Happily Ever Hers: Movie Stars in Maryland, Book Two

by Stewart, Delancey

  He leaned down and pressed his lips gently to mine. For a moment, time froze and we held ourselves still, breathing together, being together. Then something snapped and he pulled me roughly to him, his mouth devouring mine, our tongues tangling and teasing until we finally broke apart breathless, our eyes still locked.

  "This weekend is going to be difficult," he said.

  That was an understatement.

  I brought a hand to my lips, missing him there already as I stepped back to a respectable distance in case anyone might step out of the house. "It will," I agreed. "But it's not real Jace. You have to remember that. This," I said, motioning between us. "This is real."

  He blew out a long breath between pursed lips, as if calming himself, centering himself.

  A loud squawk came from the lawn around the side of the house, and we both turned as Jack appeared, Chessy hot on his heels.

  "That chicken is ... interesting," Jace said, his voice amused.

  I laughed, the tension between us fading. "She is," I said. "She seems to like Jack."

  "She slept outside his door," Jace told me.

  This was new. Chessy had only been around the past couple years, and I'd been here once in that time, with Zac. He'd been so offended by the idea of a house chicken that we'd had to keep her out in the coop with the other chickens while he'd been here, though she didn't get along well with the ladies of the coop and she squawked continuously, upsetting them all the whole weekend. Tess said none of them would lay eggs for weeks after we'd gone. I wanted to tell her I was pretty sure Zac had that effect on everyone.

  "Morning," Jack called as he passed.

  "Good morning," I called back.

  He disappeared again, around the other side of the house, and I looked back to Jace, trying to figure out how I could find time with him, how we could make the best of this. "Come to my room tonight," I said.

  He nodded once, then picked up his tea, sipped it, and then went back out onto the lawn, taking up his watch again in the shade of the big oak.

  I sat on the porch and watched him, stoic and proud and strong. And so handsome it broke my heart to look at him and know I couldn't touch him.

  Chapter Twenty

  Jace

  The morning passed in a swelter of humidity and sunlight, my guts twisting into a painful knot any time I let myself think about McDonnell and his perfect straight-toothed smile being anywhere near Juliet.

  Standing watch, unfortunately, gives you plenty of time to think, and as I finished my shift, I tried to tell myself this was what she had to do. It was to protect her. It wasn't about us.

  By the time Chad and Christian appeared to take over, I was bleary-eyed and ragged, and it had little to do with the time change or the long night, but I still went gratefully to my room.

  During the day, all four of us had areas of responsibility, but I already knew this weekend was going to be calm from a crazy-fan perspective. The house in Maryland was secluded, and the dense woods around it, along with the river on one side, made it fairly inaccessible for your run-of-the-mill photographer or star-struck nut job. Still, it paid to remain vigilant, and I had no intention of letting my guard down during our time here.

  It was lunchtime when I came back out of my room, having taken a shower and tried hard to talk myself out of strangling McDonnell the next time he touched Juliet.

  "Hi there," said a bright voice in greeting as I stepped out onto the back porch, following the sounds of dishes and the smell of food. Juliet's sister, Tess, had risen to greet me as I'd come out.

  "Hi," I said, shaking the small hand she'd reached out to me.

  "I'm Tess," she said, "and this is my grandmother, Helen." She waved at a woman with gray hair piled on top of her head in a messy bun, wearing a bright pink sweat suit, complete with a thin gold chain that held a tiny clock face. I recognized Gran from the photo at Juliet’s, though in that picture she’d been wearing a dress.

  "Hi," I said again. "Nice to meet you both." Gran was exactly as Juliet had painted her for me.

  "There's some food on the counter in the kitchen. You're welcome to grab a plate," Tess said.

  "Thank you," I said, unsure what the expectations were for staff versus those who lived here. The place reeked of old school southern tradition, and I imagined it might have been the kind of place that had a separate servants' dining room. I looked around, and spotted Chad at the table inside, wrapping his sizable mouth around a cob of corn. "I'll eat inside," I told them.

  Gran didn't say a word, just swirled a brownish drink and eyed me under her lowered brow. I had the feeling the woman didn't miss much, and a little spark of worry flared in me for Juliet.

  I ate quickly, sitting across from Chad, who made inane conversation the whole time we were in the kitchen.

  "Some place, huh?" he asked.

  I grunted a response as I took a bite of my sandwich.

  "Seriously fancy, right? Like old money fancy."

  I didn't know what to say to that, so I just took a sip of sweet tea instead.

  "And the sister?" Chad blew out another low whistle, signaling his apparent appreciation of Tess's looks. "Good genes in the family, man. But that old lady ..."

  "Shut it," I growled. Tess and her grandmother were sitting not twelve feet from us on the other side of a screened door. They didn't need to hear the paid help's opinions of them. "We're here for Juliet. Pay attention to her."

  "She's upstairs with McDonnell," Chad said, and my blood instantly ignited. "Hot shot movie stars don't get out of bed until noon, I guess." Chad shoved half a chicken breast into his mouth, which I hoped would keep him quiet for a few minutes while I dealt with my irrational anger.

  I knew Juliet hadn't slept in McDonnell's room. I'd seen her out here this morning. Kissed her just this morning. Heard her reassuring words only a few hours ago. I told myself that whatever she was doing upstairs with him now wasn't what Chad was insinuating, and managed to take a few deep breaths and continue eating.

  I cleaned my plate a few minutes later, and with a nod and a thank you to Tess and Gran on the back porch, headed out to make a sweep of the perimeter.

  When Juliet and McDonnell emerged a few minutes later, it was as if my entire body aligned with her gravitational pull instantly—as if she were the light I had to keep close to. I wished, for the weekend at least, that I could turn off my sharply tuned awareness of her, but I couldn't. When she was nearby, she was all I could focus on.

  I roved nearer to the edge of the porch, meeting her eyes briefly as I took up a post close enough to hear what was being said.

  Gran was talking to Juliet. "So you can't screw things up too badly, I'd guess, on the heels of that last asshole, Juliet." She was talking about Zac, and I had to keep myself from nodding my agreement.

  "Gran!" Juliet cried, sounding surprised and a little bit amused.

  "I'm pretty sure I told you back then that Zac was a moron, but no one ever listens to me," Gran went on, sounding bitter and then sipping the fresh drink in front of her. "Just wait, young man," I glanced behind me to see her addressing movie-star McDonnell now. "Once you hit a certain age, everyone assumes you've got a few connections unhinged up here and they pretty much ignore everything you say."

  I had the sense Gran didn't have any loose connections.

  Jack wandered close then, the chicken in hot pursuit. "This fucking chicken," he hissed as he passed me, "will not leave me alone!"

  "Chessy!" The old woman yelled form the porch. "Leave that poor man alone!"

  The admonishment did no good, and Chessy continued tracking Jack's every move as he headed down toward the water, maybe planning to try to find out if chickens could swim.

  "Well, if you listened to me," Gran went on, still talking to Juliet. "You wouldn't have married that idiot in the first place. And please tell me the media was wrong about the settlement you're giving him. My whole guild is talking about it. That numb-nuts didn't deserve a cent. That moron was a couple beers sho
rt of a six pack. Hope you're firing on all cylinders, cuz he certainly wasn't. So. The settlement?"

  I wished I could go up there, rescue Juliet. But this was her family. She would know the best way to handle them and their questions. "Did you say guild?" She asked.

  "Yes. In the game," Gran answered. "Settlement. Talk, young lady."

  "I don't think you can 'young lady' me anymore, Gran." Juliet was quiet a moment and I wondered if she would tell them about the blackmail—but that would mean telling her family there was a sex tape. "I'd rather not talk about it," she said. "It's not final, and it's just ... it's hard."

  I risked a glance at her then, but her eyes were locked with McDonnell's, and anger flooded my system when I saw his hand on her arm.

  How the fuck was I supposed to do this? I could barely breathe when the guy was within two feet of her, and I was supposed to stand by while they pretended to be a couple for a magazine shoot? I'd have a heart attack.

  I moved around to the front of the house, stepping close to where Chad sat in a rocking chair and managing to form actual words. "Switching spots. You go out back."

  Chad frowned up at me, but stood. "Whatever you say, man."

  When he was gone, I dropped into the chair he'd vacated and gave myself yet another calming talk. They were actors. They were acting. I knew Juliet and I were together.

  Didn’t I? I thought I did.

  After a few minutes, I was breathing normally and even felt like I could think straight. I'd made a few sweeps of the front yard when my phone buzzed in my pocket. Mom.

  My worry ratcheted up again. "Hey, everything okay Mom?"

  "Hey honey. Yes, actually. I have good news."

  I needed good news. The last time I'd checked in, Jarred was suffering tremendously with withdrawal symptoms, and the hospital had been sedating him to keep him from hurting himself. We needed a better answer, but the administrators there were going to release him in another two days, and he'd be out on bail until his trial. Mom had managed to get a bail bond with the money I’d been saving over the past few years. It wasn’t a lot, but thankfully Jarred’s bail was pretty light. "What's up?"

  "I found a treatment center for Jarred. There's a wait list, but they'll take him in a couple weeks, they think."

  That wasn't good news. Jarred needed something immediately. "Mom, what will he do for the weeks between being released from the hospital and the time the center can take him?"

  "I'll keep him here."

  I screwed my eyes shut, rubbing a hand across my head, which had begun to ache. "It's not gonna work, Mom. He'll be out looking for a score the first night."

  "He promised me he wouldn't. We agreed. He'll just stay in the house. I'll watch him. It'll be different this time, Jace." Mom's voice was full of the desperate desire to believe these words were true, but we both knew they weren't. I'd done enough research about heroin recovery to understand that the first few weeks were critical, and Jarred didn't just need to be kept away from the drug, he needed intense therapy to help him relearn how to experience emotions on his own—that was the key to real recovery. We had been through this—and failed—before.

  "Mom," I breathed, feeling helpless. "He can't stay there. He needs a rehab center that can take him immediately. Not in two weeks. It'll be too late."

  I heard the hope leave my mother with her next sigh. "I know," she said, her voice cracking. "But the state-sponsored centers are the only ones we could afford, Jace. Those other places ..." she trailed off. She didn't need to finish the thought. They were expensive. And we didn't have it.

  "I'll figure it out," I told her, my heart dissolving to dust as I uttered what was essentially a lie. I had no means of scraping together the money it would take to get my brother admitted to the kind of facility that would take him immediately and keep him for the amount of time it would take to truly give him a chance. That kind of place was for rich people—socialites. And movie stars. I cringed at the thought of Juliet finding out about this. She'd try to fix it. And then I'd owe her more than I could ever pay her back. I couldn't tell her ... I needed to figure this out on my own.

  "This little dog sleeps a lot," Mom said, her voice tired.

  "He's narcoleptic," I told her. "Just make sure he doesn't fall over into his water bowl and drown."

  "Oh!" She sucked in a little breath. "Okay, yes, I will. We've been getting along well. It's nice having him here, actually."

  Mom needed a dog, I thought. Maybe I could find her one. It felt good to discover something I might actually be able to do. "Did the doctor stop by, Mom?"

  "Oh yes, she did," Mom said. "She took some things to a lab and is supposed to call me."

  "Okay, good." It was good. But it was one more thing I'd allowed Juliet to do for me. "Well, I'm actually working, so I should go. But I'll call you tomorrow, okay?"

  "How is Juliet?" Mom asked. We hadn't told her there was anything going on between us, but Mom's question suggested she already knew. It would have been a relief to talk to her about it, but I couldn't. Especially not right here. "She's a lovely girl."

  "She is. She's fine."

  "Okay honey. I'll talk to you tomorrow."

  We hung up and I called the hospital where Jarred was being held, and basically threatened the discharge nurse when she confirmed they were planning to release him in another forty-eight hours. "You keep him there as long as you possibly can," I'd growled at her. "If you let him go, you might as well just shoot him as he walks out the door," I said. I shouldn’t have been telling her. She wasn’t the one in charge, but I hoped maybe she could do something.

  The nurse had said that she would see what she could do, but I already knew we'd need to find something else. Fast.

  * * *

  Chad and I took up positions inside as the afternoon went on, and Juliet wandered through the front room at one point, eyeing Chad suspiciously. She stopped in front of us, and I had the sense she wanted to talk to me, but with Chad right there, she couldn't.

  "Have you seen Ryan?" she asked us. I swallowed down the ire that crept up at her asking about Ryan.

  "Think he went for a run," I told her. We were supposed to be keeping track of both stars, but Juliet paid us, so we kept closer tabs on her.

  "Okay, thanks," she said, casting a look over her shoulder as she disappeared back up the stairs. I wished I could follow her.

  Chad made no effort to hide the way he watched her head back up the stairs. "What I wouldn't give for five minutes with that ass," he said.

  My hand was bunched in his shirt before I'd even had time to think about what I was doing, Chad's face pulled close to mine and my other fist next to his jaw. "If you ever lay a finger on her, I'll kill you," I told him in a whisper.

  "What the fuck, man?" Chad's face ricocheted between surprise and concern. "Just a comment," he said, pushing me away with his hands on my shoulders.

  I released him and stepped back as he stared at me. "Keep it professional."

  "I don't know what's going on with you, but you better get it under control, Jace." He shook his head and smoothed his shirt out. "Shit, man."

  I forced myself to breathe, and by the time Ryan McDonnell strolled by, I had myself mostly under control.

  "Hey," I said to him as he walked by, partly proving to myself that I could be civil.

  "Hey," he said back, turning with a smile. "It's Jace, right?"

  I couldn't explain why, but knowing he knew my name gave me a small bit of satisfaction. I nodded and angled my head at Chad. "That's Chad."

  McDonnell's face took on that shiny movie-star grin. "Thanks for being here, guys. Looking out for us."

  As if we were here for him. "We're here for Juliet," I told him. There was no way I wanted this guy believing we worked for him.

  He looked appropriately embarrassed, and I took a little bit of joy in it. "Right, yeah. Just ... thanks."

  Chad chuckled, enjoying the star's embarrassment, no doubt. "Any time," he said.

  "
Juliet was looking for you a while ago," I told him. And then I forced my breathing to stay steady as another man climbed the stairs, no doubt heading to the bedroom of the woman I believed I might love.

  The rest of the day was painful, standing in the shadows as the family and McDonnell moved here and there, and images of my brother's broken and frail body flashed through my head. My mind fluctuated alternately between desperate fear for my family and jealous rage over the situation with Juliet. I wanted to be at her side, to have her with me. Instead, I couldn't even find a moment to ask her how she was doing, to hold her hand and make sure she was okay. I didn't know if she'd heard anything more from Zac or her lawyers, if maybe they'd found a way to squash that moron so she could drop this pretense with McDonnell.

  Gran didn't seem overly charmed with all of her sudden company, either. We all sat around the big table on the porch at dinner, and she erupted in complaints that we weren't entertaining enough.

  "I expected tales of Hollywood insanity," she said at one point. "You two have to be the most boring movie stars there are. What are those magazine people going to talk to you about, your crocheting strategies?" She'd excused herself from the table after referring to the four of us bodyguards as "gorillas" a couple times, and gone back to the room where I’d learned she played video games most of the day. I suspected she did some other things in there too, based on the cloud of marijuana smoke that wafted from beneath the door of the room. Gran was not your run of the mill grandmother, that was for sure.

  As the evening wore on, Jack asked if Chad and I would be willing to take the first overnight shift. "I need a break from this chicken," he said, gesturing down at where Chessy stood on his boot, her head laid against his shin.

  "Maybe you should just stop fighting it," I suggested. "She loves you. Be happy."

  Jack sighed. "Right." Then he turned and went into his room, pulling his foot in last and using the door to basically scrape the chicken from his leg. She squawked and hollered angrily outside the door until he pushed a pillow out for her. It must have smelled like him or something, because she pecked at it a few times, and finally settled on top of it, keeping watch on his threshold like a dedicated guard chicken.