The Director (Hollywood Nights) by Cara North Page A

would sleep.
                “This is a good neighborhood.” He
could comment on that.
                “Yeah,” she agreed. “There are lots
of old people around. Some used to be in the business.”
    “Were your grandparents actors?”
    “No,” she said and shook her
head. “My grandmother was a costume designer. She made custom clothes for some
people. Talented woman, smart with money. I wish I were more like her and less
like her son.”
    He noticed she referred to her
father as ‘her son’ not ‘dad’.
    She continued, “I spend time with
a few of them, but I try to keep my distance since the lady next door passed. I
keep losing people, you know?”
                She sounded so sad. He moved into
the bathroom as she turned on the shower. He watched her step in and soon
followed. She lathered up her hair and tilted her head back to let the water
rinse it clean. This shower was ridiculously small compared to the one at the
beach house, and his condo in New York. It was still nice compared to the shower
in the military where it came from a portable bag or a make-shift shower in the
desert that he didn’t see for a week or more at a time. He was afraid to get completely
naked over there because he was more afraid of dying that way than anything
else. He kept thinking it would be Karma for trying to exit early in his youth.
                “No.” He waited his turn for the
water. He was in no hurry to get out of this shower with her. He loved to look
at her naked. She was lush curves and smooth bronzed skin. “I don’t. Tell me.”
                “Well,” she sighed. “I lost my
parents my freshman year in college. They uh, ran off on me. They aren’t dead,
but they might as well be. I lost my grandma the next year. She left me this
place and an inheritance from her and my grandpa. My parents were so pissed she
cut them out of the will they haven’t spoken to me since. I uh, lost Frankie
last year, but I finally got her back.” She paused, looked at him and said,
“Though if I keep this up I don’t know how long that will last either. She
won’t like it.”
                “It’s not her business,” he said and
squeezed a considerable amount of conditioner into his hand. He wasn’t a
complete fan of Frankie. She had made his wild, little brother a happy man so
he gave her some credit. She just seemed to be a bit of a control freak. He let
thoughts of his brother and Frankie slip his mind and focused on Shay. He liked
her long hair and the way it tried to curl unsuccessfully when it got wet
leaving it wavy. “Turn around.”
                She looked him in the eye, squinted
a second, then turned her back to him. He looked at the soft globes of her ass
and tried to focus on the task at hand. She said, “You are Jonas’s brother. She
won’t choose me over you because she won’t choose anyone or anything over him.
You don’t seem to understand how bad this could end up.”
                “You don’t seem to understand how
good this is.” He enjoyed running his fingers through her hair, massaging her
scalp, and then watching her rinse it all out. He couldn’t stop the words if he
tried, which he didn’t, “You have gorgeous hair.”
                She stilled and he corrected himself
by saying, “I mean, grotesque hair. I got the words confused.”
                She giggled and said, “I’ll let that
one slide if you tell me the real reason you came by today. Was it just to fuck
me? Or did you want your sweatshirt back?”
                He placed his hands on her waist and
turned her to face him. He looked down at her and said sincerely, “I had to see
you. I can’t exactly explain it, but you make me feel…alive. You see me.”
                “Of course I see you,” she said. He
could tell she was feeling unsure, awkward. He understood. He was asking a lot
of her in