Keeping Secrets

by Parker, Weston

  “Wow.” Okay, so it seemed she didn’t need to work up to the serious stuff. She’d said she was an open book and it looked like she’d meant it. She was a straight shooter. I liked that. No bullshit. “I’m assuming your parents weren’t happy with that decision.”

  She blew out a breath, her head shaking and her eyes wide. “Not at all. In fact, that was among the things my mother and I were talking about earlier. I’ve never been what I was supposed to have been, and they haven’t forgiven me for it. I’m just an eternal disappointment.”

  “Ouch.” My own parents hadn’t exactly been supportive of me pursuing a career in music, so I had some idea of what she was talking about. “I know the feeling, but doing what you love is ultimately what counts. Life is too short to do anything else.”

  “Yeah, I agree. My mother is the one who needs to be told that.” She leaned forward, folding her hands on the table and taking a deep breath. “Speaking of doing what you love, I heard you were in a band. What are you doing here?”

  My head jerked and a jolt of lightning straightened my spine.

  I was legit taken aback by her question. I hadn’t thought she was a fan. She’d given no indication of recognizing me before. “You know who I am?”

  She nodded. “I didn’t at first, but Julia recognized you. Apparently, your band is one of her favorites.”

  Unease tied my stomach in knots. I’d wanted a fresh start here, a new life. It seemed it wouldn’t be that easy, though. “I’m not going to lie to you. I’m surprised you know about me and didn’t say anything before.”

  “She only told me after you left the other day, and I haven’t seen you since, so I haven’t been able to tell you,” she said, which was reasonable. “You should know it doesn’t matter to me that you’re supposedly famous. That’s not why I told my mother you were my boyfriend.”

  The sincerity in her tone made me believe her, which made some of the knots undo themselves. “Fair enough. So you’re not a fan?”

  “I’ve never even heard of your band, aside from Julia mentioning the name.” She crossed her heart, smiling as she did. “It’s pretty cool that you’re a musician. She tells me you’re a guitarist?”

  “Yeah, I picked up my first guitar in music class when I was seven and never wanted to put it down again.” I ran the backs of my fingers across the scruff on my jaw and grinned, fond memories playing in my mind. “I wasn’t very good at it at first, but I refused to give up. All that hard work paid off eventually.”

  “I’d say.” She cocked her head, curiosity burning in her eyes. “Which brings us back to the obvious question. What are you doing here when you’re so passionate about your music and your band is doing so well?”

  “Things changed.” I dragged both palms over my face. “I still love the music, but I needed a break from recording and performing. Winter needed a break, too. We’d just finished a tour and it felt like the time was right.”

  She nodded slowly. “I’d love to hear you play sometime.”

  “Well, now that we’re dating, I’m sure you’ll get the opportunity at some point,” I teased, surprised by how easily I was adapting to the idea of pretending to date her. Somehow, it didn’t scare the shit out of me or make me feel like I was moving on too soon. It didn’t even really make me feel guilty, especially considering how we weren’t really dating.

  Tiffeny laughed, the melodic sound worming its way into my chest until I was laughing too.

  “I’ll be looking forward to hearing my talented boyfriend playing his instrument,” she said.

  A hundred retorts about how my fingers weren’t only talented with my instrument and puns about the instrument thing itself crossed my mind, but that felt too much like flirting. So I kept it simple.

  “Let me know when you can pencil me in and we’ll arrange a private viewing for you.” I smirked. “You’re just going to have to work out a way not to jump me when you realize how talented I am.”

  Damn it. I definitely hadn’t been planning on saying that last part.

  Tiffeny’s eyes widened in surprise, but then she laughed again. “Yeah, well, I can see why you feel like you have to warn me about that. I have been pretty impulsive around you, haven’t I?”

  As easily as that, she’d diffused a moment which had had every chance of being awkward as fuck. Although there had been a spark of heat in her eyes before she’d started laughing.

  Suddenly, despite the fact that she’d kept the moment light, it felt like there was a sexual tension brewing in the open space between us. Before, I had only been attracted to her physically, but this felt different.

  It felt like the slightest spark of that same heat from before could ignite this tension. It wasn’t enough to have me backing out of our agreement, but I was going to have to be careful from here on out.

  Until I figured out how I felt about having sexual tension with someone else.

  Needing to change the topic, I took a sip of my coffee and circled back to an earlier point in our conversation. “Would you say you’re an impulsive person in general? You mentioned earlier that you’ve never been what you were supposed to be, but somehow, I get the feeling your decision to do what makes you happy wasn’t an impulsive one.”

  “No, it wasn’t impulsive.” She took the seriousness of the question in stride, not seeming to mind skipping back to heavier topics. “It took me years to gather the courage to tell my parents I didn’t want the same things they wanted for me. I planned what I was going to say to them for months, and when I did, the conversation went exactly as I’d known it would. Which was horribly. I was prepared for it, though.”

  “I’m sorry,” I said, really meaning it. “It sucks when family can’t support something they know makes you happy.”

  “You said you knew the feeling,” she said, obviously remembering my own comment earlier. “I take it your family wasn’t supportive, either.”

  “No, they definitely were not supportive. They thought I was a fool for chasing this dream. Out of the thousands of talented people out there trying to make it, they didn’t think I stood even the slightest chance of being one of the lucky few.”

  Empathy softened her eyes, and her voice became gentler as well. “I get where you’re coming from. My parents think I’m a fool for trying to make the shop work too. Since you’re speaking about your family in the past tense though, I’m assuming they’re not around anymore.”

  “They were in an accident,” I said, not offering an explanation. Tiffeny didn’t push me for one either, which I appreciated. “Okay, enough of the deep stuff. Let’s get back to basics. The stuff we’d know about each other if we were dating. You said you hadn’t even heard of our band other than being one of Julia’s favorites. What music do you like then?”

  Her eyes brightened and she smiled. I admired her ability to see when things needed to be let go of and then actually doing it. I hadn’t come across a lot of people who could do that. Not outside of myself. “I mostly like country music, but there’s some pop I don’t mind and some rock I can listen to.”

  “Some rock you can listen to.” I scoffed, clutching my heart in mock injury. “But you couldn’t listen to Kraken? You wound me. Besides, we had a lot of songs with a definite country influence in them.”

  “Really?” Excitement crept into her tone. “Maybe I’ll give you a try then. How bad can it be?”

  “It’s not bad. We were great.” But we were also getting too close to another heavy topic, so I steered the conversation away from it. “Next question, what’s your favorite color?”

  She hesitated for a beat. “Right now, it’s green. Yours?”

  “Blue.” The exact blue of her eyes actually. But I wasn’t going there. “If you had to choose between reading or watching TV and you could only do one for the rest of your life, what do you choose?”

  “Reading.” No hesitation this time. “You? Also, it’s my turn for a question. Do you like board games?”

  “Reading and love them.
Feelings about puzzles?”

  “Love them.” She smiled. “We have a lot in common, surprisingly.”

  “Why is that a surprise?”

  She lifted her shoulders in a shrug, a playful smile pulling on the corners of her lips. “Because who would’ve thought that celebrities were real people, too? You know, people who like the simple things in life like reading and puzzles.”

  I scoffed, but I couldn’t help chuckling. “I’ll have you know I have a real taste for the simple things in life.”

  “I can see that.” She grinned. “You did give up fame and fortune to play boyfriend to a local gal. That’s quite the demotion.”

  My gaze snagged on hers and stayed there. I dropped the guard I kept up at all times to let her see how honest I was being when I said, “I’m not so sure about that.”

  Silence passed between us for a beat. I picked up my coffee to give my hands something to do other than reaching for hers. When I did, I caught a glimpse of the time and my stomach jumped. “Shit. I have to get going soon. I didn’t realize how late it had gotten.”

  “Yeah, of course.” She cleared her throat. “Thanks for this and for agreeing to come to dinner.”

  “I’m actually kind of looking forward to it now.” I winked as I got to my feet, pulling my wallet out of my back pocket. “I am going to have to find a reliable babysitter for Winter, though.”

  “I’ll take care of that,” she replied immediately. “It’s the least I can do.”

  I paused, but then I realized that I knew literally no one else in the city, and she’d lived there, albeit not permanently, all her life. “Yeah, okay. Thanks.”

  Just as I started to say goodbye, another thought occurred to me. “Is your number on that business card you gave me? We’re probably going to need to exchange numbers to make arrangements for Saturday.”

  “Yeah, it’s the number on the card.”

  “Well, okay then.” I briefly debated how to say goodbye, but then she stood up, and the decision was made for me. Without giving her any warning, I caught her hand and tugged her into me for a hug.

  God, she felt good.

  Both of us lingered for a second, then stepped back at the same time. “I’ll be seeing you around, girlfriend.”

  She smiled, wiggling her fingers in a wave. “See you around, boyfriend.”

  Chapter 12

  Tiffeny

  “You’re not going to believe what just happened to me,” I said as I walked into Julia’s salon.

  There was a client with her, but she’d never minded talking in front of them before. Most of her clients ended up being something like friends to her, and they knew not to be offended when she ignored them to speak to me.

  “What happened?” She paused, the nail file in her hand stilling. “I saw your mother’s car, so I was expecting a visit from you an hour or so ago after I saw her leaving.”

  “Yeah, well.” I shrugged, smirking as I drew out the moment. “I had a fake date to go on first.”

  “What?” Her focus on me sharpened. “Explain.”

  I grabbed one of her free chairs and wheeled it up to the table, turning it around and sitting down with my front to its backrest. “I had another one of my favorite conversations with my mother.”

  “And she made you go on a date?” Julia gaped at me, but her hands had started moving again. “That’s terrible. I hope the guy knows you’re not going to be agreeing to an arranged marriage with him anytime soon.”

  Julia’s client, a petite, older blonde lady, snorted. “Please. People don’t arrange marriages anymore.”

  “Her parents would.” Julia pointed the nail file at me. “You should hear how her mother talks about her being single. It’s like she’s committing a crime.”

  “But a well-bred young lady should narrow down her prospects early so she doesn’t get stuck with the dregs at the bottom,” I said, doing a poor imitation of my mother’s voice.

  The client let out an incredulous laugh, shaking her head. “Well, that’s just terrible. You poor thing.”

  “Yeah,” Julia agreed. “But let’s get back to the story. You were saying.”

  “Right.” I couldn’t fight the smile begging to be set free, and since I didn’t know why I even had to try, I just let it happen. “It wasn’t my mother setting me up on a date. I kind of accidentally set myself up on a fake date.”

  “Oh.” Julia’s eyes went wide with understanding. “So you told her you had a date and went out for an early lunch by yourself?”

  “Nope.” I popped my lips, wagging my brows at her. “I had coffee with a real, flesh and blood man. A really hot one, at that.”

  Her eyes blew all the way open. “No way. You can’t mean Callen?”

  “Yep.” I grinned. “I’ve just come back from my first fake date with the legend-in-the-making himself.”

  “No way,” Julia breathed, the surprised gleam in her eyes making her seem almost dazed. “How the hell did that happen?”

  “Who’s Callen?” the customer asked. “And do you have a picture of him? You called him really hot and she immediately knew who you were talking about, so I’m assuming really hot means really hot.”

  She dragged out the last two words and I nodded my agreement. “That’s exactly what I mean, but I don’t have a picture.”

  “We can just—”

  I cut off Julia’s suggestion, which I knew was going to be looking him up on the Internet, with a warning look. He hadn’t said it point-blank, but I’d seen his reaction when I’d told him I knew who he was.

  For whatever reason, he was trying to keep a low profile. He hadn’t looked happy about me knowing, and for a second, I’d thought I’d doomed our brand new but very much fake relationship by letting him know that I knew.

  His relief when I’d told him how I knew and that I wasn’t a fan had been palpable. I didn’t think he wanted the news of his being here spread around town too much just yet, even if it was inevitable that it would spread eventually.

  Since I owed him about a thousand favors for the one he was doing me, I wanted to help him in any way I could.

  Julia heeded my warning thankfully. Picking up a bottle of blood-red polish, she shrugged. “I was going to say you could just ask him to send one, but I guess that would be a little weird. Anyway, how did you end up on a fake date with him, and why do you keep calling it fake?”

  “What even is a fake date?” the client asked.

  “It’s when you’re enduring yet another inquisition from your very judgmental, very pushy mother, and just when she starts grilling you about not having a boyfriend, a hot guy walks into your shop.”

  Understanding dawned in Julia’s chocolate eyes. A wide smile hooked up the corners of her mouth. “Oh my God. Tell me you really did it. You told your mom he was your boyfriend, didn’t you?”

  I nodded. “I was so damn embarrassed about it afterward, but I just couldn’t stop myself. She was coming down on me like a ton of bricks again, and then, in walked the answer to my problems.”

  “That’s hilarious.” She laughed. “Oh my fuck, I am so damn proud of you.”

  “What did he say?” the client asked, leaning forward. It seemed she was as invested in hearing the details as Julia was. “I’m assuming he played along?”

  “He sure did.” I smiled as I thought back to our time together. “He asked for an explanation after, though. We went to have coffee, and when I offered to tell my mother we’d broken up, he told me not to.”

  Julia paused with the polish brush just above her client’s nail. “Wait, what does that even mean? Are you two, like, dating now? Just like that?”

  “Nah, we’re not really dating. He’s just going to pretend to be dating me for dinner with my parents on Saturday night. My mother insisted on us coming over.”

  Julia rolled her eyes. “She would. She probably can’t wait to grill him. Did she see his tattoos?”

  “Yep.” I was going to have to remember to warn Callen about the g
rilling because Julia was right. It was definitely going to happen. “Anyway, I’m going to need you to help me on Saturday.”

  “Sure. You want me to come help you get ready for your hot date?” She glanced down at the chipped nail polish on my fingers, her lips pursing. “I’m going to need to take care of those for you before then, too.”

  “Thanks, but that wasn’t what I was talking about.” I wheeled a few inches closer to her, letting my eyes widen into my best puppy-dog expression. “I need you to babysit Winter while we’re at dinner.”

  She sputtered, her head shaking so fast I was worried it might fall off. “Hire a babysitter. I’m not thirteen. There’s no way I’m babysitting.”

  “Please, Jules? I really need your help. I owe the guy. I can’t leave him to have to find a good babysitter in a brand new city just so he can do me a favor. I don’t know any babysitters I can call, either. Plus, I’m sure he’ll be more comfortable leaving his little girl with someone we know.”

  Her head kept shaking. “She doesn’t know me, though. I don’t even like kids.”

  I rolled my eyes. “You and I both know that’s not true. Please, Jules. Please help me. This is important.”

  Her gaze slid to her client’s. “Help a girl out. Please tell me you know a babysitter?”

  “My kids are in college, so no, I don’t know babysitters anymore. Sorry.” To her credit, she really did look it.

  Julia sighed as I stuck out my lower lip, not above getting down on my knees and begging her to do it if I had to. Thankfully, it didn’t have to go that far. “Fine. Okay. I’ll do it, but only if I get paid at least thirteen dollars an hour and you leave me food and a bottle of wine.”

  My eyes rolled again. “I can do the food and wine I will get you later, but I’m not paying you in anything but ice cream.”