“What’s your point? Are you trying to hook me up with other women to get rid of me?” he asked. She actually giggled at the horrible look he gave her.
“No, not at all. I’m just trying to figure you out. Reconcile what everyone says about you compared to this sweet man driving me into town.”
“You think I’m sweet?” he asked. She laughed again because his face just transformed. Now he wore a huge grin.
“Stay focused. We’re talking about all the sides of you.”
“Okay. Focused. Well, like I said, I’m not dating anyone and never really have. My publicist works with others and usually arranges for a date to be on my arm when necessary. The thing about actors…we’re all really ambitious. The demands on time alone would make it impossible for a relationship to work between us. It’s too much.”
“It looks like you work all the time.”
“That’s true. I do. I used to tell myself I had to strike while the iron was hot, but my iron’s been hot for a while now. I’m tired. I need to slow down. Get pickier about what I accept. Decide if I’m going to sign the Titan Falls contract.” His hand stiffened slightly where it held hers. Well, that was a huge bombshell. She hadn’t read anywhere that he was unhappy on the show. “No one knows that, Kenzie. Please don’t share.”
“I wouldn’t. It’s not mine to tell, but would you really think about giving it up? I don’t watch television at all and I’ve seen that show,” she said, a little shocked. She could almost hear the broken hearts around the world from him even considering leaving that show.
“Why don’t you watch TV?” he asked.
“I don’t know. I grew up with the TV on all the time. I just wanted to live more in the real world, I guess,” she tried to explain.
“And did you do that? Live in the real world?” he asked.
“Yeah, I did,” she said and gave a humorless laugh.
“Is that part of what you don’t want to talk about?”
“Yeah.”
“Fair enough. Your mom recognized me pretty quick. When I wear the beard and ball cap, I can usually get by without anyone noticing,” he said, and she appreciated how easily he steered away from the things she didn’t want to discuss. He never pried. It was an incredibly rare trait in a person.
“I’m betting my mom hasn’t missed an episode of your show. She could probably tell you things about the show that you don’t even know.”
Ty just laughed, but it was the honest to God’s truth.
“Good fans aren’t bad. At least from where I’m standing.”
“It was shocking that she missed her shows to bring you those chairs. When we closed the store and they were loading the truck, I was so confused,” she said.
“I was sure glad they did.”
“I thought she’d lost her mind.” Kenzie shook her head, remembering that night with a smile. When Ty released her hand and pulled off the main road into a parking lot, she sat up straighter in her seat, looking around for the first time. Time had gone by much faster than she’d expected and they’d already made it into Gatlinburg.
“I thought we’d eat at Mellow Mushroom,” Ty said, totally surprising her. She’d really assumed, in a city full of steakhouses and beer pubs, she’d be piecing together something off the menu that she could eat.
“I haven’t eaten here. I heard it’s good,” she said, unbuckling her seat belt as he pulled the Jeep into an empty parking space.
“The reviews were mostly pretty good. I couldn’t find anything else that seemed to fit.” Her heart melted—that was an aww moment if there ever was one. He’d looked for a restaurant just for her and actually planned for this lunch. She truly didn’t believe guys were actually like that in real life. “What? Why are you looking at me like that? Wanna go somewhere else?”
“Absolutely not. This is perfect.”
Ty reached over and lifted her sunglasses before he seemed to accept her answer. He put the Jeep in gear and killed the engine, then he took her arm and pulled her toward him, meeting her in the middle for a slight press of the lips.
“Kissing you’s addictive,” he whispered and extended an arm past her to reach the handle of the door. He opened her door and gave it a little push. “I know you won’t wait for me to get around to let you out. Come on. Let’s go feed you. Your mom and William both said you’re food-deprived.”
He turned and got out of the truck. She was a little slower because her heart melted even further. She extended a foot and slid out of the seat, smoothing her shirt as she gathered herself. Not only was he winning her over, but she found she really liked him. She refused to consider the monumental consequences of that.
Reaching for her purse, she put the strap over the shoulder as he rounded the hood toward her. His ball cap was now on his head and what looked like reading glasses were on his face. To her, they didn’t make him look that much different. Casually, like he did it all the time, he reached out and took her hand, guiding her toward the front doors of the restaurant.
Chapter 9
Slowly, Ty pushed the grocery cart behind Kenzie, watching her go a little nuts over the selections in the health food store. Her intense excitement started well before they ever got inside with all the fall decorations and plants lining the front sidewalk. She’d radiated happiness as she looked through all the mums and decided on the color she liked best, showing them to him and asking his opinion, only to put them away in the end.
Once inside, he was pretty much all but forgotten as she began at one end of the store and went row by row looking at all the different products for sale. For someone who didn’t seem to eat much, her eyes lit up like a Christmas tree at the large selection of organic, gluten-free items. Anything that said all natural seemed to set her world right with excitement.
The unguarded way she carried herself made Ty wish they could come here every single day.
He listened intently, tried to understand what made her so excited, but for the most part, he had no frame of reference for anything she was talking about. Words like alpha-lipoic acid and polyphenols could have been a foreign language he’d never heard. That was all he could figure out as to why it took him so long to realize the items she loved the most never made it inside the cart. From the very beginning of the store, she’d excitedly picked products off the shelf, explained their benefits, and then placed the item right back on the shelf.
It took even longer for him to understand she was bypassing name brands and going for the less expensive generic whenever possible. Since he’d heard William talk about her weight loss and seen her eating habits with his own eyes, he felt a little dumb for not picking up on the price-point issue sooner, though he had no idea what to do about it. By the time they made it to the produce section and she picked up a cantaloupe, bringing it to him to smell before putting it back down, he decided to take matters into his own hands.
“How long does that last?” he asked, and for the first time, he left his designated position of cart pusher and went to her side.
“They’re organic, but if you handle them right, they’ll last,” she said and started to move down the aisle. Ty warred a little more with himself. They weren’t at a point yet where he could stress the honest truth that money was absolutely not an issue when she was with him, but he decided to throw caution to the wind. Ty picked up the melon she’d just handled and then another.
“Is this a good one?” he asked, handing her the new one.
“You can tell by the smell.” She leaned in, took a whiff, and her face beamed. “It’s a good one. Smell.”
He did if only to keep that excited look focused on him. He placed both in the cart before taking her arm and the cart, pulling both back to the front of the store.
“What’re you doing?”
“You talked me into the health benefits of this food. Let’s get what you’ve been looking at,” he said and walked out the front doors, all the way back to the plants she’d stopped at from the beginning.
&nbs
p; “You want some of this? No one ever wants to eat like I do,” she said, a little astonished. He decided a small white lie wouldn’t hurt even though he wasn’t certain he could actually say the words. Swearing off meat was just a little too personal of a choice, and he couldn’t find it in his heart to even pretend, because seriously, what if the earth and stars aligned and he was actually forced to follow through with that lie?
“I need to eat better. I don’t really cook my own food, but you can show me how all this works, right?”
“You don’t cook your own food?” she asked, stopping in her tracks. All he could do was stare down at her. Of course he didn’t cook. Was that a serious question?
“Hey, you know you have to pay for that, right?” A Birkenstock-wearing guy donning an apron trailed after them through the front doors.
“Yeah, just starting from the beginning,” Ty said. When the clerk didn’t immediately retreat, instead stood there watching them, Ty glanced toward Kenzie, then pointed to the flowers on display and said, “Pick the best ones for us.”
With some hesitation, Kenzie did. Ty opened the seat of the cart to place the plant there and moved them back inside swiftly to get out from under the watchful eye of the clerk. It took a little prodding—and Ty having to pick up a few items and try to remember the things she liked—before she reluctantly began to participate. It was only after they added the twelve-dollar bag of almond floor that she finally leaned in and whispered, “I only brought cash. I’m not gonna have enough for all this.”
Her concerned, worried gaze held his, and he leaned in, moving close to her face. “I’m paying for this so get enough for both of us. Then you can come over and cook me dinner tomorrow night, show me the ropes. I’ll probably need you the next night too. I’m clueless in the kitchen.”
“You can’t pay for my food,” she said, not responding to anything else he had to say. After a second more of staring at her, he laughed and moved away. Her indignant look made it clear she couldn’t even begin to comprehend that he might buy her food. The funny part about that was that everyone in his life expected him to pay for everything.
“Of course I can. You cook, show me how it all works, and I’ll share the food with you. Seems like an even trade,” he said, pushing the cart a couple of steps farther down the aisle. When she didn’t move, he looked back over his shoulder. “Unless you don’t want to see me anymore. Then I could see why you might have a problem with my idea.”
He turned away, walking around the end cap, dragging the cart behind him now, going to the next aisle which housed every type of all-wheat pasta you could imagine. He stood there staring at the boxes on the shelf, waiting for her to follow. When he heard her coming, he began to really study the different boxes until she came to stand beside him.
“What do I pick here? I think you liked this one, right?”
“I think you’re either just trying to be nice to me or you’re feeling sorry for me, which one?” she asked, her hands on her hips as she stared at him while he continued to stare at the shelving unit.
“Definitely not feeling sorry for you and I might be a little selfish,” he confessed, picking two different boxes off the shelf and turning them to her. “Which ones? Both?”
She just stared at his face, not giving at all and neither did he.
“Look, I like spending time with you. You cook, I’ll eat. I’ll probably still toss in a steak here or there, but let’s load us up.”
The woman just stared at him for several long seconds. It wasn’t a hardship to stare back. Every single time he looked at her, he was struck by how pretty she was. Now her thick full lips, pursed which made her slightly upturned nose more pronounced as she regarded him. Her expression appeared assessing until she took both the packages from his hands and put them back on the shelf. Right when his lips parted to launch into another argument for his plan, she picked two different boxes and placed them in the buggy, then she grabbed the side of the cart, pulling it with her, and left him standing there.
“I try to eat natural, organic foods. No grains so not really any of this,” she said, tapping the side of a box on that shelf. “And you give really good answers.”
“It’s just the truth,” he said, dropping his hands inside the pockets of his blue jeans and following along behind her. “From my perspective, I just secured multiple dates with a smart, fun, beautiful woman and even got some dinners cooked for me. That can’t be all bad, now can it?”
“Mmm,” she said, heading back to the produce.
“So you always eat natural food, never processed,” he asked, watching her enough to make sure she added what she wanted.
“As I can. It’s harder here,” she said, placing lots of raw vegetables in the cart.
“I know this might venture into some of the things we don’t discuss, but you couldn’t have developed those habits living here, right?”
“No,” she said, reaching for a spaghetti squash. “I went to college at the University of Texas. I loved Austin. It’s where I started learning there was something other than meat and potatoes in the world.”
“I grew up in Texas,” Ty said, following along behind her again. Normally something like this would have bored him to death, but not today. He was content to just follow her around the store, watching her move. Right now, he focused on her hands as she selected the produce. She took incredible care in handling the food with those long and elegant fingers. Her fingernails were cut short, well-groomed, with a pretty pink nail polish that matched her shoes.
“You’re looking at me, but I don’t think you’re listening.” She snapped those perfect fingers, drawing his attention back to the here and now. “Anything you don’t like?”
“I’m good with anything,” he said, and that seemed to perk her right up, back to being excited again. They passed a large display of freshly baked breads. It smelled heavenly. He found a jalapeno cheddar deal and picked up a freshly baked loaf, still a little warm from the oven. His mouth watered as Kenzie looked down at the bread, then up at Ty.
“No grains.”
“Like, no bread?”
“No grains.” She said exactly the same words again, and Ty got a little defiant, reaching over to place the bread in the seat of the cart. When she just stared at him, he took her hand and moved them along.
“I’ll work on the no grains. Ease into it. What else do we need?” he asked, seeing a small dairy section. She picked up several small tubs of yogurt while he reached for some cheese, tossing it in the cart. By the time they got to the checkout counter, their basket overflowed with food.
“Think we can eat all this?” he asked, placing the contents on the counter.
“You’re here for a few weeks, right?” she asked, pausing as she handed him things from the bottom of the cart.
“Yep,” he said and started grabbing items when she stopped.
“Why didn’t you tell me I was getting too much?” she asked.
“I was making a joke. Relax,” he said, dumping the rest on the counter. The sales clerk was the same one as before, and Ty noticed he’d never lost that critical eye.
“That’ll be two hundred and sixty-three dollars,” he said in such a way that Ty stopped loading the bags back in the cart and looked back at the clerk. Oh my God, he was a she. How the hell had he missed that? So shocked by his discovery, he almost didn’t catch Kenzie sliding cash across the counter.
“Wait, wait, wait! I thought we agreed,” Ty said, dropping the bags in the cart in order to reach across the counter to try to scoop up her money.
“It’s just my half. Actually not even half,” she said, shoving her money closer to the register.
“No, don’t take that,” he instructed the clerk. He didn’t quite shout, but figured he’d gotten close when she lifted her hands like he was robbing her. “I wanna pay for all this. I’m putting it on my card.”
Ty reached in his back pocket for his wallet, quickly handed over his corporate American Express before
moving around the cart to gather the five twenties she’d laid on the counter. When she wouldn’t take the money back, he went for her purse, shoving it inside. “This is on me. I don’t want to fight about it anymore.”
“That’s not right…” Kenzie started and stopped in midsentence, her eyes growing large. He suspected she’d stumbled on his name, catching herself seconds before she called him Ty.
“Sign here,” the clerk said in a clipped tone. He did, scribbling his alias on the signature line while attempting to keep one eye on the sneaky Kenzie until she added the remaining bags and started pushing the cart toward the exit. He scribbled quickly, shoving the receipt across the counter before tucking his card back inside his wallet. He walked slowly, trailing behind her, watching her move.
She was so pretty in that dress.
Chapter 10
The road was dark, making Ty have to concentrate to navigate the twists and turns. They’d ridden in a comfortable silence for the last twenty minutes. Kenzie let the road lull her as Ty hung on to her hand and managed the gear shift like a pro. He was such an easy guy to be around. All the anxiety of the morning became a distant memory. He’d effectively eased away all of the barriers she had erected to keep people at a distance and she couldn’t find it in her to care.
Without question, Ty was only willing to spend this time with her without judgement or malice because he didn’t know about her past, but she’d reconciled that doubt hours ago. If Ty needed normal, then she’d pretend she was and take whatever time he gave for as long as she could. Being wanted was such a turn-on and apparently trumped self-preservation and any rules she’d carefully put in place.
Acting Happy (Texas Desires #2) Page 11
