in the world but you
– The Tempest
‘Why are we stopping here?’ Kitty looked over at Adam as he steered the car onto a gravelled driveway, then parked in front of a set of steps leading up to a cream stucco bungalow with a red tiled roof. Beyond the house she could see the cerulean blue of the Pacific Ocean, the waves crashing onto a beach that must lie just beyond the back of the building. There were palm trees, too, lining the pathway to the bungalow, and a wraparound deck that was filled with potted plants and cosy chairs.
Adam shrugged,
holding his hand out to her as she climbed out of the passenger side. ‘I just wanted to show it to you.’
‘Aren’t we going to be late?’ she asked, glancing at her watch. It was almost eight. The sun was starting to make its descent into the ocean, flooding the sky with an orange-pink glow. The silhouettes of the palm trees looked beautiful, and the sound of the waves against the shore made it feel all the more peaceful.
‘It’s only ten minutes away,’ Adam reassured her. ‘You won’t be late, I wouldn’t let you be. This is your big moment.’
‘Hardly. It’s a wrap party, but the work for me is only just beginning. We have all the post-production stuff to do. I have to be in the editing suite first thing tomorrow.’
It had been a long few months. Though the majority of the production had taken place on the studio lot, Kitty had spent some time in Mexico with the cast, supervising as the filming took place. It had been too risky for Mat to travel south of the border, so she’d been the one to make sure the story stayed true to his recollection. The two of them had spent hours poring over rushes together.
And now it was coming to an end. It was a strange feeling. Like so many employees in the movie industry, she had no idea what project she’d be working on next. It felt both freeing and anxiety-inducing at the same time.
But she couldn’t hide the fact she was delighted to be finally spending some quality time with Adam. She couldn’t wait to wake up with him in the morning without having to rush out to a dawn shoot, or make phone calls over breakfast to locate an errant cast member.
‘You want to come inside?’ he asked her, pulling at her hand as she followed him up the steps to the front door. She frowned as he pulled out a key, sliding it into the lock and pushing the door open to reveal an open-plan living area. It was cosy, with warm wooden floors and white painted walls, filled with furniture that looked lived-in. So different to some of the places she’d been in during her time in LA, where the houses looked more like museum pieces than places to live.
‘Who owns it?’ She looked over to the other side of the room, where floor-to-ceiling glass doors revealed a large wooden deck. Beyond it was the beach – pale sand that stretched out for a good thirty feet to the ocean. It was so beautiful it took her breath away.
‘We do.’ He stopped in front of her, looking down at her with those deep, warm eyes. The clouds behind them had long gone. They were as clear as the evening sky. ‘Well, we will if you agree to it. They’ve provisionally accepted my offer.’ He bit down a smile, shaking his head. ‘I’m doing this all wrong, aren’t I? What I’m trying to ask is if you’ll move in with me.’ He took her hand, sandwiching it between his. She could feel his warmth, his strength, his roughness. All things that made her feel weak at the knees. ‘Should I be dropping to my knees?’ he asked her. ‘I can do that.’
Kitty thought of her apartment in Melrose – of the bathroom she could hardly get into. Of the rooms covered in whatever mess her room-mates had left. The whole place was smaller than the living area here, and so much more claustrophobic. Two different worlds separated by only a few miles.
Not that she’d been spending too much time there in the past months. Whenever she had a free night she’d inevitably spend it at Adam’s rented apartment, only a few hundred yards down the road. But it was still home, still hers.
Was she ready to leave it?
‘Are you renting it?’ she asked him. He was still staring down at her. She could feel warmth blooming in her face, in her chest, all over her body. The way she always reacted to him.
He slowly shook his head, his eyes still on hers. ‘No, buying. I wanted something permanent.’
The way he said it made her wonder if he was talking about the bungalow or their relationship. ‘It’s beautiful,’ she said. ‘I can see why you like it. But it’s out of my league, I can’t afford anything like this.’
‘We can,’ he said. ‘It’s not about you or me. It’s about us. And we can afford it. If you’ll have it.’
She felt tears stinging at her eyes. Not just at the beauty of the place – or the beauty of his words – but at the thought of the future. She could picture Adam in the kitchen, cooking up his usual pasta, or him sitting on the deck with his laptop, working on his plans for the next documentary.
She could picture herself here, too. In her shorts, with her legs folded underneath her, looking out at the ocean as she drank a glass of ice-cold white wine. Being chased by Adam on the beach as they both laughed so hard they couldn’t run any more.
Leaning down to talk to a small child – their child – in the kitchen, as she taught him how to bake cupcakes.
Christ, where the hell did that come from?
Though it was thousands of miles – and a lifetime away – the beach house somehow reminded her of the cabin. Maybe because they’d made that place theirs, too. Built a relationship inside those four walls, one that lasted beyond Christmas, beyond a brief fling, into something so big neither of them could stop it even if they wanted to.
But she didn’t want to. Not ever.
‘It’s beautiful,’ she told him, taking a step towards him. They were both in their finest tonight – Adam in a pair of tailored grey trousers and a white shirt, unbuttoned at the collar, revealing the shadow that always seemed to cover his face by the end of the day. It wasn’t quite a beard, but it was sexy enough anyway. She was in a short cream dress – fitted at the bodice, flaring out to her thighs below the waist, with spaghetti straps that crisscrossed her back. Her skin was tanned from all her months here in LA, her blonde hair flowing in waves down her back. When Adam had arrived at her apartment to take them both to the party, he’d pushed her back inside again, his eyes flashing at the sight of her bare thighs, her smooth shoulders, and the way her dress clung in all the right places. He’d practically dragged her to her bedroom, leaving her in no doubt about how much he liked that dress.
She reached up, running her fingers along his stubbled jaw. ‘I love it here,’ she told him. ‘It’s perfect.’
‘Will you move in here with me?’ he asked her.