Fade to Black (13 page)

She’d spent time, a lot of time, searching
for Ashley. According to Dory, they’d been very close, but there was no trace
of her. It was like she didn’t exist. Lily felt bad that she couldn’t find her
to let her know what happened so she could pay her final respects. Maybe Ashley
couldn’t handle it all and had taken off.

Sticking her finger in the clay, she
watched as it created a ring, growing larger and larger with each rotation.
When someone came up behind her and kissed the top of her head, she jumped.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you,” Devlin
said.

Lily shrugged. “No worries, I wasn’t paying
attention.”

“I hate to see you like this. I wish there
was something I could do.”

“You are, being here for me… well, it’s
everything. I’m so lost.” She looked up at him with tears swimming in her eyes.
“I’m just so lost.”

When he gathered her up in
his arms, she felt his warmth seep into her.
She sat on his lap and wondered how long he’d put up with her.
Hour by hour, she felt like she was falling deeper and deeper into
a pit of loss and depression, which was perfectly natural.
However, he
was a movie star, he didn’t to need to be dealing with this, he could move on.
He’d spent so much time with her while she grieved. Shaking her head, she knew
he was better than that and he’d stick by her.

“Hey, I had an idea,” he said softly as he
rubbed her back. “Don’t say no, I want you to think about it.”

Lily tried to pull away from him, but he
wouldn’t let her. She didn’t like the sound of this, and instinctively wanted
to pull away from him.

“We’re done filming the movie.”

The words sat heavily between them. She
felt the tears start to flow; he was going to be leaving her, too. She’d never
see him again.

“Shhhh… Lily… Come on, please stop crying.
I’m not going anywhere. Let me finish.”

She tried to get her crying under control. With
her arms wrapped tightly around his neck, she never wanted to let go. At least
she knew her son would be home in a couple of weeks.

“I’d like to show you my home in Los
Angeles.”

“No, no, I can’t go.”

“Can’t or won’t? You have everything
settled with Dory’s house and business. You’ve closed the gallery for now; your
son is at camp. Let’s take a vacation, let me take you somewhere different,
show you something new.”

She played with the cuff of his shirt,
thinking about what he’d said. Part of her really wanted to go, the other part
wanted to curl up in a ball and hide forever. “But what if something happens to
Leo like last time?”

Devlin put his fingers under her chin and
made her look at him. “Honey, you can’t live your life like that. You know it.
He’s with trained professionals. They take care of dozens of kids every summer,
and have for decades. You know you can trust them, otherwise you’d never send
him there. Let me take care of you.”

“I’m not used to depending on someone,” she
whispered.

He chuckled softly. “Tell me about it.” His
breath whooshed out when she squeezed him hard. “You’ve done everything you can
here. Let me take you away, make new memories with you.”

“It feels wrong to go off so soon after
Dory’s death,” she mumbled.

“Lily, tell me – what would Dory tell you
to do? I didn’t know her well, but I’m willing to bet good money that she’d
tell you to get off of your ass and go have some fun.”

Lily sighed and snugged into Devlin.
“You’re right, she would. But that still doesn’t change the fact I feel guilty
about running off to have fun.”

“Of course you’re going to feel
guilty,
you wouldn’t be you if you didn’t. And I’m not
saying you shouldn’t be feeling what you are, what I’m saying is maybe a change
of scenery will do you some good.”

She sat on his lap, thinking of him, and of
Dory, and her son. Everything was still so fresh, she wasn’t sure when or even
if she’d ever be able to get over losing her best friend. Knowing Dory as well
as she did, she knew Dory would be all over her telling her to suck it up and
move on. She’d always be in her heart, nobody could take that away, but she was
still alive and had to act like it. “Okay, you could be right.”

“Wait, did I hear that correctly? I could
be right? Didn’t you also just say I was right a couple of minutes ago? Well,
I’ll be damned; a woman saying a man was right twice in one day, it must be one
of the signs of the end of the world coming.” He laughed when she slapped his
chest. “You know, this will be good for you. I promise to have you back before
the mid-summer parent weekend at camp.”

“I’ll hold you to that.”

“Honey, you can hold whatever you want.”

She did feel guilty about going away with
Devlin, and her feelings for him were so deep, she knew she’d be holding onto
his heart forever. But how soon before he forgot her and moved on?

Chapter
Seventeen

Lily
was surprised by all the people with cameras standing around the airport
who
jumped up and started taking pictures as soon as they were
noticed. Gripping Devlin’s hand tightly, she leaned in to him to whisper in his
ear, “Is it always like this?”

“Boston’s usually not this
bad,
this is more typical for L.A. I wonder why there are so
many here?”

“Lucky me.
I
was a basket case about L.A., and now it’s happening here?
Yeah,
not liking this.
I think it was a bad idea. I’m not ready for this.” She
tried to stop and turn around to leave, her stomach in knots. She was nervous
about not knowing what situations she was going to end up in. She was excited
about flying first class, as it was something she’d never done before.

Devlin pulled her toward him and wrapped
his arm around her. “No, please don’t go. Focus on me, they’ll all go away. I
want you with me.”

Looking up into his eyes, she knew he meant
the words, right now, but how long would this last before he tired of her? How
long could she handle being in the public eye? “Dev, I’m not sure I’m strong
enough.” She glanced around at the camera flashes. “I should go home. This
isn’t me.”

He grabbed her chin so she’d look back at
him. “No, you’re not, and that is why this means so much to me, why
you
mean so much to me. I need to show
you this part of my life. I need you to know that we can make this work.
Besides, there will be less press if we get on the plane and go. If you leave
now, they will only follow you back to your gallery.”

She knew he had a point, and the last thing
she wanted right now was to stir up any more trouble. “You’ll make sure I don’t
trip, right?”

Dev smiled his cocky grin, knowing he was
going to have his way. “I’ll do my best. Come on, we don’t want to miss our
flight.”

“Oh, no, that would be terrible.”

“She said with absolutely no sarcasm.”
Devlin smiled at her.

“Of course not, I’m never
sarcastic.”
She tipped her head up in the air.

He leaned down and whispered to her, “You
keep telling yourself that, the rest of us know the truth.”

Before she could respond, he kissed her
quickly and soundly. “I’ll get you for that.”

“I hope you will. Now come on, we’ve got a
plane to catch.”

Walking through the airport, she had to
admit to herself he was right. She needed to get out of town. She’d always
loved to travel and see new places, but for the past eight years, it all
revolved around Leo. This was the first adult trip she’d had. She knew what
Dory would
say,
how she’d tell her to get her ass in
gear and go have fun with the hot movie star.

Once they were past security, they picked
out a couple of chairs as far away from everyone else as possible. Lily was
people watching and couldn’t believe who she saw. Nudging Devlin, she nodded in
the man’s direction. “Is that Noah Matthews from Last Stand?”

“I’ll be damned, it is. No wonder there
were so many paparazzi around. They must be going to L.A., too.”

“You know him?” She tried to keep the
excitement out of her voice.

He raised an eyebrow at her. “Yes, I do,
should I be worried? Are you going to leave me for him?”

“Bah, no, I love his music. Depending on
what I’m creating determines what I listen to. Ironically enough, I listened to
their last album a lot when I created the goddesses. His music fit with what I
was creating.” She smiled, feeling like the goddesses were the ones that brought
them together.

“Well, let’s go talk to him.” He started to
stand up.

She grabbed his arm. “No, we can’t go over
there.”

“Lily, I
know
him. It’s not like we’re both celebrities but have never met
before. We’ve actually spent time together.
Hung out.
Come on, you know you want to. Besides, his wife Lexi is amazing, you’ll like
her.”

She didn’t know why she was so nervous;
hell, she’d been spending a lot of time with a celebrity. If she was going to
be a part of Devlin’s life, she was going to have to get used to it. Gripping
his hand tight, they walked over. She pulled her eyes away from Noah and looked
at the beautiful woman who was with him. She was keeping a toddler occupied
while digging through a bag looking for something.

“Well, I’ll be a son of a bitch. Devlin,
how the hell are you?” Noah jumped up and strode over and gave him a man-hug.

“I’m good, I’m good.
Long
time.”
He turned toward Lexi and bent down to give her a kiss on the
cheek. “Hello, beautiful, you still putting up with this jerk?”

Sighing, Lexi said, “Yes, although some
days I really wonder why.”

“Oh, come on now, honey, you’re breaking my
heart. It’s only for a week,
then
you’ll be back.”

“That’s what you said last time, and it
ended up being a month.”

Noah smiled and shrugged at her. “What can
I say? I lose all track of time when you’re around.”

Lexi raised an eyebrow at him. “Really,
that’s all you’ve got?”

“Sorry, love, it’s the truth.”

“Nice to know some things never change.”
Devlin picked up the child when she reached out her arms toward him, snuggling
her against his chest. “Noah, Lexi, I’d like you to meet Lily Walker. Lily,
this is Noah and Lexi Matthews, and their little charmer, Stephanie.”

Lily gave them a small wave, knowing her
face was very red but unsure of what to say to them.
“Ummm…
hi.”

Lexi went over and put her arm around Lily’s
shoulders. “It’s so nice to meet you. We’ll leave these two alone to talk about
how awesome they are while we have a little
walk
and a
sensible conversation.”

“Lexi, what are you doing?” Devlin’s tone
warned.

“Now, Dev, you know there is nothing bad I
could tell her that wasn’t already in the tabloids.”

“Let them go, we’ll have some time to talk
about our next guys trip. Being surrounded by all these women is hard work.”

“And it’s about to get harder. Get that
look off your
face, that
is not what I meant. You
might want to remember how many women we can have in that house at one time and
be thankful the ones who cause the most trouble are sailing around the world on
that cruise they’ve been planning.”

Lily had no idea what she was talking about,
but was very curious when Noah’s face paled and he shook his head quickly.

“No, we’re good. You all go ahead; we’ll
watch Steph, make sure she’s happy.”

“If you don’t mind I’d like to grab
something to eat. I’m always hungry.” Lexi said as they walked away.

“Sure, no problem.”
Lily wasn’t sure what to say to her. She knew her story on how she was
attacked, twice, by a madman and lived to tell about it. She and Noah had met
and fell in love while she was being stalked and then almost killed, if she was
remembering the story from a couple of years ago. She knew Lexi was a small
town girl like herself, but she’d been in the public eye for a while now.

“Ohhh… they have cinnamon rolls. Thankfully
I don’t have to watch what I eat.” Lexi rubbed her belly. “Best part of being
pregnant.” She laughed, “Well,
there’s
a lot of best
parts, but this is one of more delicious ones.”

“I didn’t know you were pregnant.”

“Yep, we haven’t made a ‘formal’
announcement, but we did just find out I’m having another girl, that’s why Noah
was making those comments.”

“Congratulations.”

“Thank you. Now let’s sit down away from
the men for a few minutes.” Once they were settled, she continued, “It’s really
not that bad, this whole fame thing. You’ve got to balance it.”

“How do you know I’m not comfortable with
it?”

Lexi smiled. “It’s the whole deer in the
headlights look. I’ve been there, and I’ll share what I’ve learned, and
hopefully it will be easier on you. Lord knows I wish someone had been there to
help me. I think it was easier for us since Noah was ready to retire. He spends
most of his time where I’m comfortable. Every once in a while we have to travel
for him, but it’s not that often, and we travel together.”