Free Come a Little Bit Closer: The Sullivans by Bella Andre

with his investors. He didn’t need to share these kinds of details with her and Tatiana, but he obviously believed an informed team worked better than one kept in the dark. It was yet another factor that set him apart.
    “Honey!”
    Valentina turned with surprise to see her beautiful mother walking toward her with her arms outstretched. Even though she was a good six inches taller than Ava Landon and hadn’t been a child for a very long time, as Valentina stepped into the familiar arms and expensive air of perfume, she suddenly felt two decades younger.
    “I’m so glad I could make it here today. You know how much I love being on set.”
    She loved her mother enough to momentarily forget to be wary about Ava’s reasons for the sudden visit to San Francisco. “You look great, Mom.”
    Ava Landon lit up the way she always did at compliments, before turning her gaze to her daughter. “You’ve lost weight. You know how much better you look when your figure is fuller.”
    Valentina stifled a sigh. “I think Tatiana has a small break before they need her again on set. I’ll take you to her trailer.”
    But her mother was looking over her shoulder. “Here I am, baby!”
    A good-looking man who couldn’t be too much older than Valentina was walking toward them. Her mother leaned in closer and said, “Isn’t he just too beautiful? I’m so in love with him.”
    Trying not to wince at her mother’s too-free use of the word love , and glad the question was clearly rhetorical, Valentina shook the man’s hand as her mother made the introductions.
    “David, this is my eldest daughter, Val.”
    Valentina saw the slight surprise flash in his eyes at just how different she looked from her mother and sister.
    “Val, David is just the most talented actor.”
    Valentina felt her lips tighten as the wariness she’d momentarily forgotten grabbed her with a hard shake. Didn’t her mother remember how “deeply” she’d been “in love” with the last dozen actors like David?
    And how could it possibly be that easy for her mother to fall for someone...or at least fool herself into believing the desperation, the painful longing for something real and lasting, was love?
    “That’s great,” Valentina said with a smile for David.
    It would break her heart when he broke her mother’s heart—as each and every good looking actor always had—but she’d learned early on that there was no use in trying to protect her mother from the men she chose to date. At the very least, David didn’t look like the type to try to grab her ass when her mother’s back was turned.
    Valentina tried to be grateful for small mercies.
    Unfortunately, now that they’d appeared from out of the blue, on top of everything else she had to take care of today, she’d have to make sure that her mother’s big plans for David’s acting career didn’t annoy anyone on set. Thank God Smith was out for the afternoon. What a disaster that would have been otherw—
    “Good afternoon, Valentina.”
    She would have groaned at her terrible luck, were it not for the way Smith’s low, warm voice always affected her. In less than a millisecond, anticipation—and a rush of desire that came despite knowing she could never act on it—knocked the wariness out of her.
    There simply wasn’t enough room, she was amazed to find, for both Smith and anything else.
    “Smith.” She liked the feel of his name on her lips too much. “I’d like you to meet my mother.”
    He smiled as he picked up her mother’s hand and pressed his lips to the back of it. Her mother was all but squealing with joy as he said, “You have two remarkable daughters, Mrs. Landon.”
    “Call me Ava,” her mother said in that breathy voice she always used with good-looking men. All men, actually. “Your mother didn’t do so badly herself, Mr. Sullivan.”
    Valentina cringed inwardly as he said, “Smith, please,” but at her mother’s sharply expectant glance in David’s direction, she