Page 11 of Sweet Obsession (Honeysuckle, Texas #5)

“What the hell are you doing?” The screen door had barely slammed behind Blake when he punched in his manager’s private number.

“So you remembered how to use a phone?” Phil Mercer could be so annoying some days.

“Never mind me. What’s this I’m missing thing all about?”

“Hey, I had to find some way to flush you out. Apparently, it worked.”

“You couldn’t have just left a voice mail?” Blake leaned against the railing.

“I tried that. You didn’t return my calls.”

“I didn’t have anything to say.” Not yet, he wanted to figure out what was going on with his grandmother and he didn’t want Phil telling him why he couldn’t do that.

“The production company in London wants you fly in a week early.”

“No.”

“They want you to do a benefit concert for one of the king’s favored charities and the week before the first concert is not only perfect timing, it will do a lot to help with sales when we release the live concert album.”

“What part of no isn’t clear?” Normally sarcasm wasn’t typical for him, but he was really ticked off at what Phil had done to get his attention.

“Are you listening to me? I said the king .”

“I heard you.” No one was more important than his family.

The thought caught him by surprise, but it was heartfelt and sincere.

No matter the cost, his grandmother had to come first. “I need you to retract the statement to the press. The last thing I need is for every Tom, Dick, and reporter hunting me down like a rabid dog.”

“I’ll see what I can do, but you know how this sort of thing works. Putting the genie back in the bottle doesn’t always work well.”

“I don’t care how you do it, just do it.”

“Okay. And I’ll let the team know that you’ll do the concert.”

“The answer is still no. My grandmother isn’t well.”

A long pause hung on the other end. Finally, Phil found his words. “Cancer?”

“No. She’s confused.”

Phil scoffed. “Blake, half the world is confused right now. Heck, probably more than that. I’m going to say yes.”

“Do that and you’re fired.”

Another silence and Blake could almost feel the steam coming from Phil’s ears right through the cell phone speaker. “You can’t throw your career away because your grandmother can’t remember when your birthday is.”

So he did recall their conversation right after his grandmother’s middle of the night birthday call. “Saying no to a benefit, or even canceling a concert if it comes to that, is not going to end my career.”

“Wait. Canceling? Blake, I don’t know what you’ve been smoking, but you need to get your head on straight. I’m going to let you sleep on it. I’ll call you tomorrow. And next time, answer the damn phone.”

Before Blake could respond, the line went dead. What Phil didn’t seem to understand, and what Blake was becoming increasingly aware of, was that his head might very well be on straight for the first time in a long time.

“Everything okay?” Jillian stood in the back doorway, her hands on the screen door. She really grew up to be beautiful in so many ways.

“Not sure.” Glancing down at his phone, he briefly wondered what stunt Phil might pull next, before footsteps from the house had him lifting his gaze to meet hers.

“That doesn’t sound good.” She came to a stop at his side, only instead of looking at him, or his phone, her eyes followed the stars sparkling in the sky like a diamond on velvet. “Something about the night sky that always makes me think nothing is insurmountable.”

Taking a good long look, he realized it had been forever since he’d seen a sky like this. There was no room for argument. The Texas sky could make anyone and their problems seem small. “Are we talking about my problems, or your problems?”

Heaving in a deep sigh, she slowly blew out a long, easy breath. “Both, I guess.” She spun around so her back was to the rail and the sky. “Are you sure you want to do this? Bail out my family?”

There was no need to think, he was already nodding his head.

“I snore.” Her cheeks took on a pinker tone. “According to Rachel, like a chainsaw.”

That had him laughing softly, quickly forgetting his own troubles.

Without thinking, he lifted his hand and gently tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear.

“I’m a very sound sleeper. Once in LA, I slept through an earthquake.

Woke up to find the kitchen cabinets had swung open and pretty much every glass and plate in the house was smashed on the floor. ”

“Good to know.” Her smile was so dang sweet. Just like her name. “So, now what?”

He shrugged. “Y’all have done this four times already. Maybe you should tell me?”

“Well,” her gaze darted to the house and back, “each one put on a show for Mom and the town, then quickly had an excuse to marry. The hard part was everyone had to live here under Mom’s nose.

Originally Preston and Sarah Sue thought they’d live in his apartment, but when it burned down and there became a shortage of housing, everyone had to live here. ”

Nodding, Blake thought about that. He didn’t own a house here. Living with his parents or her parents was six of one or half a dozen of the other. Living under a microscope, at least while he was in town, wouldn’t be easy. “Has the housing shortage improved any? I mean, could I buy a house for us?”

Her head shook from side to side. “Everyone displaced snatched up anything available. There isn’t much property turnover in Honeysuckle, and Preston’s apartment building is still under construction.

Determining the cause as well as permit issues delayed the repairs.

I heard there was a debate whether to refurbish or tear it down and start over. ”

“Who won?”

“The refurbish side. Though by the time it’s done, there won’t be much, if anything, original on the inside.”

“So it sounds like we date, we get engaged, we marry, and at first, we live here?”

“That about covers it.”

“How much time do we have to pull all this off?” He had a crazy urge to take her hand, or better yet, pull her into the fold of his arms. Not smart.

“Yesterday would have been good.”

He sucked in a hiss of air. “That soon?”

This time her chin dipped in an affirmative gesture, but he could see from the way that she nibbled on her lower lip, she wasn’t anymore comfortable with the timeline than he was.

Debating how he was going to pull off dating Jillian and keeping a low profile, he reached for her hand, and before he could fully process what he was doing, he’d pulled her into his personal space.

Ignoring the squeak of the screen door hinges, leaning in, he pressed his lips ever so gently to hers.

There was no time to think. Her toes were curling and her arms looped around Blake’s neck. Deepening the kiss, Blake slid his arms around her waist and eased her even closer. She had no idea what heaven would be like, but it couldn’t possibly be better than wrapped in Blake’s arms.

A throat cleared behind them. Maybe if she ignored whoever it was, they would simply go away. Once again, the throat cleared more loudly, followed by her mother’s voice. “Excuse me.”

Her mother? Dropping her arms to her side, Jillian sprang back faster than if someone had set her on fire.

Standing behind her daughter, Alice Sweet wore a smile that was almost as wide as her face. “Mildred McEntire called for you.”

“What does Mildred need with me?” The kiss had Jillian’s brain all fogged. She couldn’t think of why the bling queen of Honeysuckle would need her.

Her mother shook her head. “Not you. Blake.”

“Me?” The man’s eyes rounded in surprise.

Before Alice could say anything more, high heels clacking against the wooden floors inside echoed loudly, the sound growing closer until the screen door flew open and hands on her hips, toes tapping, Iris Hathaway stood in the doorway.

“You’re going to have to figure something out.

And fast. There are at least ten different reporters snooping around downtown. ”

“How did you know he was here?” Jillian blurted out.

Iris shot her a you’re-kidding glare. “Blake, honey, if you think wearing a cowboy hat and not shaving would keep your presence in town a secret, you’ve got another think coming.”

“Excuse me?”

“We figure you must have your reasons for not wanting anyone to know you’re back home and hiding out at the Sweet Ranch, but you can’t go slinking around town in a hoodie, climb into your grandmother’s window, drive a flashy car out of town, and no one knows what you’re up to.”

“I, uh, see,” Blake muttered softly.

Jillian felt her cheeks burn. The entire town had been watching Blake, and no one had said a word?

“Does the whole town know I’m here?” Blake ran a hand through his hair.

“Since about five minutes after you climbed through your grandmother’s window,” Iris said matter-of-factly.

“Honey, this is Honeysuckle. A stranger can’t sneeze downtown without half the town knowing about it by supper.

You think a famous rock star can break into his own grandmother’s house in broad daylight and we wouldn’t notice? ”

Alice stepped forward, her expression gentle. “The whole town’s been protecting you, Blake. We figured you had your reasons for wanting privacy.”

“But now we’ve got reporters sniffing around.” Iris’s voice took on a more urgent tone. “They’re asking questions, showing pictures, offering money for information about where you are. It’s only a matter of time before someone talks, whether they mean to or not.”

“Pictures?” Blake asked.

“All kinds of photos. You with the band, you on stage, you with some blond in a strappy top, another with a redhead, uh, on, your lap. You know, typical rock star stuff.”

“Hmm.” Blake’s gaze darted to Jillian and back, his fingers raking through his hair with more pressure. “Marvy. Just marvy.”

Jillian’s stomach dropped. It hadn’t occurred to her how things were going to go this year with him on the road, supposedly married to her, and all the groupies hanging all over him. Knots formed in her stomach.

“What I don’t understand is,” Iris said, “why are you hiding out?”

“Trying to avoid exactly what’s happening now.

Paparazzi crawling all over town, bothering people, making sh…

stuff up. They’re always making stuff up.

Like those photos of women.” He turned to Jillian, leveling his eyes with hers.

“There are no women in my life, not anymore. No groupies. Nothing. Those photos are either older than Moses or artificially generated—which, again, is why I wanted to keep paparazzi away.”

“What kind of questions?” Jillian asked Iris, wanting to desperately believe what Blake was telling her.

“The usual.” Iris shrugged. “Where you’re staying, are you sick, are your parents sick, are you on a binge, do we think you’ve checked into rehab.”

“Rehab?” He spun around, clenching his fists at his sides. “Where do they come up with this crap!”

“Hey,” Iris held up her hands, “don’t shoot the messenger.”

Nudging Iris aside, Kade stepped forward, his expression grim.

He looked from Blake to Jillian, then to the rest of his siblings who had slowly followed him onto the back porch.

“She’s right. We can’t just hide him. This isn’t a game; reporters don’t give up, they dig.

If we don’t give them a story, they’ll invent one.

And theirs will be a hell of a lot worse than the truth. ”

“The truth?” Blake let out a humorless laugh. “The truth is I’m here because my grandmother is showing signs of dementia and I’m terrified. You think I want that splashed across the tabloids?”

The raw vulnerability in his voice squeezed at Jillian’s heart. Without thinking, she reached over and grabbed his hand, squeezing it slightly, offering what little comfort she could. The slight tipping of one corner of his mouth as he squeezed back only confused her more.

Her mother moved to Blake’s other side, as she’d done so many times, so many years ago. Her mother was there for all her children, and her sort-of children. “Of course not, dear.”

“So what’s the alternative?” Garret asked. “We stonewall them?”

“That’ll just make them dig harder,” Carson countered. “And with the reporters offering money to the locals for any gossip, it won’t be pretty.”

Jillian felt completely helpless. Now what?

Kade’s focus narrowed, his gaze locking first on his sister, then on his one-time best friend.

A glimmer of light dawned in his eyes, the look of a soldier assessing a battlefield and finally seeing a single, viable path forward.

“We’ll give them a story we all can live with.

A different story. A better one. One they won’t see coming. ”

Her brother looked to Blake, his gaze dropping to Jillian and his clasped hands, then back up. He waited a beat, staring at Blake until through some unspoken language. Blake got the message and nodded his agreement.

Suddenly, Carson starting bobbing his head, a smile teasing his lips. “I get it. What we were discussing earlier?”

Kade nodded. “You came to visit family during your break. You met the girl you left behind—”

“If you mean me,” Jillian had begun to put the pieces together, “I was ten the last time I saw Blake. If they’re any kind of reporters, they’ll figure that out fast.”

“Agreed.” Blake pulled Jillian closer to his side. “But you’re on the right track. I reconnected with my best friend’s little sister, who isn’t so little anymore.”

“Oh,” Sarah Sue clapped her hands together, “everyone loves a best friend little sister story. The reporters are going to eat it up. So will your fans.”

The air sizzled with an unexpected electricity.

Alice Sweet walked over and pulled her daughter into a tight hug.

“I don’t know what happened here, but I couldn’t be happier for you.

” Her mom eased back and then gave Blake an equally warm embrace until her phone beeped and she sprang back.

“Oh, heck. I forgot about Mildred. I’ll tell her what’s going on. ”

“And I,” Iris turned to follow Alice, “will get started on spreading the word about the new romance.” Rubbing her hands together, Iris almost shook with excitement as she hurried back into the house.

Preston turned to Blake. “I guess we’ve killed two birds with one stone. Your presence in town,” he spun around to face the other siblings, “and our next trust fund payment is just a marriage license away.”