Love in the Heartland

by Diana Currie

  Nathan led her upstairs, carrying all her luggage without breaking a sweat. Maddie took the smallest bag into the bathroom so she could brush her teeth and comb out her hair. She was standing in front of one of the two large mirrors when Nathan entered. His shirt was already off and Maddie couldn’t help checking him out. She didn’t try to hide her admiration since he was obviously flaunting the washboard abs he’d recently acquired. Maddie smiled at her boyfriend because even though he was clearly suffering from that Hollywood vanity she resented, on Nathan it was sort of cute. He wanted her to find him alluring. And she certainly did.

  Without speaking, Nathan approached the counter and grabbed his toothbrush. They brushed their teeth together, smiling at each other in the mirror as toothpaste dripped from their chins. Maddie loved how comfortable she felt with Nathan so quickly after arriving at his house. She may have been standing on marble floors, in a bathroom bigger than her bedroom at home, staring at a half-naked movie star, but none of that intimidated her. What was in store for them when they inevitably stepped outside the safety of his home was another matter, but for that night Maddie was content to push her fear aside and just focus on her boyfriend.

  “Give me a minute alone, okay?” she whispered to him as he was wiping his mouth with a towel.

  Nathan looked at her with confusion but nodded his head. “Don’t keep me waiting too long, Angel,” he replied and kissed her mouth, feeling the tingly mint sensation still present on her tongue.

  “I just need three minutes,” she said.

  As soon as the door was shut Maddie began frantically pulling things out of her luggage bag. She wanted to surprise Nathan with something sexy so she and Holly had gone to Victoria’s Secret the week before. Maddie maneuvered her way into the lacy little number she’d purchased just for this occasion. Her cheeks turned pinkish as she assessed her reflection in the mirror. Why had she let Holly choose her sex clothes? She wasn’t even sure these strips of fabric could qualify as clothes!

  Maddie had never worn lingerie for a man before. It might have been her love for Nathan that made her want to make their reunion special or that at twenty-five years old she finally felt confident enough in her own skin to take the risk. But if she was being completely honest with herself, Maddie knew Melissa’s phone call had stirred up some insecurities she had about herself regarding Hollywood life and male expectations. With his looks, money, and fame Nathan fit in with the Hollywood culture whether he believed it or not. Maddie still felt the need to compete for his continued affection. She didn’t want Melissa’s advice, but she was very eager to ask for Emma’s.

  Nathan liked to remind her that he was just a normal person but there weren’t many guys in Amarillo with a face as handsome as Nathan’s. His washboard abs were not something she came across daily either! For another thing, he did not make love like the boys in Texas; at least not the two Maddie had experienced. Nathan might want to stay connected to the normal farm boy he used to be, but Maddie knew from experience that he made love like a man who’d had some serious practice. She couldn’t help but compare her mediocre life to his exceptional one. She knew that while she had been studying and babysitting the past few years, Nathan had been partying and dating many different women. So she wanted to up her game, and that is how the whole lingerie purchase came about.

  She gave herself one last check in the mirror. Bust line pushed up as high as gravity would allow. The thin lacy bodice hugged her curves in all the right places. Tiny thong trapped in her butt crack. It was a good thing she wasn’t intending to wear it very long, because that shit was uncomfortable! Pleased enough with how she looked, Maddie took a deep breath and opened the bathroom door.

  The recessed lights were dim and Nathan was leaning against the bed in just his boxers. Maddie bite her lip as she watched Nathan’s face as he appraised her body. He was clearly not expecting her to be dressed up and she smiled wide when he let out a long appreciative whistle.

  “Damn, baby. What have you got on?” he asked in awe.

  “You like it?” she asked innocently.

  She approached him with her shoulders squared and a look of determination on her face. Nathan smirked in amusement and opened his arms to her.

  “You look amazing, Angel,” Nathan said, pulling her against him. “I’m so glad you’re finally here. I’ll make sure you have a good time here this summer, I promise.”

  Maddie placed her hands on his warm chest and looked into his eyes. “I’m happy to be here too. I know you think I’m miserable here, but it’s not the truth. The Hollywood lifestyle, the paparazzi, your work schedule… I’ve realized that dealing with all that stuff is a headache, but it’s worth it. This is where you are, so this is where I want to be right now. I’m willing to go with Emma to a salon, I’ll let her take me shopping too. I don’t want to hate Los Angeles, Nathan.”

  “That’s great news. Emma will be ecstatic; she really likes you.”

  “Just because I want to make friends with her. When I met her I got a feeling that Emma likes to shop,” Maddie clarified. “I do want to give Hollywood a fair chance, but I don’t think I’ll ever be able to assimilate to the culture out here. You can take the girl out of Texas…”

  “But you can’t take the Texas out of the girl?” Nathan chuckled. “Maddie, I like that you’re different. I don’t want you to change yourself just to fit in here. You’re my lifeline to the real world and I cherish that about you. If you started acting like these celebrity clones I would be upset. I fell in love with Texas Maddie.”

  She smirked. “Just so you know, Texas Maddie would not normally own skimpy lingerie.”

  “If that’s the case then maybe we should take it off,” he suggested in a low sexy voice.

  Maddie reached for the elastic waistband on Nathan’s boxers and pushed them down to his knees. He glared at her in surprise. “And you will get to peel it off me. But first I want to inspect these Hollywood abs up close.” She pushed him back onto the bed and climbed up so that she was straddling him.

  “You like them, huh?” Nathan asked knowingly.

  “What can I say? Hollywood has some perks after all,” she replied, lowering her head to kiss his stomach.

  Chapter Twenty Six

  “We are going to have so much fun! First, I’ll take you to this little cafe I know for breakfast. Then, we can hit up the salon for mani pedi’s and facials. And then we’ll go shopping so you have enough clothes for the whole summer! Nathan informed me that you arrived with only two suitcases and I know there’s no way you can last all summer with what fits in two suitcases…”

  “Slow down, Emma!” Maddie said with a smile on her face.

  It was Monday and Emma had shown up at the house so early in the morning that Nathan had not even left for the studio yet. The three of them chatted briefly while Nathan was waiting for Stanley to arrive. Maddie made coffee for them in the kitchen as they got reacquainted. The ease of which conversation flowed made her more comfortable being left alone with Emma for the whole day.

  “You said I was in charge of today’s outing. Nathan said you would be agreeable!” Emma pouted.

  “I am, I am. It just seems like a lot for one day, doesn’t it?” she said, already regretting having given caffeine to Emma.

  Emma stared at her blankly. “I take my job very seriously, Maddie. I want to please my new employer and bring you back home this evening pampered, relaxed, and in possession of a suitable California wardrobe.”

  “Well, I wouldn’t want you to disappoint your new employer,” Maddie replied rolling her eyes. She couldn’t help but love Emma. She was uppity, stubborn, and deeply devoted to the day’s task. “But it’s eight o’clock in the morning. Can’t we skip the cafe and just eat here? Then we can go through my side of Nathan’s closet. We should take inventory of my clothes before buying more, don’t you think?”

  Emma jeered at Maddie, trying to figure out if she was being played. “Fine, but I know what you’re doing. You thi
nk I’ll forget about the salon and shopping, but I won’t.”

  “I can see that.”

  “Fine then,” Emma relented as she mentally rearranged her to-do list. “I’ll start working on your closet. When that’s done maybe we can check out the entire house. That should be fun, right?”

  Maddie wasn’t sure about exploring the mansion while Nathan was away. “I don’t know if I feel right snooping,” she said.

  “It’s not snooping unless we’re opening drawers or reading financial statements! Nathan told me to walk around and get acquainted with the house. I have to find a suitable place to store all these love letters,” she said gesturing towards the piles of fan letters behind her.

  Maddie turned around to see the massive amounts of letters that were still scattered across the large dining table in the kitchen. She remembered Nathan saying that he hired Emma in part to read the letters and organize them. That sounded more appealing than shopping in designer stores on Nathan’s dime, so Maddie happily agreed to get to work organizing the upstairs rooms. She also felt like the longer she could stay inside the house and out of the sight of paparazzi the better.

  They ate in the kitchen and drank more coffee while Emma divided the letters into categories based on shape and size. She had one pile for boxes that looked like birthday gifts, another for small thin letters that she thought could be read through quickly, and another for larger envelopes and thick letters. Maddie didn’t feel like she was helping very much; Emma was moving so fast that she didn’t want to get in her way. She tried small talk a few times but Emma replied with short clipped responses, which wasn’t her style at all, so Maddie could tell that she was concentrating.

  When everything was organized, the many piles were stacked higher than before but they were neat and orderly. Maddie was happy that none were on the floor anymore. She hated to think that someone had spent time and effort writing Nathan a letter just for it to end up on the kitchen floor, likely to be swept up in a dustpan and thrown away. It made her think again about the first couple of letters she had sent to Nathan. Her inner fangirl hoped that she and Emma would find them during the organization process.

  “Okay, now that this is done we are going to your closet. You can’t stall me any longer,” Emma asserted, her tiny little fists on her hips.

  Maddie jumped up from the chair obediently and started walking towards the grand staircase in the foyer. “Did you order Katie Owens around this way too?” Maddie wondered aloud.

  “Sometimes, but Katie needed it. Even more than you! She’s had a team of people taking care of her for so long she doesn’t know how to fend for herself.”

  Maddie didn’t know if Katie and Emma’s work relationship ended amicably or not. She wanted to mention that perhaps a bossy assistant is not the most desirable addition to a French vacation but bite her tongue instead, not wanting to offend her new friend.

  To Maddie’s dismay, Emma spent over an hour in Nathan’s closet, but not because Maddie had brought along a lot of clothes that needed to be inventoried. Emma spent the time planning what she would do with all the potential the closet held. It took her only a matter of minutes to separate Maddie’s belongings into a small Keep section and a much larger Must Go section. Maddie frowned at Emma’s suggestion that she toss any of her comfy jeans or long-sleeved tees. She thought this mission would be about buying new stuff, not throwing away her old stuff. They finally compromised and Maddie packed the offending articles of clothes back into the suitcase she came with from Texas so Emma wouldn’t have to look at them.

  Meanwhile, Emma prepared a shopping list on her iPad that was a mile long. Maddie would need dresses, night gowns, jeans, blouses, tank tops, a new bathing suit, and a selection of footwear. She couldn’t believe anyone would come to California with nothing more than a pair of Naturalizer sandals and Reebok sneakers! Nathan had almost waited too long to seek her help. Perhaps it was fate that Katie Owens cut her loose when she did. Emma wasn’t sure if she would ever be able to work for Katie again, but maybe she wouldn’t want to after a summer with Nathan Foster. He was a great employer and Maddie clearly needed her help!

  “Emma, do you live with Rhett?” Maddie asked.

  “Um, yeah, for a few weeks now. I had to find a place to go when Katie fired me,” Emma replied as she was mentally calculating the square footage Nathan allotted to Maddie’s use in his closet. In her best estimation, it simply wasn’t going to do. Luckily, she noticed the bedroom next to the master was practically empty.

  “You mean you used to live with Katie Owens?”

  “Yes. It’s fairly common. After a few months of working for her, Katie trusted me enough to ask me to move in. We were really good friends too, especially after Connor cheated on her.”

  “Such good friends that she fired you over a vacation?”

  Emma smiled. “In Hollywood we call it irreconcilable differences. I didn’t want to leave L.A. for that length of time. She understood, but felt like if I wasn’t going to go then she had to find someone who would. I told you before that she’s helpless; she doesn’t know where her money is kept or how the bills are paid to keep up her house. That mansion requires a team of eleven employees and she doesn’t know the names of any of them. I handled all that.”

  “Who’s doing it now?” Maddie asked.

  “She hired some other girl named Jodie. I don’t know her, but she speaks fluent French so it seemed like a perfect fit. She hired an assistant and got a bonus tour guide for her vacation. And I got you. It worked out,” Emma said confidently.

  “So, are you still friends with her?”

  “Yeah, I guess we are, though I haven’t talked to her in two weeks. She’s busy filming and breaking in the new assistant.”

  “When I met you in the spring it seemed strange that you two were so close since technically she was your boss.”

  “Celebrities live very isolated lives most of the time. It’s not unusual for them to get attached to their assistants like that. It’s hard to find time for real friends with their schedules and all the traveling they often do. It makes sense to be friends with the one person who’s always by your side, right?”

  “I never thought about it like that. Nathan was really lonely when I met him; maybe he needed an assistant.”

  Emma chuckled. “Maybe, but then again I think it worked out for the both of us that he waited as long as he did. After everything Nathan went through he came out of it with a great girlfriend. And the timing couldn’t have been more perfect for him to wise up and hire me!”

  Maddie was happy to hear that Emma was content with her new position working for Nathan and didn’t seem to think of herself as just a babysitter to his out of towner girlfriend. She followed Emma out of Nathan’s bedroom and down the hall to one of the empty rooms. She watched as Emma used an app on her iPad to measure the room and made a few more notes, thinking about how nice it would be if they became real friends. Maddie decided to make sure she showed Emma genuine friendship, and not treat her like just a friend for hire the way Katie Owens had done.

  “Are you thinking of keeping Nathan’s letters in here?” Maddie questioned. She thought there were too many letters just in the piles downstairs to fit in this room. And she knew there were loads more stowed away somewhere in the house.

  Emma smiled wickedly. “No, I have authority from Nathan to utilize this room and the rec room at the other end of the hall. Don’t worry; I’ve got this under control. Follow me!”

  To Maddie’s surprise, Emma led her up another flight of stairs hidden away at the end of a hallway she hadn’t been through yet. It led to an attic space with plank flooring. She gasped when she saw what was there. Hundreds of cardboard boxes, all filled to the top with fan mail.

  “You see why he needs me?” Emma asked as they walked through the space counting boxes.

  “Nathan wants you to read all of these?” Maddie asked. Surely, Emma misunderstood Nathan’s directions.

  Emma frowned. “Well,
no. Actually, he told me to bring down a few hundred letters to the rec room for sorting. And if I found anything in a yellow envelope I had to tell him immediately. I have no idea why.”

  “I do,” Maddie admitted. “Before we met I wrote to him several times on yellow stationary and he’s so curious to find out what I said. I think it’s secretly driving him crazy that my fan mail was misplaced.”

  “You sound like you don’t want him to find them.”

  Maddie shrugged. “Honestly, I can’t really remember what I wrote. That’s what worries me because I don’t want Nathan to read them and suddenly realize that he’s dating a crazy infatuated fan instead of the normal down to earth girl he seems to think I am.”

  “Nathanknows who you really are,” Emma said kindly, “but I promise if I find your letters I’ll give them to you before showing him.”

  “Thanks, I’d appreciate that. So, how do we do this? We just randomly pick a bunch of boxes and bring them downstairs?”

  “Yep,” Emma replied as she grabbed a large brown box in front of her feet.

  An hour passed as the women brought down a generous sample size of Nathan’s fan letters to the second-floor rec room. Emma slumped into a comfy leather armchair and wiped her brow theatrically. She was tired from going up and down the stairs so many times but couldn’t wait to start reading the letters. Fan mail duty was one of the most interesting aspects of her job because she loved the ability to peek inside the minds of those whose wrote the letters. She reached out to select the closest one without having to get up.

  “Let’s see what we have here,” she said curiously.

  Maddie sat down on the floor next to a different box and began pulling out a few that looked interesting. So far, she hadn’t spotted any letters that resembled hers. She picked up a pink envelope that was postmarked in Indiana over two years earlier. She couldn’t believe it had sat there untouched for so long.

  Emma cleared her throat and began reading, “Dear Nathan, I just saw your movie, Love Spelled Backwards, and I came home from the theater completely in love with Caleb Thomas! I can’t wait to see it again! I love his character so much because you are such a great actor! You are cute and funny, and I wish I could find a boy just like Caleb someday. I told my mom how much I loved the movie (and you) and she thinks I should read Eli Duncan’s book. She’s going to buy it for me but I’ve never read a book that big because I’m in 5th grade.”