by Torsha Baker
“Is that it, a couple months of filming?”
“I’ll get short breaks even when filming. But no, that’s not it. After filming and photo shoots for promotional material, I’ll have some down time while they edit the film. Sometimes, we’ll have to re-shoot if they don’t like what they have. Then when the film is done, I’ll have a tour where we travel for the premieres and promotion.”
He’s rubbing a hand over the back of his neck. “That’s a lot of time spent on one film,” he finally says. “A lot of time where you’ll be gone.”
He’s worried about what it will mean for our relationship, I realize. The acting life is something that I’ve been doing for years, but it’s all new to him. To reassure him, I scoot closer and intertwine my fingers with his. “I know being separated for any amount of time seems awful, but absence makes the heart grow fonder. I mean look at us now. We’ve been apart for eight years, and I’m very fond of you.” I squeeze his hand for emphasis. “If we can make it through that, then we can make it through a few weeks with the aid of FaceTime and quick plane rides. We can do it, right?” I give him a come-hither look, the one that says he’s everything to me.
A smirk pulls at the corner of his mouth. “I’ll take any time with you I can get.” He runs a finger over my knuckles. “I have a surprise for you.”
I give him a questioning gaze. “Surprise, huh? I do like surprises.”
“I know.”
He leads me to the other barn. Inside, several saddled horses are out and tethered to their stalls. Landon, Kitty, and Preston are all there and helping with last minute adjustments.
“Hi, guys,” I say to everyone. “Are we going for a ride?”
“Not us,” Landon says.
The sound of tires on gravel has me turning to see two vans coming down the main driveway. Jax gives me a smile and pulls me out of the barn. “We help out once a week with an organization called Healing Hearts and Hands,” he says. “We offer our horses and our assistance for equine therapy for kids with disabilities.”
“Really? That’s brilliant.” My excitement grows as the vans pull to a stop. “Back when I was in high school, I worked with children with disabilities for volunteer hours.”
“I remember. You said that you always wanted to give back the way Audrey Hepburn had throughout her life.”
I shade my eyes with my free hand to watch the vans pull up. In California, I donated my time every month until I got too busy with my role on Veronica Chase. I feel a bit shameful. I still donate money, but it’s not the same as donating time.
Jax squeezes my hand. “You were my inspiration for starting the equine therapy program here.”
I stare at him for a moment, touched that I could inspire such a beautiful thing to occur. “Me?”
He nods, smiling knowingly.
A thought occurs to me. “What if they recognize me? I’m not supposed to be here.”
Jax doesn’t look worried. “I had them all sign a gag order document. I had our lawyer draw it up based on the one your agent had me sign before your first lesson.”
A wave of relief washes over me.
A woman comes out of the van, and I step forward to greet her and the others filing out of the vehicles. Some of the caretakers recognize me and are a little starstruck, but I just use it as a fun icebreaker. Before long, I’m laughing and joking with the kids and the caretakers. This is my element, something I’m familiar with and love.
The kid’s faces light up when they spot the horses. It’s amazing how gentle the horses are, like they know exactly how precious their cargo is. I fall in love with each of the children. Their smiles and laughter are contagious and I feel so at ease with them. I can’t help but to compare it to being on a set. It’s the opposite. On set, everything is forced. Even though people say I’m a natural actress, that’s not how it is for me. It’s more like I’m a puppet following directions. But here with the kids, I’m just me and they respond to that. By the end of the day, my hair has two very uneven braids in it from ten-year-old Kaitlyn, and I’m apparently sixteen-year-old Mathew’s new girlfriend. This has Kitty cross, as she was his girlfriend last week.
As we help everyone back into the van, I’m genuinely sad to say goodbye.
“I’ll miss you guys,” I say. “Thank you for letting me join in today.”
They all wave, and Mathew blows kisses, which I catch and put on my cheek with a smile. He claps and gives me a winning smile.
Jax puts his arm around my shoulder. “I think I’m being replaced.”
“Oh, you definitely are,” I tease.
Kitty hangs up a bridle. “You were so good with them.”
“Honestly, I feel like it’s the other way around. They’re good with me.”
Audrey skips out of the house with Dillon sauntering behind her. “Daddy! Malia!” she calls when she’s still a few feet away. “Can we go on a ride?”
Jax looks to me to get my opinion. “I’d love that,” I say.
“We can get the other horses put away,” Landon says, pulling a saddle off Copper. “You guys take Maggie, Pepper, and Teddy.”
“Okay, let’s do it,” Jax says and turns to Dillon. “Thanks for bringing Audrey home.”
Dillon gives a curt nod, and I can instantly tell that something isn’t right between the two of them.
When I look to Dillon for confirmation, he drops his gaze from me. Oh yeah, definitely something there. I’ll have to ask Jax about it later.
Jax, Audrey, and I mount our horses and head out on one of the trails on Wyle Away. Audrey chatters about her day as we ride out. About twenty minutes down the trail, we come upon a huge old tree.
“Remember that tree?” Jax asks, a mischievous glint in his eyes.
It was where I first told Jax that I loved him. I remember pulling back from our kissing long enough to ask, “Do you love me? Because I think I love you.”
He’d tilted his head with a sexy smirk on his lips.“You think?”
I matched his smirk and said, “Okay, I know.” He had pressed his lips to mine and kissed me with even more passion than before. Then I pulled back. “You never answered the question.”
He cupped my face in his hand and said, “Malia, I am irrevocably, completely, wholly in love with you.”
I’d closed my lips over his and took the kiss deeper. The tree became our place after that. It’s where we often talked about what our life would be like, followed with a make-out session, of course. We made plans to go to California together. He would be a college football star while getting a business degree to help him run the ranch one day, and I would become a famous actress. Then we’d get married and have children, and our first daughter would be named Audrey. We planned to live here on the ranch and grow old together.
I smile. “It’s a pretty memorable spot.”
“Why?” Audrey asks. “What’s so special about the tree?”
I look at her and her big eyes and figure telling her it’s our old make-out spot isn’t the best answer. “It’s a wishing tree,” I blurt.
Her eyes get wide, and she does a double take at the tree.
I decide I might as well go with it. I always was pretty good in my improv classes. “It’ll listen to your deepest wishes,” I say wistfully. “And if it’s possible, they’ll come true.”
She smiles. “Daddy, did you know we had a wishing tree here?”
He shrugs and lowers his voice like he’s conspiring. “I did, but it’s a secret. And it’s reserved for only the most important wishes.”
“Oh.” She nods. “Or everyone would be here making all kinds of wishes.”
I steer my horse away from munching on a bush. “Exactly,” I say. “So keep it hush-hush.”
She nods again, and her brow creases in concentration. “You can count on me.”
“I knew I could,” I say.
Jax smiles at me. The sun is starting to make its decent in the evening sky, turning it shades of orange and pink. We make our way back
to the ranch. Jaxon, Kitty and Preston are still in the barn, bringing hay and oats to the horses. Our horses pick up the pace when they realize it’s dinner time.
“How was the ride?” Landon asks.
Audrey wiggles on her saddle. “It was great!”
Landon helps her off her horse, Maggie, who is now the focus of Audrey’s chatter.
I swing my leg over and hop off of Pepper at the same time that Jax dismounts from Teddy. Pepper blows dust from her nose. “I know girl, you get your break now. And dinner.” I pat her warm, sweat-dampened neck. “You did great.”
A flash suddenly goes off, then another and another. My heart skips. I know what this means: cameras. I’ve been discovered. I turn and another goes off. Pepper neighs and swings his head in protest at the bright pulses of lights coming from just outside the barn.
“What the?” Jaxon spins in the direction of the flashes.
I spot a paparazzo snapping pictures of me with Pepper. The man is wearing black jeans, a black shirt, and a baseball cap. He has a huge camera in his hands and an equipment-bag over one shoulder. How long has he been lurking around?
“Hey,” Jax shouts at him.
The man looks at Jax and whirls to leave. “That’s right. Get out of here! This is private property.”
“Wait,” I yell, but the man briskly walks off. “Stop!” I can’t let him get away with film that will expose my lies. I chase after him.
“Let him go,” Jax calls from just behind me.
“I have to stop him! If he leaks the pictures, it could ruin my career.”
Chapter Nineteen
Jaxon runs past me after the man, who takes one look at the tall, muscled cowboy and hightails it toward his car. Jaxon curses and sprints after him at a full run. I follow them both.
Just as the man reaches his car, Jaxon grabs him and flips him around roughly.
“You just had to run,” Jaxon says, the two of them breathing heavily.
The man holds up both his hands in surrender. “Don’t hurt me. Don’t hurt me.”
Jax sighs. “Stop snivelin’. I’m not going to hurt you.”
The paparazzo lifts his chin. “I’m just doing my job, man.”
When I get to them, I yank the camera from his hands.
“Hey,” the man shouts. He tries to grab it back, but Jax slams him back against the car.
“Don’t,” Jax warns.
The man puts his hands up again, frowning.
I turn on the camera, find the pictures of me, and work to delete them all.
“Oh, come on,” the man says.
The farther I go back, the more pictures I see—pictures of Jaxon and me training earlier in the barn. Jax glances down on them. “I look good in that one.”
I hit delete.
“Ouch,” he says and puts his hand to his heart.
Once I’m sure I’ve deleted them all, I give the man back his camera. I take the man’s bag next. He’s about to protest but then looks up again at Jax and sighs.
“Good boy,” Jax says.
I rummage through the bag until I find his business card. I hand him back his bag.
“You can go now, Mr. Fisher,” I say reading the card. “Don’t come back again, or I’ll be forced to get a restraining order and report you to the authorities for trespassing on private property. Have a nice day.”
He grunts. “Yeah, you too.” He flings open his car door, sulkily climbs inside, and slams it shut. Without waiting for us to step away, he revs the car, spitting dirt and gravel as speeds his way back to the freeway.
Good riddance. I only hope he was the only one. How did he even find me here? I’ve been really careful about staying away from public places. Maybe someone saw me in my car? Would Mrs. Bassencherry have said something? I turn around and see that we have an audience.
“I’m sorry,” I say to Jax’s family.
Landon shrugs. “‘Suppose it’s just part of being in the limelight.”
“Wow.” Kitty crosses her arms. “They’re really bold to just come here and take pictures without asking permission.”
Preston squints at the cars retreating headlights. “You should’ve punched him, Jax.”
Jax shrugs. “He was just taking some pics, no harm done.”
“Pictures of you two?” Landon asks with raised brows. “Don’t you want the world to know about you two on your own time?”
Jaxon’s eyes widen. “Oh, yeah, I suppose you’re right. It’s a good thing Malia deleted all of the pictures.”
Landon nods his head in approval.
We all go back to the barn and finish taking care of the horses, but I can tell Jax was more bothered by the whole interaction than he lets on. He’s quiet the rest of the time and seems deep in thought.
When we get back to the main house, I grab Jax’s hand, keeping him from going in the house with the others. “Hey, I’m really sorry for all of that. I know it’s strange having a complete stranger take our pictures without us knowing. It’s an invasion of privacy. I wish I could say it’ll be the last time, but the truth is, it happens.”
“You know, the picture taking doesn’t bother me none.”
“It doesn’t?”
The corner of his mouth creeps up. “I might not be a TV star, but I’ve been kind of a celebrity here in this small town since winning the state championship. I’m used to attention.” He takes my hand in his. “The fact that he came here and took pictures without our permission, and that we can’t be the ones to choose when to let people know about our relationship, that bothers me some.”
Of course that bothers him. It would bother anyone. “Especially when I’m supposed to be in rehab.”
“Maybe you should just come out and tell the truth about Trey and the fact that you’re not in some recovery program. Wouldn’t it be easier?”
“Not the aftermath. People won’t see this as something my publicist did without really consulting me. They’ll think I lied to get attention. It could potentially ruin my career. It’d definitely sabotage my chances at getting the role I’ve been working towards for months.” I wrap my arms around his waist. “Jaxon, I’m sorry. Once I get this role, it’ll get better. I’ll be able to stop with this ridiculous ruse that JulieAnn got me into.”
“But wouldn’t it be better if the truth came from you and not some tabloid putting their own spin on it? Then you could tell your story. Today was a close call. That guy almost got away with pictures of us together.”
I give him a questioning gaze, thinking about how it seems as though there is an unspoken issue going on between his brothers. Most likely, I’m at the center of that issue. “Is there any other reason that this is bothering you so much? Anything else you want to talk to me about? I noticed things were off with you and Dillon. Does that have something to do with all of this?”
He sighs. There is something else. I’m waiting and prepared to hear him out when he shakes his head a little. “No, nothing for you to worry about. I really just hope that this will all blow over soon.”
He’s holding back. I know he is. But I decide not to push, even though a part of me is hurt at his hesitance to be open with me. Instead, I think of a compromise. “I’ve decided that once I get the role, I’ll tell everyone that the reports of me being in rehab were mistaken. I just needed some time away from the limelight and the pressures that came with it.”
“Aren’t you afraid of what kind of an impact it’ll have when the truth comes out? You said people might feel lied to. What if they do?”
“I guess I just hope everyone will be forgiving and happy for me and the new role. But for now, I just have to go with it. I’ve done so much to get this gig, and I’m really close to getting the interview I need to land it.”
I can tell by the tenseness in his shoulders and the crease between his brows that he’s not convinced. I’ll just have to show him that it will all work out, and it will all work out. It has to.
The next morning, I’m sitting with my mom, hel
ping her garden. I love that Mom and Dad moved here. They said they miss the ocean, but that they want to be the kind of grandparents that sees their grand-babies everyday. And for me, it means all of my favorite people are in the same town.
I keep thinking about what an amazing day yesterday was. Jax’s surprise was the best gift he could have given me. It was so rewarding to know I helped make a small difference in those kids’ lives. And I love that Jaxon knew how much I’d enjoy it. I didn’t even know that I was missing doing charity work so much.
“You look happy,” Mom says. She gazes at me with eyes blanketed in wrinkles of wisdom.
I shrug, unable to keep a smirk from my mouth. “I am.”
She trims some browned leaves from a chili plant. “I wasn’t so sure about Jax since he broke your heart, but now that I know everything, I like him again. And that darling girl of his, Audrey.” Her eyes light up when she says Audrey’s name. “So, what are you going to do, dear?”
I pull a weed from between some tomato plants. The sharp earthy scent follows. “What do you mean?”
“I mean what are you going to do about Jaxon and Audrey, long term? Are you planning on moving out here? Are they going to move to California? What's the plan?”
I knew she would bring this up at some point. If I’ve thought about it, then she definitely has. And my mother is never one to not say what’s on her mind. I toss the pulled weed into the bucket between us. “Can’t Jax and I just enjoy each other right now and see where the pieces fall?”
Mom leans over and closes the hole the pulled weed made in the garden bed. “You need to discuss these things. It’s important to plan, especially as you’re spending so much time together.”
“We kind of talked about my acting career. We’ll do the long-distance thing when we have to and be together as much as possible.”
She sits back on her heels. “Malia, that might be fine for you and Jaxon, but children need stability. You can’t raise a daughter long distance. You’re with someone who has a child now.”