She shook her head. She wanted to be sober for this conversation.
“I can’t believe the Tassia is here in Pig Face’s house.” Pepper ran over to Hyde’s entertainment set.
“Will you please stop calling me that? It’s getting on my nerves, and we are no longer ten years old.” Hyde pulled out a bottle of water instead, unscrewed the top, and handed it to Tassia.
“Nice to see you can be a gentleman.” Tassia accepted the drink. This time she let her fingers drag over his strong hand.
“I can be a lot of things.” Hyde’s voice dipped down low while he kept his stare on her.
The look alone had her knees quivering.
He broke his stare long enough to look at the pan on the stove. “Looks like right now I need to be a chef.” He pulled a spatula from a drawer and started pushing the chicken around in the pan.
The smell of the cooked meat mixed with chili and cumin spices filled the air and reminded Tassia of her favorite Mexican restaurant. To put some space between herself and Hyde, she padded over to the bowl of chips and dipped one into the salsa.
Spicy didn’t even begin to describe the flavor, but she liked it. She enjoyed the heat that hit the back of her throat and went all the way down to her belly. Before she could try another chip, she heard a familiar sound filling the house.
“By far the best song on the soundtrack.” Pepper skipped back into the kitchen and sat at a barstool while Tassia’s song played through the house.
Pepper swayed back and forth while keeping her eyes closed. “Magical.”
Tassia smiled. To get some recognition for her work made her feel validated.
“You have a beautiful voice.” Hyde had said the statement in almost a whisper, but Tassia caught it.
“Did you write this?” Pepper jutted her thumb in the air.
Tassia nodded. “I think I wrote it in a day.” She returned to her station next to Hyde to finish cutting up the vegetables.
“Dude, you are lucky to have her.” Pepper snagged Hyde’s open beer and finished off her cousin’s drink.
“I don’t know if the project will go through.” He glanced at Tassia. “I messed up. I’ll be taking her home in the morning.”
Pepper growled louder than a bear. “You did mess up. Did you apologize?”
He didn’t look at her. “I think so. But—”
“Do it again.” Pepper pounded her fist on the counter.
“Stop telling me what to do. We’re not kids anymore.”
“Exactly. You’re a grown man and she’s a grown woman. You two are working together. You need to tell her your plans so that you two can be on the same page.” Pepper pointed at the two of them. “I know you’re talented. I can show you videos of him at county fairs when he was little.” She snickered. “And I know you can sing your face off. This could be an amazing collaboration.”
Except for the sizzling meat, the kitchen became quiet as soon as the song stopped.
Tassia peered up at Hyde. “Is she your other manager?” She chuckled. “She’s doing a hell of a job convincing me to stay.”
“Is it working?” Hyde gazed at her.
She paused before responding. “Does it work for you?”
Hyde licked his lips before answering. In her mind, Tassia imagined him doing that to prepare to kiss her. She balled her toes under her foot as she waited for the next crucial step. Which one would bend first?
“Jesus, will you just kiss her already, or tell her that you’re an idiot?” Pepper scooped up some more salsa and popped the filled chip in her mouth.
Hyde smiled. “Should I drop down to one knee for this?”
“What?” Tassia laughed at his odd question.
Before she knew it, Hyde went down to one knee in front of her and held one of her hands. In that moment, Tassia imagined this happening to her in real life, she and Hyde together. She shook her head. That fantasy made no sense. Although she had started to get to know him, it didn’t erase the fact that he had used their situation to his advantage.
She pursed her lips as he crouched down in front of her.
Hyde stared at her with his heavenly green eyes. “Tassia Hogan, in my years in the industry, I have learned some incredibly bad habits like keeping my plans private, even to the people who will be working with me. I should have told you the real reason why I wanted to come to this house instead of tricking you. For that, I am sincerely sorry.”
“Tell her you will never lie to her again.” Pepper pointed to Hyde, then Tassia. “Do it.”
“Be quiet, please.” Hyde waved off his cousin. “Tassia, will you please stay on this project, write some songs, and do the duets album with me?”
This project could be great for her career. Here Tassia had the biggest-selling artist out now on his knee asking her to do this duets album with him.
“Yes.” What else could she say to a tempting offer like that?
“Now seal this deal with a kiss and let’s get going.” Pepper jumped from the stool and marched to the refrigerator.
“Um, a handshake will do.” Tassia shook Hyde’s hand as he stood again.
“Why are you so obsessed with us kissing?” Hyde scooped the cooked chicken onto a platter.
Pepper groaned. “I haven’t had any in a while. I’m living vicariously through you, cuz.”
When Tassia got to cutting up the onions, the tears flowed quickly. Damn it. She loved the vegetable, loved the taste, but she couldn’t take the tears.
She had to blink several times to focus when she felt something against the back of her hand. She noticed a white, dampened paper towel. She looked up to see Hyde holding it.
“Wipe your eyes. I can take over onion duty.” The smile he offered nearly weakened her. This version of Hyde could have convinced her to do more than just come to his house.
“Thanks, but I’ll be fine.” She accepted the towel if only to wipe her eyes quickly. The cool feeling did soothe the ache, but she wouldn’t let him know that.
“If we’re going to be working together, you’ll need to accept help.” He moved back to the pan and dumped the cut-up bell peppers into it.
Tassia finished cutting up the onions to hand them off to him. “You’ll have to do the same, you know. Compromise, remember?”
Hyde kept his stare on her while the air around them stilled.
“Want to hear some embarrassing stories about Hyde?” Pepper cackled and clapped her hands.
* * * *
Hyde spent most of the night corralling his cousin to keep her from revealing too much. He did have to thank Pepper for her intrusion. Because of it, Tassia agreed to stay longer. Who knew Pepper would have known Tassia’s music? Even more impressive, she didn’t mention the song that had bothered Tassia so much.
“My cousin Hyde is so conceited,” Pepper began, “when he was a kid, he thought the game hide-and-seek was named after him.”
Tassia burst into laughter and leaned back in her chair. “Stop it. I can’t take it.” She put her hand to her stomach.
“I was four. Give me a break.” Hyde stood and collected the plates from the dinner table.
“I can do that.” Tassia stood. “Compromise, remember?”
Hyde took the dirty dishes from her hands. “Still my home. You sit.” He glanced at Pepper. “Did you have anything sweet in here?”
“You mean besides me?” Pepper chuckled. “There’s some ice cream in the freezer and cookies in the pantry. Oh, and that thing you asked me to get and put in the freezer. But I thought you were dieting? I thought all of you Hollywood types stayed on diets.”
“Not me.” Hyde scraped the remaining food from each plate before loading them in the dishwasher. “I stay in shape so that I can move around easier on stage.”
“Same here. I just finished a tour.” Tassia raised her arms i
n the air to stretch.
“Really? If I knew you were out there singing live, I would have gone.” Pepper crossed her legs in the chair she occupied.
“It wasn’t my tour. I, um, sang a duet on a song with a bigger artist.”
Hyde watched Tassia rub the back of her neck. He knew she didn’t want to go into this topic. “Hey, let me get that—”
“You don’t mean that ‘Ride Me’ song or whatever it’s called? Ugh.” Pepper screwed up her lips and shook her head. “You were the best thing on that song. I can’t stand Aaron.”
Hyde watched Tassia screw up her lips. “You paid her to say that, didn’t you?”
“You really don’t know Pepper, do you?” Hyde chuckled. “She’s as pretty wide open as you can get.”
“Speaking of wide open, I’m going back to the other house. If I hadn’t had some beer, I would go back to my place and work off this dinner.” Pepper flitted her eyebrows suggestively. “By the way, are you going to be doing that thing you do in a couple of days because of your—”
“Hey.” Hyde swiped his hand back and forth over his throat to cut her off. “Some things about me should be kept secret, okay?”
“You mean like your mad crush on—”
“Hey, time for you to go.” Hyde stood behind Pepper and held her shoulders.
“Wait.” Pepper turned and grabbed Hyde’s arm as she split her attention between him and Tassia. “You haven’t told her?”
Hyde felt his insides warming up to a molten level. “Pep.”
His cousin rolled her eyes. “Hyde.”
He had to blink when she finally used his real name and not the moniker she’d been calling him for over twenty years.
“You need to be open. You don’t want to get an ulcer, do you?” She turned to Tassia. “He used to have a major crush on you.”
Tassia stared at Hyde. “Really?”
“Long time ago.” He waved his hand in the air to try to pass off this bit of news as dismissive. When he did dare to peer up, he caught Tassia staring at him.
“When you all got breaks in taping, he would come back home and talk about this cute, wonderful girl on set with these amazing green eyes.” Pepper stood in front of Tassia and nodded. “They are spectacular.”
Tassia snickered. “That could have been anyone.” She shook her head. “Maybe Christina.”
Pepper groaned. “Not that airhead, who still needs to be thanking you for her career.” She pointed at Tassia. “No. It was you. He didn’t know this, but I looked through his dresser drawer.”
Hyde felt his eyes go wide. “I think we all need to go to our rooms and—”
Pepper continued. “He had a picture of you at the bottom of his dresser, right underneath his tighty whities.”
Hyde exhaled hard enough for everyone in the room to hear it. “Feel better about doing that?”
“Hey, don’t get mad at me because I like to keep my plate clean.” She brushed her hands together. “You tell people how you feel at all times, that way if you were to drop dead right now, you can never say to yourself, ‘I wished I had said whatever.’”
“If I’m dead, I’m not going to say anything.” Hyde laughed at her.
“And thanks to me, Tassia now knows how you truly feel about her.”
“Felt.” Each time Hyde had looked at Tassia now, he saw hate and discontent covering her beautiful face…except now.
Tassia’s expression softened. She regarded Hyde differently. Maybe she saw him less as that kid from back in the day and more as a man. Now he would have to figure out if those little-kid feelings still existed today.
“Whatever.” Pepper cocked her head.
“To get on another topic, we saw a bear in the front yard.” Hyde shook his head. “Stay in the main house.”
This time Pepper shook her head. “You have that huge fence around the backyard, so nothing that can’t fly is getting back there. Besides, we’ve been making so much noise in here that I doubt anything is still out there.” She went to the back door. “And you two need to get to work.” She winked and exited as quickly as she had popped into the home.
The silence that hung in between them this time felt uncomfortable. To continue avoiding talking about the huge rhino in the room that Pepper had introduced, Hyde busied himself by cleaning the kitchen. He never expected Tassia to assist him, but she stood, shoulder to shoulder, with him, wiping down counters and rinsing off dishes.
Hyde finished loading the dishwasher by the time Tassia padded up to him. “Thanks for dinner.”
Hyde hoped his sigh of relief that she didn’t mention what Pepper had revealed didn’t come off as too obvious. “Not a problem.” He put in the cleanser, closed the door, and started the device. “You want some dessert?”
When he saw Tassia snake her slender, pink tongue over her lips, he had to suppress a groan.
“No. I’m stuffed from dinner.” She cleaned off the counter as though she needed to help. “Did you want to—”
“What?” Hyde tried to hide the eagerness in his voice, but he knew it came through from the way he had interrupted her.
“Work on some songs?” She reached behind herself and pulled out her cell phone. “I started on a few that I wanted to run by you if you’re up to working.”
Hyde looked at Tassia differently. In his plan, he never took into account that Tassia would take this project seriously. She had done some work. He had been selfish in all of this. Tassia had been right. He had every right to make demands for himself. He couldn’t impose his will and desires on anyone else, especially those who had no idea about his plans.
Hell, at what point had he become his father? Hyde never used people, and now he figured out why. He felt horrible. No way could he admit this out loud, let alone confess his selfish sin to her. To make up his poor behavior to Tassia, he had to take her and this project seriously.
He nodded. “Yeah. Sure. We can work on songs.” He walked ahead of her. “Let’s go to the music room.”
“Perfect. I can play on the piano.” She followed him to the room he had designated for inspiration.
He hadn’t taken her to his in-home studio yet. That would be next.
“I hope what my cousin said didn’t make you feel uncomfortable.” Pepper’s revelation certainly put a twist in Hyde’s belly.
“I was more surprised than anything else.” She continued following him. “You were so quiet back then, I didn’t think you liked anyone, let alone had a crush on me. Did you really keep a picture of me in your dresser drawer?”
Hyde stopped and faced her. He started to refute the story, but when he stared into her eyes, he couldn’t. His mind and body refused to betray this woman’s trust once again, although he still kept secrets from her. “I did. I was bowled over by your talent. I thought you were the best singer among us. I knew you were destined for great things.”
This time she snickered. “Instead, you’re the big star and I’m the back-up singer.”
He stormed up to her. “You’re not a back-up singer. You’re a talented, beautiful woman with big things ahead of you.” Now he started to sound like her at their business meeting not too long ago.
“You think I’m beautiful?”
Damn, he had said too much. He backed from her. “You have an appeal that some may find attractive.” Great. Now he sounded like a businessman, like his father.
“What about you?”
Hyde should have seen that coming. “I think any music videos we do will get a lot of hits because of you.”
Tactful. Good enough answer to get him by.
“So, Hyde.”
“Yeah?” He looked back at her before he stepped into the room.
“No, I mean your name. Where did that come from? You don’t hear that name a lot lately. And the fact that your last name is Love just tells the w
orld you are closed off to relationships.” She laughed.
Hyde tried to join her in her light ribbing, but part of her statement held merit. He had been burned too many times to be a good man for anyone. Not now.
“Family name. My father said a great-grandfather or someone like that was named Hyde. I did my genealogy a few years ago.” He shook his head. “Couldn’t find a relative with that name. Not a legal name. Not like me. By the time I had discovered it, I was already famous as Hyde Love.”
“You could always change it. You could go by your middle name. What’s that?” Tassia sat down at the piano bench. When he remained quiet, she regarded him again. “What? Is it worse than Hyde?”
“You think the name Hyde is bad?” He sat next to her on the bench. At the close proximity, he saw her bottom lip quiver a moment before she answered.
“Um, no. I actually think Hyde is a cool name. It’s the Hyde Love of it all that makes it bad.”
“No middle name.” He held his hands up in surrender. “Not lying. My parents thought Hyde Love was enough. What about you?”
“Wait. I have another question about your name. Pig Face.”
He didn’t want to, but Hyde knew he rolled his eyes. “You remember how I was back then. Until puberty, I was a little butterball. I think I was supposed to represent the husky boys.”
Tassia covered her mouth to suppress a large laugh. “You have certainly taken control of your situation. I can attest to that since I have seen your body.”
“Ugh, that picture of me online.” Hyde placed his hand on the smooth black and white keys of the piano.
“No. I don’t mean that. I mean when you were in the pool.” She kept her gaze away from him.
In that moment, Hyde wanted to look in her eyes. “Watching my diet and exercising are how I got my body in shape. Unfortunately, my cousin can’t let that old me go.”
“Does that bother you?”
Hyde leaned back as he regarded Tassia. “You know, no one has ever asked me that. I can laugh at it now. That’s all that matters.”
“Maybe that should be one of the songs.” She placed her phone on the music stand.
After the blowout they had had earlier after his swim, Hyde never thought he and Tassia would be calm, civil, and with this much sizzle between them.
Crazy on You Page 15
