Chris sighed.“You’re overthinking this.My suggestion is a business transaction, and he has people who do these things for him.Talk to him, Jill.”
Footsteps alerted her before Lex entered the living room with a duffel bag.“I have to go, Chris.”
“Trust him,” Chris added.
Jillian hung up and started for the foyer, but Lex cupped her elbow and directed her toward the deck.“We’re taking the helicopter.”
“We don’t have a helipad near my house,” she protested.
He chuckled.“Mathews can land anywhere.Your backyard.Front yard.The driveway.”
“Is that legal?”
“If I have your permission to land, yes,” he said.
She frowned.Her backyard had enough space.Then there was the street in front of her house.The entire neighborhood would come out if he landed there, which might not be a bad idea.She’d put up with enough snarky questions from smart-alecky kids and their judgmental mothers about what she did in Hollywood.
“What movies are you in, Jillian?”
“How come we haven’t seen you in a movie, Jillian?”
“Is it true you stand in for the actresses when they’re tired and they need to rest?”
Finally, she’d show them.“Yes.The front of my house is wide enough for a helicopter.”
“Good.”Lex punched in a code, and the gate leading to the helipad opened.Mathews was already checking the dials inside the chopper when they reached the helipad.Jillian gave him the address, and like this morning, he punched it in the GPS before they took off.
Lex was quiet during the ride, lost in thought.Jillian wondered what he was thinking about.Probably wondering about her family.Maybe he regretted choosing her for his fake wife project.
Jillian sat back and stared straight ahead, her mind going in circles.How was she going to convince her father to accept the money?There was no democracy in their family.Whatever their father decided, everyone went along with it.Even Uncle Rowan, his younger brother, often went along with their father’s suggestions.Since he didn’t want her involved, everyone was going to take his side.
The closer they got to her place, the tenser she became.A large, warm hand covered hers, and Jillian looked up at Lex.“I’m sure your father is okay.”
She gave him a tiny smile, wishing she could confide in him.
Neighbors poured out of their homes before they landed.School was already out for the day, so kids left their parents on the patios and driveways, walked onto the street, and stared.By the time the helicopter landed on their front lawn, they were running toward their house.
“Do you want me to wait?”Lex asked.
Jillian glanced at her house.The living room curtain moved, and Sophia’s pretty face pressed on the window.All of a sudden, Jillian wasn’t too sure about challenging her father.Daniel Finnegan was larger than life.He wasn’t just the head of the Fearless Finnegan Troupe; he was also the MC of Bay Area Circus, working closely with the owner.On stage or at home, he ruled with a firm hand.He wasn’t cruel or anything like that.He just didn’t like to be contradicted, so his word tended to be the law.
When he’d said Jillian couldn’t be part of the troupe, no one in the family had said a peep.Their lack of support had hurt, and she’d headed to Hollywood vowing to return in glory.She’d imagined her father begging her to rejoin their act, asking for her forgiveness for sending her way.Never happened.Yet here she was eleven years later, ready to ask him not to disband the troupe.She was insane.
She looked at Lex.“Can you come with me?”
Surprise flickered in his gray eyes.“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”She couldn’t explain it, but knowing he was with her made her feel a lot more confident.“But if you’d rather not, that’s okay.”
Lex smiled reassuringly.“I want to.”
He followed her down and exchanged a nod with Mathews.Already the neighbors’ kids were climbing over the low-lying fence and inching closer to the helicopter.There were no boundaries when she was growing up, and that hadn’t changed.The parents watched from the comfort of their stoops, and some even waved when she made eye contact.
Jillian led the way to her front door, the warmth of Lex’s hand on the small of her back reassuring.The other gripped the moneybag.The door flew open before they reached it, and a bundle in pink and purple shot out and straight into Jillian’s arms.If Lex wasn’t there, she would have tipped backward.
“You’re here… You’re here… You’re here…”
Four-year-old Sophia Finnegan was the actress in the family.She was a precocious, totally adorable kid with riotous brown curls and the greenest eyes in the family.Greg wanted to rep her and hadn’t given up on convincing Ricky that she was destined for fame.
