by Holly Rayner
She didn’t know why she felt the need to defend him, but when she looked back at him, Amir’s expression was entirely unreadable. Hadid slapped his brother on the back affectionately.
“Good to hear. I always knew Amir would be a great success in anything he pursued. Well done, little brother.”
“Thanks, Hadid. I hope your legislative training is going well.”
“We have great teachers,” Hadid said, gesturing toward their parents, who were chatting with a chef in the corner.
Amalia ended the conversation and joined their little group.
“We’re going to have dinner tonight in the main hall with as many of our children who can come. I’d like you to meet the brood, Kaye. You’ll find them in good spirits, even if not the most well-behaved royals in the history of our country.”
She looked sternly over at Amir.
“This will be off-camera. The children aren’t as willing to put themselves on camera as we are. They have reputations to protect.”
“And you don’t?” Amir asked, amused.
“We’ve established ourselves. They haven’t. You children have much to prove. Now, move along and finish whatever you need to have done before then. I would like a nice family dinner before you all leave for another ten years.”
Amir nodded, and they met with Jesse in the home theater to film them watching a sponsored up-and-coming movie, their conversation closely recorded. Once the movie was done, it was time for dinner. Amir shook hands with Jesse and wished him a good night before escorting Kaye to the grand dining room.
There, six of Amir’s brothers and sisters with their spouses and children were all boisterously taking up the great hall. Kaye’s head spun as she was introduced to each person, and she watched with awe as Amir affectionately embraced every member of his family, getting on the ground to play with the children.
As the evening passed, there was love and laughter all around them, and Kaye’s heart warmed as she was regaled with stories from their unusual childhoods as a large royal family. Only when the children began falling asleep at their chairs did they finally agree to turn in for the night.
As Kaye lay in her spacious guest bed, she tried to focus on the feeling of love she had experienced that evening, and not on the day ahead. It would likely feel like one of the shortest plane rides of her life.
Chapter Fifteen
The next morning, the royal couple stood at the top steps, giving Amir and Kaye hugs as the cars waited to take them to the airport.
“It was such a pleasure to meet you, Kaye. And to work with you! The fear in your eyes was beyond believable,” Amalia said.
Kaye laughed, hugging Amir’s mother tight.
“That’s because it was very real. You are a fearsome woman to behold. I’m grateful that I’m on your good side.”
“Me, too,” Amalia chuckled, and she turned toward Amir.
“You be a gentleman with this young woman. Make sure she is taken care of, right?”
“I would never let you down, Mother. She is an exceptional colleague.”
Amalia’s eyes were filled with mischief as she nodded.
“Mmhmm,” she said, kissing her son on both cheeks before waving them off.
Jamir waved too as he wrapped the other arm around Amalia’s shoulders, the two of them still waving even as the cars disappeared from sight, heading in the direction of the national airport.
This time, Kaye and Amir had first-class seats on a commercial airline, and were forced to share it with a variety of other passengers. Kaye found herself seated several rows away from Amir, but she told herself that was for the best.
Her attraction to him was only growing more intense as they spent more time together. Part of her was certain that it wasn’t just her, either. There were times that she would catch him staring at her when he thought she wasn’t looking, only to glance quickly away when she met his gaze. She told herself that he was just brainstorming for the show, practicing how to look at her like he’d fallen for her.
Deep down, she knew better. Or at least, she thought she did. As soon as he would get close to her, he would push her away again. She knew he had to, because they had signed an agreement about it, but she always wondered just how much he might be experiencing the same feelings.
Could he be falling in love with her?
Kaye’s stomach roiled with discomfort. She was unsure about her feelings, about Amir’s, and she had a very scary meeting with her own family coming up as soon as the plane touched the ground of her home state.
Taking a deep breath, she decided to try to get some sleep. Instead, she spent the rest of the flight thinking of every possible scenario in which things could go wrong. Needless to say, it was not the most pleasant traveling experience she had ever had.
Somewhere in the middle of it, she did fall asleep, because when the plane touched ground in Indiana, she jumped, her hair plastered to the side of her head on the area she’d been sleeping on. She quickly brushed the strands away, collecting herself as she stared out the window.
They were taxiing down the runway, passing other planes as they parked at the terminal, the flight attendants coming onto the speaker to announce their arrival. When it was finally her turn, Kaye stood and stretched her sore muscles. She glanced up to see Amir making his way toward the exit, and followed suit, meeting up with the rest of the crew as they found a series of rental cars that had been reserved for them.
A hand landed on Kaye’s shoulder, and she started.
“Whoa, easy there, Kaye. We need directions to your parents’ house.”
She looked up at Amir, her stomach still churning with nerves.
“Maybe we could just do some filming in Indiana, and then talk about my parents. They don’t have to be involved in this.”
Amir frowned.
“Kaye, you agreed to this process. Why haven’t you told your parents? We shouldn’t be in a situation where things don’t work out for filming because you were too scared to talk to them. I thought we’d figured this out.”
He was speaking to her like a chastising manager, and Kaye crossed her arms, glaring up at him.
“Sorry, I forgot this was all about the show.”
“This kind of is the show, Kaye,” he reminded her.
She saw, in that moment, that Amir certainly had two sides. On one hand, he could be so kind and charming and funny. On the other, he was adamant about promoting his own business. That side, at least, helped her keep things professional.
She gave him the address, and he wrote it down. When he had the information, she walked away, needing to have some distance from him. Her emotions were on a roller-coaster ride, and she needed to find a way to disembark before she got really hurt.
Getting in one of the cars, she sat next to Jesse as they took off in the direction of her parents’ house—a good two-hour drive away.
“This is going to be terrific. We really have the ‘two different worlds’ vibe going here. Chris, can you film that farm over there?”
The cameraman in the back pointed his lens at the local farm as they drove by, the long rows of vegetation a lush green color, even on a cloudy day.
Kaye stared up at the gray sky, her mood mirrored in its reflection. Her mind drifted to the blue palace of Al Rayyan, and she found herself wishing that she could be homesick for Amir’s homeland. In so many ways, it had felt much more comfortable than her current situation.
She sat in silence until Jesse directed his crew to film certain shots, including an interview with Kaye about going home to see her parents again. She kept it as honest as possible.
“I’m a little scared,” she said into the small camera which had been set on the dashboard in front of her. “My parents are very, very traditional people. They’re all about the process, and I’m sure they’ll be upset that Amir didn’t meet them or get their permission first.”
Jesse urged her to continue, and she voiced her nerves the rest of the way there, until the two-storied square building
s of Main Street popped up along the side of the road. Kaye stared out at them, very aware that the cameras were watching her reaction. She thought about all the times she’d walked from their farmhouse to Main Street to grab a fifty-cent ice cream cone, taking her time on the walk back to finish it before they knew what she’d bought.
There were so many memories planted in that town. So many that she had left to die, while she went on to pursue her dream. The cars all drove through the small town center with its one stop sign before turning right and heading in the direction of a large, red farmhouse. When they pulled up into the dirt driveway, they parked side by side in a grassy area just off the house.
Kaye saw her parents step onto the front porch. Her dad’s hair was a little thinner, her mom’s hips a little wider. Otherwise, they looked exactly the same. She took a breath, exiting the car so she could give them some warning first.
“Mom, Dad, everything’s okay,” she said, jogging up the white-painted porch steps.
Her mother’s brown eyes were wide as she took in her daughter, her father staring at her in total disbelief.
“Kaye? What on earth is going on here?”
“I can explain,” Kaye said.
“You darn well better. We don’t need a parking lot full of strangers on our property, Kaye,” her father chimed in, his tone grouchy.
The crew was disembarking, chatting happily as they began putting their equipment together. Amir stepped out of his car and eyed Kaye warily from a distance, waiting until it was okay to step forward. She looked back at her parents with a beseeching gaze.
“I managed to get work on a project, but it requires a little filming of my family.”
Her father’s eyes narrowed.
“Why would you need to do that? You’re the actress, Kaye, not us.”
“I know, it’s just for a TV show that I’m filming. Here’s one of the producers, now,” Kaye said, waving Amir over.
He walked over, then, his posture straight, his face handsome as ever, in spite of the light stubble on his chin. The Sheikh walked up the front steps and held out his hand for her parents to shake while cameras all around them began to film. Kaye’s mother stared out at them, bewildered.
“Kaye Mary Kearney, you better explain what’s going on this minute before we have the sheriff run all of these film folks off our lawn.”
“Mom, don’t! We’re filming a reality show, okay? I’m supposed to be marrying this man, Amir Al-Asfour, but none of it is real. I mean, it is real. We have to get married for the show. But it’s all just for the show. We’ll get an annulment after a good amount of time has passed, after.”
Her parents stared at her, their expressions hard. She had imagined this scenario, of course—she just hadn’t thought it would be this terrible.
“You mean to tell us that the one acting job you got after all that money we spent on you for that fancy degree is some reality show where you pretend to marry this stranger? How much money is he giving you to sell your integrity, just out of curiosity?” her dad asked with narrowed eyes.
“Enough to make it worth it, I assure you,” Kaye answered, feeling the wound of his comment.
As if she hadn’t tried as hard as she could to land a job they would have thought worthy? Her dad’s eyes narrowed further into slits. Not a good sign.
“No amount of money is worth selling your hand in marriage. You know what that makes you, right?”
“Don’t you dare slander me,” Kaye said, enraged. “You think I didn’t know the kind of reception I’d get from you closed-minded country bumpkins? I’m trying to make something of myself here, which is more than I can say for either of you!”
“You had a choice to take up this farm and sustain it for generations to come. Instead, you chose to go out and apparently became a reality show harlot. Well, you can bet we’ll have nothing to do with that. We will not be filming this trash, and we will sue if any of our images makes it onto a television screen, you can bet on that.”
Her father yelled the last bit out to the crew in general, who quickly shut off their equipment. He glared back at Kaye, then.
“We thought you would do something more with your life, Kaye. You’re the only child we have. Now, we have to live with the shame of knowing just who you really are.”
“And who am I, Dad?” Kaye cried, tears filling her eyes as her voice broke.
When he didn’t reply, she put a hand up to silence any retort he would have had.
“Forget it. I should have known this would be a waste of time. I’m going to make it in this world, and when I do, it will be no thanks to your dim-witted small-town attitudes! I couldn’t get out of here fast enough when I left for college, and I can’t now. Thanks for nothing,” she hissed, turning and running down the steps.
Taking the cue, the rest of the crew began to pile into the other cars. Kaye glanced back to see Amir speaking with her parents, but she was too angry to think anything of it. Instead, she slammed her car door and yelled at the driver to go, determined to step foot on that farm again.
As the car pulled away from her childhood home, Kaye was filled with an overwhelming sense of regret.
How would she ever fix her broken life?
Chapter Sixteen
Kaye couldn’t stop the tears from streaking down her face as the car made its long journey back to the airport. Over the radio, she heard Merle shrieking about wasted time and money, but she couldn’t care less in that moment. All she wanted to do was head home—back to L.A.
The familiar open fields passed by on either side, time standing still in the little corner of the world that never seemed to change. Kaye had looked at those same fields for most of her life, only stopping to go to school and try to make a new life for herself. If her parents couldn’t understand that, it was their problem.
Amir’s voice echoed across her mind, questioning whether it would have been better to give them some kind of a head’s up before bombarding them with a filming crew. Upon hindsight, Kaye had to admit to herself that her decision not to reach out to them first could have been a little shortsighted.
She sighed, pressing her forehead against the window.
“How are we going to play this?”
One of the crew was whispering to Jesse, who had quietly sat in the back as they drove on.
“Let’s find out,” he said, leaning forward and peeking at Kaye through the back seat.
She cracked open an eye and looked at him, waiting for the question.
“What do you want to do here, Kaye?”
She released a laugh, and it was a terribly sad sound for such a joyful gesture.
“You mean I have some kind of choice in the matter?”
“Of course you do. We’re not slave drivers here. You’ve been easy to work with from day one. So, your parents weren’t on board. We managed to get some shots of the confrontation, but your folks are right—without their permission, they would be well within their right to sue. Do you think we can do a little bit of filming to work around it?”
Kaye closed her eyes again, taking a bracing breath. She was still at work, after all. It would be important to remain professional. Jesse had worked on many projects with Merle, or so it seemed, and he could have connections that could make or break her in Hollywood. That was the thing about acting—or any career, really. It was all about who you knew and who knew you were hard or easy to work with. Difficult actresses found themselves ousted after so many years, while nice ones could have lifelong careers.
“What would you like me to say?” she asked.
Jesse nodded to the cameraman next to him, and the man whipped out his camera, preparing to film.
“Just talk about what happened. We can let the audience know that we tried, and your raw emotion right now will really come through. You have a chance to make this terrible situation come to life, and I think this is something a lot of people can relate to. Whenever you’re ready.”
Kaye nodded, wiping the tear streaks f
rom beneath her eyes before she turned to face the camera, which had already turned on.
“Can you tell us a little about what just happened?” Jesse prompted.
Kaye nodded, allowing her tears to flow again for effect.
“Amir and I just tried to break the news of our engagement to my parents,” she said between sniffles. “It didn’t exactly go well.”
Jesse’s gaze was encouraging as she worked up her emotions to get a better shot.
“I just wish that they could understand me a little better, you know?” she asked the camera lens, as though she was talking directly to the millions of people who would be watching. “I grew up in such a small town; their worldview is so closed-off. I wish they could just be happy for me.”
She wept a little, then, reaching into her purse for a tissue and delicately dabbing at her eyes.
“Do you want to talk about it?” Jesse asked.
She shook her head, allowing herself a good, solid cry. Not all of that was an act. The cameraman filmed her breakdown, and she had to wonder if her parents weren’t a little bit right. She was selling her real emotions for a paycheck.
It was a huge paycheck; that was true. But it was still just money, in the end. Was that the kind of actress she wanted to be?
“That’s great, Chuck. Can you load that film onto the shared drive and we’ll do some editing on the plane?”
“Sure, boss,” Chuck said, shutting down the camera and working to load it onto a laptop.
“That’s fast,” Kaye observed, sniffling back her last tears as she watched the high-tech gadgets Chuck used to get the film ready to edit on the fly.
“The speed of business is unreal these days. We have to do what we can to keep up. Usually, that means working as we move. A lot of travel time means we get a lot done. The entire segment for your trip to Al Rayyan is already prepped and ready for finishing when we get back. We’re in good shape.”
“That’s very impressive.”
Jesse shrugged.
“You have to be fast to keep up with Merle’s demands. It’s the only way to really get to that success part that lies underneath all the crap.”