Acting Happy (Texas Desires #2) (21 page)

The dashboard dinged drawing Ty out of his own head as he looked down to see the low-fuel warning. Of course he should have gotten gas before leaving Gatlinburg. He knew better than to get on this long stretch of empty highway without checking these kinds of things. This was exactly what Kenzie did to him. She occupied every one of his thoughts so completely that he couldn’t seem to think straight anymore for trying to navigate all the mixed signals she kept tossing his way.

Ty scanned the highway, looking for any sign of how many more miles to the nearest fuel station. They’d been driving in an uncomfortable silence since leaving the hotel; Kenzie seemed unwilling to engage in conversation.

“Take this exit. There’s a grocery store with a gas station a few miles down that road,” she said, pointing him to an immediate exit. Ty swerved while pressing on the brake to try to slow them down. She then lifted a finger, pointing him in the left lane to make the turn ahead.

Tired of the silence, Ty reached a palm over, cupping Kenzie’s thigh. “We had a good time last night. I’m sorry I threw a wet blanket on it.”

Ty watched as Kenzie bit her lip, gnawing at the soft skin before she reached down and took his hand in hers. “It’s me, not you. I like what we’ve been doing. I got to pretend I was normal.”

“You’re making my imagination run wild, but in every scenario I put you in, the worst possible situations, I just can’t see me turning away,” he confessed, watching only the road now.

“No matter what happens, this time we’ve been together… I needed it, Ty. You’ve made me stronger,” she said, gripping his hand a little tighter.

“You’ve made me happy. It’s something I haven’t known in more years than I can count. I’ve been coasting at life, acting like I’m happy. I wasn’t. You’re helping to change that,” he tried to explain.

“It’s coming up on the right,” she said, and all Ty could see was miles of trees and pavement. Less than a quarter of a mile later, he saw the beginnings of a sprawling mega grocery.

“I didn’t know this was here,” he said, slowing the Jeep.

“Most travelers don’t. My parents were so nervous when they built here, but it hasn’t been terrible.” Ty spotted the gas pumps and headed that way, still holding her hand through all the sharp turns.

“I don’t wanna let go,” he confessed, looking over at her.

“You’re sweet to me,” she said, holding his hand as tightly as he held hers until he drove next to the pump. “I’ve gotta use the restroom.”

That had him finally letting go to kill the engine before he reached for his wallet. He thumbed through the cash, pulling out a twenty-dollar bill for her. “Get a bottle of water?”

“Sure,” she said, not taking his money. Instead, she reached over to open her door.

“Take this, Kenzie.”

“I can get you something to drink. I’m not that broke,” she said, unbuckling her seat belt and pushing open the door. She disappeared, leaving him sitting there staring after her.

Ty pushed his door open and called out, “Kenzie, really, take it,” but got stuck in the seat belt when he tried to exit. While keeping an eye on her retreating form, he fought the buckle. Once free, she was about a third of the distance toward the store. “Hey!”

All she did was lift a hand and keep going. He stood there watching her walk away with her long blonde hair swinging back and forth with each step she took. His eyes moved down to her ass. The small blouse she wore today let him fully appreciate the perfect shape of her butt.

“She’s a pretty thing,” a deeply Southern voice said. Ty looked over to see a balding, older cowboy standing at his truck, fuel pump in hand.

“Yes, sir, she is,” he replied. Ty forced himself to turn away. With his wallet still in his hand, he dug out his credit card.

“Reminds me of my wife,” the guy continued, and Ty looked up to see him still staring at Kenzie. Ty’s brow furrowed as he gave a closer look, worried about the level of pervert attached to this man. “We’ve been together more years than I could count, but I always stop what I’m doing to watch her walk away.”

Ty turned back to Kenzie and saw her passing an older woman walking toward them. She wasn’t as tall or her hair as long, but he saw the resemblance—maybe a glimpse of Kenzie in the future. Ty glanced over at the guy to see that he’d gotten it wrong. The man stared at his wife and she stared right back, a smile brighter than the sun aimed at her man.

He wanted that same experience in twenty-five years with Kenzie.

“She’s beautiful,” Ty commented, lost in his own thoughts as he moved to insert the credit card into the pump.

“That she is.”

Ty opened the gas tank and stuck in the nozzle, his chest tightening. Absently, he knocked the button to pick the grade and realized his breathing had increased. His gaze cut toward Kenzie who’d just entered the store. He felt the loss of her leaving his eyesight like a sledgehammer to his heart.

Without much more thought, Ty set the lever to allow the tank to automatically shut off once it filled. He reached for the keys still in the ignition, punched the key fob, listening for the honk indicating the doors had locked. He took off jogging across the parking lot, shoving his wallet in his back pocket and his keys in his front with a single-minded purpose. His heart raced as he realized the implication of this moment.

He loved Kenzie.

She fit him well. They were good together, but this was different. He loved everything about that woman and wanted so much more.

He loved McKenzie Stanton.

A blazing trail of earth-shattering sensation pushed him to run a little faster, drove him to be wherever she was. He maneuvered his way past a slow moving family in the lot. Once inside the entrance, he came to an abrupt halt, scanning the direction signs until he found the restroom and immediately headed that way.

His gaze connected with hers as she came out of the women’s bathroom. He went straight for her, his grin spreading.

He not only loved her, he instinctively knew she was his one and only. The one great love of his life. No one would ever fill this woman’s shoes. He could now begin his existence because he’d finally found her.

Kenzie looked confused, but kept moving toward him until she finally gave a questioning smile. His eyes scanned every inch of her face as if he were seeing her for the first time. Then he did something he hadn’t done in public, except maybe at the club under dark lighting, he reached out, put both his hands on her waist, and leaned forward to give her a soft, lingering kiss. She participated, somewhat, but the look she gave when he drew away was more inquisitive than even seconds before.

“Did I miss something?”

“Yeah,” he said, turning slightly to wrap an arm around her waist. For the first time, he paid enough attention to see the registers were directly to his right and every eye was glancing their way. That couldn’t be a good thing for him. He hadn’t taken the time to grab his ball cap or glasses in his need to be with Kenzie after his earth-shaking revelation. Ty ducked his head and drew her with him toward the express checkout lane. “Come on. I’ll tell you later.”

He grabbed a couple of bottles of water and took his spot at the end of the line. When Kenzie went for her wallet, he stuck a firm hand out to stop her. “I wanna pay for you.” He felt the emotion of the words, and based on the look he got, his tone must have hit the sincerity mark. “Really. From here on out, and I don’t want to argue with you about it.”

The woman in front of him turned her head, giving Kenzie a smile and wink. Funny how she got what all this possessiveness really meant, but Kenzie still looked completely clueless. It wasn’t until something caught her eye and she lifted a magazine up to him that he saw the latest in a long line of false tabloid articles about him. There was a picture of him and Julia Holly. She was smiling while looking up at him adoringly. Right below the photo there was a picture of him talking intimately with another woman. Of course what they didn’t say was that woman happened to be the assistant to his manager.

“Look here. This guy looks like a huge player,” she said, pointing a finger at him on the magazine.

“Really? I think he looks like an all right guy to me,” Ty said, taking the magazine and shoving it on the rack next to him.

“No, I don’t think so. Look, two women at the same time. Poor things,” Kenzie said, picking up another magazine off the rack. “I bet he’s cheating!”

“Honey, I don’t think so. I think he’s taken advantage of a lot. I feel bad for him,” the woman in front of them said, looking back at Kenzie before moving up a spot in line.

“I think she’s probably right,” Ty agreed, taking that magazine from her too, absently shoving it in any space on the rack beside him.

“I don’t know. I was reading online that this woman right here is the nanny to the baby Julia Holly just adopted,” Kenzie said, thumbing through a new magazine. The line moved, and the woman in front of them became distracted by checking out with the cashier and unable to defend him again.

“You aren’t funny,” he whispered in her ear.

“I’m kind of funny,” Kenzie said, not looking up as she turned another page to show Ty with another female on the inside pages.

“Goodbye, you two,” the woman called out, gathering her bags.

“Goodbye,” Kenzie said sweetly, waving her hand before tossing the magazine on the conveyor belt with the water.

“We aren’t getting that. I’m not paying for garbage like that.”

Kenzie just crossed her arms over her chest and looked at him. “I can pay for it. You just confused me with all that caveman stuff back there,” she said, hooking a thumb over her shoulder toward the back of the line. The cashier scanned the magazine and laid it next to the bottles of water at the end of the register.

“That’s nine dollars.”

“Nine dollars for a pack of lies,” he grumbled, fishing out his wallet again and handing the bills to the cashier. He pocketed the change and grabbed the water bottles, leaving the magazine behind.

When she came up beside him holding the magazine, he wrapped an arm around her shoulders, drawing her close. No question, he was way in over his head with this one.

Idly thumbing through the magazine, Kenzie’s nerves ran rampant. In the strangest turn of events, somehow she had managed to become even more anxious. Something had happened from the time she’d entered the grocery store to the time she’d walked out of that bathroom. A mysterious intensity had settled over her easygoing, patient guy. Ty had always been attentive, but now he seemed to hang on every word she said or didn’t say, and his hand never left her body. If she wasn’t holding it, he placed his palm on her thigh or ran his fingers through her hair, giving small reassuring caresses that were having the exact opposite effect.

“I didn’t know you went to George Clooney’s wedding,” she said casually before flipping a page, looking over the article about Clooney’s one-year anniversary. First, she scanned the pictures, looking at all the celebrities in attendance. She saw several pictures of Ty, but he never really seemed to put himself in the line of the photographer. They were all taken covertly with him in the distance. She flipped a few pages back where she had seen more pictures of him and scanned those, taking a closer look. If the shot was one where everyone posed, Ty always turned away or ducked his head. She’d never noticed that before. “Do you have any social media accounts?”

“No. My team’s always wanting to set one up, but I stop ’em. It’s already too much with the way I’m constantly followed. That seems very invasive,” he said, glancing between her and the road.

“You look handsome in your tux,” she added quietly, turning back to the anniversary article, lifting the picture for him to see.

“Thank you. I’d like you to go with me to those things. Make it all more tolerable.”

Kenzie’s gaze shot to his. The horror of that thought must have shown on her face, because he barked out a laugh, reaching out to tap her on the nose. “It’s not that bad. I have to go to all those things. Usually it’s lower key than that one.”

All she could do was stare as if he’d grown two heads. Of course she’d never do anything like this. She absolutely didn’t fit inside that world. “Women like Julia Holly belong there. I’m just a country girl.”

“And I’m just a country boy. Many of those people are just like us, Kenzie,” Ty said seriously, and she just rolled her eyes, looking away. That would be a typical Ty response; he’d never let her think she wasn’t good enough.

All thought stopped when she looked out the window at her surroundings.

“Where are we?” she asked, but she knew these roads like she knew her own face. “I thought we were going back to my parents’ house?”

“I thought we’d be more comfortable at my place,” he said, clearly ignoring the panic in her voice.

“Ty, no. I wanted to do this at my house. I’d be more comfortable,” she implored, the magazine forgotten.

“No, you wouldn’t. You think I’m gonna bail and I’m not. When you’re done, then I have something to tell you. After all that, I plan on making love to you, letting you eat some of that food we bought, then taking you back to bed for the rest of the night. That plan only works if you’re at my place,” he explained, entirely too reasonably.

“Ty…” Kenzie started, already feeling like she wanted to cry. This wasn’t what they’d talked about or agreed on.

“Stop it, Kenzie. If you want to go home, I’ll take you. I promise.” The hand on her thigh, annoyingly patted her leg. She was sure that was meant as some sort of reassuring gesture. Silence ensued as she just stared at him. It wasn’t until he began the twisty turns of the road to his house that she gave up and tossed the magazine in the backseat. She reached for her purse at her feet, digging out her cell phone. She needed to text her mom, ask if she could pick her up in the next few minutes. As she started typing, the Jeep swerved. Ty grasped the phone out of her hand. “Don’t upset your parents. I’ll take you home if you wanna go.”

Ty pulled into his driveway and her heart plummeted.

“So we’re here. Just tell me,” Ty said, shutting off the engine. He hooked an arm over the steering wheel and the other around her seat then just sat there staring at her. On a deep sigh, she pulled open the passenger door and stepped out. She guessed the biggest problem was that she hadn’t truly prepared for this day. Even with as into her as Ty had claimed to be, she didn’t believe they’d ever get to a point that she would need to explain anything.

She walked toward the porch, taking the steps up, feeling more defensive than anything else. Ty’s car door slammed shut, and she could hear him walking on the gravel behind her.

“Why are we doing this?” she asked angrily, crossing her arms over her chest as she turned and faced off with him. Ty pulled the house keys from his pocket and unlocked the front door. He pushed it open and walked in first to disarm the alarm.

He punched the code into the keypad and then extended his head back out the front door where she still stood. “You aren’t getting out of this, so stop trying. Get in here. It’s getting cold.”

Ty left her standing there as he went for the kitchen. She could hear him opening and closing cabinets when she slowly walked inside and shut the door behind her. Ty returned with a bottle of wine and two glasses in his hands. He poured her a glass, looked at her face, and added a little more wine.

“Come sit down and just say it.” Those steps to the sofa were very much like she imagined the final steps on death row. “Please have faith in me. I can try and guess if it makes it easier.”

“No, that would be torture. Don’t do that,” she said and took the glass he held out for her. Even with the hangover still lingering, she needed the liquid courage and took a sip. When that luckily stayed down, she took another longer drink and set the glass on the coffee table. Ty, glass in hand, took a seat on the sofa, leaving more than enough room for her, but she opted for the side chair, running her now sweaty palms down her jeans. When she looked over at Ty, he was casually stretched back against the sofa, crossing a leg over his knee, waiting on her to speak. She swallowed the lump in her throat and just began dumping it out there to him.

“Okay, well, you know I was married before, and it wasn’t a good marriage.” Kenzie took a deep shuddering breath and reached for the glass, taking a bigger, much longer drink of the wine before continuing. “Actually, that’s a huge understatement. It was a terrible marriage,” Kenzie started, but stopped, feeling like she was already rambling and trailing off course.

In an effort to organize her thoughts, she paused and tried again. “My only defense for my actions is that I was incredibly naïve. I’m not sure anyone on the planet could be as naïve as I was. I swear I didn’t know what Jason was doing, and then when I started to figure things out, I was already pregnant.” She hadn’t meant to move the story so far along, and her eyes darted over to Ty’s to judge his reaction. He had lost some of that patient expression he’d held, and his face grew more serious.

“You have a child?” he asked, and she immediately shook her head
no
, staring at her wineglass.

“I was almost seven months pregnant when I miscarried. It happened shortly after I was arrested.”

Oh, man, she was all over the place and looked over at Ty again. Everything about him changed. He repositioned his body on the sofa, and leaned forward to place his wineglass on the coffee table. She had his complete attention.

“I have federal charges against me for possession, conspiracy, and aiding and abetting a known criminal. I knew Jason drank too much. I found pot in his things, but I had no idea of everything he was doing, and it was bad.”

Ty rested both elbows on his knees and just stared at her. He was more serious than she’d ever seen him before. “I’m trying to follow, Kenzie, I am, but are you saying…” He paused for several long moments before he continued. “What are you telling me? Your husband was a druggie?”

“He did drugs, yes, but he also made and sold them on a level I can’t even understand. I’m a licensed social worker, Ty, and I never realized what was going on right underneath my nose. I actually thought he was severely bi-polar.”

“And this happened in your house?” he asked.

“Yes and then no. We were separated for about a year before the SWAT team stormed our property. We bought a house together on some land, so when we broke up, I lived in the house and he moved to the back of the property, in an old trailer he found. He had handled all our finances, and I always thought we were broke. I was saving money on my own to file for a divorce once the baby was born.”

“Are you divorced?”

“Yes, they did it as part of my case. I needed to cut all ties.”

“When did all this happen?”

“It started almost two years ago, but it’s all still going on right now. I only got approval to come home recently,” she explained. Since at best, she’d been erratic in telling this story, she sat quietly, waiting for Ty’s questions to help piece it all together.

“So when did you lose the baby?”

“About a year and a half ago. I guess it’s actually been longer than that now. I try not to think about that, but it happened shortly after I was arrested.”

“You were separated when you got pregnant?” He was piecing the finer details together, staying focused on the same parts of the story that caused her the most sorrow—she and Ty had always thought on the same level from the beginning. Just thinking about that time in her life caused a profound sadness to form.

“The marriage wasn’t a good one. Jason drank a lot, and now of course, I know the extent of what was actually going on. We were fighting and it got out of hand. The result, I got pregnant.”

“So you’re saying he raped you?” Ty finally asked several moments later.

“I was raised in a very strict church. Everything I was going through— It took me a long time to reconcile myself with leaving the marriage. He beat the tar out of me pretty regularly. I truly believed if I could try harder, love him more, get him the help he needed it would turn around. I was in denial, but that night he hurt me real bad. I was so isolated. I didn’t have friends or anything like that. At the time, I really didn’t think a husband could rape his wife. I was so stupid. Then when I found out I was pregnant. That’s what changed my thinking, blurred all those lines for me. I finally called the police, separated from Jason. They couldn’t do much because too much time passed, but they scared him and he stayed away from me after that until he begged to live in the trailer on the back of the property. He was a mess, in really bad shape. I shouldn’t have let him back on the property.”

About halfway through her explanation, Ty rose to his feet and began pacing. Intense anger flashed in those amber eyes when he looked down at her. “Where’s this guy now?”

“His charges are so long and severe the court denied bail.”

“But you managed bail?” he asked, stopping in front of her.

“Yes. I had to cash in my 401K. Our property was in my name and that was seized, but I sold everything I could to raise money,” she said quietly, watching him walk back and forth again as she answered.

“How did you get them to let you leave the state?”

“I’m not exactly sure, except I had nowhere else to go. I can’t work. I lost my job. Something about a trained social worker not able to see what was so clearly under my nose. I can’t get another job until I get the charges cleared. My attorney feels like the charges will be dropped eventually, but the courts appointed him. When I call him, he makes me feel like I’m the charity case that I am. I don’t stay on the phone long or ask a lot of questions. The court dates keep getting pushed back,” she said, scooting back in the chair so she didn’t have to crane her neck so far to see him.

“And what if they aren’t dropped?” he finally asked the million-dollar question.

“The maximum prison time for my charges is ten years,” Kenzie explained.

There was silence again from Ty. He pivoted on his heel and began pacing the living room. Oddly, she was having a little out of body experience. Out of all the worry she’d carried about her situation and Ty finding out, now that he knew, there was no emotion inside her. She just sat there waiting for whatever question was next or the moment he suggested that she should leave.

“Is there anything else I should know?”

“Ty, I was young when I met Jason. He was so good-looking and no one ever paid that much attention to me in my life. I fell hard for him. It’s the only excuse I have.” Those words sounded lame even to her, but she had to try to explain how she’d let herself get in such a situation in the first place.

“So there was violence, over-the-top illegal drug activity… What did he say he did for a living?”

“He was always between jobs, except he said he worked for himself. He had some plan that was ever changing,” she said, again watching him stare down at her. There was a tic now in his clenched jaw. Who knew what that meant? Ty turned away from her to pace again.

“I’m deeply sorry for your pain. I am, and I don’t want to detract from how badly I want to find this Jason and kick his motherfucking ass, but what about any of this makes you think I’d turn you away?” He asked in way that appeared to wonder if perhaps she hadn’t told him everything. She had to make him see the much bigger problem.

“Ty, you’re one of the most famous men in the world. Can you even imagine what would be said about you if anyone knew we spent time together?” she asked reasonably.