Page 16 of The Matchmaker's Cottage

Sighing heavily, Ethan mentally returned to the present moment and flopped backward onto his bed, which could only be called a double in the most ambitious of circumstances. The impact sent a jolt upward through his body, but he barely noticed it.

Yes, it was fucked seeing Julia again. Julia and the cottage. This was something that needed to be acknowledged. Acknowledged and then swept aside. He’dknownit was going to be fucked. That was why he’d done all those self-help audiobooks on the drive up, why he’d mentally prepared himself for this from the second he had dialed her number a few short days ago. The ask was huge, and it was going to have an emotional impact on both of them. They needed to do what they could to get through the next few days in one piece and hopefully salvage some semblance of decency and self-respect when their time together was over.

Sitting up again, Ethan grabbed his suitcase and unzipped it, pulling his laptop out. In order to get past the emotional turmoil roiling in his guts, he needed to getfocused. And focus right now meant making sure things were in line to begin the next stage of his plan.

Pulling up his email, he regarded their faces: Katy Nils and Noah Booker.

The twentysomething actors had been on his radar for a while now. They’d starred together in a successful superhero movie almost two years ago, and since then, it had felt like the two of them had been everywhere, exuding the perfect amount of Gen Z apathy with a side of flirtatious will-they-won’t-they banter in all their recent interviews.

The sequel to their movie was due to come out near Christmas, and excitement was already generating for the much-anticipated film. But Ethan had known from the start that those two could be even more than buzzworthy if they all played their cards right. They could skyrocket into superstardom with the right photos and the right setting.

Getting them both to leave their individual publicists and sign on with Fordham PR had been the first move, one that had gotten him many accolades from Henry. Of course, Ethan could have never predicted how desperate he would be to bring his plans for Katy and Noah to fruition until the disaster of the last week took place.

That was where the bed-and-breakfast came in.

Julia would use the easy hospitality she’d honed over the years, and Ethan would use his skills of manipulation—for good, not evil—to create tabloid-worthy scenarios of the two young stars that would have audiences clamoring for more.

Both the celebrities were on board, thankfully, though for different reasons.

Katy, formerly a teen model who had more recently become an actress who’d starred in a few Hallmark-style romantic comedies for popular streaming services before hitting it big with Noah, had been mitigating negative press regarding her father’streatment of her income—that is, the way he’d been spending it, mismanaging the majority of her multimillion-dollar fortune. She had recently dismissed him as her manager, acquiring a financial bigwig who would do a much better job with the young celebrity’s earnings, but it had led to some bad blood among her family. And when desperate people no longer had access to the money they’d been used to, they turned to the sources that would give it to them. Namely, the tabloids.

Katy’s team at Fordham had been keeping the vultures at bay fairly successfully up until this point, but it was a story that was bursting at the seams. She knew she needed something else for people to talk about, and fast, before the bad press derailed her upcoming project and directed focus to areas where it was not wanted.

Noah, for his part, with his relatively slight build and baby-faced good looks, wanted to be taken more seriously as an actor. Initially a child actor, he’d been propelled to superstardom in a series of movies about a boy who’d found out he had the power to bring books to life. The series, a fantasy epic spanning four films, each with the nameSpellboundwoven into their titles, had been hugely popular and had solidified Noah’s cultlike fan base, probably for life.

In terms of fame and fortune, it was all well and good, but as a talent in his own right with a desire to move on to different things, Noah was desperate to be seen as something more than just a kid with magical powers. So when the chance came to reinvent himself in a new genre, he’d grabbed it.

In their breakout superhero series, Katy and Noah had starred as teenagers by day and heroes by night who knew each other both in costume and in real life—without realizing they were secretly one and the same. The first movie,Double Blind,had been a hit. The second was due to be a bit grittier, earning that teen rating.

If Noah played his cards right, this could be his chance to show the world that he was no longer a kid. And with Katy on his arm for the foreseeable future, the relationship would cement him as an adult actor—a grown-up with grown-up interests.

Ethan had contacted them shortly after the disaster with Emily and Greg had hit the airwaves, and luckily for him, neither had seemed too eager to part ways with him despite the scandal. It hadn’t taken long for Ethan to convince both of them of the plan after explaining they would meet up at Julia’s place and see how things went. He had promised that nothing would be released without their approval and that all integrity and professionalism would be maintained—in fact, it was in the contract he had sent over for their approval.

Katy had initially wanted to bring her own entourage, but Ethan had convinced her that he, Julia, and the staff at the bed-and-breakfast—which, admittedly, he might have misrepresented as being slightly more plentiful—would act as chaperones and witnesses and maintain all standards of propriety throughout the week.

It helped that the two actors were friends; they had an easy rapport between them, which was evident in interviews and in person. Neither felt threatened by the other, and there was a comfort level there that transcended a regular professional relationship between coworkers. The way they ribbed each other while still being supportive and caring reminded Ethan a bit of him and Gem when they had been younger. Something that he would only admit to himself in the deepest recesses of his mind, and barely even then.

Either way, he was trying to be cautiously optimistic andavoid thinking about all the ways this could spectacularly blow up in his face.

Sighing heavily, Ethan took one last moment to double-check and make sure the nondisclosure contracts had been properly signed and that the actors’ flight from Los Angeles was still on time to arrive tomorrow morning, studiously avoiding the other 3,684 emails in his inbox. He didn’t even want to know what they were about, and he knew avoiding finding out was likely for his own good—if not professionally, then at least mentally.

Glancing at the number in the sidebar once more—3,686 now—Ethan closed his laptop decisively and got up. He debated changing out of his travel clothes, but thought better of it. He had kept Julia waiting long enough. It was time he faced the music and attempted to set the tone for the remainder of the week.

Was it awkward? Sure. Did it dredge up old wounds he’d thought long resolved and forgotten? You bet. Was it going to be hell trying to get through the week without talking about any of those painful memories? Absolutely.

But if Ethan was anything, he was a professional, and he knew Julia would be, too. There was too much riding on this for either of them to screw things up. He didn’t know what her stakes were, but they must be high for her to even agree to do this for him.

So they would slap on their best PR faces, and they would get this done.

Together.

7

Ido not havetime to make bread right now.

It was a thought Julia had to tell herself more often than she cared to admit, if she were being honest. After all, bread was easy and soothing. Everyone always needed bread! Bread was fun.

Bread was also avoidance. Bread was a task that was done while Julia was trying not to do other things. There was, she had learned, such a thing as too much bread. And if she made bread now, she would certainly have too much bread for dinner this evening, considering she had already made a loaf this morning, and there were literally three of them who would be eating. Four, if Norman ever showed his face.