Page 8 of Beyond the Spotlight Discreet Version

I swallow hard, hating the disdain this beautiful woman now has for me, but it also has me wanting to punish her for the tantrum she’s throwing. “Soufflé pancakes and French press coffee. Addy will have—”

“Do you want ice cream?” Savannah asks, cutting me off. “Technically, it’s brunch, so it’s not breaking yourfather’srules.”

The way she says ‘father’ is packed with venom.

Addy stands next to Savannah, holding her hand and staring up at her as if she has all the answers to life. Her face lights up. “Chocolate chip cookie dough?”

“We have chocolate. Is that okay?”

“Yes!” Addy jumps up and down.

Savannah looks at me and smirks, declaring victory. She did this on purpose. She crossed my parental boundary to get a rise out of me because she’s mad. But joke’s on her. I was going to let Adeline get whatever she wanted today. Only because she’s been pestering me for the past two weeks about eating ice cream for breakfast, which I blame entirely on Savannah.

“You’re so cool, Savvy,” Addy says, giving her one more hug before hopping like a bunny back to her seat. Savannah’s face drops, her eyes watering at the sweet, innocent words.

“Um. Okay. I’ll be right out with your drinks,” Savannah fumbles over her words then turns on her heel, leaving us.

I stand and wave my hand over Addy’s head. “Can you two…”

Kelly and Eloise nod, saying nothing about the scene that just played out.

I walk away from the table in search of Savannah. She disappeared behind a wall where I assume the servers go to enter orders for the kitchen. When I round the corner, she’s at a touch screen computer, aggressively tapping at it.

“I’m working, Reynold.” She huffs, as if expecting I’d follow.

Her saying Reynold and not Rey, despite knowing who I am now, makes my heart flutter. I’m Rey to the world, but sometimes I don’t want to be. Sometimes I want to escape and be Reynold Kane again.

“I know but—”

“I can’t do this right now.”

“Then when?”

“Never. Please, just go. Find someone else.”

“I don’t want someone else,” I growl, my voice loud and desperate.

She sucks in a breath and pauses her work. Some of her coworkers have turned their heads to stare at us. I’ve got my baseball cap pulled down, hoping they won’t recognize me.

Savannah glances around and notices our eavesdroppers. She takes hold of my hand and drags me through the kitchen and out a back door to an outdoor area where the trash is thrown out. She releases her grip on me and starts pacing, her arms crossed.

“You lied by omission. If you had told me you’re famous, I wouldn’t have accepted your card. I wouldn’t have gotten Adeline’s hopes up.”

“I didn’t want to tell you.”

“Why?” She stops and drops her arms. “Help me understand.”

I take in a deep breath and slowly let it out because I’m so fucking scared to lose this woman. I can’t even begin to explain why.

“Because I liked that I was a stranger to you. You saw me and not my fame. People usually put on a worshipping mask when they meet me, but you didn’t. Having a normal conversation with you felt like breathing after having the air stolen from my lungs.”

A bit dramatic, poetic even, but she’s too mad to let the words sink in.

“What was your plan here? Hiding your fame from me? You live an extremely public life that you wanted me to be a part of. You should have told me this when offering me a job that would put me in the spotlight too.”

“I know... I... wasn’t thinking. I took a chance and hoped I’d be able to explain myself when we met for coffee. I’m sorry, Savannah. Really, I am.”

She sighs and turns away from me. I step to her, close enough that I can smell her mouthwatering sweet perfume.