Before he could make good on his promise to improve her day, the doorbell rang.
Noah froze and cursed in her ear. “I’ll kill whoever is at the door and be right back. We’ll bury the body later.”
Laughter bubbled up through Callie as she stepped forward. “Go answer it. It’s not like I won’t still be here when they leave. I sleep here, remember?”
His eyes darkened as he narrowed his gaze on her erect nipples, which were apparent through the cotton shirt.
The doorbell chimed again and he growled, “I’m so not in the mood for visitors.”
Callie looked down at the bulge in his shorts. “Why don’t you let me get it while you start reciting the Gettysburg Address again? That should help you…settle down.”
As she walked from the room, Noah’s bark of laughter trailed down the wide hallway. No matter that her day wasn’t what she wanted it to be; Noah always managed to make her smile. She only hoped she could do the same for him. If she did it enough, maybe she could help him g
et past whatever it was that plagued him.
Callie glanced out the sidelight and saw Max. There wasn’t a woman in Hollywood, or most of the world for that matter, that didn’t love Max Ford. The man was not only one of the best actors in the business; he was drop-dead, curl-your-toes, giggly-schoolgirl gorgeous. But while Callie didn’t deny the fact he was a very sexy piece of scenery, he didn’t give her those flutters like Noah did.
Oh, God. She knew she’d been infatuated with Noah and enjoyed the sex, but…flutters? Was she feeling something more for her boss, caregiver, lover?
Shoving aside the epiphany and fear, she pulled open the door.
Max’s eyes were shielded by a dark pair of sunglasses and he wasn’t smiling. The man was always grinning, even when he talked; that was all part of his charm
“What’s wrong?”
“Is Noah here?”
Callie stepped aside. “He’s in the gym. Everything okay?”
Without an answer, Max took off down the hall, and Callie didn’t know whether she should follow. This really wasn’t her business, but at the same time she knew Noah had had a rough day and she didn’t want him to have to receive more bad news. Whatever it might be.
But as she walked down the hall toward the gym, she heard the word cancer and froze. Did Max have cancer? She tried not to eavesdrop…okay, she didn’t try, but she felt guilty for it and that was close enough. As she went to the door, she heard Max say mother and that was all she needed to hear to realize this was not her place.
Poor Max. He’d looked helpless when she’d opened the door and she’d never seen him look anything but charming, sexy and smiling….
She made her way to the office where Noah had told her she could use his desktop computer instead of the laptop in the kitchen nook. The office was dark with navy walls, exposed walnut beams overhead and on the floor, but it was the floor-to-ceiling windows behind his desk that really opened up the room.
If she was serious about not working for him, she really needed to start looking to branch out somehow. Perhaps with her teaching degree she didn’t have to limit herself to public schools. She could teach at handicapped schools or even work in an office at a school. The possibilities were there; she just had to explore them.
More than that, though, she needed to look at her life differently now. As much as she wanted to get her face back to normal, to get her life back to where it had been, she had to face the reality that this might not happen. Ever.
Noah had mentioned considering surgery soon and the thought terrified her. Oh, she wasn’t afraid of pain, not to her face, anyway. She was terrified of the pain in her heart she’d endure if the surgery failed. She just couldn’t get her hopes up.
She logged on to the internet and looked at job postings for the schools in the surrounding area, shocked to see how many there were. She could even go a bit farther out of L.A. There wasn’t anything holding her here anymore.
First she’d have to write up a really nice résumé, and then she’d have to see if Noah would write her a letter of recommendation.
She eased back in the leather office chair and sighed. There was a major part of her that wanted to toss that computer across the room, but this life she now faced was her fault. She’d been so wrapped up in wanting to be the next big star that she’d never planned for anything else.
Oh, her parents made her get an education, but she’d never even created a résumé using that degree because she never thought she’d need it. Callie had never had any intention of becoming a schoolteacher.
Good thing she’d listened to her parents.
She reached up, lightly touching the imperfection down the side of her face. She tried to avoid mirrors, and since she was temporarily living with a man, that wasn’t too hard, because they weren’t all over the house. But there was one on the far wall by the entry to the office. The mirror was actually rather large and Callie figured Noah’s interior designer probably put that there so the light coming in the windows across the room would bounce off the mirror.
Callie eased from the seat and made her way over. She wasn’t scared, not like she’d been those first few days of looking at herself after she’d get out of the shower. There was no surprise that was going to be waiting for her once she saw her reflection.
She approached the mirror and sighed as she closed that final distance. The ugly red, puckered line running from her temple down to her jawline, thankfully missing her eye, stared back at her. Callie turned slightly to take a better look. She supposed it was looking better, but not nearly what she wanted. Even if she parted her hair on a different side and covered the scar for casting calls, she’d have to let it show at some point. Not all roles would have her hair down, clinging to the right side of her face.