Forcing Gravity (18 page)

Yeah, and they’re asking you about it on national TV.
How annoying is that?

“I can understand that,” I said sympathetically
, instead of blurting out what I actually wanted to say
.

His break-up had been
as public as his relationship had been. From what the rags said, he esse
ntially found out Chloe
was cheating on him when
Ce
lebrity Weekly
p
ut pictures of her and
the guy she was with on
the front cover. That’s got to
be a pretty crappy w
ay to f
ind out your significant other
is being unfaithful
.

“You can
understand
?”
he asked, and it wasn’t that he thought it was so appalling
that I felt that
way,
it was more like h
e seemed genuinely curious.

“
Yeah.
I was tabloid fodder for a few weeks this summer, so I
kind of
get it.”

He raised his eyebrow.
“Oh yeah?
What did you do?”

I cou
ld tell he was surprised by that
information which meant he didn’t read the gossip rags. Hell, he probably didn’t even go places where they were sold. He
ll, he
probably had an assistant who shopped for his groceries and toiletries. It was what my mom did, so she never actually had to interact with the masses.

“I supposedly dated Garrett Lewis.”

“But you didn’t
,
”
he clarified.

I shook my head.
I’d already told him that,
and it was nice to see that he
remembered
. “We’re just good friends, but
the media thought otherwise, so
I would imagine if I was seen out with another celebrity, I might be labeled a star-whore, and I really don’t need that reputation right now in my life.”

“Maybe when you’re older?” he asked, and I liked that he could play along with my sarcasm. Not everyone could do that
. I also liked that he
didn’t assume I was a star-fucker
, because I really wasn’t.

“Yeah, I’m guessing when I’m about thirty-five I’ll want that label, but right now it just won’t work for me.”

He laughed. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

“So
what’s your house like
?” I asked, realizing I knew very little about him tha
t wasn’t superficial. He likes r
anch dressing
and French fries dipped in gravy
.

I was honestly fishing with my question. You could tell a lot about a person by the house they lived in, especially when they had enough disposable income to live in any kind of house they wanted. I was curious.

He smiled.
“I
found this little bungalow last
year that I
liked, so I bought it.
I actually had to spend about six months remodeling
it
, so I haven’t lived there long
, but I love it
. It
’s really private and is probably the first place in a while that has felt like home to me, and it
has a view of the Hollywood sign, which is
totally
cool.
”

“If you’re a tourist,” I said sarcastically.

Dammit.
Me and my sharp tongue again.

“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” Jase
said, but I could tell he really thought having a view of the sign was cool, and I
felt bad for making fun of him.

“I’m just kidding,” I said
, attempting to recover from my bitchy slight
. “I think a view of the sign is pretty cool.”

“No, you don’t,” he said, seeing right through me. He grinned, which put me at ease. Even if we didn’t agree, there were no hard feelings.

As
we
drove up th
e winding road to his house,
it was too dark to see much. There were a lot of trees, and some houses mixed in, but that was it. His house was actually tucked back off the road, so it wasn’t easy to spot.
He’d said it was private, and
I had to assume that was intentional.

Jase p
ulled into his driveway next to a tan Range Rover
and a green Jeep Wrangler.

“Do you have company?” I asked, looking over at the car
s
.
             

He shook his head. “No, they’re both
mine. I also have a vintage Mustang in the garage.”

I did remember reading that he liked
vintage cars. My dad would love
that about him.

“You’re
twenty
, right?”
I clarified.

“I will be until November
eighteenth
.”

I shook my head, still trying to wrap it around
Jase’s
life. He ha
d a house and four
cars, and he wasn’t even old enough to legally drink. I mean, between my parents, I’d grown up with money, but my dad had been so down-to-earth that you wouldn’t have known. Before my mom got me my BMW, I drove a used Toyota Camry. My dad thought it was important to teach me about the value of money, and I couldn’t agree more.
Case and point, my little sister.
But Jase hadn’t gotten these things from his parents. He’d purchased them on his own. It was pretty incredible when you thought about it.
He’d already achieved so much success in his life.

We got out and walked inside, and I suddenly felt incredibly nervous about going into a boy’s house alone with him – especially a boy who
had
as much experience as Jase B
rady. But once we got inside the
front door, all thoughts of his potential seduction tactics flew out the window. I wasn’t sure if
I
had expected
to see
rose pedals lining a path to the bedroom or hundreds of candles lit in the entryway, but there were none of those things. In fact, his house looked pretty normal
and extremely well-decorated. I’d bet money
he’d hired some renowned
designer to pimp his house, because no guy
I knew would have a house that
chic and trendy. Straight men just didn’t think like that.

When he took me on the grand tour, he showed me the kitchen that he said he hardly ever used,
although it was stocked with every top of the line gadget, tool
,
and appliance that a master chef would need.
I had a feeling he was being modest and wondered if he might cook for me one day.

Then we walked through the large open living and dining rooms to
what he called his favorite room in his house. It was an interior room with the biggest projection screen I’d seen outside of the one my mother had built in our house when
Luiz
lived with us. There were couches lined up in a
modified stadium seating arrangement.

“This is my TV room,” he said, and I couldn’t hold back a laugh.
It was one hel
l of a
‘
TV room
’
to say the least, especially since it
could seat
at least fifteen
people comfortably.

“Do you have anything good to watch?” I asked, as I wandered into the room.

I turned around to look at Jase, and he
was leaning against the door jam
, eyeing me with a hint of a smile on his lips.

“Not much,” he said, gesturing to the
floor to ceiling shelves at the back of the room. I hadn’t noticed
them
when we’d walked in, but he had quite possibly every movie ever made at his disposal.

I walked up the
carpeted
stairs to the back of the room and stood in awe at the number of titles.

“This is incredible,” I said,
running my hand along some of
the movies
that were in front of where I stood
, including some that
Luiz
had produced while he’d been married to my mother
. I turned around to look back at Jase
, only to find that he was right behind me. I hadn’t heard him follow me.

“I’m a little bit of a collector,” he said sheepishly.

I bit my lip. “Where are your movies?”

I wondered if he was one of those actors who hated to watch
himself
or if he was like my mother who loved watching her performances. Actually, Jase struck me was the kind of guy who would watch his movies like athletes watch
game tapes. He would do it critically to improve his craft.

Jase
gestured to the bo
ttom right corner closest to us, and
I crouched down and appraised the titles. Some I’d seen and other
s
I hadn’t ever heard of, but I noticed there were movies dating back at least fifteen years.
I was surprised to see two movies that I’d watched as a child that I hadn’t known he’d been in. I found myself wondering which parts he’d played.

“When did you start acting?” I asked, looking up at him.

He’d settled on to the arm of the couch closest to us. “I was three when I did my first commercial, and when I was five I got my first bit part in a major motion picture. I also did some made-for-TV stuff while I was growing up.”

“You’re like a big time movie star,” I said, t
rying to wrap my head around that
concept yet again.

Yes, I had just seen him
interview
ed
on TV, but it was so easy for me to separate Jason Brady, the actor, from Jase Brady, the guy I was on a date with.

Jase looked uncomfortable
, and I wondered if he preferred me to keep the two guys separate
.

“I guess,” he said, as he put his hand out for me to take. When I did, he pulled me to my feet. “Let me show you the rest of the house.”

He was so close that I could feel his warm breath on my cheek, and I half-expected him to kiss me, but he didn’t, and I couldn’t figure out why. We were in a dark room with several couches. Most guys would make a move.

Jase didn’t, but he kept hold of my hand as we walked out of his media room
and over
to the
other
side of the house where the bedroom
s were. He had
a guest bedroom
and a
weight room that we briefly saw before we paused in the doorway to his
bed
room. I felt his arms go around me
from behind, and his lips land
on my neck, making me shiver. Then I tensed up, and I wasn’t sure why.

Maybe it was seeing the king size mahogany
sleigh
bed
, or maybe it was just the proximity to a guy I found incredibly s
exy, but I was suddenly on edge
, and I think Jase could tell.

“A lot of magic has happened in this room,” he murmured in my ear, and I spun in arms to find him grinning from ear to ear. It was a smile I had yet to see from him, and it caught me off-guard after what he’d just said. I opened my mouth to say something, but he just laughed. “I’m totally kidding. Come on. Are you hungry?”

I nodded, not sure what had just happened.
I felt a little dizzy.

Jase led
me outside t
o his deck that overlooked the Hollywood H
ills. Tall trees provided a good deal of privacy, but I could see the pitches of
the
roofs of
the
nearby neighbors
’
houses
here and there
, so I knew we weren’t necessarily as concealed as it seemed
.
Then, off in the distance was
the Hollywood s
ign, and it was a pretty cool sight to see
it
from that angle,
even
I had to admit.

“Is this okay?” he asked, gesturing to a low table he’d set up on the middle of the deck. There were
large
pillows on the floor for us to sit on, and all over the table were covered plates and tiny tea light candles
in all different colors
.

“How did you do this?” I asked.

He’d picked me up almost forty-five minutes earlier, and he’d had to have left even earlier to get to my dorm on time.

He smiled sheepishly again. “My assistant,
Gary
, took care of it. He left about five minutes before we got here.”