Acting Happy (Texas Desires #2)

Acting Happy

By Rylie Roberts

Acting Happy

Copyright © Rylie Roberts 2016

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Edited by Jae Ashley

Cover art by Reese Dante

http://www.reesedante.com

First Edition March 2016
 

Published by: Rylie Roberts

All rights reserved under the International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher, Rylie Roberts, [email protected]. No part of this book may be scanned, uploaded or distributed via the Internet or any other means, electronic or print, without permission from Rylie Roberts. Warning: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000. http://www.fbi.gov/ipr/). Please purchase only authorized electronic or print editions and do not participate in or encourage the electronic piracy of copyrighted material. Your support of the author's rights and livelihood is appreciated.

Acting Happy is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Licensed material is being used for illustrative purposes only and any person depicted in the licensed material is a model.

Dedication

To my little girl.

It’s always about you.

The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of the following trademarks mentioned in this work of fiction:

Academy Awards
: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Corporation

Advil
: Wyeth, LLC

American Express
: American Express Marketing & Development Corp.

AP
: The Associated Press

Associated Press (AP)
: The Associated Press Corporation

Bacardi
: Bacardi & Company Limited

Bentley
: Bentley Motors Limited

Birkenstock
: Birkenstock Orthopaedie GMBH & Co.

Bluetooth
: Bluetooth Sig, Inc.

Blue Bell
: Blue Bell Creameries, L.P.

Boys & Girls Clubs
: Boys and Girls Clubs of America, Inc.

Bud Light
: Anheuser-Busch, Incorporated

Cherry Garcia
: Jerry Garcia Family LLC, Keelin Garcia Testamentary Trust, Deborah Koons Garcia

Coke
: The Coca-Cola Company

Corona
: Cerveceria Modelo, S.A. de C.V.

DFW International Airport
: Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport Board

Enterprise
: Enterprise Holdings, Inc.

FaceTime
: Apple, Inc.

Ferrari
: Ferrari S.p.A.

Fruit of the Loom
: Fruit of the Loom, Inc.

Google
: Google, Inc.

Grizzly Adams
: Grizzly Adams, LLC

Heineken
: Heineken Brouwerijen B.V.

Hilton
: HLT Domestic IP LLC

Instagram
: Instagram, LLC

iPhone
: Apple, Inc.

Jeep
: Chrysler Group, LLC

Keurig
: Keurig, Inc.

La-Z-Boy
: La-Z-Boy, Inc.

LeapPad
: LeapFrog Enterprises, Inc.

Mrs. Smith's
: Schwans IP, LLC

Mellow Mushroom
: Home-grown Industries of Georgia, Inc.

Miss Universe
: IMG Universe, LLC

National Domestic Violence Hotline
: National Domestic Violence Hotline Non-Profit Corporation

Neiman-Marcus
: NM Nevada Trust

Oscars
: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

PAM (cooking spray)
: ConAgra Foods RDM, Inc.

Prada
: Prada S.A.

Rolex
: Rolex Watch U.S.A., Inc.

Salvation Army Thrift Store
: The Salvation Army National Corporation

Sexiest Man Alive
: Time Inc.

Skype
: Skype Corporation

Spam
: Hormel Foods, LLC

Sprite
: The Coca-Cola Company

Superman
: DC Comics General Partnership

Target
: Target Brands, Inc.

TMZ
: Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.

Twilight Zone
: CBS Broadcasting Inc.

University of Texas
: Board of Regents, The University of Texas System

Victoria's Secret
: Victoria’s Secret Stores Brand Management, Inc.

Voss
: Voss of Norway ASA Corporation

Wheel of Fortune
: Califon Productions, Inc.

WWE
: World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc.

YouTube
: Google, Inc.

With a push of the last thumbtack, Ty Bateman turned his head to survey his progress. The Bryant family living room was complete. He and Reed had hung the final streamers. Bray and Connor were tying off the last of the helium-filled balloons, and Mrs. Bryant had the table decorated prettily with a giant chocolate birthday cake in the center. The place looked perfect, and he couldn’t hold back a grin. They had somehow managed to pull off a surprise birthday party. He was pretty sure his mom had no clue and that made him all the more excited.

“Okay, boys, the pizza’s gonna be here soon. We got the soda chilling, ice cream in the freezer,” Linda Bryant said, her voice growing stronger as she came inside the living room from the kitchen, ticking off the mental list with her finger. “Oh, it looks great, guys!”

Ty climbed off the chair he’d been using to hang the streamers from the ceiling while Reed gathered their leftover supplies. “I think we’ve got about fifteen minutes before she’s here,” Ty said, carrying the chair back to the kitchen.

“Traffic’s always heavy this time of day,” Mrs. Bryant started, and like normal, she went around the room fussing, trying to make sure everything was in place. “Boys, kick the balloon ribbon under the chair so no one trips on it. Connor, get Cole off the phone with his girlfriend, and you two go get the ice chest off the back porch. It’s got the water bottles and Cokes inside.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Connor answered, going immediately to the kitchen where the phone hung on the wall. They watched Connor do what he did best—handle both Cole and his big personality better than any of them. Clearly, Cole must have heard the instruction and anticipated Connor’s next move. He turned and ducked, trying to hide the handset from Connor’s reach. The cord wrapped once around his body.

“Hang up,” Connor ordered.

“Go get it yourself. Mary-Beth’s mom doesn’t let her talk on the phone at night.” The fight was on as Connor began to reach around Cole for the phone. “Dude, really, help a brother out. We only have ten minutes left.”

Connor got the break he needed; at thirteen years old, he was physically stronger than the rest of them. He yanked the cord behind Cole’s head and did one of the wrestling moves they learned on WWE. The phone slipped from Cole’s hand as he grabbed his gut in pain.

“Mary-Beth, he’ll call you later.” Connor had the receiver on the hook in less than five seconds. Cole recovered quickly from the pain that had him doubled over and turned all that red-faced anger toward Connor, lunging for him.

“Take it outside,” Mr. Bryant yelled, his voice stern.

“Dude, seriously, Lauren was your girlfriend last week. Before that it was Maddie Tomlinson. Get over it,” Connor said, not even fazed by Cole’s anger; instead bumping him in the chest to get him moving. When the back door shut, Linda finally turned back to Ty, Reed, and Braden. All eyes were on the kitchen because that whole scene could have easily played out a different way with Connor and Cole going at each other in the house.

“I’m glad you boys aren’t love-sick like that,” Linda teased.

“Bray is,” Reed shot out like only a brother would do, and then gave a pretend look like he didn’t mean to let that slip. Bray’s murderous glare from across the room made Ty bust out with a laugh. When he and his mom had set out on their own, she’d moved them close to Linda, her childhood friend. Ty was as close to the brothers as he could be and knew Bray was already plotting his retaliation against Reed.

“What?” Linda asked, turning toward her son. “You have something to tell me?”

“No!” Bray called out, but Reed was quicker.

“He asked Carolyn Jenkins to be his girlfriend,” Reed supplied and then ducked and dodged as Bray moved closer, punching at his brother. Ty extended a hand to Reed’s back, keeping him in place when he tried to take a giant step back to avoid Bray’s swing. As hilarious as this was, both guys were like brothers to him. He had to help Bray out. Ty would expect it in return.

“Bray, did you really? She’s a sweet girl. What did she say?” Linda asked after snapping her fingers at the boys to get them to stop roughhousing.

“She said yes!” Candace, Bray’s little sister, answered while carrying a tray of fruit to the table. Anytime there was an opportunity to give Braden a hard time, she was right there, ready to add her two cents. Fortunately for Bray, the doorbell rang, ending the moment, which was technically a good thing for them all. Linda had been on Bray to get a girlfriend for a while. If that doorbell hadn’t rung, they’d all be forced to listen as Linda questioned everything, from how Bray asked to how Carolyn accepted. For Ty, that would have been torturous—no matter how much Bray squirmed and Reed laughed.

“Hide everyone,” Ty said excitedly, forgetting everything else going on around him. He swiftly grabbed his mother’s birthday present off the coffee table so she couldn’t see it and ducked behind Mr. Bryant’s recliner.

“It’s probably the pizza,” Mr. Bryant said, appearing out of nowhere, pulling his wallet out and heading toward the door. Ty grabbed Reed’s arm, tugging him down beside him just in case it was his mom. A surprise party was something she’d talked about always wanting, but never had one. When he’d talked to Mrs. Bryant about that, he’d gotten lucky; she thought they could pull it off too. His mom had always been good to him. He was past excited that he might finally be able to give her something fun back.

From this angle, the front door opened wide, and he peeked around enough to see his mom standing on the front porch. His heart froze in his chest. Right as Reed started to lift and shout surprise Ty clutched his arm and stopped him. Linda must have seen his mom’s face, too, and moved toward the door.

She was crying or at least trying not to cry until she saw her best friend, Linda. They embraced tightly, standing there several long seconds until Ty just stood, dread filling his heart. His mom had driven to Dallas today for a big doctor’s visit. She’d gone there several times over the last couple of weeks.

All those tears couldn’t be good.

“Come on. Let’s go to the study,” Mr. Bryant said gently. When Ty saw the tears in Mrs. Bryant’s eyes, he instinctively knew his life was about to change significantly.