All He Feels - Dax & Ginny (Crossroads Book 11)

by Melanie Shawn

  Double shit.

  With a nod, Dax left Seth’s office. He had a feeling that Ginny was not going to be happy with her mom going behind her back to set up protection for her. During their not-a-one-night-stand she’d mentioned how overprotective her mom could be. She’d explained that her mom had had her when she was a teenager and had been somewhat of a wild child before getting pregnant. So she overcompensated with Ginny, who she home schooled and was with twenty-four seven.

  The way Ginny had described the relationship made it clear that it was all done in love but he could sense that she was ready to cut the apron strings and spread her wings. As much as he understood that impulse, he also understood her mother’s impulse to keep her daughter safe. He wasn’t sure how this whole thing was going to shake out but he hoped whatever happened he’d get more time with Ginny. Honestly, that’s what he wanted more than anything else.

  Chapter 5

  Very hard.

  That was the answer to her question. Cooking was very hard.

  Ginny squinted and coughed as smoke bellowed out when she lowered the oven door. On instinct she began waving the potholder frantically in the air as she reached over the sink and opened the window then turned the vent fan on above the stove. When the air cleared she bent down and pulled out the glass pan of chicken from the rack. Her eyes were still watering but she could clearly see that it was black, not blackened like the recipe. Black. Burnt to a crisp. They looked like four hockey pucks in a dish.

  Thankfully, she’d bought two additional packages of chicken for this very reason. It was a new recipe. Always a good idea to have backup.

  “Arf!” Capone barked loudly as he sat waiting by her feet.

  “I don’t think even you would want to eat this,” she told him as she shut the oven door and set the pan on top of the counter.

  Using a spatula, she bent over and scraped the charred poultry off and tossed each piece in the trash causing her hair to fall in her face as she did. When she straightened she caught her reflection in the window and the image staring back at her caused her to laugh out loud. She looked like a hot mess and as anxious as she was for Dax to get home, she was happy that he wasn’t here to witness the disaster that was her current appearance and the state of dinner.

  A quick glance at the time told her that she still had half an hour before he’d be home. All day the two of them had been exchanging messages. They weren’t flirty in any way, which was kind of disappointing, but she’d loved just hearing from him and answering him back. After months of thinking about him, wondering if he remembered her, writing him texts just to delete them before sending, it was a thrill to finally be in contact with him.

  The messages had been kind of sweet, he’d told her that he had to go run a self-defense class but he would be home after that. A few hours later he texted to say that there was a situation that needed his attention and he was going to be longer than he’d thought. He’d also said to let him know if she needed anything so she could just stay home and rest after her long drive from Nashville. When she typed back that she’d already been to the grocery store, he asked if she would sit tight until he got home and said they needed to talk.

  It was kind of cryptic but she wasn’t really thinking too much about it. Instead she was focusing on making dinner and even though it wasn’t going so well, she was enjoying every second of it. Cooking was something that she’d always liked to do but had never had the time. Her mom was a decent cook but hated being in the kitchen. Since it had always been just the two of them they usually just ate takeout. But the domestic act of making dinner had always drawn Ginny. To her it represented home. Family.

  That’s what she’d always wanted. Growing up her and her mom had lived mainly in apartments and on buses. Then, this past summer Ginny had finally bought a small house in Nashville, but she’d only spent a total of three weeks in it. And now she’d decided to give it to her mom and Brad. The only reason she’d bought it in the first place was because her mom’s face had lit up like a Christmas tree when they’d walked through the door.

  It was a French-style country home, one her mom had always dreamed of having. But the thing that had really closed the deal was that it had a sunroom. When Ginny was little, she and her mom used to go to open houses on weekends. They would always end the day at a fast food restaurant and discuss what they liked in each house and which one they would buy.

  Those weekends were some of the happiest memories that she had of her childhood. During the week she was home schooled and in several classes every day. Singing. Dancing. Acting. Piano. Guitar. Her mom worked two jobs as a waitress and medical transcriptionist. She also volunteered at several of the studios that Ginny took classes in just to pay for them all.

  But if she had Sundays off, they would go to open houses. They would pretend that they had the money to buy one and would go through and say what they liked and Ginny would always pick “her” room. So when the real estate agent showed her the French country cottage with the kitchen island, walk-in closet and large sunroom Ginny knew that it was her mom’s dream house. She didn’t hesitate on offering twenty thousand over the list price.

  Since moving in, Ginny had never felt like she really belonged there. Now that her mom was married she wanted her to have the house with Brad. Her mom deserved to have her dream house and her dream man. Mona Valentine had sacrificed everything for Ginny’s success.

  As she pulled the new packages of chicken from the fridge, she pictured her mom’s face when she got back from her honeymoon and Ginny handed her the title and deed. She rinsed and seasoned the chicken cutlets and after spraying the glass pan with oil she once again put the pan in the oven and adjusted the temperature to exactly what the recipe called for. She’d found the recipe online and in her first attempt she’d followed the advice of a commenter that had said you could cook the dish in half the time by upping the temp from 325 degrees to 450. Obviously, it hadn’t gone well.

  “Okay, handsome. Salad is in the fridge. The rice is simmering and we have twenty minutes until the chicken is ready, do you think that’s enough time to take a shower?” She asked Capone who had been her shadow all day long.

  “Arf!” he responded eagerly.

  “I think so, too.” She reached down and rubbed the dog’s head.

  As she was heading down the hall, her phone rang and her heart skipped a beat because she thought it was Dax. When she looked down she saw it was her mom. She’d missed two calls from her mom. Once, when she was taking a nap and another when she was at the grocery store. She knew if she didn’t answer now, her mom would keep calling and interrupt her evening with Dax.

  “Hey, mama.” Hoping to cut the conversation short, she added, “I was just jumping in the shower.”

  “I’ve been trying to reach you all day. You had me worried sick.”

  Ginny inhaled slowly through her nose. She knew that her mom meant well, and it must be hard on her being halfway across the world, but it didn’t make her anxiety feel any less suffocating. “Sorry, I was taking a nap and then was at the grocery store. I’m making blackened chicken.”

  She hoped the fact that she was cooking for the first time in a long time would distract her mom from the worry that she’d caused her.

  “For whom?” her mom asked suspiciously.

  Or not.

  “For me,” Ginny responded immediately.

  “Where are you staying that there is a kitchen? Are you at an extended stay?”

  As a general rule Ginny hated lying. She had to pretend sometimes for her public persona, like her fake relationship with Derek St. James, but in her personal and professional life she made it a rule to always be truthful. Until now. “I’m at an Airbnb.”

  “Are you sure that’s safe? What if someone finds out that you’re there? What if they surround the house?”

  “I’m fine, Mama. I promise.”

  For once Ginny’s mom was not overreacting. For the past few weeks her picture had been on the fron
t page of all the tabloids thanks to some pictures of Derek with an unnamed woman in Costa Rica. He was there shooting the third film in the Machine Man franchise. After the first movie was released Derek had shot to stardom and he hadn’t handled it all that well. He got into some trouble with the law, with drugs and sex tapes. Over the past year he’d been trying to clean up his image and Ginny had been trying to give hers some edge. Their management had struck a deal to make them an unlikely couple. Since the first lunch where they were “spotted” together, the gossip magazines had had a field day.

  “Hollywood’s Bad Boy and Country’s It Girl Have Explosive Chemistry.”

  “Can Virginia Valentine Tame the Wild Machine Man?”

  And her personal favorite:

  “Will Derek St. James’ Un-Saint-Like Behavior Break Nashville’s Sweet-heart?”

  Since it wasn’t a real relationship, the press didn’t bother Ginny. And the record label had been happy when her latest album sold three times what her sophomore album had, thanks in large part to listeners hoping to get a glimpse inside the couple’s personal life. The saddest part of the whole thing was Ginny had been willing to go along with the deceit partly because she’d never had a boyfriend. She figured that practicing with Derek would be good for her. Everything had been going well, no one out of their small circles had known that they weren’t a real couple, until the pictures of him with a topless woman canoodling on the white sand beaches of Costa Rica surfaced.

  Since the morning the photos appeared on TMZ there’d been photographers hounding her everywhere she went on the holiday tour. They’d been in Canada, Seattle, San Francisco, Portland and even followed her to Nashville, where normally she flew under the radar. They’d been outside the studio, hiding in the bushes at her home, camped out in front of the yoga studio she frequented, surrounding the coffee shop that she ate at whenever she was in town. She’d done her best to ignore the attention, but it had reached a fever pitch when Derek had flown in to attend her mother’s wedding.

  She hadn’t known her “boyfriend” was coming. In fact the first morning the pictures came out, weeks before her mom’s ceremony, she’d let her now ex-manager know that she was ready to put this entire charade in the rearview. She was done. He initially argued that they could use Derek’s indiscretions to their advantage. She’d put her foot down and in no uncertain terms made it clear she was done lying and pretending. At the time, he’d agreed with her. Even said that she had to follow her gut and he was just there to support her. Then, he went behind her back and instead of honoring her wishes, Shane Denton had arranged for Derek to fly in and “surprise” her.

  That was the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back. As much as she appreciated the manager that had signed her when she was twelve, brokered her first three contracts with her former record label and had taken the front seat in navigating her career, she was done with people not listening to her. She was done being a product. She was done writing and performing songs that she didn’t feel passion for.

  She was claiming her independence.

  “I’m not so sure you’re fine. Which is why I’ve hired you a security detail.”

  Or maybe not.

  Ginny froze as she stepped into the bathroom. “You’ve what?”

  “I hired Elite Security. I need to give them your itinerary so they can schedule your protection.”

  Dax worked for Elite Security. Did he know about this? Did he think that she had something to do with hiring them? If he did, would he think she was some kind of stalker?

  Her mind was spinning, but she reminded herself that there were plenty of other people that worked at Elite. There was Ace, Riley, Seth and she remembered something about Seth’s little brother Bobby working there as well. And those were only the guys she knew, she was sure there were more. What were the chances Dax would be assigned her case?

  “I even specifically requested that Dax Archer be assigned to you because I remember you talking about him after you flew out for that private party performance.”

  Well, that answered her question. The chances were good, very good that Dax was aware of her case. She resisted the urge to bang her head on the counter.

  Her mom never listened to her. Why did this have to be the one time her mom actually heard what she said? She hadn’t heard her for four years when she kept saying she wanted to fire Shane. Or her desire to leave her record label since they’d been making her into an image that she didn’t feel was authentic. Or the fact that she wanted to move out and live on her own. All of those things had fallen on deaf ears, but she mentions Dax once and months later her mom not only recalls the conversation but acts on it.

  “Oh, Brad is calling me over, our table is ready. I’ll text you the number for Elite Security. I told them that you would be contacting them with your schedule this evening.”

  “I love you, Mama. Have fun and don’t worry about me.”

  “Promise me that you’ll arrange everything with them and I promise to have fun and keep the worrying to a minimum.”

  Ginny couldn’t help but smile. Her mom had always been good at negotiations. She worked hand in hand with Shane on all of her contracts. “Are you seriously negotiating you having fun on your honeymoon?”

  “Yes,” her mom answered unapologetically. “Now promise me.”

  “I promise.” Ginny knew her mom had her best interests at heart and she really didn’t want her to spend the honeymoon worrying about her only daughter. As much as Ginny wanted her independence she wasn’t so stubborn that she’d take it at the expense of her mom’s happiness.

  “Thank you. Love you, Ginny bean.”

  “Love you, Mama.”

  After disconnecting the call, Ginny noticed the time and saw she was down to eight minutes. For a fleeting second she thought about scrapping the shower entirely, but after a glance in the mirror she decided that a quick rinse off was not a luxury she could forego. Her face was smudged with grease and spices. Her hair looked like a bird had built a nest in it. And her aroma…couldn’t have been pleasant.

  A plan formed in her mind. Shower. Finish dinner. When Dax came home explain that she wasn’t a stalker. She was just in town to work on her album and herself. Her staying at his house and him taking on her security detail was totally up for discussion.

  Simple. She’d keep the fact that she wanted to lose her virginity to him to herself…for now.

  Chapter 6

  Dax was trying to put the haunting look in the hollow eyes of the woman he’d just left from his mind as he unlocked his front door. Normally, after a day like this, he’d head straight down to the gym and try to work out the anger, frustration, and rage he was feeling, but tonight he had company. Company that he couldn’t wait to see. Company he hoped would take his mind off of the evils in this world.

  As soon as the door swung open he was met with an array of smells that ranged from delicious to disturbing. There was definitely the scent of burnt food but it was layered with spices and delectable scents he couldn’t quite discern.

  “Arf!” Capone barked at him from the kitchen.

  Every day when he came home his loyal companion was waiting, tail wagging, at the door. Today it seemed he couldn’t be bothered. Dax walked through the living room towards man’s best friend. “What, you can’t even come to the door?”

  “Arf!” Capone answered, his butt wiggling frantically as he stood in place.

  Dax couldn’t help but smile as he stepped into the kitchen and bent down to scratch his pup’s head. “I see how it is—”

  His words fell silent as his jaw dropped open. All of the tension and anxiousness that had been bottled up for the past few hours drained out of him in a heartbeat the second he laid eyes on what he could only describe as a real life angel leaning over his table and lighting two candles.

  Ginny’s large blue eyes were so clear, so bright they were practically iridescent. Her hair looked damp and was pulled up on top of her head, which showcased her angelic
face and long neck. The white V-neck T-shirt she wore only added to her ethereal image. Her face was scrubbed clean and she was radiating beauty. But the real showstopper was the drop-dead gorgeous smile that knocked the wind right out of him.

  All of the darkness that he’d been faced with today and was still hanging over his head like a dark cloud evaporated at the light that Ginny was emanating. He was sure that the ethereal effect was amplified by the glow of the candlelight, but that was only a small part of it. She had a grace, a presence, an essence that had nothing to do with the flickering flame that illuminated her.

  “Hi, I don’t’ know if you’re hungry, but I made dinner.” Her voice wavered slightly and Dax realized that he hadn’t spoken to her since he walked in.

  Shaking his head slightly he hoped to clear the mesmerizing fog that had settled in his brain. “I am. And it smells…” He paused, not exactly sure of how to describe it.

  “I burned the first batch,” she rushed her admission out. “But the second looks good.”

  Her eagerness was so adorable and he almost told her so, but stopped himself. No matter what he felt, he had to remember what he’d told Seth, they didn’t have that type of relationship. “You didn’t have to do all of this.”

  “I know. I wanted to.” She hurried around the table and opened the fridge, pulling out a bowl filled with salad. “I’ve always wanted to cook more and I’m finally doing it. It’s almost ready, about five minutes.”

  “I’ll just let Capone out and then wash up.”

  “Oh, I let him out about an hour ago.”

  “You did?”

  She nodded. “He was practically crossing his legs.”

  “Okay. Well, then I’ll just go wash up.”

  He turned to leave and as he made his way back to his room he tried to ignore how right this felt. How perfectly right Ginny being here when he got home felt. The white picket fence, wife, dog and two-point-five kids had never been his dream. In fact, he’d come to the conclusion a long time ago that the “idealistic” lifestyle wasn’t for him. It had always represented everything his life wasn’t: predictable and boring.