“I know it’s none of my business but I couldn’t help but notice the chemistry between you and Rian. Is there something going on between you two?”
CoCo hesitated. They weren’t going to tell anyone about their relationship—if you could call it that—but CoCo really could use some perspective and decided to be honest. “Rian is going to kill me but, yeah, we are kind of seeing each other. But it’s completely complicated. And we plan to break it off as soon as we return to Los Angeles.”
Laci digested the information and then said, “I know it seems like it should be easy to break things off when things started off casually but I can tell you right now the chemistry between you two is hot enough to burn. It’s going to be really difficult to say goodbye. Have you thought about that?”
CoCo had not been able to think of anything else. She nodded, biting her lip, and said, “I didn’t plan on having feelings for Rian. I don’t know how to continue what we have once we return to our worlds. The fact is, there’s no way Rian would fit in my world and I don’t fit in his so it seems best to end things before it gets messy.”
Laci nodded. “That would be the smart thing. But if I know anything, it’s that the heart never cooperates with the brain. Let me tell you a little bit about me and Kane. My daddy thought that Kane would stand in the way of my career so he convinced Kane to turn me loose and in doing so broke my heart. Sure, I recovered, but I never forgot about him, and when we saw each other again it was as if time had never passed. Our chemistry was just as undeniable as it ever was and it was like a flame to a powder keg. There were plenty of reasons why our relationship wasn’t going to work. But try telling that to our hearts. In the end, the heart wants what it wants and you just have to find a way to make it work. That is, if you want Rian.”
The way Laci told the story, it was so romantic but she and Rian weren’t star-crossed lovers who suddenly found themselves again. In fact, the way they hooked up certainly wasn’t a story she’d relish sharing. “I wish it were that simple. The thing is, I’m a different person in Los Angeles than I am here and a part of me misses the wild and crazy life I have, but then a part of me wants to do something different.”
“So be different,” Laci said as if it were that easy to change.
“What if I don’t know how to be different? I don’t want to invite Rian into the mess that is my life and drag him down with it.”
“Oh, it can’t be that bad,” Laci reassured her but CoCo knew better.
“The very first night we met I was having a party at my mom’s Malibu beach house and one of my guests got a little too touchy-feely without my permission. Rian basically tossed him out on his ass. I’m pretty sure he saved me from being assaulted.”
Laci smiled. “That sounds like Rian. He’s a sucker for a woman in distress.”
“Yeah, and I wasn’t very grateful about it, either. I was irritated that he had crashed my party and chased off my guest. You see, I did not actually believe that there was a credible threat and I thought my dad was overreacting by hiring Rian to be my bodyguard. But then I convinced Rian to go out to a club with me and my friend dosed him with a drug and I’m still trying to wrap my brain around the fact that that’s part of my life. I mean, what kind of person doses another human being for their entertainment? Before I met Rian I might never have questioned that.”
“We’ve all made decisions that we’ve regretted, but if you spend so much time looking backward, you’ll never be able to see the great things that are right in front of you,” Laci said with a warm smile. “I really wish Cora were alive so that she could lay some of that country wisdom on you. You’ll just have to settle for me. Here’s the thing, life is complicated. Life is messy. But that’s part of the fun. If everything in life were a straight line, we would never experience the joys and wonder of those hills and valleys. My life has had its share of sorrows but I have been blessed a million times over with happiness. I choose to focus on those good things in my life rather than the dark places that I’ve traveled. You have to figure out which road you want to walk.”