by Taylor Hart
Kevin sat heavily beside her drinking a bottle of water. He was dusty from all the ranch work. “You look like you’ve been crying.”
She sighed. “Thank you, Captain Obvious. Did you see the media report that I had an illicit affair?”
Kevin burst out laughing.
Which wasn’t what she expected. His laughter interrupted her victim-ness. “Why are you laughing?”
He grunted. “Kira, come on, you’re…” He gave her a speculative look.
“What?” Now she was feeling offended and didn’t know why.
“Did you have an illicit affair?”
“No.” She answered instantly.
“Then,” he said and threw up his hands. “Why are you upset?”
She felt better with her cousin by her. He was always so good to her and made her look at things differently too. “I don’t know.”
He shook his head. “You can’t be afraid of what people will say, Kira. People say a lot of stupid stuff.”
She let the words sink in. It was true. Her mind flashed to B.C. and how he must be feeling.
Kevin turned to her. “So what are you going to do, Cuz?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, are you going to the premier?”
“No,” she said quickly.
“Does he want you to?”
“I don’t know.”
Kevin pulled out his phone and showed her a bunch of texts from B.C. “He’s telling me he’s going to be here tomorrow for a tour and dinner, then he’s going to take you to L.A. for the premier.”
Her heartrate quickened. “No, he’s not,” she said adamantly.
Kevin sighed. “Kira, listen.” He reached out and put his hand over hers. “I like B.C.”
This was unusual for her cousin. He mostly stayed out of her business most of the time unless she specifically asked him. “You do?”
He nodded. “I see potential in him.”
She had to laugh because it sounded funny how he was acting like a father would act.
Kevin shrugged. “The guy won’t stop texting me about how the love potions could be made into a book and he could do the commercial and how we could get a company to produce the recipes and that’s how you could pay for Julliard.”
She waved a hand into the air in dismissal, but it touched her that B.C. was trying to enlist Kevin’s help. “I don’t need his help.”
Kevin squeezed her hand. “Do you remember what Nana used to say about true love? About how it was a lot like charity.”
She hesitated, then thought of the lecture. “The bible verse: Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own.”
Kevin pulled his hand back. “I like B.C. I think he’s always lived kinda like this. Maybe he’s had to modify it. Instead of giving away plane tickets, he’s taking care of you in other ways.”
She felt regret for just leaving him earlier.
Kevin reached behind him and pulled a letter out of his pocket. “This came for you today.”
Her heart nearly stopped. It was a letter from Julliard.
He shoved it at her. “Open it.”
Her hand shook as she tore it open. She scanned the letter quickly and then let out a laugh. “I got it.”
Her cousin was pulling her up and out of the chair and swinging her around.
They both held to each other, laughing.
He let her go and took the letter, reading it himself, then smiling at her. “You got it!”
She laughed.
“What are you going to do, Cuz?”
She stood and walked away. “Excuse me, I have a call to make.” Without hesitating, she went to the front of her house and out the front door, pushing his number.
He answered on the first ring. “Hello.”
“Hey.” Her voice was light, breathy.
“Hey,” he said, sounding unsure.
For a moment neither of them spoke.
Her heart hammered in her chest, then she asked. “I realized that you just want to help me fish.”
“What?”
She got choked up. “Nana always said you can give a man a fish and feed him for a day or you can teach him to fish and feed him for a lifetime.”
“I’m still not understanding you.”
“You want me to be successful with these potions so I can support myself. So I can go to Julliard if I want.” Tears suddenly streamed down her face. “You want to help me without buying me.” Gratitude washed over her.
He let out a light laugh. “I guess that’s true, I just wouldn’t have said it like that.”
She hated and loved the fact this man was so good to her.
“Thank you, B.C. for offering to be in my commercial for my love potions, I’m going to take you up on that offer.”
For a second there was no response then he said quietly. “Thank you for letting me help.”
She sniffed. “So, I have a question about this premier.”
For a second he didn’t respond, then he let out a light laugh. “You’re coming?”
She laughed. “I need a question answered.”
“Okay.”
“Umm…” she was feeling nervous thinking about this Hollywood lifestyle. “Where do you go, when you don’t want to be with the guests?”
“Oh.” He sounded confused. “You mean at the after party?”
“Yeah.” She was searching for something to talk about. Something that would make it feel normal.
“Well,” B.C. cleared his throat. “You see, Travis SanBrook’s mansion is notorious. So after we go to the premier, we’ll go to his house and it has all these English gardens and it has a ballroom. I like the English gardens. There’s a fountain with water coming out of fish’s mouths.” His voice trailed for a minute. “I like to just go out there and be alone.
Her heart still pounded hard. “I’m sorry, B.C. I shouldn’t have left today. I didn’t know what to do. I felt like I was in trouble.”
“It was my mom.”
This took her off guard. “What?”
“My mom called and told me I should thank her for helping to catapult my career back into the media’s eyes.”
Kira grunted, unbelieving, but very much believing the women she’d seen that day at the facility would do that to him.
He scoffed. “I realized today, Kira, that I don’t care what people think or know. I just care about the truth. I actually talked to God about it.”
“You did?” Her heart thudded inside her chest. She liked that he’d said this.
“Yeah, I’ve been talking to him on my runs and today—this was the main topic. Truth. This is what I want in myself and this is what I want with us. I don’t care what the media says. I can’t care. I just care about the truth.”
She thought about how much he’d changed since she’d met him. How much she was changing too. “You’re pretty amazing, B.C. Knight.” She said his name like an announcer would say it.
He laughed. “So are you.”
Then she started laughing and laughing, almost hysterical laughing.
“Hey, I’m still on the phone, Moonwater. I’m going to take this personally.”
She laughed even harder. “I’m laughing because of how much I’m screwing it up too. I think the bottom line is that I feel I’m not good enough and I hate it.” Holy cow, she’d just had therapy.
“I feel the same way. I was even torturing myself today that you would get back with Spence or something.”
It hit her…he had the same insecurities she did. “I want to be with you.” She really did.
“You do?” He asked.
She could tell he was smiling.
“I do.”
“Good, Moonwater, cause I want to be with you, too.”
It felt so funny to her that this was their teenage love confession awkwardness happening. “Good, we’re in this together from here on out.”
&nb
sp; “Sounds perfect.” He said.
“Oh, and I have to tell you something, since we’re being real.”
“Okay.”
“I applied for a scholarship.”
“You did?”
“I never thought I was good enough to apply before. Spence would always joke that only the really good kids had scholarships, but I applied right after Nana passed and I got it.”
B.C. let out a whoop. “That’s awesome!”
She laughed. “I am good enough.” She said, her voice shaking.
“Yeah you are.” B.C. confirmed. “You’re amazing.”
It was so humbling to hear him say that. “Thank you.”
“I’m so happy for you,” B.C. said.
“Thank you.” She wiped beneath her eyes. “But I realize too, that I want to come back to the ranch at some point, too.”
“Why not?” asked B.C. “You can have both.”
She smiled. “Yeah, I think I can.” She laughed. “And I might like to hang out with this movie star in L.A. sometimes, too.”
He let out a sigh. “That sounds amazing.”
It was strange to her that she could see a future with this man. See them hanging out at the ranch, in L.A. or anywhere. She just wanted to be with him.”
He sighed. “Well, tomorrow, I’ll leave this place and be out there. I don’t know when, but sometime for dinner?”
She smiled. “I’ll cook something.”
“Perfect.”
Happiness surged within her.
“Then we’ll drive to L.A. and you’ll spend the night, in your own room, at my house. My security guys will chaperone. I’ll tell them to lock me up when we go to our separate spaces at night. Like the old movie Wolfman, where they used to have to shackle him. Do you remember that?”
She laughed again, unable to picture Wolfman. “Okay.”
“Night, Moonwalker.” His voice was low.
“Night, Movie Star.”
Chapter 13
Friday morning B.C. got behind the wheel of his Porsche and couldn’t deny that it felt good to be driving again.
Luckily, the paparazzi had finally been forced to leave when the St. George Police showed up and escorted them off the private property. Truthfully, he didn’t care about that. He didn’t care about being photographed or getting back for the premier or meeting with the producers on the ‘biggest role of his life’ that awaited him in back in L.A.
He cared about her.
The look on her face when she’d left had about broken him. Last night’s phone conversation had made him hopeful.
He wanted a life with her more than anything.
He’d spent the next two hours talking to Dr. Schneider about it. About everything he was feeling. Truthfully, he liked Dr. Schneider; the man had been an integral part in helping him see what he’d been doing in his life to make it superficial. What he’d been caring about that made him turn to drugs to feel better.
He needed real.
The real him.
And…the real her. At least…he hoped she would want him too.
Taking a chance, he stopped at a jewelry store on the way to the ranch.
Maybe he was crazy, but he didn’t care. If she insisted on being Amish about her standards, then it was an easy decision—he’d marry her!
As he drove up to the ranch, it didn’t disappoint him.
Big trees, long-winding driveway. Then the stately looking house with black shutters. Tall flag pole with Old Glory waving in the light breeze. He thought of how he should tell her to add the flower boxes to the description. They were beautiful.
Suddenly, his palms felt nervous and he was a bit sick.
What if…it all went to crap? This was uncharted ground for the drug-free B.C.
He parked and saw cows out in a pasture and then saw Kevin wearing wranglers, a cowboy hat, work gloves, boots – the whole deal.
Their eyes met, then Kevin nodded and began striding toward him.
It relieved him that Kevin didn’t look mad. He and Kevin were texting pals. He got to him and they shook hands.
“What’s up, man?”
B.C. relaxed. “Nice to see you again, but I can’t lie. I’m here to see her.”
He frowned at B.C. “I hate to be the one to tell you this but Spence showed up about an hour ago.
B.C. saw the Hyundai, a rental car. Adrenaline shot through him and he wanted so bad to fight. “Where is she?”
Kevin’s eyes fell to the house. “In there.”
B.C’s heart raced. “With Spence,” he said, and knew it was the truth by the way Kevin looked at him.
Rushing, he took the steps two at a time, not bothering to ask permission to go in.
Chapter 14
Kira hadn’t known what to do when Spence had shown up a bit ticked off.
Of course he’d seen the coverage of her walking into the facility and he’d heard the reports. He’d shown up this morning in quite a rage.
Now, he sat at the kitchen table with her, drinking some ‘tea’ which was a calming remedy in fact, and droning on and on about the poor Africans and how he’d had to leave the village and…
Truly she felt like a heel, thinking she didn’t really care at the moment about the poor Africans.
“What?” he asked, after a couple of moments of her not doing her usual sympathizing. The sympathizing she’d done the past year. “So what do you have to say for yourself?”
Had he really just asked that? “We are not together Spence. This was established weeks ago.”
“What are you talking about? I’m paying for Julliard,” he shouted.
The ridiculousness of him even being here made her want to throw something. Unfortunately, it also brought up all her insecurities. “No, you’re not.”
“It’s already paid.” He said it like now she was his indentured servant.
Shaking her head, she couldn’t believe him. “Did you even think about how I needed you when Nana died?” She sounded so weak. She hated herself for sounding so weak.
“Pfft.” He threw up a hand. “I told you I’d just gotten there, I was just starting to get to know everyone in the village. You don’t understand, these people have nothing.”
“I had nothing,” she said, feeling a tear leak down her face at the way it was so blatantly obviously now that Spence hadn’t cared. “I had lost my Nana.”
He put up a hand. “Please, don’t tell me another story about your Nana!” he erupted. “Nana says this and Nana has a potion for that. And Nana wanted me to wait to sleep with someone because of God.” He glared at her. “God’s not real! He’s just a construction in your head!” he shouted.
She rushed toward the kitchen entrance. “You need to leave.” She held open the pantry-style door and tried to calm her shaking. What the heck had she been doing the last year? Wasting so much of herself on him?
After hem-hawing and lots of mumbling “Unbelievable.” Spence finally moved to the door, stopping in front of her.
He did something she never would have imagined. Something not very characteristic of him. Something desperate. He grabbed her and planted a kiss on her. So passionate and so angry.
She pushed against his chest.
Then she heard a scuffle from the front door and the word, “Moonwater?”
Chapter 15
What in the world had happened?
B.C. found himself staring at Kira in a lip lock with the idiot, he presumed.
Yanking back, Kira looked angry and she pushed Spence away hard. “Why did you do that?” She turned to B.C. “It’s not what it looks like.”
B.C. was reeling, he stumbled back and nearly knocked over Kevin.
Spence, or who he presumed was Spence, turned to him and glared. “Oh, the movie star. Perfect.” He snickered. “Guess you can see, she’s still mine!”
For a second B.C. couldn’t breathe and then all he saw was red. He clutched a hand into a fist.
Kira put up a hand. “Wait, don’t hit h
im!”
B.C. blinked. “What the…” then he thought of what a fool he was. He had a ring in his pocket. He had trusted her. He had thought this was real.
Her face turned to him and she looked so angry and confused.
He did the only thing he could do….
He left.
Chapter 16
What was she doing? Kira waited in the back seat as the Uber driver weaved his way through the streets of L.A. She was going to the premier. Nervous jitters assaulted her and she stomach felt unsettled, like she might throw up.
She’d been devastated after the whole ordeal with B.C. walking in while she was kissing Spence.
It’d been awful, she’d gone after B.C., but he wouldn’t stop. She’d tried to call him, but he wouldn’t answer. She’d gone to her room and cried and looked out over the ranch and felt so hopeless. Then Kevin had called her downstairs and, to her complete surprise, Dr. Schneider had been there.
“Usually, I don’t get involved.” The doctor had scowled. “Especially because I don’t encourage patient-staff relations.”
She’d felt guilty.
He sighed. “But you are Lulubelle’s granddaughter.” He’d flashed her a smile. “And, B.C. shared a lot of things with me.” He cocked an eyebrow. “Things that led me to believe that, while he was doing a lot of changing on his own, he was also falling in love with you.” He sighed. “He told me about how you two would joke about the love potions, and I don’t believe a potion can make someone fall in love, but … I do believe in love.”
His words filled her with hope. “At first I was worried you might replace drugs for B.C., but I want you to believe I don’t think that’s the case at all. And after I heard what happened between you two, I just knew I had to get involved.”
She had been completely floored. “You did?”
Then he handed her a phone number and address. “I contacted B.C.’s agent, they’ll have a car for you at the airport to take you to the premier if you still want to go.”
