Page 5 of Forever Country (Forever Bluegrass #24)

H olt hefted up the heavy outdoor chair and moved it around the pool before setting it down. He didn’t know why the movers would put the chair facing the house instead of the beautiful scenery of the rolling hills and trees.

Thunder rumbled and a moment later rain began to fall. His three horses had been delivered a couple of hours ago, and this was their first night in their new barn. Holt didn’t pay attention to the rain as he headed to the nearby barn that sat slightly back from the house.

The barn door leading to the pasture was open, but he had to push the front barn door open to enter.

The horses were tucked in, nice and dry, as Holt checked on them.

He gave them a little treat and a rub as he examined their stalls to make sure there were no leaks.

The horses didn’t seem bothered by the storm as they munched on their dinner.

Tomorrow, he’d let them out into their new pasture to run.

Holt walked back into the rain on his way to his house.

It was really coming down, and he noticed the moon was now completely covered by clouds.

By the time he closed the large glass French doors, he was dripping water over his new floor as he walked to the kitchen.

Holt stripped off his shirt and kicked off his wet sneakers, putting both in the laundry room behind the kitchen.

He was walking out of the laundry room in nothing but his athletic shorts when he heard the pounding. He thought it was thunder for a moment, until he realized it was someone pounding on the glass doors to the patio. If Sarah Marie was back, he was going to have to get a little rude with her.

Holt rounded the corner, cut through the kitchen, but stutter-stepped when he saw a frantic looking woman at his door.

She was soaking wet and kept glancing behind her with wide eyes.

Holt rushed forward and yanked the door open.

She fell forward in surprise since she’d been looking away when he’d jerked the door open.

Holt’s arms came around her to prevent her from falling as she crashed into his chest. She fit perfectly against him, but she was shaking. This wasn’t the time to appreciate her curvy figure or the way she felt in his arms. “Are you okay?”

Holt set her back from him so he could look down at her. Her brown eyes were frantic, her chest was heaving as if she’d been running, but her voice was steady. “Thank goodness you’re here. My name is Annaleigh Astore. I’m your next-door neighbor and someone was chasing me.”

Holt pulled her to him again, only this time, putting her behind his bare back and looking out into the night. “Holt Everett. There are towels and dry clothes in my bedroom. Lock the door behind me, call the police, and hide. I’ll knock four times, three seconds apart, when I come back.”

Holt was already running out the door toward the way she was glancing when he heard her. “No! I don’t want you hurt.”

“Don’t worry about me, sweetheart. Lock the door,” Holt yelled over his shoulder.

Holt didn’t stop as his bare feet slapped the stone patio before his feet landed on the slick yet soft grass.

He raced toward the fence he couldn’t see through the dark and the rain, but knew where it was from mowing.

It took a minute to get away from the house lights, giving his vision time to adjust to the darkness.

He slowed as he listened to the noises around him.

Lightning streaked across the sky and, in the distance, he saw a figure at the fence.

The figure was looking around as if looking for Annaleigh.

Holt sprinted forward. The figure turned, saw Holt in another flash of lightning, and took off into the darkness.

“Get back here, asshole!” Holt yelled over the rain.

Holt didn’t stop running until he reached the fence.

Thunder shook the ground and lightning flashed, but the figure was gone.

Every instinct told Holt to hunt this man down, but then a pull was coming from the house.

He couldn’t leave Annaleigh unprotected.

The second he’d had her in his arms, he knew he would protect her at all costs.

Annaleigh stood watching Holt’s figure melt into the darkness. Holt freaking Everett was her new neighbor. He was up for Artist of the Year and a slew of other awards. He was her parents’ white whale. And he’d just taken off to protect her with no questions asked.

A shiver rocked her body so hard her teeth clattered together.

It wasn’t from the cold either, it was from fear and adrenaline.

Annaleigh locked the door and headed into the kitchen as she called 911 and reported the incident.

She glanced around and spotted the knife block on the countertop.

She wasn’t going to be left defenseless.

Annaleigh grabbed the largest knife from the block before hurrying through the house looking for Holt’s bedroom.

She found the first-floor primary bedroom at the corner of the house.

Huge windows and glass doors gave Holt views of his land.

The room was put together, but it was clear it hadn’t been lived in yet.

There were no clothes on a chair, or pillows that looked as if someone had even laid their head on them before.

Her heart beat and her body continued to shiver as she entered his en suite, finding a towel and stripping off her clothes.

It felt strangely intimate to get naked in a man’s bathroom.

A man she’d only met a minute ago and had the reputation as a bit of a playboy, even if it was mostly floated around on the sighs of women wishing they could be with him.

Annaleigh wrapped the towel around her and then headed into his bedroom.

Looking around, she saw pictures of friends and family and a framed poem in a child’s handwriting on loose leaf paper.

Everything in her told her she was invading Holt’s privacy, but he’d told her to do this.

Even so, she felt as if she were a thief sneaking around as she hunted down a pair of athletic shorts that she had to roll several times at the waist to prevent them from falling and then an oversized hoodie for the pro football team, Lexington Thoroughbreds.

Annaleigh thought about hiding in the bedroom, but she thought that would be the first place someone would look.

Then she thought about hiding upstairs, but she didn’t want to be trapped and away from an exit if found.

Dining room. No one ever hid in dining rooms. Annaleigh hurried from the bedroom and found the dining room in the middle of the house.

It had two exits. One went to the kitchen and one to the hallway leading to both the front door and the living room.

She was about to crawl under the table when she heard the knock on the front door.

She stopped breathing as she waited. Then there was another knock at the interval Holt told her about.

Annaleigh stood up and tightened her grip on the knife as she made her way slowly toward the living room.

She paused before turning into the room and peeking around the corner.

There, illuminated by the lights, was a soaking wet, shirtless Holt Everett.

Annaleigh lost her breath for a whole different reason than fear.

Holt Everett was drop-dead sexy. His hair was shoved back from his face and sticking up slightly from where he’d obviously run his hand through it.

Water droplets ran from his hair onto his face, around his blue eyes, and over the scruff he had from not shaving for a couple of days.

His jaw was strong, his expression fierce, and that wasn’t taking into account shoulders that made her drool, his chest muscles were covered with a smattering of hair, and dear lord, the abs.

He raised his hand and knocked one more time and Annaleigh saw his forearm flex.

Talk about arm porn. Suddenly the chill was gone and she was flooded with heat as she stepped into the living room.

Holt saw her and the intensity of his gaze almost stopped her in her tracks. Then his lips, which had been set in a serious flat line, tilted up as he saw the knife. “Good girl,” he called out with a nod to the knife. “Can you let me in? It’s safe now.”

Holy smokes. Annaleigh hadn’t ever been called a good girl. Why on earth did that make her so hot? His praise was like a lusty lightning bolt straight through her. Annaleigh shook her head to bring her back to the seriousness of the situation she was in and rushed forward to unlock the door.

Holt walked in, shaking his head and sending rain droplets flying. “I saw someone, but his hood was up so I couldn’t make out any features. He ran back onto your property. Is anyone at home that you could call? A boyfriend? Husband?”

“No. I’m single. It’s technically my parents’ property.

My brother has a house there too, and I live in an apartment above our barn.

So, it’s not like I’m living with my parents exactly,” Annaleigh told him, trying to rectify this side of Holt Everett to the one the media portrayed as a party boy.

While the stories in the press always showed how nice he was and the charity work he did, they still focused on his dates and parties.

If they saw this side? Holt wouldn’t be safe from 75% of the population.

Maybe more. Because serious, protective Holt was sexier than anything the media could dream up.

“Astore... as in Astore Entertainment?” Holt asked as if he were connecting the dots as to her identity.

“Yes. Mary Kathryn and Drew Astore are my parents, and I work at Astore Entertainment.” Annaleigh saw the frown begin on Holt’s face. “But I’m nothing like my family.”

“No offense, Miss Astore”—well, that couldn’t be good if he were calling her that—“but your parents have done every underhanded trick to get me to sign with them. This could just be one more trick.”

Annaleigh was ready to argue, but unfortunately, she was cast in this role all too often. She let out a sigh and her shoulders drooped. “Yeah, I know. All I can say is I’m sorry.”

“Do you want to call your parents? Where are they?”

“No, I don’t want to call them. We’re not close even if we work and live together.

Same with my brother, Saxton. They’re at some gala or something that I purposely worked too late to make.

They don’t take me seriously. They only want me to flirt my way into new clients or marry up to solidify their position in the industry.

” Annaleigh took a deep breath. “Thank you for protecting me tonight. If you don’t mind giving me a ride home, I’ll be going now.

I’ll get these clothes back to you tomorrow. ”

Sirens cut her off from telling him she’d walk home if he didn’t want to give her a ride.

“Let’s talk with the cops first,” Holt told her before heading to his bedroom, grabbing a towel and running it over his body while he talked to her.

“And I’m sorry. I obviously don’t know you or your family situation. ”

“It’s okay. I’m used to it.” Annaleigh was trying to be respectful by keeping her back to him, but it was hard not to watch the path of the towel as he ran it over his body before grabbing a T-shirt and pulling it over his body.

“No, I shouldn’t have done it. Believe me, I know about being judged for who their parents are and what they do for a living.”

“Maybe so, but your parents seem amazing.”

Holt smiled as the police rang the doorbell after using their emergency code on the gate.

“They are, but that doesn’t mean I don’t know what it’s like to be judged based on them.

I was only mediocre at football, and I can’t tell you the number of guys who pretended to be my friends only for them to throw themselves at my mom.

So, yes, not like your situation, but familiar territory just the same,” Holt told her as they walked to the front door.

Annaleigh hung back as the cops introduced themselves and were a little star-struck before Holt got them back to her situation. They asked her basic questions, but seemed more impressed that Holt went after the man than the fact that the man was there in the first place.

“We’ll look around your property and let you know if we find anything,” one of the cops told her.

“I’ll go—”

“We’ll both be waiting here for you,” Holt said, cutting her off, which only pissed her off. She’d already been dismissed tonight by the cops. They probably thought the same thing that Holt had—it was all a ploy to get his attention.

The cops left and Annaleigh spun on Holt the second the door was closed. “Don’t ever speak for me. It’s clear none of you believe me.”

“Sweetheart,” Holt said, looking deadly serious, “I do believe you, which is why you’re staying with me while they go look around the property. We both know they didn’t take it seriously, but I do. I’m not sending you back there without someone else there to look out for you.”

Annaleigh stopped the argument she was about to launch died in her throat. “Wait. You believe me?”

“Yes. I saw the man with my own two eyes and your fear was all too real to be some staged act to meet me. I know I said that it could be a ploy, but that was stupid of me. My mom had her fair share of stalkers. I’m not about to let you walk back over there as if this isn’t a serious issue.

Have you had any other issues recently?”

All her righteous anger evaporated and Annaleigh felt her body sag with the stress of it all.

Holt was there, placing his arm around her waist and leading her to his sofa.

“Yes,” she told him sitting down. “It started with flowers and love notes being delivered to my office. We couldn’t figure out who was behind them.

But they were harmless. However, recently I have been getting feelings of being watched. ”

“Did you tell your parents?” Holt asked.

“Yeah. They said it would be bad press and they didn’t want their clients to be afraid.”

Holt cursed under his breath. “Look, I’m good with parents, but yours are horrible. Come on. Let’s see if Sarah Marie’s moving company did what they were supposed to.”

Holt stood up and held out his hand. “What are you talking about?”

“It’s clear you need someone to protect you. That will be me since your parents are more concerned with image over protecting their daughter. Let’s see if one of the guest rooms upstairs is set up. You have the honor of being my first guest but don’t tell my mother. She was hoping it would be her.”

Annaleigh placed her hand in his. Holt didn’t let go as he stood up. Instead, he laced his fingers through hers and held her hand as they walked upstairs. “Wow, who knew the Broadway Bachelor was such a gentleman? I really appreciate this, Holt.”