Page 95 of Hideaway Heart

kelly

“Babe,we talked about this. I said no.” Duke’s smooth baritone dripped with patronizing superiority.

“No, you said it could wait. And if you want me back in Nashville tomorrow, you’ll say yes. Otherwise, I’m going to enjoy the rest of my trip.”

“Stop playing around, Pixie.” His voice lost some of its buttery charm. “We’ve got work to do.”

“If you’ll introduce me as Kelly Jo, I’ll be home tomorrow,” I said.

“The producers won’t want that,” he said. “They agreed to Pixie Hart and that’s who you’ll have to be. She’s the name. And it makes no sense to me why you’d want to walk away from everything you’ve built.”

“It doesn’t have to make sense to you, Duke.”

“Well, the answer is no.”

“I’m going to wait to hear what the producers say.”

“They’ll say whatever I tell them to,” he scoffed. “Don’t forget who I am.”

“I know exactly who you are.”

“Good.” And he hung up.

I dropped my phone into my bag. “That did not go well.”

“I could tell.” Xander’s hands were white-knuckled on the wheel. “I’m sorry he’s such a dickhead.”

“It’s okay. Let’s forget about it for tonight.”

* * *

While Veronica and Xander sat at the dining room table to work, I helped Austin out in the kitchen. At first, Austin had insisted he didn’t need any help, but I told him I wasn’t raised to sit around while someone else did all the work, and besides, I liked cooking. He eventually agreed to let me do some peeling and chopping, and we stood side by side in the kitchen, chatting amiably and watching Xander and Veronica go over her notes from this week’s interviews.

I asked about his new business venture, if he planned to open up a storefront, how many people were on his wait list for a table and what a girl had to do to get on it.

He laughed. “I can put you on it. I just need some measurements, room size and all that.”

“No problem. I’m heading back to Nashville within the next couple days, and Xander’s actually going to come with me, so I’ll have him take the measurements and get them to you.”

“Xander’s going to Nashville?” Austin sounded surprised.

“I think so. He wants to make sure the cameras at my house are working, hire a new security team for me, do a risk assessment on my property. I told him it wasn’t necessary, but he’s insisting.”

“Xander’s a stubborn son of a bitch.”

I laughed. “He is. And it’s such an inconvenience, with his bar opening soon and all.”

“Then it must really matter to him,” said Austin, right as we heard a sudden hammering on the ceiling above our heads.

“What’s that?” I tipped my head back and stared at the plaster.

“That is my children practicing their tap dancing on Owen’s bedroom floor. Ever since Veronica helped them create homemade tap shoes and taught them some steps, they’ve taken to rolling up the rug and letting loose on the oak, even though I’ve asked them to please use the basement instead.” He shook his head and wiped his hands on a kitchen towel. “Excuse me for one second.”

I laughed as he strode with long legs past the dining room table toward the stairs at the front of his house. He had a beautiful home, not super stylish or anything, but immaculately clean and full of warmth. Briefly I wondered if Xander would eventually have a home and family like this, but when I looked at him sitting at the dining room table, I experienced such a fierce longing for him that my chest ached. I was jealous of this future wife, this woman who would get everything.

His sunny afternoons on the boat and his rainy days on the couch. His lazy smile over coffee in the morning. His Denver omelets and sizzling bacon. His Sunday dinners with extended family. His boyish laugh and his possessive growl. His wide, strong palms on her stomach. His beard prickly on her thighs. His voice deep and gravelly in the dark. His camera focused on her as she luxuriated in warm white sheets on a soft Sunday morning. His time. His attention. His protection.

I had to stop there. I wasn’t normally a jealous person and didn’t particularly enjoy envying the life of some woman I didn’t even know—for fuck’s sake, even Xander didn’t know who she was. She wasn’t even real yet.