“Care to explain?”

“There’s a recent picture of my sister and her best friend, along with another damn note from Maxwell. Aren’t they cute?”

***

Jenny Chase tugged her carry-on bag out of the overhead compartment. The flight from Florida to DC had been bumpy, and she wanted off the plane. In the seat beside her, Molly was unfazed and casually powering on her phone and listing off where they should grab dinner before they headed home to their apartment in Eastern Market.

As long as Jenny could grab a cocktail, she didn’t care where they ended up. Molly’s phone buzzed. Once. Twice. Then kept going.

“Jeez, popular much?” Jenny watched her best friend’s phone continue to vibrate.

Molly laughed. “Just Ash. I’m sure whatever it is, it’s super important, and I need to know super right away.” She slipped the phone into her purse. “Let’s have pizza delivered instead of going out.”

Just Ash. Just the man that starred in every fantasy that Jenny had ever had since she could remember fantasizing about a guy. Of course, he was probably the star of many women’s dirty imaginations. He was Hollywood handsome and Washington powerful. That combination did wicked things to a woman’s fantasies.

Jenny silently chanted, “It’s only Ash.” Only Ash…That was how she needed to think about him because both Molly and Jenny had given up that anything would develop.

Shoot, even now her cheeks felt warm. What thirty-year-old woman couldn’t kick a high school crush? How many nights over the years had Jenny confided to Molly that she loved her brother? Too many, all starting back in high school when she’d circled his name in hearts. Even when Ash had flirted with her in college, the sparks had never panned out to anything more than heated glances and breathless moments.

Jenny tried to act nonchalant. “Maybe you should see what he wants. That sounded like a lot of phone calls.”

“Text messages too,” Molly added. “He hates to be ignored. Not everyone hops to his attention when he wants something. Drives him crazy.”

Kind of like he drives me crazy. Jenny shuffled through her purse without reason. Pathetic, really, but every time he came around or called, she became a mess.

Over the years, Asher had become rich and famous. Incredibly important. She wasn’t in the same ballpark as him with her hodgepodge of jobs. Nothing that would constitute a career. Jenny helped her sister, Sugar, with the gun shop and range she owned. But mostly, she honed her craft. She was an actress. A few good parts here and there. A few commercials. A couple of cable pilots that had never taken off. But live performances were what made Jenny’s heart flutter and pound.

Much like Asher McIntyre did. She laughed and ignored Molly’s sideways glance. Her mind had come back full circle to him. No one stacked up to him because, like it or not, she’d been in love with him since she’d met him. Just like no other type of acting stacked up to the roar of an applauding crowd on opening night.