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“You don’t buy that, do you?”

“I don’t know. I know that I have feelings for Brook like I’ve never had before. Believe me when I tell you that I thought I was in love with every girl I’d ever gone out with. It’s different with her. Being away from each other is killing me. I can hardly wait until she finishes with finals and joins me here.”

“You’re horny. I could help you with that,” Halle said and batted her eyes.

“That’s part of it,” I admitted. “But even if we never had sex again, Brook would make me happy.”

Halle closed her eyes, and her bottom lip quivered.

“Dammit, David.”

“Even though I care for her so much, I know that come the end of school, she’ll leave me.”

Now it was my turn to get a little misty-eyed.

“You don’t plan to keep seeing her after you graduate?” Halle asked incredulously.

“How would that work? If I’m going this crazy without seeing her for two weeks, how will I survive if I don’t see her for months on end?”

“Oh.”

We sat in silence for a few minutes. There was a knock on the door, meaning we had to get back to work. Halle gave me a little smile. Who knew, maybe her dreams of us being the power Hollywood couple might come true someday. There that word was again … ‘someday.’

◊◊◊

When I had some free time, I called around to my friends in LA to see if they knew of any parties this weekend. Okay, I called one person: Zak Verwood.

“This is Zak’s phone,” Bec Carson, Zak’s girlfriend, answered.

“Why am I talking to you? He was supposed to be on set a half-hour ago,” I said with my best authoritative voice.

“Oh. I had no idea. Hang on,” she said.

I could hear her chewing him out and his clueless response.

“Talk to the man,” she ordered.

“I’m so sorry …”

“For not inviting me to a party,” I said.

“David?”

“Yep. I’m in LA and in need of entertainment.”

“You dick!” he said and covered the phone as he explained to Bec. “It was David Dawson pranking me.” Then he got back on the line. “I saw your dustup with the paparazzi. I thought you might have forgotten about me. Now that you need something, you come crawling to good old Zak.”

“Pretty much.”

“Well, you’re in luck. We’re having one tomorrow night.”

“Can I crash with like a bazillion people?” I asked.

“I don’t know about a bazillion …”

“You see, I’m shooting a Japanese drama, and the cast wants to go out. I might also have some model and actor friends who are looking to get out. No more than fifty or so,” I told him.

“Sure. I’ll put the word out that you’ll be here. I guarantee it’ll be packed.”

We talked for another minute, and I was called back onto the set. Zak had been in The Secret Circle with Halle and me. When I first met him, he was what we called a skirt-chaser. Zak had shared with me that he’d been thirteen when he first had sex. While we were filming, it wasn’t uncommon for him to have sex with two to three different girls each day. That was until he started dating Bec.

I passed the word that I’d found a party.

◊◊◊

The best part of filming Love Letters was that they let us out in time to go home for dinner. The even better part was I had tomorrow off. Kitty said to be back next week. Lexi told me she had some stuff to take care of and would see me Monday. I was sure I could survive without her being around for a few days.

I came home and found Dad drinking wine with a woman I’d never met before. The first thing I noticed was her hard eyes. At first, I thought she might be a cop. Then I figured it out.

“Ms. Addison?” I asked as I put my hand out to shake hers.

“Call me Maddie.”

“I’m starved. Can I convince you two to go to dinner with me?” I asked.

“I didn’t feel like cooking,” Dad admitted.

Manaia had trailed after me, so I turned to him.

“We’re going out to eat. Where do you want to go?” I asked.

The poor guy looked shocked. I figured it was the least I could do for making him work a ton of overtime since I’d gotten here.

“How about pizza?” he asked.

“Only if they serve beer,” Maddie added.

◊◊◊

Manaia took us to Greco’s New York Pizzeria. I was all smiles when the waitress mentioned they had a humongous twenty-eight-inch pizza. Even with the four of us, I would have pizza for breakfast tomorrow. The waitress tried to talk me out of it. She warned it was the equivalent of three large pizzas.

“Trust me. He will make a serious dent in it,” Dad assured the girl.

After she left, and the beer came, we got down to why Maddie was there.

“I talked to your PA and found time tomorrow for us to go talk to the FBI.”

“I’ve got the whole day off tomorrow,” I said.

Dad shared with her our concerns about being the ones to bring this to light and how it might adversely affect me.

“You might have more reason to worry about the NCAA than the FBI. The NCAA has a history of ignoring whistleblower claims. There was a recent one at the University of Missouri where a tutor sat down with both the university and NCAA to expose cheating. She admitted she helped 42 Missouri athletes commit varying degrees of academic fraud.