Starstruck - Book Four Read Online Free PDF Page B

threats, and she told me she’d swallowed a bottle of
pills. I was on the phone with the National Mental Health Crisis center getting
tips on what to say to talk her down.”
     
    He seemed stressed as he relived the previous nights’ events.
As Hudson ran his fingers through his hair, my anger began to dissolve and turn
into sympathy. Ava was a human, just like anyone else.
     
    He was a good man, I reminded myself. He was only doing the
right thing.
     
    “She wouldn’t let me contact you,” he said. “The entire
thing was just a power play with her. She loves having control over me and she
knows my weak points.”
     
    “But don’t you think you kind of allow it?” I said. “You
allow her to manipulate her.”
     
    “Maybe,” he said as he shook his head a little. “I don’t
know. I just thought I was doing the right thing. She was in hysterics. She
texted me a picture of the empty pill bottle.”
     
    “Hudson,” I said flatly. “She’s an actress.”
     
    He breathed in through flared nostrils. “I know that,
Brynn.”
     
    “So where did you leave things?” I asked. “Are you going to
see her again? Did she con you into some sort of visitation arrangement?”
     
    “Psh,” he said. “I finally called mobile crisis. She was
taken by ambulance to a local hospital.”
     
    “Sounds like that’s exactly where she belongs,” I said. The
entire thing was sad really. She was so desperate to have Hudson back in her
life that she was going to extreme measures now.
     
    “Hey, now,” he said. “That’s a little harsh.”
     
    “You’re too nice for your own good,” I said to him. “I need
to know, are you going to see her again?”
     
    “I don’t know,” he said. At least he was being honest, but
his words stung. “Brynn, you know I love you and only you.”
     
    I said nothing.
     
    “You know that, right?” he reiterated. He reached over and
placed his hand on top of mine, then brought it up to his lips and kissed it.
“Let’s stop with the nonsense.”
     
    “Okay,” I relented.
     
    “I think it’s going to be in the best interest of everyone
involved if we can smooth things over with Ava,” he explained. “She’s having a
hard time believing it’s really over between us, and I think the fact that I’ve
fallen for a sweet, Midwestern girl who’s the complete opposite of her just
drives her crazy.”
     
    “Really?” I said, trying to hide the smile that was working
its way across my lips. How could Ava Fox be jealous of little old me? I was a
nobody.
     
    “Oh, yeah,” he said. “She’s super jealous of you. Of us. She
doesn’t understand why I’m not still pining for her.”
     
    “I’m sure she has her pick of men in this town. Why’s she so
fixated on you?” I asked. “No offense.”
     
    “Who knows,” he said. “She wants what she can’t have, I
guess.”
     
    “Do you think it would help things if I talked to her? Woman
to woman?” I offered. It was going to be hard, and I was going to be nervous,
but I was willing to do it if it would force her to move on and leave us alone.
     
    Hudson pressed his lips together as he thought about it. He
tossed his head from side to side, not answering.
     
    “So?” I said, growing impatient. “Want me to meet with her?”
     
    “I don’t think that’d be such a great idea,” he said. “But I
appreciate that you’d be willing to do that. That’s really sweet.”
     
    “Not a great idea?” I asked. “I don’t see what the problem
would be. I’d be perfectly nice and cordial to her. I’d tell her that you and I
are in love. I’d tell her she needs to move on. Simple as that.”
     
    Hudson’s face cringed as he squirmed a little in his seat.
     
    “Ava doesn’t operate like that,” he said.
     
    “Clearly,” I said. “I’ve seen the way she operates first
hand. I just think it’s important for me to stand up for myself, to stand up
for us. She’s going to keep doing these crazy things to