Starstruck - Book Four by Gemma Brooks

sounds and
people starting their day was a sad replacement for the chirping birds and
waterfall sounds of Hudson’s back yard.
     
    As I took a seat on one of the balcony chairs, I couldn’t
get comfortable. I leaned from side to side and repositioned myself before
realizing my phone was in my back pocket. I whipped it out, trying to talk
myself out of checking for messages, but I couldn’t not look. It was right
there. On the screen. Eleven missed calls and seven text messages all from
Hudson.
     
    I smiled, though I shouldn’t have. I needed to move on. I
needed to close that chapter. I could never be with a man who wasn’t completely
honest with me, no matter how wonderful he treated me. Nice cars, fancy
clothes, and extravagant dinners were no substitute for the things that made a
relationship solid. Things like honesty, fortitude, and openness – those were
the things that were worth their weight in gold.
     
    “Hey, what are you doing out here?” It was Alec. He looked
adorable in his silky pajamas and his messy bedhead hair. He slipped some black
sunglasses over his squinty eyes. “I didn’t see you on the couch when I got up.
Thought for a minute you went back to Hudson.”
     
    “No,” I laughed. “Still here…”
     
    “When are you going to go get your things?” he asked as he
took a seat next to me.
     
    I half expected him to hand me a mug of tea or something.
I’d been spoiled. And I chided myself for forgetting my roots. I was so used to
being waited on hand and foot. It wouldn’t be long before that lifestyle would
be a distant memory. A small blip on my timeline.
     
    “All those things,” I said. “They don’t belong to me. He
bought them. I don’t have anything over there that’s really even mine.”
     
    “He bought them for you,” Alec argued. “Therefor they are
yours.”
     
    “I don’t want to see him,” I said. “Not yet. He’s just going
to talk me into staying.”
     
    “Stay strong, sister,” he said with a playful nudge. “Get
your things and get going. Don’t stay and chat.”
     
    “Yeah,” I said. I didn’t see that scenario being that easy
though. I was always powerless around Hudson. Those lips. Those eyes. Those
hands. His words. He was my kryptonite.
     
    “Can you do me a favor?” Alec asked.
     
    “Of course. Anything.”
     
    “Please don’t tell him I took you in,” he said. “I really
don’t want to lose him as a client.”
     
    “He knows you’re, like, the only friend I have out here,” I
said. “He’s not dumb. He’ll figure it out.”
     
    Alec’s shoulders drooped.
     
    “He’s not going to sabotage your career if that’s what
you’re worried about,” I said. “He’s not a vindictive person. He’s not Ava.”
     
    Alec shuddered. “Her name literally gives me the chills.
She’s such an icy cold bitch.”
     
    I laughed and leaned my head against his shoulder.
     
    “I guess I should head over there and get it over with.” I
stood up and stretched. My heart pounded at the mere thought of seeing him
again. Alec was right though. I had to be strong. I had to stand my ground with
him.
     
                                                                  
***
     
    The hot leather of the white Mercedes nearly burned my skin
as I headed back towards Brentwood. From stoplight to stoplight, I touched up
my makeup and slicked my hair up into a messy top knot. I chewed gum like it
was my job. I knew I looked a hot mess.
     
    Nervousness and anxiety flooded through me as I approached
his street and pulled into his driveway. I pulled up to the key code box and
punched in the code. Nothing. I tried it again. Nothing. It hadn’t even been
half a day and Hudson had already changed the code to the gate and locked me
out of the house.
     
    It seemed so unlike him. Hudson was usually so benign. Part
of me assumed he still wanted me back, so it didn’t make sense that he’d