To Love Jason Thorn by Ella Maise Page A

“There’s the little Olive
I know.”
    Before I could pull my hand away, he
grabbed it as if he was getting ready to walk a kid across the road.
    Why did my heart flutter so much every time
he touched me even though it was obvious that he still saw me as his best
friend’s little sister, the kiddo?
    “What are you doing?” I asked as I was
being pulled toward freedom.
    “I’ll drop you off wherever you want to
go.”
    “You don’t even know where I live. What if
it’s an hour away? I’m seriously starting to doubt your movie star status.”
    Again, that chuckle. “It’ll be fun. I
promise to entertain you the entire hour, little one.”
    “It’s not an hour. Seriously, I can get
there in like no time.”
    “Then you won’t suffer too much in my
presence.”
    “Were you always this stubborn when you
were little?” I asked, starting to get a little annoyed about being pulled
around like a doll.
    “Oh, sweetheart,” he said softly, looking
over his shoulder, the annoying dimple winking at me. “You were always the
little one, not me.”

Chapter Seven
Jason
    After pushing a reluctant Olive into my
car, I rounded it and got in as she was mumbling something about killing
someone.
    Amused, I asked, “Are we going on a killing
spree?”
    I still couldn’t believe my eyes, that she
was actually there.
    Frowning, she looked at me, her hand
jerkily pulling on the seatbelt. “What?”
    “Easy there killer.” I smiled and leaned
over her to take care of her little dilemma.
    My nose was almost touching her cheek. Mmm. She smelled like apples, fresh and sweet.
    I felt her stiffen.
    My little Olive.
    Securing her, I leaned back and my eyes
zeroed in on her parted lips. “There you go.”
    “Thank you,” she mumbled, looking anywhere
but me. I looked away, too.
    “So, you were muttering about killing
someone?”
    “Lucy. My friend.”
    “What did she do to deserve such a gruesome
death?”
    Starting the car, I discreetly glanced at
her.
    The little girl who had always given me the
biggest smiles was long gone. While it looked like she hadn’t changed at all, I
knew everything had changed. It looked like I wasn’t the receiver of any smiles
any more.
    “I can’t be that bad of company, can I?” I
asked before she could reply about her friend.
    She gave me a small smile. Not one of her
beautiful ones that used to light up her eyes and flush her cheeks, but still a
sincere one nonetheless.
    “No, you are not that bad. You can drop me
off at USC, I’ll find my friends.”
    “You go there?”
    “Yes.”
    “Come on, Olive. Don’t be like that. Tell me
more about what you’ve been up to. I still can’t believe we found each other
here out of all the other places in LA.”
    “A coffee shop or something like that
would’ve been more like it, wouldn’it?”
    “Exactly. A studio exec’s office? No way in
hell.”
    She chuckled. “It is a little weird, isn’t
it?”
    “Weird? I don’t know, probably. You never
were an ordinary girl, though.”
    Stopping at the red light, I faced her. She
was looking out the window, her hands resting on her lap in tight little fists.
I tugged at a strand of her strawberry blonde hair—which looked much lighter
than it had years before—and she looked at me. I smiled and said, “Hi.”
    She bit on her lower lip and smiled back shyly.
“Hi back.”
    “I missed you, little one. I didn’t even
know how much until I saw you.” Her smile faltered a bit, but she managed to
turn it into a lopsided smile, which looked strangely attractive on her.
    The light turned green and I had to give my
attention to the road, special cargo and all that. Several minutes passed by with
neither one of us saying anything, then we both spoke at the same time.
    “Did you—”
    “Can I—”
    I chuckled. “You go first.”
    “I just wanted to ask why you stopped
calling Dylan. For a while there, he used to get touchy if someone mentioned
you. I think he didn’t want to show how