Free When Dreams Come True (The Star Series Book 1) by M. Stratton Page A

around here?” The woman turned to the person behind her. “Do you know this is Melissa Loring? She and Will Martinsson are an item and he’s staring in her movie.” She grabbed the magazine out of Lissa’s hand and shoved it in front of the other woman’s face. “You know, the sexy villain?”
    A crowd had started to build around them, and Lissa felt trapped in the small space. She couldn’t go forward through the line, and she couldn’t back out. People were starting to cram in closer to her as even that early weekday morning, the store was starting to get busy.
    The flashes from cell phone cameras started going off and women started yelling questions at her.
    “Is Will in town?”
    “When are you going to see him again?”
    “Is he a great kisser?”
    “When is the movie coming out?”
    “Where will it be shot?”
    “Does he wear his leather villain costume for you?”
    Her phone started to ring but she didn’t want to bring it out of her pocket, afraid it might actually be Will. Who knew what would happen then. The need to get out of there was strong. “Excuse me,” she pressed as she tried to move out of the lane. She looked at the checker, an older woman she’d always talked to whenever she came in there. It was one of the times she was thankful she was a creature of habit and always went to the same person. Lissa hoped she would be able to do something. “Can you help me?”
    Carol, the checker, nodded and picked up the phone, saying some kind of color code happening at her checkout. She tried not to laugh at their list of colors and what each code meant. ‘Code Maroon at checkout three, girlfriend to famous person is being mobbed. Send backup in. She looks scared enough to pee her pants.’
    Between the staff and the sheriff sub-station being right there, they cleared out the women and took her to the back room of the store. Sitting down, she caught her breath and tried to relax. They offered to just give her the food in her cart because of the incident, but she wouldn’t accept it, so they were going through her cart and manually creating a receipt for her so she could pay.
    Looking at her phone, she saw it was Will who had called. She wished she hadn’t missed his call just as her phone lit up again. She quickly answered, and thankfully it was Will.
    “Hello, darling.”
    “Hello, yourself. I wasn’t expecting you to call now.”
    “They have to rebuild part of the set. It didn’t quite work out as they were expecting.”
    “Are you okay?”
    “Oh yes, fine, actually, but you… you don’t sound normal. What happened?”
    “Nothing, just finishing up at the grocery store.”
    “Why don’t you call me when you get back home? I’m in my trailer so we’ll be able to video chat.”
    “Great, I should be finished soon.”
    “Ma’am,” the sheriff said from the door. “We’ve filed your report and dispersed the crowd, so you should be able to leave now.”
    “Melissa, what’s going on?” Will questioned from the other end of the phone.
    “Nothing. I’ll be home soon.”
    “Melissa…”
    “We’ll talk soon.”
    “Darling, you can bet your sweet arse we will.”
    The call ended. Shit . They’d had some heated battles before about different opinions, but she knew he was pissed. He was wicked smart and his brain moved at lightning speed. This might end up being their biggest battle, and she knew better than try to keep the entire truth from him.
    “Sorry, ma’am. I didn’t realize you were on the phone.”
    “No problem. Can someone help me get this to my vehicle?”
    “Yes, ma’am. If I can have your keys, I’ll pull your vehicle around to the back and load it up for you. We’ll also make sure no one follows you out of the parking lot.”
    “Wonderful. Thank you.”
    Before she knew it, she was on her way home. She kept a lookout in her rearview mirror but no one was following her. Pulling into the garage, she started to load the bags up on her arm and bring them