Duchess (16 page)

“This is a nice house.” Her father walked around the room like he was interested in the bookshelves and décor.

“It is,” she finally answered back. She didn’t know what to say to him.

“It’s that pop star’s house, right? The one you manage?” He stopped walking and stuck his hands in his pockets as he rocked back on his heels.

“Yes, it’s Duchess’s house, but she lets me and Mom stay here. She doesn’t really use it, since she has a real life somewhere else.” The lie rolled off her tongue so easily. She only felt a twinge of guilt. After all, she didn’t owe him the truth.

“That’s nice of her.” He didn’t meet her gaze, but began to chew on his bottom lip. His fidgeting made her nervous.

“Have a seat.” She waited for him to sit before she sat down behind her desk.

She picked up a pen and clicked it open and closed. The silence was awkward, and she wanted to be anywhere else. She knew she should say something, but couldn’t bring herself to open her mouth.

“Katie, I know you must be feeling some anger right now,” her father started.

“You don’t know anything about how I feel,” she snapped.

“Okay.” He sat back in the chair and tried to look relaxed. “Why don’t you tell me how you feel?”

He looked at her expectantly. She didn’t want to have this conversation.

“You didn’t bother to ask how I felt about you leaving. Why start now?”

“I realize you might not understand why I left. I admit, it wasn’t the best choice I ever made.”

“Really?” She rolled her eyes and knew she was acting like a disgruntled teenager, but she didn’t care.

“We were all hurting, Katie. People who are hurting do stupid things sometimes. I couldn’t believe how much it hurt to lose your brother, and your mother made sure I knew it was my fault. After all, I was the one who encouraged him to enlist. I just thought you would be better off without me. David would have been better off without me.”

“That doesn’t even make sense,” she shot back. “Why would losing my father after I lost my brother be better for me? I’d really like to hear how that was supposed to help.”

“I didn’t say I was thinking clearly,” he answered. “I know it was wrong, but by the time I realized what I’d done, I knew you wouldn’t want to see me. It was too late.”

“And now you think it’s not too late? Like you can just swoop in here years later and say it was a mistake and everything would be all right?” Katie’s hands started to tremble, and she folded them in her lap.

“No, I didn’t think everything would be all right.” He sighed and stood up. “I told your mother this wouldn’t work.”

“What wouldn’t work?” Katie stood up too.

“You have no reason to forgive me. No reason not to hate me forever. I understand that.” He turned to leave.

“Yes, go ahead and leave again. It’s what you do best.” She couldn’t stop the jibe from coming out.

He turned back to face her. “What do you want, Katie? You don’t want me here, but you don’t want me to leave, either. Just tell me what you want me to do, and I’ll do it.”

Katie shook her head and looked away. It wasn’t long before she heard the door shut and knew that he’d left. She dropped into the chair and put her head on her desk. Why did life just seem to get more complicated? All she wanted was to go back to simpler days, like when she was ten and her family was all still together. They had been truly happy then.

She wanted to curl up in a ball or scream. She wasn’t sure which one would feel better. Her phone rang, and she sniffed while blinking back the tears that pooled at the corners of her eyes.

“Katie?” Kyle’s voice asked from the receiver.

“Hey, Kyle. What’s up?” She tried to sound like everything was just peachy.

“Look, I know things aren’t going well with your mother, but Duchess is still getting some bad publicity, and we really need to try to recover from that interview.”

“I know, but it was just a lesson that we should have kept her in the shadows even longer. We should keep her doing concerts and nothing else.” That made sense to her.

“That’s not going to work anymore, Katie. That ship has already sailed, so to speak. Now people are begging for Duchess to make all kinds of appearances.” Kyle sounded tired.

“That’s not feasible, and it’s not just because of my mother. You know why it won’t work,” Katie cautioned. “Plus, I still need to find a venue for the benefit concert.”

“I know, but she’s going to have to do something.” He sounded desperate, and Katie felt a little bad for him. After all, he had been with her from the beginning. If he said it had to be done, it probably did.

“Fine. Send me some proposals, and I’ll see which one she can do.”

“I knew I could count on you!” Kyle exclaimed, and Katie couldn’t help smiling.

“You’ll owe me,” she bantered.

“Maybe I could take you out to dinner. That should cover it.”

“Just dinner? There’d better be some chocolate involved as well.”

“Of course,” he answered. “Can anyone eat dinner without having chocolate too? I didn’t think that was possible.”

“That’s why I like you, Kyle. You know exactly what a girl wants.”

“Yes, that’s me! I learned everything I need to know about women by listening to Christina Aguilera songs.”

“She would know.” Katie laughed. This was just what she needed, some friendly banter and a chance to forget her many troubles.

“Indeed.” He paused for a moment. “What are you doing next week?”

“I need to look at venues with Chase for the benefit concert.”

“Oh? Where are you looking?”

She told him the three venues she had her eyes on and what day they were going if no one from the county got back to her about the Hollywood Bowl.

“I’ll email you a few different options for a public appearance,” he replied.

“Okay, but don’t forget to include some ridiculously expensive restaurant choices for dinner, too.”

“I wouldn’t dream of forgetting.”

They said goodbye and hung up. Katie sat back and couldn’t figure out why that phone call had relaxed her, but it did. Work seemed so much simpler than real life, and considering what her job was, that was saying a lot.

Chapter Eighteen

A week had gone by without hearing back from the county. Chase groaned at the prospect of having to look at more venues. The Hollywood Bowl was the only one he and Katie agreed on. He thought of her stubborn demeanor whenever an argument started. A half smile formed on his face. He didn’t like to admit it, but he was looking forward to seeing her again.

The car arrived, and he crawled into the backseat with Katie.

“Good morning,” he said with a smile.

Katie didn’t smile back. “I have three places I think will work. I’m still trying to get the Hollywood Bowl, but we need a backup.”

“You’re definitely all business today,” he said. “You should smile.”

“I should smile? I’ll tell you what I should do. I should hit you over the head with your fake leg for leaving me alone with my father. That was a low-down, dirty trick,” she sputtered.

“Oh, you mean you don’t like being manipulated into doing something you don’t want to do?” he asked innocently. “You mean, like forcing someone to help with a concert by cornering them in a public place?”

“That was different,” she began.

“Only because you want it to be,” he shot back.

An unfeminine growl emitted from her throat as she glared at him before turning her attention to the papers in front of her. One corner of his lips turned up in a slight smile as he enjoyed watching her lose her composure. She looked over at him, and he quickly cleared his face of all expression. Her eyebrows knit together, and she graced him with another glare before the car stopped at their next destination, the Orpheum Theater. Cars crowded the front section of the parking lot, and people milled around outside.

“What’s going on?” Chase looked at Katie for an explanation, but she only shrugged with a frown.

Walking closer, Chase heard the crowd chanting. Before he could hear what they were saying, Katie’s phone rang. She stopped, and Chase continued forward, trying to hear. Finally, the noise started to solidify into one word over and over.

“Duchess! Duchess!” the crowd shouted.

He turned back to Katie, who was yelling into her phone.

“Kyle, there’s no way! She can’t just drop everything and show up!” She started pacing. “No. It can’t be done!”

Chase put it together. Duchess was obviously doing something without telling her manager.

“Fine!” Katie stabbed the end button on her phone and stalked over to Chase.

“You won’t believe what happened. Someone put on Twitter that Duchess was making a public appearance here.”

“Was it Duchess?” It sounded clear to him that Duchess was going behind Katie’s back.

“No. I mean, someone set up a Twitter account with Duchess’s name, but it wasn’t her,” Katie said confidently.

“How do you know?”

“I just do. Trust me,” she said.

Chase trusted Katie. It was Duchess he didn’t trust.

“Why would someone do that?” he asked.

“To damage her name. Or get revenge for something. It doesn’t really matter why they did it—what matters now is damage control.” Katie started walking toward the venue purposefully. Chase followed behind. “Now I need to get Duchess here as soon as possible.”

“How are you going to do that?”

“Kyle’s picking her up right now. I need to see if the theater will let us use one of their dressing rooms for her to get ready.” Katie opened the door, and Chase followed.

“What can I do to help?”

“You don’t have to stick around. I’ll tell the driver to take you home. We can look at venues another time.”

It sounded like she wanted to get rid of him. He had a couple of ideas why. Maybe she just didn’t want a cripple around. Or maybe she wanted time alone with Kyle. Or maybe Duchess told her to get rid of him. Whatever the case, he wasn’t about to make it easy for her.

“No, I think I’ll stick around,” he said. 

Katie spun around, her face stricken. That look definitely confirmed she was up to something.

She wiped the emotions off her face and tried to sound unaffected, but it didn’t fool him this time. “Are you sure? It’s going to be pretty boring around here. Besides, Kyle and I can handle it.”

Something told him Kyle would love to have Katie all to himself. For some reason, he didn’t like that thought one little bit. “Oh, I’m sure. Besides, maybe you can introduce me to Duchess properly this time.” He smiled until she turned on her heel and walked away. He scurried after her, determined to find out what was going on.

***

Katie wanted to scream. The man could be so infuriating. With him around, there was no way she could become Duchess, and the record company would sue her if she told him her secret. She walked with long, quick strides. The sooner she could get the whole thing over with, the better.

“Do you know what exactly this appearance is supposed to be?” Chase asked.

“No.” She kept walking.

“Well, you might want to find out.” The way he said it made it sound like he already knew. She stopped and turned to look at him.

He was on his smartphone reading something as he rubbed his chin. Looking up, he frowned and started to turn his phone off.

“Let me see that!” She grabbed it out of his hand and looked at the Twitter page he had opened. The first thing she noticed was that it
was
the official Duchess account. The PR team at the record label was in charge of it—she’d never really figured out how to use Twitter. The next thing she noticed was the last item “Duchess” had tweeted:
Come see me this afternoon at the Orpheum for an exciting autograph session you won’t forget.

“What?” Kate couldn’t keep the anger from her voice.

“I guess Duchess forgot to tell you about that?” He didn’t say “I told you so,” but she could tell he wanted to. Only the truth would change his mind, and that was out of the question. She decided to go with his assumption.

“I guess so.” She was going to kill Kyle when he finally got here with her wardrobe change. Did he really think he could get away with setting her up? She started tapping her foot. “I need to find Kyle,” she said as she stomped toward the parking lot. Kyle had probably already been there when he called her. When she thought about how shocked he’d sounded on the phone, like it had all been a surprise to him, it just made her walk faster.

When she got to the parking lot, it was like she thought. There was a limo sitting there. Kyle was probably sitting inside, waiting an appropriate amount of time before he got out and pretended like he’d just pulled up. She pulled open the limo door, and Kyle looked up with a gasp.

“Katie!” He covered up the shock on his face with a big, fake smile. “There you are! I was about to come find you.”

“Cut the crap, Kyle. You’ve been here all along.” Katie put her hands on her hips and dared him to lie about it. She was ready to pull his hair out. “What I can’t figure out is why you would do this right now, especially when you knew I was busy today.”

Kyle looked past her, and Katie realized Chase was behind her. “Can we talk about this later?” Kyle asked, nodding in Chase’s direction.

“Fine!” Katie agreed, but this was far from over, as far as she was concerned. “I assume you already have a dressing room reserved.”

“Um, yes. Duchess should be on her way there already. I just have her outfits and makeup right here.” Kyle held up a hanger with a plastic cover zipped up over an extravagant dress.

“I’ll take that.” Katie grabbed the dress and started toward the theater.

Chase caught up with her. “Do you want me to carry that for you?”

She sighed. He was another problem she needed to address, and quickly. He could not be hanging around while she changed. She didn’t want him anywhere near her, especially if he expected her to introduce him to Duchess personally.

“I’m fine. It’s probably best if you wait for me in the car. You don’t want to be here in this crowd. It could get crazy.”