Chapter 8
eight
S urely she had enough money for a veggie omelet.
Rosalyn pulled the sleeves of her cropped hoodie down over her fingers as she traversed the sidewalk leading away from the studio. The morning had grown unseasonably mild with the threat of rain, but Magnolia Blossom was only a few blocks from Lettie’s. Hopefully she’d make it before the inevitable downpour hit.
Her shoes scuffed the sidewalk as she strolled. In a million years, she’d never have imagined needing to be paid before an event. But she couldn’t ask for an advance without raising suspicion. She was supposed to be rich.
And she was, once upon a time.
The wind blew a light mist into Rosalyn’s face, whipping at her high ponytail as she picked up her pace. Her stomach growled. What were the odds that Magnolia Blossom would be having a breakfast sale?
A biker wearing a helmet and knee pads coasted by, and she slowed to draw in the deep aroma of the knockout roses blooming between The Spin Shop and Second Story.
She’d heard a scripture on a social media reel recently—something about the flowers being clothed with no effort of their own? Sounded nice. If God cared about birds and flowers having their needs met, maybe He cared about hers too?
Then again, the flowers hadn’t made stupid decisions to put themselves in need in the first place. Somehow she’d gone from being a straight-A student to the most naive person on the planet.
Though apparently in her father’s eyes, she was still a superstar. She’d had coffee—well, tea—with him early this morning before he went to the office, and he’d expressed the same sentiment her mother had about looking forward to the circus and seeing her perform. About being proud of her.
If he only knew.
Rosalyn swallowed, shoved the thought aside as she nodded at a passing jogger. She’d had a productive morning on the silks at Lettie’s, and now the rest of the day stretched before her. If Cade wasn’t still acting strange, maybe they could finish more Magnolia Days prep. Get back their rhythm after that cryptic comment about his seeing her perform.
Rosalyn’s phone buzzed from the deep pocket of her yoga pants as the first raindrop hit her scalp. Her chest tightened as she looked at the screen.
He wasn’t going to stop calling.
She slowed to a stop, standing off the sidewalk by Magnolia Blossom. If she kept putting it off, he’d know something was up. She tapped the Accept button and cleared her throat. “Hello?”
“Hey.” Blaine’s warm voice filled her ear. “Finally. You’ve been impossible to reach, dollface.”
She hated that nickname. “Hey, yeah. I’ve been settling in.”
“How long could it possibly take to settle in such a one-hick town?” Blaine laughed, the sound casting images in her mind of dark sunglasses and neon lights, bourbon and expensive cologne. “What’s the name of that place again? I can’t remember what you said.”
She hadn’t said. When she signed with Blaine years ago, she was coming off a group act based in Nashville. He’d never needed to know where she grew up.
And while he could find out if he tried, no reason to make it easy. Or risk others finding out as well. After his lie, she couldn’t trust him not to give the wrong people the wrong info.
Rosalyn glanced at the clouds piling overhead. “I was about to get in the shower.” The lie burned her tongue. But how many lies had Blaine told her? “Can I check in with you later?”
Ugh. She hated the verbiage she defaulted to with him. Technically, she was on leave. This particular leave happened to have a gig attached to it, which Blaine couldn’t know. If he realized her knee was ready to perform again, he’d have her on a plane back to a theater in no time.
And while her knee was ready, she was definitely not.
“I don’t like not being able to reach you.” His voice hardened a notch.
There went the mood swings again, the ones she’d tried to avoid ever since they landed back on US soil. “You’re reaching me now, silly.” She infused lightheartedness into her tone, hoping he’d match it. He’d gotten weird lately, stressed. Was he on something?
“Sure, after how many days?” In the background, a pen clicked. She could see him sitting in his sky rise office, staring out the window toward the fog of downtown Los Angeles, jagged lines of blocky skyscrapers disturbing the horizon. “Is everything okay there?”
She looked up. “Right as rain.” Thunder rumbled in the distance.
“It sounds like you’re outside. I thought you said you were getting in the shower.”
She turned away as a group of women in matching T-shirts pushed inside the diner. “I’m?—”
“You know I don’t like lies, Rosalyn.” The pen clicked faster.
Well, that was ironic. But she couldn’t confront him now—not when he was the current gatekeeper for her very life. She gripped the phone. “Calm down. I’m outside, but meant I was about to head in to get cleaned up.”
Blaine’s vinegar turned to sugar. “Sorry, doll. You know how I get when I worry.”
Didn’t she, though.
The sugar melted into molasses. “I miss you.”
Ew . Her stomach roiled. “Blaine?—”
“Now you calm down.” He laughed, as breezy as the wind tugging at Rosalyn’s hair. The sprinkles of rain grew bigger, dampening her shirt. But she didn’t go inside. If Blaine heard diner chatter in the background, he’d be livid.
His pen resumed clicking. “I know it’s just business with us. Doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate one of my super stars, right?”
“I guess.” Rosalyn’s tight shoulders refused to relax. He’d always been quick with the compliments. Not that she wanted them from him anymore. Not since he had proved his true colors, put her in danger.
“Of course, if you wanted to change that status…” He laughed. “We already have a foot in the door, right? Would be easy.”
“Very funny.” Rosalyn took a deep breath, trying to convince her body she was on a phone call, not being chased by a tiger.
He’d given her the perfect segue to ask for an update on their legal situation.
But that would still risk an explosion. She hesitated, debating.
His pen abruptly silenced. “Look, I’ve got another call coming in.”
Decision made for her. She couldn’t decide if she was relieved.
“Rest up, take care of yourself so I can get you back on stage where you belong.”
Was that where she belonged?
“See you soon.” Blaine hung up before she could decide.
Rosalyn eyed the diner, appetite all but gone. How had everything in her career gotten so off track so quickly? And when had she gotten so naive? She’d been a straight-A student her entire life, for crying out loud. Valedictorian. Harvard education. She’d been so smart.
So how had she been so fooled?
In school, when she felt stupid, she studied harder. Sacrificed more. Proved herself. Now she had no such remedy.
She was stuck, and it was her own fault.
Tears pressed her eyes, and she blinked rapidly, refusing to let them fall. She wanted to be alone, but with her parents at home, Lettie in the studio, and the diner brimming with customers, her options were limited.
Then a familiar, sleek black car pulled up to the curb.
Cade.
She dug her palms into her eyes, but it did little to dam the emotion threatening to pour faster than the rain.
“Hey.” Cade slid out of his car, wearing a smile and no sign of yesterday’s awkwardness. He glanced at the darkening clouds, then reached back inside the Audi and retrieved an umbrella. “Is standing in the rain some new kind of aerial practice I’m not aware of?” He grinned. Rosalyn tried to return his smile but couldn’t force it up her cheeks. She probably looked a mess. She flipped up the hood of her sweatshirt, burrowing inside it. But the cold pressed deep. “Something like that.”
“You going inside to eat?” He popped open his umbrella and gestured toward the diner.
She looked over her shoulder at the bustling café, then back at him, unable to voice her answer as her throat clogged with unshed tears. She lifted one shoulder.
Why had she answered? Blaine always made her feel worse.
Cade studied her, his arm braced on the frame of the door, eyes curious but not judging. It made her want to dive into his embrace. Somewhere safe.
But wasn’t that what had gotten her into trouble? Assuming safety in the wrong places?
Rosalyn crossed her arms over her chest, hugging herself. Then the dam broke. The tears finally crested, spilling down her cheek and mixing with the rain.
“ Oh .” Cade’s expression flickered. He opened his mouth, closed it. Tilted his head as he seemed to consider his next words, his eyes reflecting his own storm. “Want to go for a drive?”
Rosalyn hesitated. There was no good reason to get in Cade’s car. She needed to be enforcing professional boundaries between them, not encouraging close proximity.
But this was Cade.
And she was tired of doing the disciplined thing, the wise thing, to make up for her mistakes. She nodded once, pausing to swipe her eyes.
If climbing into the front of that Audi was wrong, then at the moment, Rosalyn didn’t want to be right.
* * *
Cade had no idea where he was going, but he would’ve driven Rosalyn across the entire country if she’d asked.
So much for his resolve to stay professional.
Rain drizzled as he pulled onto Village Lane. He shot Rosalyn a glance, noting her huddled position in the passenger seat, and reached over to flip on her seat warmer. What in the world had happened before he pulled up to the diner? “Have you eaten today?”
She shivered, staring straight ahead toward the windshield wipers sluicing water off the window. “A bite of oatmeal and banana this morning before my workout. I’d planned to get brunch.”
“Here.” Cade reached into his console and handed her a bag of white powdered donuts—the gas station variety. “This is all I have…unless I can interest you in a Tic Tac.”
She snorted back another laugh mixed with tears. “I can’t eat these, but thanks for sharing your precious stash.”
“There’s plenty more where that came from.” He grinned, relief at her smile coursing through him. He hated seeing her cry. Seeing anyone cry, for that matter.
But he felt fairly confident that tears on Rosalyn’s cheeks tugged at him in a different way than they would’ve on Zoey’s or Elisa’s.
She put the bag back in the console as he pulled up to a stop sign. Left or right could take them around the block and back to Magnolia Blossom. Straight would continue their drive. Selfishly, he wanted to keep Rosalyn close. But if she was feeling a little better, she might prefer to get brunch—alone.
He flipped on his blinker. “I can take you back to the diner for some real food, if you want.”
Her smile faded. “No, this is good.” She gestured vaguely before huddling back into her sweatshirt.
He clicked off the blinker. “Onward.” He eased straight ahead as the rain fell a little harder.
“I’m sorry.” Her words were so soft Cade almost didn’t catch them.
“For rejecting my goodwill donuts?” He winked. Maybe if he didn’t let her know how much she affected him, he could keep up the professional charade. Of course, it’d be a lot easier if she didn’t look like she needed the world’s biggest hug right now.
Rosalyn reached up and tugged her hair tie free of her hair, letting it tumble over her shoulders like a golden waterfall. “For being emotional.”
He slowed as the car splashed through a puddle, holding back his response and hoping she’d elaborate further.
“Usually I’m so focused.” She sighed. “Disciplined.”
“Rigid?” Oops. Hadn’t meant to say that.
But she didn’t seem offended as she pulled the hair tie onto her wrist. If anything, it brought back that little ghost of a smile. “Probably.” Then it faded. “It’s so different with him. He…”
Seconds ticked by. She wasn’t finishing that sentence.
Cade flexed his hands on the steering wheel. “Look, whoever it is you’re talking about—you know I’d beat him up for you, right?” He stared straight ahead as they cruised the next block, unsure if she’d take the remark as kidding or serious. He’d play it off whichever way she chose to take it.
But if she looked into his eyes, she’d know the truth.
“Or you’d send Simon LeMoine to beat them up, anyway.” She cast him a sidelong look, her small grin visible in his peripheral vision. “Though I seem to remember you held your own at the Lazy Spoon that one night.”
“Ah.” Funny how she brought that up when he’d told the guys the story yesterday. He looked both ways through the rain-streaked windows as they stopped at the next intersection. “So you do accurately remember that I am, in fact, a superhero.”
Her voice softened. “You were that night.”
His eyes darted to meet hers, heat flaring in his chest.
She cleared her throat. “I mean, I totally could have taken him. But it was nice to have backup.”
“Backup, huh?” Cade rubbed his jaw, then pointedly opened his mouth. Click . “Let’s just say I knew it was going to rain before you did.”
“Yikes. Sorry about that.” She reached over and grazed her fingers across his affected cheek.
A shudder rippled down his spine. Thank the Lord they were at a stop sign. He tightened his grip on the wheel. One move of his head, and he could turn his face into her palm.
“It was worth it.” His heartbeat skyrocketed, louder in his head than the low hum of the engine and the faint hint of eighties rock from his playlist. Her hand stilled, fingers gently alight on his stubble that never seemed to realize it wasn’t yet five o’clock. Don’t move, don’t move.
But he’d never been very good at denying himself a treat.
He turned his face into her hand, her fingers cupping his cheek. Their gazes locked. She didn’t move away, and he couldn’t have if the car had burst into flames. Though judging by the heat welling in his chest, it might have already.
So much for his goal to end their flirting.
But this wasn’t flirting, was it? Her eyes held something unspoken yet tangible, a longing mixed with a promise that set his world on fire.
“Rosalyn…” He swallowed. She wasn’t looking away. The slightest movement of her fingers on his jaw sent a stampede of bulls thundering through his stomach that would’ve made Spain proud. “You know I’d do it again, if you needed me to.” Because being needed by Rosalyn Dupree gave him all the superpowers he required.
“I know.” Her chin dipped in a nod. “You were always there for me when it mattered. Even when we were each other’s competition.”
Except now whose competition was he?
Her words drummed a painful beat in his head. It’s so different with him. How long ago was this “him” that she was still worked up about? Enough to cry over after a phone call?
Regardless, he couldn’t stand it anymore. As if by its own accord, Cade’s hand found her cheek, cupped her face in a matching gesture until his fingers slid into her hair. The long strands felt like silk, exactly as he’d imagined. “I almost asked you out that night at the Lazy Spoon. I missed my chance.”
“I thought you were going to.” She traced the line of his jaw with one finger and the hair on the back of his neck tingled. “But then my friends interrupted us.”
“Yeah. And then you left.” He waited a beat. “Ran off and joined the circus.”
She pursed her lips, which had eased dangerously closer to his. “I guess I did.”
“And now you’re leaving again.”
She rolled in her lip, then nodded. “I guess I am.” Then she snorted a little. “Ironically, after your circus.”
Definitely ironic. Cade slowly let his hand drop onto the console between them. Rosalyn eased away at the same moment, so smoothly he wasn’t certain which of them retreated first.
Reality had come for them both.
He swallowed, unwilling to let the moment fully go but equally unsure what to say. “I…that…”
“Yeah.” Her eyes assured him she felt the same.
But the truth remained an obstacle between them. She was leaving—and her heart didn’t appear free to give away.
His stomach fisted into a knot. “We’ve missed our chance again, haven’t we?”
Honk - honk .
Oops, they were still at the stop sign. Cade quickly eased off the brake and continued through the intersection as Rosalyn settled back in her seat.
“You’re a good friend, Cade.” She adjusted her seat belt. “I really appreciate you.”
Oof. Friend. Right.
And that was that.