Happily Ever After: (A Cinder & Ella Novel) Read online

  Erik leaned forward, the wide smile that had won over my friends and me plastered on his face. “You know...? I can’t say this often about the celebrities I meet, but I was really impressed by Ella. She’s a very cool woman. She’s fun, witty, friendly, down-to-earth, and an all-around stand-up person.”

  Brian let out a quiet breath of relief that I wouldn’t have heard if I weren’t snuggled up next to him. I was relieved to hear a positive review as well, but having Erik tell the world he thought I was cool didn’t make me feel any better about what he did.

  “She’s…raw,” Erik continued, “genuine. There’s no pretense with her. That’s what I like. Real. That’s why I run my website the way I do. Hollywood is so fake. I like to see the people behind the image, and most of the time, it’s not a pretty picture. It’s nice to see someone like Ella, for a change.”

  Oh, please. First of all, I wasn’t really a part of Hollywood. Well, I guess now I was, but I hadn’t been part of it long enough to be changed by it. And second of all, like he could talk about being fake? He’s the biggest phony in the city.

  “At least he’s not trashing you,” Juliette offered with a grimace.

  I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, he liked me so much he felt the need to exploit me.”

  “Oh, I’m sure he liked you. He just likes money more,” Juliette said, ever so helpfully. She shot me a wink and added, “I like you, too, but I have to admit, I might sell you out for that kind of scratch.”

  Ana shook her head in disgust, but a small laugh escaped me, and my mood lightened. I was grateful to Juliette for breaking the tension. Sighing playfully, I grinned at my stepsister. “Sadly, I might sell me out, too. He’s probably making enough money off me with this to pay for college.”

  Brian’s chest shook with silent laughter, and he kissed my cheek. Some of the tension bled out of him as if he was relieved that I wasn’t falling apart as we watched this interview. He had a lot to do with that. I’d be freaking out a lot more if he weren’t sitting here holding me and lending me moral support.

  On the screen, Erik was still chatting about me with the blonde host. I started paying attention again just in time to hear her tease him, saying, “Sounds like someone might have a little bit of a celebrity crush.”

  Erik flashed the woman a crooked smile. “I’d definitely have asked her out if she weren’t so obviously head over heels for Brian. He’s a lucky guy. And interestingly enough, meeting Ella gave me some newfound respect for him.”

  “Really?” the woman asked. “How so?”

  Erik shrugged. “Well, obviously the guy’s got a reputation.”

  The woman smiled. “You mean, those billion women he’s been with?”

  Brian snorted at the same time Erik laughed, and I groaned. “I’m never going to live that one down,” Brian teased.

  I had a feeling I wasn’t, either. My face flamed, but Brian didn’t seem upset. He was more amused by everyone’s favorite sound bite, if anything.

  “He was a playboy, for sure,” Erik continued, “and moody and standoffish with the press. After all of that publicity crap with Kaylee Summers leading up to the release of The Druid Prince, I was sure he was the biggest arrogant douche bag to come out of Hollywood in years, but if he’s smart enough to want a woman like Ella, and you consider the way Ella and her friends talked about him, I’m betting there’s a lot more to Brian Oliver than he lets the world see.”

  “No shit, Sherlock,” Brian grumbled.

  I shook my head. “No, not really,” I teased. “Arrogant, moody playboy about sums it up.”

  “Oh, gee thanks,” Brian said.

  I flashed him a wide grin, and he poked me in the ribs, making me squeal. “You’re a brat.”

  “I am not. I am an all-around stand-up woman. You heard it yourself. And look!” I pointed to the screen. “Erik Clarke respects you now. I’m so awesome that just dating me has improved your reputation.”

  “And you’re so humble about it. It’s nice to know your newfound fame isn’t going to your head.”

  “Well, yeah. I’ve got to puff up my ego as much as possible if we ever want to have some balance in our relationship.”

  Brian smirked, but the light in his eyes had a giddy quality to it, as if he was thrilled with our banter. I knew the feeling. I was having enough fun that I didn’t really care that I was the topic of the interview currently being played. Maybe fame wouldn’t be as bad as I feared. Maybe Brian was right, and that if we stuck together through it, everything would be fine.

  As if he could read my thoughts, Brian’s face softened into a loving and proud expression. His gaze dropped to my mouth, and that was the only warning I got before he pulled me all the way into his lap and kissed me senseless. It was such a heated kiss that I forgot about the world around me until we were smacked in the head with a throw pillow.

  “Gross,” Ana said.

  “Yeah, get a room, hornballs,” Juliette added.

  My face heated hotter than Brian’s kiss, and I tried to pull away, but Brian wasn’t ready to let me go. Eyes hooded, he continued to brush his lips over mine while teasing the twins. “What’s the matter? You guys pay money to watch me do this on-screen.”

  “That’s different,” Juliette argued. “That’s Movie Screen Brian—who is so not the same—and Movie Screen Brian doesn’t make out with my sister.”

  Brian grinned at me. “He would, if she was willing to get in front of a camera with him.”

  He looked a little too eager about that idea, so I set him straight immediately. “Never going to happen.”

  He shrugged and pressed another soft kiss to my lips. “That’s okay. This works, too.”

  I am definitely not a PDA kind of girl, but as Brian captured my mouth in another passionate lip-lock in front of my stepsisters, I found that I didn’t care about the audience. “Sorry, Jules,” I breathed as I twined my arms around his neck. “I can’t seem to stop. I think he’s got powers of compulsion or something.”

  Brian waggled his eyebrows at me. “Guess my secret’s out.”

  He started to kiss me again, but Dad and Jennifer chose that moment to come downstairs. I felt my father’s annoyance before I saw him. “What’s going on here?”

  I wanted to shrivel up and die of embarrassment, but Brian smiled as though he didn’t have a care in the world. “We’re surviving fame together.”

  The words warmed my heart so much that I didn’t stop him when he gave me one last kiss before turning his attention back to the TV. My dad wanted to say something—probably tell Brian to get his hands off me and get out of his house—but he got distracted by the television. Erik “The Sleaze” Clarke was still on-screen. “She makes an interesting point,” he was saying. “Hollywood is very stuck on perfection. It’s all about image, and that image has to be flawless. But it shouldn’t be that way. Personally, I would love to see Ella Rodriguez in some sexy lingerie.”

  My dad sputtered at his candidness, and my humiliation grew. Brian gave me a reassuring hug and leaned his head against mine. I tried to relax, but it was hard, considering Erik was now talking about seeing me half naked.

  “I’ve got a poll up on my website, so you can go vote for yourself. Blue or pink. I think the blue was winning last time I looked, but I’m still a fan of the pink. I think she should model the winner for the whole world to see.”

  I gasped at the thought. “Are you kidding me?” I screeched. No way could he be serious! Except he was.

  This wasn’t so fun anymore. Brian was tense again, too, and glaring at the television.

  “Oh! That would be so fun!” the host said, clapping in excitement. “I’d love to see that!”

  “Right?” Erik said, leaning forward as he got more excited. “Aside from the fact that she would look gorgeous, scars or no scars, it would just be cool if she did it. She could sort of say, Screw the world. I may not be perfect, but I’m beautiful the way I am.”

  “Oh!” the host said. “That would be great.”


  I scoffed. “Oh, yeah. That would be so great.”

  “It’s just a shame that she doesn’t know how beautiful she is,” Erik said. “She seems so confident in every other way.” He turned his attention to the camera. “Guys, if you agree with me that Ella is beautiful, and if you’d like to see her model the winning outfit, bearing her scars with pride, hop on my blog, and let us hear it. Vote for your favorite, and then give Ella some encouragement in the comments section. Let’s see if we can help Brian out a little and give his girl a boost of confidence, eh?”

  I couldn’t believe this was happening. I hated Erik Clarke for doing this to me. “The nerve of that…” I let out a frustrated scream. “He’s joking about my insecurities! And now the whole world is going to treat my condition like it’s a fun game! It isn’t a game! It’s my life!”

  I got to my feet and turned off the TV because I couldn’t hear one more second of this garbage. I was so angry, I started pacing.

  “Ella, just ignore it,” Brian said. “He’s a sleazy paparazzi scumbag.”

  “How?” I roared. “He may be a sleaze, but he’s getting attention. You think the world is going to ignore that? They won’t. This is going to get thrown in my face over and over again. People are going to be asking me to show off my scars for the rest of my life. I can’t believe he did that!”

  The room fell silent. I was ready to explode, and everyone could see how close I was to losing it. Brian seemed to know I didn’t want to hear any comforting words. He stayed silent as he got up and stopped me from my angry pacing. He let his strong embrace speak for him as he pulled me into his arms.

  “Screw him, Ella,” Juliette said. “We’ll figure out a way to extract revenge on him. You have a huge following. There’s got to be some way we can make him pay for this. Humiliate him publicly, like he did to us.”

  “Juliette,” Dad warned with a tired sigh. “There will be no retaliation. People will have fun with the voting, but then they’ll all forget about it. This will blow over. If you try to get back at him, it will only make it worse.”

  “That’s what a guy like him wants, anyway,” Brian said, glaring at the dark TV. “If Ella or I speak out about this, then he gets even more publicity. Your dad’s right; the best thing to do is completely ignore it.”

  Juliette and I both huffed, but for different reasons. My vindictive stepsister was mad that she couldn’t make the jerk suffer. I just didn’t believe this was going to blow over as easily as they seemed to think it would. But I was completely biased on the issue, so hopefully I was wrong. Only time would tell. The situation was completely out of my control.

  My anger dissipated as defeat sunk in, and I suddenly felt drained. “You know what? It’s been a long day, and it’s getting late. I’m going to go to bed.”

  Brian looked into my eyes, trying to judge my mental state to figure out what his next move should be. I was tempted to ask him to take me to his house for the night so that I wouldn’t have to stew in my own thoughts alone this evening. But then I knew I’d only have to face him, and he’d want to talk about this. He’d also revisit the moving conversation and want to talk about the things I’d said in that video. He’d already made me promise I would discuss it with him. I wasn’t ready for that. Especially not now.

  I walked him to the front door, and though I didn’t ask him to take me home with him, I did make him the opposite offer. “If you want, you could stay, since you’re coming back tomorrow morning anyway.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “Stay…where…exactly?”

  My lips twitched. “The guest room. Or the couch. My father would flip if you stayed in my room.”

  He thought about it but then shook his head. “I’d better not. He seems to abhor me a little less at the moment. Best not push my luck, because if I stayed, I’d for sure find my way into your room before morning.”

  He opened his mouth to say something else and then thought better of it. Perhaps it was an invitation to come to his place instead that I was half praying for and half dreading. Instead, he gave me a small smile and shook his head again. “It’s okay. I’ll just come back in the morning sometime.”

  “You sure?”

  He nodded. “You guys don’t have to wait on gifts for me, but you do have to save me some of your sopaipillas.”

  My grin turned sincere. “No promises. If you sleep in forever, I’ll eat them all myself.”

  He chuckled and then dropped a soft, sweet kiss to my lips. “You going to be okay?”

  I let out a sigh. “Yeah. I guess. It’s not the end of the world.”

  “That’s my girl.” His proud smile was tinged with sadness. “I love you, Ella. I’m so sorry you have to go through this with me.”

  “You’re worth it,” I promised, leaning forward to instigate another kiss.

  Christmas morning, I was startled awake when my bedroom door flew open and the most excited chirp came from the grumpiest Coleman. “Get up,” Ana said.

  I rolled over with a groan, refusing to look at the clock because it was still dark out, so whatever time it was, I didn’t want to know. “What?” I moaned. “What’s wrong now?”

  “Nothing’s wrong. It’s Christmas. Get up, lazy, and come downstairs.”

  “Seriously?” What was wrong with this girl? “We aren’t five anymore. Can’t we do this in an hour or two?”

  She yanked the covers off me and threw them on the floor. “Get up.”

  She was gone before I finished rubbing the sleep from my eyes. I wanted to stay in bed, but the wench had deprived me of my covers, which was unacceptable.

  Ana’s voice hollered from across the house. “COME ON, ELLA!”

  “I’m coming, you deranged psycho!” I yelled back as I forced myself out of bed.

  “Still dark,” I muttered to myself as I put on my robe and slippers.

  This was so not how it had worked for me in Christmases past. Before my papa and abuela passed, Mama and I would go over to their house and stay up late, laughing and celebrating with loud music, dancing, games, and food. We’d party until we dropped on a couch somewhere, and then we’d all sleep in late Christmas Day. When we finally did get up, we’d turn on the Christmas carols and sing along while we made a breakfast feast that could feed an army. After they both died, the only thing that changed was that Mama and I could pass out in our own beds once we were too tired to keep our eyes open any longer.

  I was glad to see I wasn’t the only zombie in the crowd. Ana was the only one completely bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. Everyone else looked half dead. But they seemed in good spirits, so I smiled along with the rest of them and told myself I’d get to go back to bed soon. “You guys could have warned me about Buddy the freaking Christmas Elf,” I said through a yawn as I made my way down into the family room. “I can’t remember the last time I was up before eleven o’clock on Christmas morning.”

  Dad’s chuckle was one of understanding—it may have been over a decade ago, but he’d been through plenty of Rodriguez family Christmases. He shot me a small, knowing smile and hugged me before I claimed my spot on the couch. “Merry Christmas, baby girl.”

  There was a little extra emotion in the greeting, so I knew Dad was also feeling a little sentimental this year. “You too.”

  “All right, now that Ella’s finally here…” Ana was in such a good mood that she flashed me a gorgeous smile. A real one. Not one of her evil smirks but a genuine, excited grin. “Dad, open mine first, before we all dig in!”

  She ran over to the Christmas tree and began sorting through the mound of packages, looking for a specific one.

  I’d never seen so many presents in one place before. The Coleman family managed to single-handedly boost the economy between Black Friday and Christmas. Not that I thought they were selfish. After all, there were so many presents because they all enjoyed giving gifts and had been generous in their shopping. I’d just been raised in very different circumstances and wasn’t very good at handling anything
excessive. This family was all about excessive.

  Ana found what she was looking for and handed Dad a book-size package with a tiny squeal of excitement, then stood there anxiously waiting for him to open it. Juliette groaned and scowled at both Ana and me. “You both still suck.”

  “Juliette!” Jennifer scolded with a laugh in her voice.

  Juliette’s glare turned into a pout as she looked at Dad. “I got you a stupid bottle of cologne. Ana wins. Even Ella’s briefcase is better, and she didn’t know it was a competition.”

  Dad and Jennifer both burst into laughter. Clearly, this rivalry was a well-known family tradition.

  Dad needed no other prompting to tear the wrapping from the gift. His face lit up with delight at first, but his brow quickly fell in confusion. “I didn’t think Janice Bishop had a new book coming out for another few months.”

  Ana puffed up her chest. Her smile grew to something that could rival one of Brian’s. “She doesn’t.”

  Dad examined the book a little more closely, and his eyebrows flew up when he read the small type at the bottom of the book that the publisher had printed on the front cover labeling it as an advanced reader copy. “This is the one that isn’t out yet?” he asked, stunned. “How did you…?”

  When he looked up, Ana grinned again. “Ella helped me get it.”

  Juliette scoffed, and I rolled my eyes when Dad turned his surprised eyes on me. “You helped Ana with this for me?”

  “In a manor of speaking.”

  Ana winked at me as if we were coconspirators. It was so strange. “You love it, though, right, Dad?” Ana asked.

  He laughed and opened his arms for Ana to fall into. “Of course I love it! This is fantastic. And now, because I have the whole week off, I can actually sit down and read it without falling asleep after five minutes. Thank you, honey.” He hugged her again and then turned to me. His face clouded over with emotion. “Thank you, Ella.”

  “I really can’t take credit. It was all Ana,” I said, causing Juliette to scoff again and Ana to finally smirk. “I didn’t even know you liked to read. You never mentioned it.”