He was teasing, and normally it wouldn’t have bothered Cara, but something about the situation put on her on edge. The arrangement was extravagant, clearly expensive. Not the kind of thing you send someone anonymously—twice.
“So, who sent it?”
Cara handed Skye the card. She watched as her friend read the brief note and frowned. “That’s it?” Cara nodded.
Jerrod read the note over Skye’s shoulder, and then put his nose in the blooms, taking an appreciative inhale. “You must have some idea. These aren’t grocery store roses. Smell them.”
Cara kept her distance. “I’m clueless. I haven’t been on a date in months and ‘darling?’ No one calls me that.”
“Did you ask Wes?”
“It’s not him,” Cara said flatly.
“Still.”
Cara hesitated. She didn’t want to ask Wes. For some reason, it felt embarrassing to tell him she had received a second unsigned bouquet.
“Just call the guard gate. The florist had to have signed in. Then you can find out who paid for them.”
Cara brightened. That was a great idea! But, after she got off the phone with the security guard, she was even more unsettled. The knot in her stomach felt like it was made of lead.
“He said it was an unmarked sedan. Nothing special about the delivery guy. The guard called a runner to take it because the driver didn’t want to come on the property.”
“Ah, the mystery deepens!” Jerrod looked delighted.
For the rest of the day, her friends teased her about the secret admirer. Cara smiled along, but she was frightened. It was too similar to what had happened before. Cara went through a mental catalog of all the people she had encountered recently, but no one stood out.
It was when she was sitting in traffic that the truth finally dawned on her. She had avoided Amara’s phone calls. This was her friend’s way of getting Cara’s attention.
Cara tapped her fingers against the steering wheel. Now that she’d cooled off, she knew in her heart Amara hadn’t been the one to send the pictures to the tabloids, but Cara was still pissed that she’d kept the photos.
I’ll call her tonight, Cara thought, when she pulled into the driveway. There was no sign of Wes’s truck, and her emotions swung between disappointment and relief.
She was glad she’d given the flowers to Jerrod. He loved them, and Cara hadn’t been lying when she said she had nowhere to put them. The other bouquet, sitting on the dresser, already dominated her small bedroom. If whoever sent them didn’t bother to tell her who they were, she didn’t feel obligated to keep them.
A sticky note from Wes was stuck to the fridge letting her know he’d be out for dinner. She crumpled it and threw it into the trash with more force than necessary. Cara peered at her meal prep containers, closed the refrigerator, and instead stuck a bag of popcorn in the microwave. She leaned back against the kitchen counter watching it revolve, pulled her phone from her purse, and pressed the button to call Amara.
It rang several times, and just as Cara planned a voice mail message in her mind, Amara picked up but didn’t say anything. Cara counted to ten and then laughed. “Our friendship would be a lot easier if we both weren’t so stubborn.”
“Speak for yourself.” But there was no heat behind it. “I’m still really pissed at you. I can’t believe you thought I had sent those pictures of you.”
Cara’s irritation rose. “You may not have sent them, but as far as I know, you’re the only one who had the pictures on their phone. Erik said as much—I wonder if the idiot realizes it proves it was him who sent them to the tabloid. Not that I didn’t already know, but it’s proof.”
“Asshole.” Amara was quiet for a second. “Trust me, if I had any say in it, I wouldn’t be within twenty feet of him. My parents have made it clear that they want pictures of us together to help their image. Positive marketing for their business deal. It’s stupid. Nobody cares if Erik and I are friends, but I have to do what they ask.”
Cara didn’t respond. She was familiar with what it felt like to have a parent control your life because they also controlled the purse strings. But Amara chose to stay. Shecouldbreak away. Almost as if her friend read her mind, she said. “Not all of us are cut out to work.”
“I think you’d surprise yourself. I won’t lie and say it’s easy because it’s not. Worrying about bills that are less than we used to spend on a hat... And, I have my brothers to fall back on if I get in real trouble. I’ve met some really talented, incredible people who only know me as Cara, the makeup girl. It’s nice.”
“Maybe.” Amara wasn’t convinced.
“The roses were a nice touch, by the way. Not to mention an effective one. Though I have to admit you were starting to freak me out a little, leaving the notes unsigned.”
“What roses?”
“The flowers you sent to my house and to my work today.”
“I don’t even know where you live—which is insane. All I know about your job is the movie you’re working on.”
