He could feel the angst flowing between them, and because he was sitting right between the two, Micah was directly in the line of fire. What in the hell had happened between the two of them to make them so antagonistic toward each other? Julian was a smartass on the surface, but it was all a cover, his Hollywood way of dealing with the ton of rejection and lack of callbacks in the early days of his career.
Kristin was outgoing and incredibly blunt. From what little he knew of her, she didn’t take shit from anyone.
She was attractive, but not in any blatant way. She was slightly plump by Hollywood standards, and her flame-colored hair was pulled up in a ponytail. He could see some stray freckles on her face, so she was obviously not wearing much makeup. Kristin was the girl-next-door kind of pretty, not the supermodel type of bombshell that Julian was usually escorting around these days.
The two were bound to rub against each other. Julian acted like a jackass sometimes until a person got to really know him, and Kristin obviously didn’t take any of his crap.
Micah smiled at Kristin, thinking it was interesting that she was obviously unimpressed by Julian’s fame and success. He was an A-lister now, the actor everybody wanted for their next film.
The redhead didn’t seem to give a damn who he was at all.
“My leg is healed now. Thanks for asking.” She shot Micah a genuine smile, and he couldn’t help but grin back at her. She might not be conventionally attractive, but he thought she was much more appealing than any of the women his brother had been dating. Obviously Julian thought so, too. He was certainly baiting her enough to find her interesting.
“I’m glad you’re better,” Micah said honestly, finding her more and more attractive as she became happier and less guarded.
“Can I get you anything else?” she asked politely, looking from him to Evan.
She completely ignored Julian, a fact that made Micah want to laugh as he noticed his brother’s irritated look out of the corner of his eye.
“No, thanks. We have to leave soon,” he told her kindly.
“I’ve probably had enough,” Evan grumbled, squinting at his half-empty glass with a frown.
“You’ve had plenty,” Micah agreed emphatically. He was slightly worried that he and Julian were going to have to carry Evan out of the bar if he didn’t stop.
He’d never seen his cousin take a drink in his entire life. Evan was bound to be a lightweight when it came to alcohol, even though he was a big guy.
Kristin winked at Micah. “He’s cut off. He’s starting to tilt in his chair.” She moved to Evan and straightened his body with her hip. “Need help with him?”
“No. We’re good. We aren’t driving.” Micah had limited his drinking, but Stokes was now waiting for all of them out front. He’d take them all home.
Kristin nodded and walked away. The fact that Julian watched her all the way back to the bar didn’t escape Micah’s notice.
“I need to go talk to her,” Evan said as he sat up and slumped on the table, his voice maudlin and somewhat slurred.
“Not tonight, buddy. You need to give her some time for all of this to sink in. How long did you say you were writing to each other?” Micah asked curiously.
“Over a year,” Evan said grudgingly. “She got me with a smartass email. I’ve been addicted to her ever since.”
“How is it that neither one of you knew who the other really was?”
“I tried to track her earlier in our correspondence. All I could find out was that it was coming from the Center. After that, I stopped trying. We agreed not to share identities. To her I was just some random guy. I wasn’t a billionaire from one of the most well-known families in the world. I kind of liked that. But I did want to meet her. I don’t think she wanted to meet me.” Evan stabilized his upper body by resting his arms on the table, his body staying upright. “Now that I think about it, I should have known it was her.”
“Why?” Micah asked.
“Because she got to me both ways, via email and in person,” Evan replied, his voice getting more and more garbled.
“If you knew very little about each other, what did you talk about?” Julian asked, his expression more serious now.
“Everything and nothing,” Evan answered after a short contemplation. “We didn’t talk in specifics. It was all about how we felt about certain things. Very little of our conversation related to work or other people. Her foster mother died not long ago, and she mostly talked about her and how it felt to lose someone she loved so much.”
“You were there for her.” Micah’s words were a statement rather than a question. His respect for Evan kicked up a notch knowing that he’d just been there for Randi when she needed to vent.