by Taylor Hart
Her father nodded. “Okay.”
Jewel waved at them as her father moved around the car to open the door for her mother. “Love you guys.”
“Love you, baby,” her mother called out.
Her father looked at them both. “Be careful.”
Grant smiled at him, and he took Jewel’s hand. “Yes, sir.”
They watched her parents pull away.
Jewel gave him a tight smile. “Well, I guess it’s the jet.”
He gently kissed her on the cheek, smelling her for the first time. What was it? Strawberry? Did she actually smell like a fruit? “We’d better get going, sweetie.”
He could tell Jewel wasn’t sure if she liked this or not. As the car turned the corner, she tugged her hand back. “Why would you ever tell my parents that we’re engaged?”
Chapter 10
“Those were my parents!” Jewel pointed at the car, which was now almost out of her subdivision. “People I love and adore, people who took me in, and people I never want to hurt.”
Letting out a soft sigh and squinting at her, Grant rolled his eyes. “If you didn’t notice, I just saved your bacon.”
“Really? By lying to them?”
“You lied to them by telling them you were sick.”
Jewel threw her hand in the air. “A small lie.”
“A lie nonetheless.”
Unexpectedly, she shoved him in the chest with both hands.
He laughed. “Hey, you can shove me. I actually kinda like it, but you know I’m right. I saved you.”
“But fiancé!” She ran a hand through her hair. “I was just going to introduce you to help distract them from my situation, not tell them we were getting married.”
“So what were you going to tell them?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “I was just going to use your star power until I thought of something.”
“Well, I’m sorry I didn’t have any lines to read, okay?”
This was crazy. Her thoughts went a million miles an hour. “I thought you were supposed to lie low because of your breakup with Tracy.”
He scoffed. “We’re not planning on announcing it, are we?”
“No!” She stomped her foot. “You make no sense. Why would you tell my parents that?”
He shrugged, looking at a loss. “I don’t know. It just came out. I wanted to cover for you, and I thought a trip with me sounded good. And ya know—” He wagged a finger at her, scowling. “—you’re really not great on the ego, standing there being that upset about being engaged to me.”
She glared at him. “Okay, Hollywood. Yeah, this is about you right now, right?” The man had the ego the size of a small country.
“Whatever, woman. Then fine. Call your parents and tell them the truth.” He said it in a challenging tone.
She seethed. “Fine.”
He gestured in the direction her parents had driven. “I saw you all deer in the headlights. Were you going to tell them that you were looking for your biological mother?”
Her mouth clamped shut, and her heart jumped. She knew he was right. What would she have told them? “If you wouldn’t have shown up, I guess I would have played the sick card.”
He cocked an eyebrow at her. “Right, with your suitcase in hand.”
“I would have sold it if I hadn’t had you standing outside my door. Maybe I would have told them I was going home.”
He sputtered, raking a hand through his hair. “Really? You’re blaming me for all of this?”
“An engagement is not a little lie. How am I supposed to hide that lie from my parents? You’re kinda, like, famous.”
“It’ll be fine. No one knows. I cut my dreads. If I wear a ball cap and glasses and stay low, we’ll be off radar.”
Letting out a breath, she laughed. “Right. You’re such a chameleon.”
“Hey, I can be.”
“Sure.” A thought occurred to her. “Why didn’t you just tell them we were seeing each other?”
He threw it back to her. “Why didn’t you?”
Ugh.
He pointed at her feet. “You just stomped your foot for the second time.” He put up two fingers.
This made her smile, because she knew she was acting like some of the spoiled, entitled kids that she constantly told to be grateful.
“C’mon.” He whipped out his phone. “I do have the jet prepped, because that was my first plan.”
“What?” This was crazy.
He shrugged. “Why drive when you can fly? So let’s fly to Jackson, meet your mom, stay at Sloane’s, and fly back. No biggie.”
She let out a light laugh. “Jet-setting is not my life.”
“Ah-ha. Yes, see. You can see it happening. Us, taking the jet to Jackson.”
Throwing up her arms, she said, “Why would you do this? I mean, why do you care about coming with me? Why would you tell my parents that we’re engaged? I don’t understand.”
For a moment, Grant didn’t say anything. Then he shrugged. “Why not?”
This dumbfounded her. “What?”
He swallowed and seemed to be deciding if he wanted to tell her something. “I told you. I have nothing to do, and it looks like my brothers have hooked up with their old high school flames, so suddenly, I’m really not busy and …”
“And …” Suspicious, she looked him up and down. “There’s nothing else Grant Kent could be doing and no one else he could be hanging out with?”
He shrugged. “I want to come. You’re different. You’re not easily impressed. You called me a hack.”
“Because I called you a hack, you want to spend time with me. Man, we’ve gone over this. You have insecurity issues. You probably should spend this week seeing a therapist.”
“Exactly.”
“You make no sense.”
He sighed. “Most women fall all over themselves around me, would kill to fly in my jet.”
She still didn’t know what he was saying, and he was starting to annoy her even more.
“You don’t. You tell me the truth. It’s nice.”
That made her smile. “You find my snarkiness nice?” She thought about how the principal didn’t enjoy it during faculty meetings and had asked her to tone it down last week.
He grinned. “And, okay, I’m interested in you as more than a friend.”
This took her aback, and her heart rate kicked up a notch.
He stepped forward and took her hand. “I know you’re a little bit vulnerable about your birth mom and everything. I get that. When I saw what was happening with your parents, I just felt how you felt. My mom used to tell me my ability to feel other people’s emotions would make me a powerful actor.”
Her head spun. The guy was so gorgeous, and his touch sparked something intimate between them. She did feel like she was in a movie. Grant was the main character and … She backed away, shaking her head. “I just don’t understand.”
Grant sighed. “Recently, my brother Sloane boarded a Greyhound bus to chase down a woman he thought needed help. Maybe I think I might be able to help you.”
She let out a laugh. “So that’s what this is—you playing hero?”
He shrugged. “Do you need a hero?”
“I don’t need a man to save me.” Even though she wouldn’t admit how fast her heart was beating and how many times she’d seen him in Save the Date, the movie where the guy rode up to the house on a white horse. It was a contemporary romance, and she watched it when she was sad that she didn’t have a boyfriend.
The side of his lip turned up. “Maybe I just want to do something for someone else that’s nice. Another Christmas deed.”
She was doubtful, but she relented. It wasn’t like she could tell her mother the truth now. “Right, you’re earning your wings.” She snapped her fingers. “So now we’re in one of your cheesy Christmas movies?”
A huge grin swept across Grant’s face. “I have one coming out this year called The Christmas Girlfriend, based on a book written
by Taylor Hart—have you heard of her?”
She frowned. “I don’t know if I have.”
“Look her up on Amazon. She has amazing Christmas stories.”
“I will.”
“C’mon. Let’s take my jet and go find your mom.” He winked at her. “Who knows? Maybe I will get my wings, and then you can be rid of me.”
Part of her really wanted to, but the other part, the honest part, was having second thoughts. She whipped her phone out. “No. No. I’m calling my parents and telling them the truth.”
He didn’t move.
She pulled up her favorites, and her finger hovered over her mother’s number. A million thoughts ran though her mind. She didn’t want to hurt her mother. Or her father. Plus, they would be totally confused. And she’d already lied. “Dang it!”
Grant’s hand was over her phone, tugging it away.
“Give it back!”
“No.” He crossed his arms with the phone in his hand.
She wanted to smack him, but she opted for pushing him. “You’re not my real fiancé. You’re not anything. Give it back!” This guy didn’t have any say in her life.
He held it above his head like some stupid jock keeping the ball away from her. “Your parents think I’m your fiancé. That gives me the responsibility to protect them.”
Getting angrier, she shoved him again. “From what?”
Grant spun and easily dodged the full force of her push.
She almost fell, but she found her footing and turned back. “All hacks care about is what appears real, and I can’t do this to my parents.”
Grant’s eyes sparked with fire, and he handed the phone to her. “Fine, do what you want.” He began walking to his car.
“Fine!” she yelled, still feeling out of control.
“Just so you know, you’re the first girl I’ve chased down in a long time.”
Reflexively, she laughed at his cockiness. “Should I fall at your feet and thank you for liking me?” She put a finger down her throat and made a childish gagging gesture.
The way he looked at her, like she was insane, made it worse. He let out a huge sigh. “Why don’t we just go to Jackson and see if it really is your mom? Then you can tell them the truth. But why hurt them if you don’t have to?”
Jewel paused, uncertain, and her temper cooled. He had a point. “I don’t know why you’re being so nice to me.”
He shrugged. “Me either.”
“Fine.” Her shoulders sagged. “Let’s go on your jet.”
A small smile played on his lips. “Ms. Olympia, your gratitude overwhelms me.”
Feeling overwhelmed and nervous and worried, she grunted. “Hey, who ever said getting your wings would be easy?”
Chapter 11
As his jet taxied out of the runway in LA with flight plans for Jackson, Wyoming, Grant stared across the aisle at Jewel. She was the opposite of a groupie, and he liked that about her.
She didn’t just want to go with him because he was a movie star. Sure, he could tell that she’d been a little starstruck the first day she’d met him, but the woman for sure wasn’t a fake.
He studied her as she stared out the window. Her simple beauty with her fine features and her red hair captivated him. When he’d met her parents today, he’d noticed how much taller she was than them. Her mother was a dark brunette, and her father also had dark hair. Her brilliant red hair was such a contrast. He guessed she could have used dye, but he doubted it.
Turning, she scrunched up her nose. “Why are you staring at me like that?”
He dismissed his curiosity. She wasn’t the kind of woman you ask about having fake hair. “I’m not staring at you like anything.” He turned and looked out the window.
The jet gained speed, and then they were up and in the air. She gripped the sides of her armrests.
He took in her white knuckles and closed eyes, surprised when she mumbled out a couple of words that sounded like a prayer. “Are you okay?”
“Fine.” Her eyes flashed open. She looked out the window, then squeezed them closed quickly.
They were both quiet as the plane gained altitude. Grant loved to fly. In truth, he’d flown so much the past ten years that he didn’t even think about it anymore. Part of the reason he loved to fly was because he had his jet and he didn’t have to fight with commercial airlines. He hated all the people and the cramped space. Yes, he knew he was spoiled, but his job took a huge toll on him, and he needed his space in between shoots to relax.
Turning back to her, he noticed that she’d pulled a rosary out from her pocket and held it in her hand, still mumbling.
“Ah,” he said softly. “Praying helps. That’s for sure.”
Jewel put the beads down. “So I’m praying. Do you have something to say about it?” she asked defensively.
Putting up his hands, he surrendered. “I used to pray,” he said quietly.
“Not anymore?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know if it works.”
“I saw in the People article last year that you were raised Catholic.”
“Yep.” The word came out clipped.
“You didn’t like the article?”
Irritation rippled through him. “I regret letting them do a whole spread on the ‘Kent men.’ It’s been annoying what people think they know about me and what they think they know about my brothers.”
She cocked an eyebrow. “For some reason, I don’t think you shy away from the press.”
“I’m not saying I do. It’s just …”
The airplane hit a bit of turbulence, and she closed her eyes. He could swear she was mumbling the Lord’s Prayer.
He smiled. Yes, a good Catholic girl. His mother would approve. The thought made him both happy and sad, because his mother had been quite vocal about telling him she didn’t like his other girlfriends before she passed.
Her eyes flashed open. “Okay, now you’re stalker looking at me, so spill it. What are you thinking?”
For some reason, he told her the truth. “My mama would have liked you.”
She looked like she wanted to say something snarky, but then she caught herself and turned to the window. “I heard about you all losing her. I’m sorry.”
It meant a lot that he could tell she was sincere. “Thank you.”
For a few moments, neither of them spoke.
“So tell me more about you,” he said.
“I still cannot believe you told them we are engaged.”
He shrugged. “Listen, that’s the first rule of acting. You have to adapt, so adapt.”
Sputtering out a laugh, she squeezed the hand rests harder and screwed her eyes shut. “Maybe that’s why I quit acting and got a meaningful job.”
He wouldn’t lie: the slight stung a bit. He forced a laugh. “Hey, someone’s got to do the fun stuff.”
“Sorry.” Her expression softened, and she offered an apologetic look. “I’m sorry. I keep treating you like—”
“Like I have to pay for the sins of past boyfriends.”
“Actually, I think you might be a nice guy.” Her smile was soft.
“Such surprise in your tone, Ms. Olympia.” He winked at her. “Maybe push the soft palate up when you say the word nice. So it sounds more English.”
She picked up the magazine next to her and threw it across the aisle at him.
He dodged it, but grinned. “Hey! Don’t distract the owner of the jet.”
She rolled her eyes. “Why?”
“Because he might be busy flirting with a beautiful woman.”
She shook her head and blushed. “C’mon, Hollywood, you know your types aren’t the nicest.”
“Yes, I know some people in Hollywood aren’t known for their chivalry.”
“Yeah.” She snorted.
That was pulling a card he didn’t care for. He shrugged. “I wasn’t always Hollywood.”
Her eyes met his, and she cocked an eyebrow. “You’ve never talked about that in an interview.�
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Ignoring the fact he would never talk about it, he focused on the good part. “So you watch all my interviews?”
She quickly averted her eyes. “Uh, no.”
Too late. He tamped down on the pride and focused on her instead. “Tell me about the jerk who hurt you.”
“I already told you my story is kind of like yours. Caught him.”
“Yeah.” He didn’t want to think about Tracy and his stunt guy. “Maybe.” Thinking about how strange this whole path was that had landed them on the jet, he sighed. “You know, my brothers had called me out for being a hack—their term was a fake—before I even met you.”
“Brutal honesty from brothers.”
“Yeah.”
“Listen, I am grateful,” she said. “I do want to find my birth mom, and I’m grateful I didn’t have to tell my parents.”
He nodded. “You’re welcome, but I still want to know more about you.”
Her eyes widened. “Me? Why do you want to know?”
“Why not? You’re stuck on this plane with me. And stuck with me for at least a night, right?” He unbuckled his seat belt and stood, moving to sit right next to her.
She clasped her hands tightly together in her lap and glared at him. “You really had to move right beside me?”
“Yep.”
After a beat, she said, “I already told you the pathetic part. I was abandoned.” She glanced away, embarrassed. “I had two wonderful parents. As you saw, they adore me and pretty much gave me everything they could.”
The center of his chest warmed. “They seemed nice.”
She nodded, a smile on her lips. “Mama always cries like that when she leaves me or I leave her.” Tears misted in her eyes. “I … it’s stupid that I even care about finding my birth mom, right?”
“No,” he said gently. “I think it’s perfectly natural. Actually, I think when you’re ready to tell your mom and dad, they’re going to understand.”
Rearing back a bit, she shook her head. “Uh, no. My mom won’t. It’s kind of always been an insecurity for her. She would always say, ‘You’re going to find your real family one day and leave us.’”
This made Grant kind of sad, but he wouldn’t say that. “Just hang tight, polka-dot swimsuit girl. You’re gonna be okay.”