Almost Everything

Chapter 14 - Anchor

I'm running along the beach at five in the morning because most of the world is still sleeping. Running this early makes me feel like I have the world to myself and no one will get an unflattering photo of me. No one enjoys running, but we do it to stay in shape or so we can have that bottle of wine with dinner. 

In front of my house, I stop my jog and place my hands on my head to catch my breath. I pace back and forth until my breathing returns to normal. The boys are inside my house, still fast asleep because they only walked in two hours before I woke up to run. Meeko usually runs with me, but saw Jackson on the couch and snuggled in with him. 

Quietly, I open the back-terrace door to the living room, hoping to not wake them, but I see them sitting at the breakfast bar with breakfast. I walk towards them with a questioning look, while drooling over the eggs, sausage, and toast plated before me. A huge vase of red roses sits in the middle of the countertop.

"What did you do?" I smile at them.

"We feel bad about ditching you the last three nights. Jax and I are hoping that a good breakfast before the big bad press tour would be nice and that you'd forgive us." Brad says pouring me a glass of orange juice.

Jackson smiles up at me. "What your boyfriend is trying to tell you, is that we're sorry for keeping you up waiting for our drunken asses to come home until the early morning."

I sit in the chair between the both of them. "You don't keep me up, I can go to bed, but I just need to make sure that you both get back safe. Call it a motherly thing."

"And we love you for it." Brad leans over and kisses my cheek. "Since I have to work all day, I asked for a live feed of Erin's show for your interview to my trailer. I want to watch my girl do her thing without Amy."

Erin Cruse is my favorite daytime talk show host and friend. She introduced herself at the first Hollywood party I attended with Ezra. The two of us hit it off instantly and became friends. Once a month, I have dinner with her and her husband, Stephan Brandt. Stephan had a late-night talk show.

"Are you coming with me today?" I look at Jackson.

"I don't know, I only have two more days to work on my tan before I start filming." He says seriously.

Jackson has an outstanding poker face.

"Are you serious?" I glare at him.

He starts laughing and tells me I'm too easy. "Of course, I'm coming to the studio with you."

"I was going to beat you," I say grabbing the sausage from his fork and shoving it in my mouth.

Two hours later, my manager and assistant show up at my house. I'm freshly showered and waiting in my oversized terrycloth robe for the outfits they want me to try. This is what we do before every press tour. Brad left for his film, and Jackson is down in his room studying his script.

Lexie hands me the garment bag and I lay it over the couch. I unzip the bag and take out the black jumpsuit with the deep plunging neckline. I love this jumpsuit and tell Lexie we need to purchase it.

"Too risky for daytime TV, but this would be good for Thomas Sommers in New York," I tell her. 

That would be three days from now and I wasn't looking forward to going to New York. I don't want to run into my mom.

Jackson walks up from his bedroom and sits on the other couch to watch all the fuss. He watches me dig through the outfits that are stuffed in the garment bag. Designers are always calling Lexie during press tours, I'm a walking billboard for them. When I remove a beautiful floral shift dress, Jackson nods.