Chapter 12
Chapter Twelve
Lou
“Thank you for calling the Lamplight Inn. This is Lou speaking. How may I help you?”
“Hi, Lou. This is Mack. I’m a reporter from the Shore Report , and I was wondering if you had a couple minutes to talk to me?”
My heart fluttered. Had someone told them about the inn? Was I getting press already?
“Yes.” My head bobbed as though he were in front of me, and I clutched my phone tighter. “Of course.”
“I’m on my way up there now, but I’m so glad I got you on the phone before things get crazy. So, what can you tell me about Blaze Stevens?”
An arctic wind blew through the butterflies in my stomach, freezing their wings, and settling a graveyard of ice into my bones.
How did he know about Blaze? What was going on?
My eyes flicked to the steps, expecting Wade to walk down them any minute and rescue me from the phone call. Foolish, since he’d left early this morning before I was even up. Without saying anything .
“I’m sorry. I… I can’t talk about that,” I stammered, knowing I had to say something to stop the conversation.
It didn’t matter. The reporter went on like he hadn’t heard me.
“How long have the two of you been seeing each other? Is it serious? Rumors are he left rehab for Maine. Was that because of you? How did you meet?”
I frantically tapped to end the call, dropping my phone onto the desk like it was a hot pan I grabbed barehanded from the stove.
What was happening? How did he know ? —
“Lou!”
I spun, seeing Frankie come down the hall from the back entrance to the inn, holding Logan in his carrier. I expected to see determination on her face. Instead there was only worry.
Was it really that bad of an idea to tell the truth?
“Frankie—”
The phone rang again. I froze, afraid it was that reporter calling back. I wouldn’t have answered if it was, but this call was a different number.
“Lou, we have to talk.” Frankie rushed toward me, insistence brimming in her eyes.
I was prepared for this—I had to be after sending her that message last night. I knew she’d want to come convince me otherwise, but after that kiss, after everything that happened… I couldn’t let this continue. And I couldn’t argue with her about it right now. I had to take a phone call.
Holding up a finger so she’d know she had to wait, I answered the phone, “Hello, thank you for calling the Lamplight Inn. This is Lou speaking. How can I help you?”
“Hi, Lou, this is John Mascarin. My wife and I are checking in this afternoon, and we just got to town and are trying to find parking.”
“Oh, of course. You can park right out front, and I can help you if you have bags?— ”
“That’s why I’m calling. Is there an event going on? The street is completely packed.”
“No. No event that I’m aware of,” I said, my voice shaky even though I should be confident. I knew the event schedule in town like the back of my hand. I would know if something was going on. “Just double up, and I’ll come out and take your bags, and then I can direct you to the private lot in the back.”
I happened to glance at Frankie, her eyes wide and nodding like she knew why I was directing guests to the small lot that usually only I or my family used.
“Thank you so much. We’re pulling up now.”
“I’ll be right out.”
“Lou, what’s going on—” Frankie started before I’d even hung up.
“I can’t talk right now. I have to go help a guest. He said there’s something going on in town…” I trailed off as I sped away from her.
“Not in town, Lou. Here,” she said.
I stopped with my hand on the doorknob. “Here?” My brow furrowed, and that was when I heard it. The commotion outside. No. It couldn’t be. I pulled open the door and stopped short.
“Miss Kinkade! Is Blaze Stevens staying at the inn with you?”
“Where has he been staying?”
There was a mob of people on the sidewalk along the fence. Cameras. Phones. A crowd looking for a man who wasn’t here. My stomach sank like a stone and rooted my feet to the entrance. How did they know? Who had told them?
“Is he going to a rehab program here?”
“Are things serious between the two of you?”
“Lou, you can’t go out there right now.” Frankie put her hand on my arm, trying to draw me back inside.
I wanted to agree with her. I wanted to slam the door and call Wade and figure out what was happening—what had happened. But then a car honked, causing a commotion in the crowd. The dark sedan stopped just out front, its four-ways flashing through the moving bodies.
I couldn’t go anywhere. I had guests that needed help.
“I’ll be right back.”
“Lou—”
I shrugged off her hand and went outside, closing the door firmly behind me. I knew she wouldn’t follow, not with Logan.
My feet carried me toward the gate, toward the chant of cameras and the call of inquisitors. I wondered if this was how the women of Salem felt when they were walked to the stake. Ready to burn because of a lie.
“Lou!”
I froze at the boom of his voice, sure I was imagining it, until I saw Wade slaloming through the group of people, warning them as he went.
“That’s private property on the other side of the fence. I’m going to have to ask you to step back.” He didn’t give them much of a choice, his arms firmly pushing a path through the crowd to the gate.
“Hey! Who are you?” One of the paparazzi shouted at Wade, fighting to follow him as he stepped through the gate and onto my property. “She didn’t invite you either?—”
Wade spun and slammed the gate just before the man could come through. “I’m Miss Kinkade’s attorney. So, either you respect her privacy, or I’ll sue you until the only photos you can sell are ones of your feet.”
He left the man gaping in disbelief, and I was, too, until his hands landed on my shoulders.
“Are you alright?” His eyes burned as they raked over me, smoke swirling in his gaze. As soon as my chin gave the slightest dip, he declared with a low voice, “You shouldn’t be out here. Let’s go back inside where we can talk.”
My head jerked. “I can’t.” I tried to shrug out of his hold. “I have guests checking in. I have to help them with their things and show them where they can park?— ”
“Let me handle it.”
My stomach rolled. “No, I couldn’t?—”
“It wasn’t a choice, Lou,” he growled. “Where are they?”
I tried to swallow but nothing felt like it was working. I didn’t understand what was happening. Why it was happening. Why it was happening now?
“Over there.” I lifted my arm and pointed limply in the direction of the car with the hazard lights blinking.
“Go inside,” he ordered curtly and then released me.
I took a step back, watching as he strode through the gate, the sea of cameras parting in front of him with every footfall. Folding my arms, I moved back another foot, unable to take my eyes off Wade as he greeted the couple and lifted their duffel bags from the trunk. As he did that, I saw him explain to Mr. Mascarin how to go around the block and then turn into the small drive marked Private , which would bring him to the gravel lot at the rear of the building.
“Miss Kinkade!” An obnoxious shout caught my attention. I wasn’t sure what it was about that particular one, but my attention snapped to the call. A cacophony of shutters went off. “How does it feel to be dating Hollywood’s most infamous heartthrob?”
Air whooshed from my chest like a punctured balloon. The world knew my lie. I squeezed my eyes shut like that could stop everything from spinning—like it could stop the darkness from creeping in.
“Lou.”
My eyes popped open to a broad wall of chest and Wade’s musky scent hitting my nostrils. With him in front of me, I couldn’t see the crowd, the cameras, the flashes. I couldn’t see anything but him.
“Go inside,” he ordered, his deep voice perfectly treading the line between stern and soothing.
He followed me in with the guests’ things, and I closed the door behind us. My hand stilled on the doorknob, frozen stiff as though I’d turned to stone.
The world believed my lie.
“Hi Wade, so good to see you again.” I heard Frankie greet as I breathed in slowly.
“Frankie. Good to see you.”
I exhaled even slower.
“What’s going on out there? Did something happen?” she asked the questions that were all tangled up in my brain. She was always the half of us who found her way—or made her way—when we were lost.
Just breathe , I thought, drawing another breath of air into my lungs as I waited for his answer. Frankie would get to the bottom of it—figure out what was going on while I stood here.
I tipped closer to the door, wishing I could just melt into it. Melt away.
“Lou.” His voice cracked quietly behind me.
I stiffened, and then his hand rested on my shoulder, and all the tension started to seep out of me.
“It’s alright.”
I turned, glad that he didn’t release me. His hold seemed like the only thing reaching me through the darkness.
“It’s not alright. There are… paparazzi outside. They think… they know…” I couldn’t form a complete sentence, fear and anxiety working like landmines in my brain, blowing up all paths to coherency.
“I’m going to fix it,” he swore, his hand sliding to the side of my face. My eyes fluttered shut, and I turned ever so slightly into his hold, letting the heat worm its way into my skin and settle my racing heart. “Lou?—”
He stopped and half-turned, both of us looking down the hallway past Frankie to the back door that creaked open.
“My guests,” I croaked. “I need to welcome them.”
“Don’t worry about them. I’ll handle them,” he swore.
I needed to help them—help everyone. I needed to tell the truth. Fix this. Stop this. I swayed, the thoughts pummeling me from every side .
“I need to sit down,” I mumbled, my head feeling light.
Instantly, he was guiding me into the living room and over to the couch. Sitting down felt like I was sinking into the quicksand of memories from last night. Him on his knees in front of me, staring at the magazine page I’d ripped out, telling me I deserved more than his brother.
“Wade—”
“Stay here. I’m going to handle your guests, and then we’ll talk,” he said gruffly, and as soon as he stepped to the side, Frankie was there waiting, bouncing Logan on her chest and scrutinizing Wade’s every movement until he disappeared from the room.
“How is this happening?” I whispered, my throat too tight to speak with any volume.
“Lou, you don’t even know what is happening?—”
“I know that they’re here for Blaze—because they think I’m dating him.” I framed my hands around my throat like I could forcibly hold my pulse back from racing.
“How—”
“I don’t… It doesn’t matter. I have to tell them the truth.” It was the only solution, and I felt more determined than ever. “I can’t… Strangers, Frankie. Strangers think I’m with… that Blaze and I…” Air whipped in and out of my lungs like it was on a yo-yo, one I couldn’t seem to catch.
If strangers knew, it wouldn’t be long before the rest of my family did.
“Lou, just breathe for a second, okay?” Her voice was sterner now with one hand on her hip and a baby in the other. “Just breathe.”
I wasn’t sure how long she repeated the instructions, her voice echoing like it was my own inside my head. Sometimes—most times—I looked at my twin like she was the devil on my shoulder, always getting into mischief, always encouraging it. But sometimes—those times when I was at my worst—she was the angel on the other, soothing me with the kind of composure only someone who thrives in chaos can have .
“Nothing good comes from rushing. Just breathe and calm down. Wade obviously knows what’s happening. Let’s see what he has to say.”
My head snapped to the reception desk, reality finally grabbing hold of the reins. I couldn’t freak out. I had a job to do—a dream to protect. And that meant my guests came first. No matter what else was going on around me— or happening to me.
When I looked, I only saw Wade coming down the staircase, his stride barely restrained as his heavy steps thudded on the wood floor.
Where was the couple checking in? What just happened?
“Wait.” I stood and started to move toward him. “The Mascarins. I need to check them in?—”
“Already done.” He gripped my shoulders and guided me back onto the couch. I went willingly. My wits might’ve regained some strength, but my knees hadn’t yet.
“How—”
“Lou, you leave enough details for everything that your nephew here could’ve checked those people in without a problem,” he ground out, glancing at Frankie’s baby. “I got them their key. Room 206. I gave them the tour. Told them about breakfast. Time. Place. Gave them the map of town.”
My jaw slackened. How did he…
“I’ve been living here the last week, Lou. I’ve seen how you do your job—how well you do your job,” he said, his chest rumbling.
A familiar kind of heat prickled in my cheeks. It wasn’t that I didn’t know he’d been watching me, but to hear him admit to it. To know he’d watched close enough to be able to replicate it all to some degree.
My gaze dropped to his lips. My brain was too frazzled to shy away from the boundaries we’d crossed last night. I wanted to kiss him again. I wanted to be consumed by something other than my thoughts and worries—by something other than what everyone else around me needed. But I couldn’t kiss him again. I knew that the second I’d stopped kissing him last night .
I swallowed and pushed the thought aside. I couldn’t think about that now. There were… paparazzi… in Friendship.
“What happened?” I asked, lifting my chin to meet Wade’s dark gaze. “What’s going on?”
Wade glanced toward the hall, and I saw the newlyweds had come downstairs and were standing at the reception desk, hovering over my activity book, scanning the pages, and not looking at us. Still, Wade came and sat beside me on the couch, his body tensing when his knee brushed mine.
My eyes flicked to Frankie, wondering if she saw the sparks that erupted on my skin.
“Someone leaked information about Blaze… about you… to the Chronicle,” he said, keeping his voice low. “I got a call from my… from the guy who keeps an eye on the press for me. For Blaze.” He was being delicate about it, but it was only because I’d seen them together—seen him with his Mom—that I picked up on the truth. Wade kept an army at his fingertips to fight his brother’s battles. “It was early this morning, and he didn’t know what story was running, just that it was about Blaze.”
“That’s why you left.”
He nodded. “I thought it had someone there. That it was about his injury, and I wanted to prepare the hospital team, and Mom, for…”
“That. Out there.” My head tilted toward the windows, knowing they were still out there, waiting.
“Yeah.” He cleared his throat, his jaw muscle flexing tightly. “As soon as the digital article published and I realized… I came right back to warn you.”
“Can I see?”
He hesitated, debating for a moment before giving in and pulling out his phone. I held it with both hands so it wouldn’t shake as I read the article—read about me. Saw the photos someone had taken of me and Joanna when I’d been giving her a tour of the inn.
“Oh god…” I pressed my fingers to my mouth. Th is was a disaster. All I’d wanted was to make sure he was okay… and now the world thought I was Blaze’s girlfriend.
“Frankie, can you get her some water?” Wade asked, but his focus never left me.
In my periphery, I felt my sister look at me. I could’ve nodded, but I didn’t need to. Instinct. Twin-stinct. Whatever it was, it kicked in after a moment, and she headed for the kitchen, leaving Wade and me alone.
My eyelashes fluttered onto my cheeks, the burn of tears stinging behind them. “I’m sorry?—”
His deep growl frightened the words away, and before I even realized a tear slipped free, I felt his hand on my cheek, his thumb catching the droplet.
“I’m the one who’s sorry,” he rasped low. “I should’ve been here. I had no idea… have no idea how they found out.” Tension rippled through him like a crack through stone. “I’m going to fix this, Lou. I promise.”
“I’ll just tell them. We aren’t together. I’ll just tell them, and then they’ll go away, right?” My voice lifted at the end with an unreasonable amount of hope that it was that simple.
That if I just told them all the truth, everything would be fine again. Normal .
Wade’s jaw locked, and my pulse slowed to a drugged thud.
“What is it? What’s wrong with the truth?”
“Nothing,” he muttered, but the firm line of his lips grew even thinner. “You’re right. If you tell them the truth, they may leave you alone.”
My brow pulled together for a second before his words clicked like puzzle pieces into place, and I saw the whole picture.
“But they won’t stop looking for Blaze,” I said, my voice hardly making any sound.
“No, they won’t. Not until they get their story.”
Right now, the paparazzi were here, outside the inn, waiting for a glimpse of the movie star. If I told them the truth, then they’d go looking elsewhere… and the story they’d find was exactly the kind Wade tried to save his brother from.
“You want me to let them believe it.” I wasn’t sure if I was asking or telling, but whatever it was, my assumption was right.
Pain pulled his features tight. After last night, it was the last thing he wanted, but it was what he needed in order to protect his brother.
“No, you don’t have to, Lou?—”
“No, it’s okay. I’ll do it,” I interrupted. It was the least I could do—go along with the lie that I told, the problem I’d created.
His gaze locked with mine. For a second, we didn’t say anything. We didn’t have to. This wasn’t what either of us wanted—to have Blaze back in the middle of everything. But if we didn’t, it was only a matter of time before they hunted him down to the hospital and printed who only knew what about why he was there.
“I’ll do it,” I repeated.
“It would only be for a few days. I’ll talk to Blaze’s doctor tomorrow about arranging a transport for my brother. If we can move him to another hospital—another bigger, more secure facility, then you can tell them the truth and put an end to this…” he trailed off when Frankie returned with a glass of water.
“I’m sorry about all of this,” Wade apologized again and rose stiffly.
“Can I offer a suggestion?”
“No,” I exclaimed, water sloshing to the edge of the glass as I stood.
“Lou—”
“Frankie—”
“I think we can fool them into going away,” she insisted, a devious tip to her smile.
Wade stilled, her idea hooking into his brain. But I knew better. I knew that look in her eyes.
“How?” Wade asked.
“I think with a few well-placed comments and a good disguise, we can make them think Blaze and Lou are getting out of town now that they’ve been found out.”
I chugged another gulp of water and wished it were something stronger.
“Go on,” Wade said and folded his arms.
“I can have our family slip information to some of the reporters or in front of some of them that Blaze and Lou are going to leave Friendship and head back to Boston for a little?—”
“No, Frankie, I’m not getting our family involved in this.”
“Lou, the press is literally on your doorstep, and your new… relationship… is plastered all over the internet. They’re already involved whether you want them to be or not.”
My throat tightened. Her words hit me like a wave into my chest just as I was coming up for air. This was no longer a lie that only Frankie and I knew. No longer a lie that strangers knew. It was… everywhere. It was now a lie that Jamie, Kit, their wives, Mom, Gigi, my cousins… all the people I cared most about in the world just found out I was dating a famous Hollywood actor through a tabloid.
I sank back onto the couch, catching how Wade reached for me, but then stopped himself when he saw Frankie watching.
“All I’m suggesting is we plant this information. Make it seem like you’re trying to make a break for it before even more attention shows up here. I’ll get Chandler, and we’ll go out there and politely ask them to please respect our guests. Allude to the idea that we are taking charge of the inn because you’re leaving.”
“But then what?” I let out a weak whimper. “It’s not like we can actually leave. Blaze isn’t here. I can’t put someone else in charge of the inn for… days at a time. And they’re not going to take town gossip as fact.”
“You don’t need to actually leave, Lou. They just need to think you have, and to do that, you just need to pretend.”
“Pretend?” I croaked and shook my head. “I can pretend, but I can’t fake Blaze. This isn’t Weekend at Bernie’s. ”
She stared at me, her expression deadpanning, Really? And then her eyes dragged slowly to Wade.
“You want me to pretend to be Blaze.” Wade didn’t miss a beat.
Frankie shifted Logan to her other hip and replied, “You’re already wearing his clothes. Throw on a ball cap and some shades. Blaze’s car is parked out back. The windows are tinted enough that if you drive by slow enough that they can see Lou, they’ll assume you are Blaze.”
“And then what?” I asked hollowly. “They’re going to try and follow us. Do we fake it all the way to Boston? Do we pull some stunt driving feat and lose them off our trail?”
“Nope.” She popped the end of the word like a triumphant flag capping her conclusion. “You head out of town and divert to Mom’s house. It’s far back off the road, and with everything in bloom, you’ll be out of sight within seconds. They’ll continue to race toward Boston, and in the meantime, you can spend the day at the house with everyone. By the time night rolls around, you can take the back way to the inn, and if they’re not all gone, you can borrow some of my clothes for a few days, and they’ll think you’re me.”
My head was shaking no, but by the time she finished, I couldn’t find the actual word to disagree with her. It was a crazy plan, and there was still Wade’s suggestion to consider.
The longer they were here, the more likely they were to find out the truth about where Blaze was… and why he was there. And I couldn’t let that happen. I didn’t know Blaze—not like Wade thought I did. But I knew the look of a man haunted by his past and trying to change his future, and if it were my brother—if it were Kit in that hospital bed, I would do whatever I could to give him the best chance at defeating his demons. I couldn’t fight his battles, but I could do my part to protect his peace.
“Lou…”
“I think we should do it,” I said quickly and set my glass on the table. “Frankie’s plan, that is. I think… it’s the best chance we have to get them to go away.”
And once their threat was gone, I’d tell Wade the truth. The whole truth.
Wade’s jaw ticked. “Okay.”
“Alright.” Frankie nodded like a general commanding her troops. “I’m going to head to Mom’s and assemble the troops. By the end of the day, everyone will think you and Blaze are in panic mode and trying to get out of town. And tomorrow, we’ll pull a Kinkade family shuffle.”
“A what?”
“Kinkade family shuffle. It’s like a Kansas City shuffle, but with Kinkades.” She grinned. “Tomorrow, they’ll be looking for who left, and you’ll be going right back to where you started.” She paused. “After a day at Mom’s.”
And that was when I realized Frankie’s ulterior motive. She wanted me at Mom’s. No… My brow creased, watching her say goodbye to Wade and then give me a wink.
She wanted me and Wade to come to Mom’s.