CHAPTER ONE

He couldn't do this. 

Distracting himself by watching travelers come and go, greeting their loved ones and handing off their luggages, he tried to calm his nerves with meditative breathing. 

It wasn't working. 

He couldn't do this. 

From the start, he knew this was a bad idea but he'd let his annoyance of a cousin convince him otherwise and now, he was kicking himself for being so credulous. 

Turning his attention to his team, he sighed. All five of them. including himself were decked out in matching t-shirts. The offensive neon orange, green and purple tie-dye t-shirts had a black print on the front that read, "The Adventures of Iona." 

The Adventures of Iona was an animation movie based off of a children's book, starring the wonderful, beautiful and highly talented actress Lavender Sky Jones. 

The same Lavender Sky Jones he and his co-workers were assigned to escort today from the airport to a public library where she was scheduled to do a reading of said book to a group of children. 

The same Lavender Sky Jones, Pete Handler had a huge crush on. 

The same Lavender Sky Jones who would be walking out of the gates at any moment. 

He couldn't do this. 

Pete thought back to just this morning, when he was woken up by an ominous phone call from his cousin, Mark. 

"What do you want?" he asked sharply. He had just gotten back the day before from touring with an indie pop band for six months and Mark knew that. Pete needed at least a week off before he could even think about work. 

"Did I ever tell you that you are my favourite cousin?" Mark greeted. 

Pete hung up. 

Mark called back within three seconds. 

Pete declined the call. 

Mark sent a text message. "If you don't pick up my next call, I'm coming over." 

Mark called again.

Pete answered. 

"Don't hang up!" Mark yelled into the phone. When silence was all he was met with, he continued. "I really need your help today, man. I know you just got back but you're the only one I can count on."

"You run a bodyguard company," Pete said into the phone with clenched teeth. "If you can't count on all of your employees, that's your problem, not mine."

"I need you to help escort someone from the airport," Mark pressed on as if Pete hadn't spoken. "Someone got sick last minute and he needs to stay home and recover." 

"Ask someone else," Pete said. He was beginning to wake up and the longer this phone call continued, the harder it would be for him to fall back asleep. 

"No one is going to take a job the day of!" Mark said in a raised voice. He was starting to lose patience. 

"And you think I will?" Pete closed his eyes again. He could sleep through this conversation. He would make Mark hang up himself. 

"You're my family! You have to help me!" Mark reasoned. 

Mark was met with silence. 

Pete was on the edge of falling asleep when Mark said, "The client is Lavender Sky Jones." 

Pete was up in an instant. 

"Who?" he breathed into the phone, sitting up on his bed. 

"Lavender Sky Jones," Mark repeated. The smile he was sporting could be heard through the phone. 

Pete paused. Lavender Sky Jones was an actress who had been in the industry for over a decade but as of late, she was quickly becoming a household name after winning an Oscar and a Bafta for her role in "The Black Hour."

She was also the woman Pete had a raging crush on. He was a huge fan of hers - since the beginning of her career, and he admired her a lot. 

From a distance.

Never did he think he would meet her.

"No," Pete anwered. 

"What?" Mark yelled. "Buy you like her!"

"Exactly," Pete said, lying back down in his bed. It had cooled down. "It's inappropriate and highly unprofessional." 

"Pete, are you stupid?" Mark softly asked. "Look, it's being hidden from the public but Lavender is being threatened by some stalker." 

Pete's body temperature spiked at the news. He sat up again. "Seriously?" From what he has seen in interviews and such, Lavender Sky was kind, friendly and caring. It didn't make sense for anyone to threaten her. 

"Yeah," Mark confirmed. 

"I can't do it," Pete said. Regardless of his feelings, he couldn't do it. Lavender Sky deserved a bodyguard who would be focused on their job and task at hand, not a bodyguard who would be too distracted by her beauty.

"Think of it as a way of getting over her," Mark suggested. "You'll see her true colours."

Pete rubbed his eyes, then scratched his head, confused. "What are you talking about?"

"She's been traveling a lot for her movie's press tour so she's tired. She's going to come back to town after a long flight and instead of going home, she's going to a library to read to a bunch of kids. She's being threatened by some creep. From what I heard from her agency, Lavender doesn't even want bodyguards around her. This is a perfect recipe for someone to behave exactly like they are without putting up a front."

"Mark...," Pete sighed, pleading. With himself or with Mark, he wasn't sure yet. 

"Who wouldn't be frustrated and irritated in these circumstances?" Mark pressed. "You'll see first hand who she really is and how much she sucks and then you'll be over her. I promise."

So here he was, two hours later, waiting for Lavender Sky's arrival. 

"She'll be here any second now," one of the two female bodyguards said, looking at her wristwatch. 

Being new to the job, Pete didn't know a lot of his co-workers. He got the jobs no one else wanted. He traveled a lot with touring bands. From new ones that hardly anyone had ever heard of to old ones that people had forgotten and all inbetween. Being cousins with the boss didn't have any perks. Well...not for him at least. Maybe for Mark. 

Pete was in the middle of cursing Mark's name once again when his coworker next to him perked up. 

"There she is."

Pete froze. 

He couldn't do this. 

Pete's mouth suddenly went dry as he heart began racing. This was such a bad idea. 

Slowly, he turned his gaze to the gates and time stopped. Lavender Sky Jones was much more beautiful in person. Much too beautiful. She had on a denim bucket hat that matched her denim overalls. Underneath her overalls, she wore a beautiful neon orange, green and purple tie-dye t-shirt. It matched her beautiful dark skin tone perfectly. 

This was wrong. Pete's feet shuffled as he thought of an escape plan but then a voice that sounded a lot like his jerk-of-a cousin's told him to stay exactly where he was. 

"Right," Pete whispered to himself. "She'll be a total grump and I'll be over her quickly." 

All Pete had to do today was accompany Lavender Sky to the library and then to her agency and that was it. He would keep his distance, do his job and never have to see her again. There were four other people he could put between him and her. 

"Hi!" Lavender Sky greeted. Her eyes were shining and her smile was bright. Nothing like how someone should look after a 13 hour flight. "I love your shirts!" she claimed, laughing while pointing at our shirts. "We all match!" she pointed at her own, beaming.

Pete looked around to see if someone was filming us. Lavender Sky was so kind and cute. This couldn't be real.

"We wanted to show support, Miss Jones," Will said. Will was the most senior member of the team so he would be the one closest to Lavender Sky all day. 

"Please call me Lavender," she said. Lavender watched all of them carefully. Pete looked at the side of her face to avoid eye contact. "You guys are; Will, Rob, Cate, Lauren and Richard, right?" she asked. 

"Oh! You know our names already?" Will asked, surprised. 

"Yes, my agency told me who to expect," Lavender smiled. 

"Richard is not feeling well today so he's not here. This is Pete," Will introduced, pointing to Pete. Lavender quickly scrunched her eyebrows but she schooled her face just as quickly. A small smile grew on her face.

Surprisingly, Lavender stepped up to shake all of their hands individually. Pete quickly and discreetly wiped his palm on the side of his pants before he shook Lavender's hand. Her hand was warm and soft in his.

Rob stepped up to grab Lavender's luggage and Pete, remembering he was supposed to be working, made to grab Lavender's duffel bag but she stopped him. "I'd like to hold onto this if you don't mind," Lavender said. 

"Sure, ma'am," Pete said, backing off.

Lavender laughed. It was soft and bright. "Ma'am? I insist you call me Lavender, ok?" 

Pete could only nod. 

They quickly escorted her out of the airport to the airport garage where the black seven seater SUV was parked. Like they had done it before, everyone got in the car quickly and they pulled out of the airport, headed for the library. 

"Thank you all for meeting me at the airport. I know you must've waited a long time," Lavender said, looking around the car. She was seated in the second row on the right hand side. 

"No need to apologize, Miss Jones," Will said from  the driver's seat. All the guards, including Pete, nodded in agreement. 

There was silence in the car for about a minute before Lavender's phone rang. "Excuse me," she said, pulling it from her duffle bag along with her wireless earphones.

For the entire ride to the public library, Lavender spoke on her phone to her manager in whispers. She would type something on her phone every now and then, but for the most part, she just stared outside through the window. An unreadable expression on her face.

Parking at a private lot behind the library, Lavender ended her conversation and addressed the guards. 

"I'm so sorry about that," she sheepishly apologized. Unzipping her duffel bag, she pulled out several small gift bags. "I was in Dubai yesterday when I was told about you guys, so I couldn't pack a lot but I wanted to get you guys something either way." 

One by one, she handed out the small gift bags to all the stunned guards in the car. With pursed lips, she gave a bag to Pete last. She hesitated to give it to him and he hesitated to accept it. 

Pete peered into the bag. Inside the bag were candies, chocolates and dates. There was a keychain in there as well as oud. The biggest surprise of all was the sand art that was inscripted with their names. Pete's sand art said, "Richard." 

"I'm sorry, Pete," Lavender said, watching him closely. "I thought it would be Richard today. You can keep everything else in the bag and pass the sand art along to him," Lavender suggested. 

"Thank you," was all Pete could say, finally meeting Lavender's eyes.

Lavender smiled at him. 

"Thank you so much," Will said, breathlessly. A collection of thank yous followed after, Lavender smiling at all of them. 

Pete wondered if Mark was mistaken about Lavender not wanting any bodyguards around her. 

"We have to go," Lavender said with a huge grin on her face. "I have a bunch of kids waiting to be read a story! Leave your bags in the car." Not waiting for anyone, Lavender opened the car door and walked out, leaving her duffle bag behind. There was a pause where none of the guards moved before they all scampered out of the car, following Lavender.

The book reading was uneventful for the guards and eventful for the kids in attendance. They - and their parents - were excited to see a celebrity in person. 

Putting up a front of being volunteers for the event, the guards were watchful and attentive to all the attendees, even the children. 

Pete, having a newfound respect for Lavender, was extra cautious of the crowd. And extra cautious of his respectful distance with Lavender. His hope of her being an awful person was crushed but he couldn't be angry because he was too busy being proud of having a crush on such an amazing person. 

The event took longer than scheduled because Lavender took the time to sign autographs for everyone in attendance, including the guards. 

Rushing to her meeting at the agency, everything felt like a blur to Pete. 

Just like the drive from the airport, Lavender was once again speaking with her manager on the phone. 

Once they got to the agency, Lavender took the time to thank them all for their time and assistance for the day. In a flash, she was out of the car and running to her agency's building, Will hot on his feet behind her. He would be the one to meet her manager and sign off for the day. 

Waiting in the car, Pete released a slow breath. He finally felt like he could breathe again.

He was in serious trouble. 

Lavender Sky Jones was amazing. Much more amazing than he had previously thought. His crush on her didn't go away, it only grew.

*******************************************************************

Pete groaned into his pillow when he was rudely awaken by his phone ringing, the next day. 

He groaned again when he saw who was calling. He should really consider blocking his cousin. 

Pete answered the phone. 

"I need you to pretend to be Lavender Sky's boyfriend for three months," Mark said, straight to the point. 

Pete hung up.