build her a house.”

A laugh bubbled out of her, and he grinned as if lost in the sound. “Maybe we can just take her out to dinner.” She looped her arms around his neck. “Do you really mean it? The love thing?”

“I don’t think I’ve ever been so certain in my life.”

She went up on her tiptoes. “Chris?”

“Yes?”

“Why haven’t you kissed me yet?”

That lopsided grin flashed as he lowered his head the last few inches. “You’ll have to be patient with me. I’m a little slow to notice the opportunities right in front of me.”

She had a pithy comeback on the tip of her tongue, but he caught her mouth before she could say it and dedicated himself to making her forget it—and forget any moment before this one when either of them had felt anything but perfectly
home
.

When he finally lifted his head, all she could do was smile up at the man of her dreams. Fate, luck, random coincidence—whatever force had brought them together, she was going to hang on tight. Nothing would ever separate them again. “I hope Ellie finds her Chris Evans, because I’m never planning to let mine go.”

He grinned. “Now
that
is a plan I like the sound of.”

She went up on her toes, lost to her surroundings, forgetting all about flights and managers, morning talk shows and med school—even the Little Plus Sign of Doom. They would have their addition soon enough. But in this moment the only thing that mattered was the man lowering his mouth to hers and the adventure of spending the rest of her life in his arms. She couldn’t ask for more.

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Finding Chris Evans: The Hotshot Edition

Finding Chris Evans:
The Hotshot Edition
By Jennifer Bernard

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Chapter One

Sisters
.
Grrr.

As the knocking came again, Jenna groaned and buried her face in her pillow. She’d know that knock anywhere. That knock meant, “Wake up, Jenna, it’s Ellie, and I have to talk to you
right now
so get your butt out of bed and if bribery is required. I promise I’ll buy you breakfast.”

Hmm.
Breakfast
. If Ellie wanted to take her out for breakfast, that was a whole different story. Jenna never turned down breakfast; it was her favorite meal of the day. She opened one eye and considered her options. Smother herself with her own pillow while drowning out the sound of Ellie’s knocking. Or allow her big sister to treat her to pancakes.

Fine.
Maple syrup wins.

She rolled out of bed and marched to the front door of her studio apartment. Ellie, her annoyingly tall, blond and gorgeous sister, burst through the door as soon as Jenna undid the latch. She brandished a newspaper in one hand. “Jenna, the time has come. We’re taking your car for a spin.”

Jenna blinked at her sister. Just recently, she’d acquired a used red Cabriolet. But driving it was another matter. She still hadn’t managed that, and Ellie knew exactly what was holding her back. “What about breakfast?”

“Breakfast? Did we have breakfast plans?”

“No, but…” Was Ellie really going to make her do this? Jenna rubbed the sleep out her eyes. “Sorry, I was asleep until a minute ago. I was dreaming about…” She frowned, trying to remember. “The Avengers?”

“See? It’s a sign. Here. Take this, I’ll make the coffee.” Ellie handed her the newspaper and dashed past her toward the little kitchenette, in which the coffeemaker was pretty much the only appliance Jenna ever used. “Hurry up and get dressed. We don’t have much time; it’s a forty-five minute drive.”

Moving at double speed, she dumped coffee grounds from a can of Folgers into the filter and filled the carafe.

“Whoa whoa whoa. Can you just, maybe, back up and explain what’s going on?”

“Well…” Ellie busied herself with the coffeemaker, her back turned to Jenna. “I found another Chris Evans.”

“Ellie, you can’t be serious!” Jenna rolled her eyes, wishing she’d stayed in bed after all. “I can’t believe you’re still thinking about that stupid fortune teller!”

At the Haralson Fall Festival, , some lady with a crystal ball had told Ellie that she was going to marry a man named Chris Evans. Since then, Ellie had been googling up a storm, hoping to track down her “soul mate.” At first Jenna had gone along with the joke—she wouldn’t mind being a movie star’s sister-in-law. But Ellie wasn’t joking. She had a romantic streak a mile wide.

Jenna’s romantic streak was more like an ultra-thin line of invisible ink.

Okay, maybe she
used
to be a romantic, back when she wrote a letter every week to her pen pal and secret crush.

“There’s no harm in checking it out,” Ellie said stubbornly. As the coffee dripped, she leaned against the counter and folded her arms across her chest. “Read the article.”

Jenna sighed and opened the newspaper. The headline —circled in yellow highlighter—read, “Town Thanks Wildfire Crew.”

She read aloud. “After over a week of intensive efforts by firefighters from as far away as California and Arizona, the huge wildfire threatening Southwestern Minnesota has finally been contained. The town of Elmer, whose fairgrounds served as the Incident Command Center for hundreds of firefighters, is showing its gratitude today. A pancake breakfast will take place at the Lakeside Diner on Route 24, from six to ten. Pete Blake, the diner’s owner, says, ‘The whole town donated to make this happen. We want to do something for all the firefighters who came here and risked their lives. The least we can do is give them a free breakfast before they go home.’ The firefighters say they’re honored. Chris Evans, a member of an interagency hotshot crew from Jupiter Point, California, says, ‘This is our job and we love what we do, but of course we never turn down breakfast.’”