“Then why are you moping over her, dude?”
Micah shut the laptop lid. It wasn’t like he was really looking at the computer screen anyway. “I’m not.”
Fudge pulled a near-empty bag of Cheetos from the pantry. “You’re certainly moping over something and every time I say the name Maddie Bauers—”
Micah winced.
“You wince. What’s that about?”
Damn Fudge and his inquisition. He crossed his arms and leaned against the counter. “She wants me to be a silent partner.”
“So?” He popped a Cheeto in his mouth and grimaced. “These are stale as crap.” He put another three in his mouth, crunching noisily.
“They’re from before Colorado. I’ll put them on the list for the housekeeper. She won’t be here until Monday, though.”
“That’s cool.” Fudge ate another Cheeto. “Anyway, I thought you were just helping Maddie out financially. Are you interested in contributing creatively?”
Micah watched Fudge as he put yet another Cheeto in his mouth. “Why do you keep eating them if they’re bad?”
Fudge shrugged. “Why aren’t you answering my question?”
Micah took another swig of his water, noticing that his head felt the slightest bit better. Talking no longer seemed quite so unbearable. “I’m not interested in contributing creatively.” How could he explain how he felt about being sidelined on Maddie’s movie? “I just…I don’t know…I really enjoyed talking through the process with her. It made me remember why I loved this whole business in the first place because she’s still so fresh about it. She has a good eye, very creative. Super intelligent. And when she gets a new idea or hits a roadblock, she likes to bounce it off someone.” He paused, remembering. “She’ll get all fidgety and she starts pacing and talking with her hands. And her beautiful brown eyes get all big and bright.” He smiled. “By the time she’s finished telling it, she’s always worked it out herself, but it’s stimulating to be near her when…what?”
Fudge was staring at Micah, his mouth gaping. “You’re in love with her.”
“Whatever.” Micah crossed to the fridge and opened it, pretending to look for something to eat, even though he had zero appetite.
Fudge slammed his hand on the counter. “You’re totally in love with her!” He chuckled. “Does she know?”
“No,” Micah answered quickly. Too quickly. He backtracked. “There’s nothing to know. Just drop it.” He shut the refrigerator door.
Fudge wasn’t dropping it. He followed Micah outside to the veranda. “Why the hell did you break things off with her?”
“I have rules, remember?” God, the sun was bright. “No dating. No serious relationships.”
“It’s your own stupid rule. You can break it.”
“The rule exists for a reason. It’s not stupid.” Micah circled back into the house, out of the blinding sun, Fudge in tow. “It’s a proven fact that relationships in this town do not work.”
“Then why were you seeing her in the first place?”
He stopped walking and turned to face Fudge. “Exactly. No clue.”
Fudge shook his head as if disgusted.
So Micah amended his statement. “Because she made me think that maybe I was wrong. But I wasn’t.” Except he hadn’t known if he was wrong or not. He’d wanted to see what happened with her. He sighed. “I asked her if she wanted to keep seeing me on the down-low.” He wandered into the den and threw himself facedown on the couch. “But she didn’t want that.”
Fudge sat on the couch arm and threw the bag of Cheetos on the coffee table. “She didn’t want to see you anymore?” Surprise laced his voice.
“I didn’t say that exactly,” Micah said into the couch pillow.
“Hmm.” Fudge stood and crossed to where he could look at Micah directly. Then he walked toward the kitchen, but returned a second later, his arms crossed.
Micah leaned himself up on one elbow. “Do you have something to say?”
“Yes, I do.” Fudge took a deep breath. “You’re an ass**le.”
“What?”
“You’re a selfish ass**le.”
Micah moved to a sitting position. “Selfish. That’s what she said.”
“Because you are. Dude, you probably don’t know this since you’ve had, like, zero experience with any relationship that lasts longer than an hour, but when you love someone, you do things in the best interest of you as a couple, not just you as a superstar. You can’t give up your playboy status to see where things go with Maddie?”
Micah leaned forward. “I need more time without the press to see how things go.”
“Bullshit.”
“What do you f**king know about it?”
“I’m always with you, Micah. I know all about it. I know all about you. You want more time to come up with another excuse about why it’s not going to work out. Because heaven forbid things did work out and you found out all your years of self-imposed solitude were a waste of your life.”
Micah sat back into the couch and pulled the pillow into his lap. “Whatever. I’m not talking about this with you anymore.”
Fudge’s eyes traveled to a spot behind Micah. “Fine with me. You can discuss it with Lulu.”
“I’m not discussing shit with Lulu.”
“Micah?”
Lulu’s voice behind him made Micah jump up, the pillow flying from his lap to the floor. “Mom!” Fuck. He looked and felt like shit, not to mention he was only in his boxers, and now he had to deal with his mother.
Micah circled around the couch to hug Lulu. “You didn’t say you were stopping by. If I’d known you were coming, I’d have gotten dressed.”
“I’ve seen you in less. I’ve watched your movies, remember?”
“Yeah, right.” He didn’t want to think about the fact that Lulu had seen his bare ass on-screen. “So, what are you doing here?”
“Chris called me.”
Micah turned to Fudge and delivered his best death glare. “I wonder why he would do that.”
Lulu threw her purse down on a side table. “He was worried, and I can see why.”
Christ. Lulu, too? “There’s no reason to be worried.” As he talked, Micah straightened the room, both because it was trashed and because he needed something to help him avoid his mother’s eyes. “I’m a little hung over, that’s all. You know how we celebrate when a shoot is over.”