He shrugged. “It seemed like the right thing.”
She stood in front of him, and he wished he hadn’t worn the suit jacket over his T-shirt and jeans, wished he might be in his comfy jeans, a cotton T-shirt and, while he was at it, sitting with her in the back of his pickup, singing her a song.
He might even try the one that kept churning through his head, almost nonstop for the last week. Something from the past that he’d revived, added a verse or two.
“You want to give it to her now?” Kacey asked.
“Really?” Oh, way too much hope in his voice.
But she didn’t comment, just nodded. “A few of the kids brought gifts, but she opened them already. I think she’ll love it.”
She reached out to tug him forward, but he hesitated.
“What?”
He shot a look at the Judge, who still hadn’t noticed him.
She followed his gaze. Dropped her hand. “He has his regrets too, Ben.”
Sure he did. But Ben let her lead him toward a cluster of kids. He spotted Audrey standing in the middle wearing cutoff overalls and a pink T-shirt, barefoot in the grass, her hair pulled back into two braids.
He stood at the edge of the crowd, but it only took a second for her to look up, her eyes to go wide. “Wow. Hi.”
“Happy birthday,” he said quietly, the most profound, perfect words he’d ever spoken. Then he held out her gift.
Her mouth opened, and she looked from her mother, back to Ben. “Really? For me?”
“No time like the present, right?”
“You got me a guitar?”
He nodded, grinning, his heart exploding as she came over and took the instrument in its case into her embrace.
“I don’t know what to say,” she whispered, her eyes glossy.
Neither did Ben.
“Thank you,” Kacey said, and Audrey glanced at her.
“This is the best present anyone has ever gotten me. In my whole life.”
He raised an eyebrow. Grinned, still unable to speak. She brought it over to a sofa, set it down, and opened it. Almost reverently, she ran her hands over the fingerboard, the rosewood pick guard, the amber body.
“It’s a vintage Gibson Hummingbird,” he said. “The design is called a square shoulder dreadnought, the way they made guitars back in the 1960s. The top is made from spruce, the body from mahogany. And the pick guard is hand engraved, with the original bird and floral design. It’s got a beautiful sound. May I?”
She stepped back, and he pulled it out of the case, propped his leg on the sofa arm. He’d already tuned it this morning and now played a quick lick. “The midrange is perfectly balanced, and listen to the treble.”
He picked out another country lick, his fingers flying over the fretboard, and watched as her eyes lit up.
“Do that again,” she said.
He laughed and repeated it, faster, extending it. “How about a birthday song?” he asked over the music. “I wrote you a little something.”
“You wrote a song for me?”
“Just something silly.” But he played the intro riff and launched into the song.
Thirteen years, already gone
Sweet little girl, sweet country song
So much more, she’s just begun
Let’s start with tonight, let’s have some fun
Happy birthday, Audrey, it’s true
The world had no song ’til there was you
He’d managed to get through the entire thing without his voice seizing up, but he segued fast into another impressive riff, then ended with a flourish.
She was clapping, her beautiful eyes shining. “I love it!” She turned, found her mother standing just outside the ring. “He sang me a song.”
Kacey wore a strange smile, her eyes glistening. “I know, baby.”
Then Audrey turned back to him, and he didn’t know what to do when she flung her arms around his neck. “Thank you!”
He startled, and by the time he figured out to hug her back, she’d danced away, laughing, caught in the arms of a couple giggling girls. He put the guitar back in the case.
He was turning back toward the house when he spotted Robert staring at him from the deck. Ben nodded at him, not wanting to give him reason to stride down, order him off his property.
Funny how one look could steal ten years of success and make him feel like a teenager sporting a black eye, swollen lip, and way too much shame to stand up for himself.
He searched for Kacey and found her coming up behind him. “That was . . . really cool of you, Ben.” She whisked her hand across her cheek.
“It was nothing.”
“You wrote a song.”
“It was just a silly little somethin’ . . . but . . .” He lifted a shoulder.
She made a noncommittal noise. “Why don’t I put the guitar in the house, where it won’t get damaged?”
He handed it over to her, then stood, watching Audrey laugh with her friends, feeling Robert’s gaze on his neck. He noticed that Nate was standing away from Audrey, talking with a couple other girls. He kept sneaking looks at her, but when she glanced up, he would look away.
Yep, the kid liked her. Probably too much for his own good, although Ben knew exactly how it felt to be thirteen and in love with the most beautiful, amazing girl in town, feeling so out of his league it only stirred in him a desire to be better. Be more.
Be worthy.
“Did you get a burger?” Kacey had returned.
“I can’t eat,” he said and cast another look at Audrey.
Kacey grew silent beside him, then put her hand on his shoulder. “We’ll tell her. Let’s just wait until after the party, maybe?”
He nodded, unable to speak with the immensity of the emotions washing through him.
“Wanna take a walk?” she said, as if sensing the fact he just might do something crazy, like break out into tears.
He nodded, and she slipped her arm through his, guiding him away from the party.
“What movie are they seeing tonight?” he asked.
“Oh, probably Star Wars. Audrey is a crazy nut over the original series.”
He took her hand as they wandered toward the paddock. A creamy palomino grazed in the field, its ears flicking back as Kacey whistled.
“That’s Snowy,” she said. “My parents gave her to Audrey a couple years ago. I think it was my dad’s attempt to make good on a promise he made me when I was thirteen to buy me a pony.”
He leaned on the rail. The music had faded as they’d wandered away, the scent of pine replacing the aroma of burgers on the grill. “I remember that promise,” he said.
She sighed. “They seemed to think a horse would somehow make up for lying to me for thirteen years about the fact my mother was really my aunt, and my real mother was doing twenty-to-life for murder.”
He winced at that, and she looked over at him. “Oh no, Ben. I don’t think Audrey is going to be upset—”
“I’m afraid that when we tell her, she’ll want nothing to do with me, she’ll be so angry with me for missing so much of her life.”
“Ben!”
But he walked away from her. “What if . . . maybe we should just leave things well enough? She likes me, Kacey. And maybe that’s enough.”
He’d reached the barn, and Snowy met them at the rail, having responded to Kacey’s whistle. She nudged her muzzle into his hand, and Ben ran his other down her forelock.
Kacey had followed him, silent. “I understand—really, I do. Every time I come home from a deployment or am on leave, I wonder if this will be the time Audrey won’t forgive me. She’ll suddenly discover that I wasn’t enough mother for her and decide I don’t have a place in her life.” She reached up, petted Snowy. “Sometimes I go back to that decision to join the military and wonder what would have happened if I’d stayed. Maybe gotten a job in town, taken classes at the community college . . .”
“Or if I hadn’t left.” He turned, leaned against the rai
ling. “If I hadn’t been a coward and believed you’d be better off without me.”
“Not followed your dream? No, Ben—”
“That wasn’t my dream, Kace.” He took her hand, tugged her to him. Then he reached up, touched her cheek. “You were. You, and Audrey.”
Her beautiful eyes widened, so much raw, eager vulnerability in them, and for the second time that night, she simply swept his breath from his chest.
Somewhere inside that tough soldier exterior was the girl who believed in him, who saw him as her hero. Who had loved just him, without the number one singles, the awards.
“Can I ask you something?” His thumbs ran over her cheekbones.
“Mmmhmm.”
“How did I get so lucky that you’re not married to some other guy?”
She looked down, away from him. Shrugged. “Because there’s never been anyone else but you, Ben.”
Oh. Her words could simply unravel him. “Wow, I love you.”
It just leaked out, and he didn’t care. Just dove in, his heart suddenly thundering to break free. “I never stopped, never could escape the idea that someday, somehow I might be able to earn your forgiveness.” His voice thickened. “Please forgive me for leaving.”
She looked up at him, her green eyes thick with emotion. “Forgiven.” She touched her forehead to his. “If I am.”
She leaned back, and he curled his hand behind her neck. Searched her face, then settled on her lips. His throat thickened. “Absolutely.”
He pulled her to himself and kissed her. Nothing tentative this time. He knew what he wanted, and fueled by his memories, his touch contained the longing of missing her, and his hopes of healing the raw, open, fourteen-year wound between them.
He kissed her like she belonged to him, and him to her, smelling the afternoon sun on her skin, pulling her closer, tangling his fingers into her soft, cascading hair.
And she pressed into him, moving her arms up over his shoulders, kissing him back as if he might be her entire world.
The way it was supposed to be.
“Oh Kacey,” he whispered as he came up for air. It scared him a little how easily he opened his heart for her to walk back into. How much he could taste this life that should have been his.
That would be his. “Let’s tell her tonight, after the party.”
She met his gaze, her breath a little broken, and nodded.
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
Ben stilled.
Kacey’s eyes widened.
Not again . . .
He grimaced as she untangled herself from his embrace. “Daddy—”
“I thought you were smarter than this, Kacey.” Robert stood just outside the shadow of the barn. He’d removed the apron, his shoulders rising and falling as if holding in something akin to what churned through Ben’s brain.
But he wasn’t a scared seventeen-year-old kid anymore. Let’s have a go, sir.
He found Kacey’s hand and clasped it.
“Judge—”
Her father held up his hand, his face grim. “Listen, I know you two think you’re rekindling the past, but in truth, you’re just headed for heartache.”
“How’s that?”
“When Audrey finds out what’s happening here—”
“That her parents have finally found their way back to each other?” Ben said. “That she has a father?” He kept his voice down and bit back the diatribe that threated to emerge.
“No. That her father is a big country star on a pit stop through town, and as soon as he’s got a better gig, he’ll be on his way. And she’ll be heartbroken again. As will my daughter.”
“That’s not—”
And that’s when he spotted her. She was dressed in short cutoffs, a lacy cream top, a cowboy hat, designer boots, and a thick turquoise necklace dangling from her neck. Hollie Montgomery. And, of course, she was attracting an entourage.
He had no words as his country costar marched right up to him, past Robert, ignoring Kacey, put her arms around his neck, and kissed him on the mouth.
And that’s when Kacey let go of his hand.
For all her military training, and in ten years of working in a combat zone, Kacey never had the dark urge to pull out her hand-to-hand combat skills until this very moment.
Except she didn’t exactly know where to focus her attack. On the slinky blonde who held Ben’s face in her grip, grinning up at him as if she might give him another smack on the lips.
Or Ben, who had Hollie by the arms, as if to steady her, maybe even pull her back in.
His words broke through her haze of shock, however, and forestalled her response.
“Hollie, what are you doing here?”
Here. Not what are you doing?
Yep, she should hit Ben. But hadn’t she known, deep down inside, that he had something going with Hollie? Anyone who read the tabloids could figure that out—they didn’t all lie.
So she was the foolish one for believing he hadn’t had feelings for Hollie. If she thought about it, he hadn’t really said they’d dated. But hadn’t clarified that they hadn’t either. Just called her cotton candy.
A lot of people liked cotton candy.
She deserved this horrible, humiliating moment. Still, she managed to fold her arms akimbo, listening for Hollie’s answer.
“Benji—I told you.” Hollie dropped her hands from his face and grabbed his wrists. “I was wrong. I need you.” She even affected a little pout, and if he fell for this, then—
“It’s not a big deal—”
“Oh, I knew you’d forgive me!” She flung her arms around his neck, knocking him backward.
Not a big deal?
That’s not how he’d made it sound.
Kacey took another step back, felt her father’s presence next to her. His hand went around her arm.
Ben set Hollie down, held her at arm’s length. “No, Hollie, listen. That’s not what I meant—”
“What, you don’t forgive me?” She stepped back, and that’s when a flash went off.
Ben flung up his hand, and Kacey glanced in the direction of the light.
A cell phone, one of the kids. In fact, it seemed the entire party had followed them out here to watch the reunion of country duo Montgomery-King.
“Not here,” he growled and reached for Hollie’s arm, but she wrenched it away.
“No. Are you still mad at me?”
And despite her own fury, Kacey saw him glance at the kids, over to Audrey, and she recognized a man trapped.
He metamorphosed before her eyes in a blink, into Mr. CMA, affecting a drawl Kacey had heard on too many country music interviews. “Of course not, honey.”
Superstar Benjamin King had returned. As if to seal the deal, he tugged on Hollie’s hat, gave her a wink. “I could never stay mad at you, darling.’”
She gave him another hug, more cell phones flashed, and Kacey turned toward the house.
She just might be ill with her own stupidity.
But she hadn’t pushed far through the crowd when she heard Ben’s voice. “Kacey!”
She didn’t want to turn, but she didn’t want to make a spectacle either, and end up going viral on social media. So she stopped. Waited.
Ben came striding after her, and she manufactured the same smile he boasted—fake, wide. Nothing to see here, folks.
“You need to meet Hollie Montgomery,” he said, but his eyes were searching hers, pressing in.
I’m sorry.
She shook her head, ignored his plea. Instead she stuck out her hand to his petite costar. Cotton candy, indeed. “Lieutenant Kacey Fairing. I’m an old pal of Benjamin’s.”
Hollie pumped her hand. “When Ben’s manager emailed me and told me he was here, I thought—what fun to visit him in Montana! I stopped by his house, only to find out he was here. I love birthday parties! So I called your house and your dad said I should come over. Where’s the birthday girl?”
Kacey had frozen, unable to move
. But she heard Audrey’s voice rush up behind her. “I’m here.”
And Kacey just couldn’t ruin this moment for her starstruck daughter.
“Glad to meet you, Audrey,” Hollie said. “I got you something.” She held out a tiny gift bag, and Audrey reached inside, pulled out a silver chain with an MK engraved in it.
“For Montgomery-King,” Hollie said, stating the obvious. Then she posed with Audrey for more selfies.
Ben had grabbed Kacey’s elbow, attempting to pull her aside.
She yanked it away, but it lacked gusto.
She didn’t know where she might spend the night tonight, but she had a great urge to simply get in her Escape and head for the border.
He stepped close, spoke in her ear, below the murmur of the guests. “Kacey, I don’t know why she’s here, but I promise, I meant what I said—”
“Stay away from me. And Audrey.”
He drew in a breath as if she’d slapped him, and she regretted her words.
Still. She cut her voice low. “Ben, I don’t know what to think—but I do know that I don’t understand what just happened—”
“She has stage fright.”
Hollie was taking more snaps and laughing with fans.
Kacey looked at him. “What?”
He kept his voice low, managed to keep his smile and wave as Hollie called his name. “She can’t sing in public without, well, me.”
Kacey looked back at Hollie, now climbing up on the fence with her fans for an epic shot. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“I’m serious. She’s got a great voice and is a fantastic performer, but only if she has someone—me—to sing with her. I guess she forgot that part when she launched her solo career.”
“With your songs.”
“Half-written songs.”
Hollie slid off the fence, came over to Ben and Kacey. “I brought you a gift too.”
Kacey tried not to look horrified. “Me? Why?”
Hollie glanced at Ben, and Kacey’s heart fell.
What exactly had her father said to Hollie? That she was Ben’s ex—someone Hollie had to woo like an ex-wife?
She suddenly saw a very messy tabloid article, with her and Audrey in color, above the fold.
Hollie had pulled out an envelope. “I have an extra ticket to tomorrow night’s concert in Kalispell.”
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