by Karen Booth
About the Author
Karen Booth is a Midwestern girl transplanted in the South, raised on ‘80s music, Judy Blume, and the films of John Hughes. An early preoccupation with rock ’n’ roll led her to spend her twenties working her way from intern to executive in the music industry. Now she’s a married mom of two and instead of staying up late in rock clubs, she gets up before dawn to write sexy contemporary romance.
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Excerpt: Hiding in the Spotlight
David Callahan wanted two things—a life with Alex, the only woman he’s ever loved, and a career in rock music. He got the chart topping success. His best friend got it all.
Chapter One
Alex didn’t want to be coy. She couldn’t stand coy, but she couldn’t bear to tell Lisa on the phone either. Why does she always have to ask a million questions? Why can’t she just get in her damn car and get her butt over here? Lisa had zero tolerance for drama. Unfortunately, Alex was about to give her a front-row seat to her own.
The door chime, an oriental gong and Alex’s husband Glenn’s idea of a joke, announced Lisa’s arrival. Alex clunked her coffee cup in the kitchen sink and shuffled to the foyer in bare feet, the frayed hem of her admittedly overpriced jeans dragging along the marble floor. Her eyes fluttered shut when she reached the door. She sucked in a deep breath to bolster her remaining shreds of resolve.
“Hey.” Alex tossed her head to the side as if everything was peachy.
Lisa brushed past her and propped black Jackie O sunglasses atop her wavy red hair, twisting her lips. “All right, you. Out with it.” Her voice boomed in the expanse of the massive foyer.
“Shhh,” Alex hissed. Her eyes darted over her shoulder. She closed the heavy, arched wood door and turned the latch. “The boys will hear you.”
“You know I don’t like surprises,” Lisa whispered. “What’s going on with you? What could possibly be going on that you wouldn’t tell me on the phone?”
Alex froze, terrified to utter the words she hadn’t yet said to anyone. Lisa’s pale green, pleading eyes forced her to finally let down her guard. “Glenn left.”
“He left?” Lisa bellowed, quickly clapping her hand over her mouth. “Sorry,” she muttered between splayed fingers. “He left?”
“Yes.”
Lisa’s brown leather handbag slid when she dropped her shoulders, but she caught it with a quick curl of her fingers. She shook her head in disbelief before tossing the bag onto the foyer table. Clutching Alex’s hand, she pulled her into a hug and patted her back. “Tell me what happened.”
“That’s the thing. Nothing happened. I woke up Friday morning to a note saying he needed a break. That was it.”
“Well, make sure you keep that note. The lawyer will want to see it.”
Alex felt every atom of oxygen entering and leaving her lungs as Lisa squeezed her harder. “Right. A lawyer. This is probably it, huh?”
“I’m telling you right now that it’s all going to be fine. I promise. The first week after they leave is the worst. Then you’ll start to get over it.”
Alex stared at the wall when Lisa released her from her embrace. The promise that it all would be fine confirmed it. Her life had collapsed. I’m so screwed. Everything, starting now, would be different.
“You need a drink,” Lisa said.
“It’s ten-thirty in the morning.”
“Fine. Then you need a cup of coffee.” Lisa marched down the hall with Alex in tow. “With a shot of rum in it.”
The kitchen was one of Alex’s favorite rooms in the house, homey with distressed creamy white cabinetry, soapstone counters and an antique apron-front sink. It reminded her of her grandmother’s farmhouse in Wisconsin, where she’d spent every summer until she was fifteen. Granted, Alex’s kitchen was the high-end industrial version with the Sub-Zero and eight-burner stove and her house was nestled in a swanky suburb of Los Angeles, but she’d done her best to recreate a slice of her Midwestern Catholic upbringing.
Lisa poured two cups of coffee and dragged the sugar bowl across the counter. “We need to make a plan.”
“Yeah, that.” It’d taken a lot of energy to keep the secret bottled up for two days, knowing that the minute she told her best friend, it would all become real.
“The first thing you need to figure out is where the money is and how much there is. Then you need to call my lawyer tomorrow morning and file for divorce.”
Alex’s shoulders seized up. “Right.” The few times she’d considered divorcing Glenn, it had been pure fantasy, a dream of revenge for his infidelities. She’d imagined launching his clothes from a second-story window, giving him a good shove out the door. Lawyers and papers and the big D word sounded so final. “I don’t know that I’m ready to do that. I’m still processing it.”
“Look, Alex, honey. You’re going to be coming to terms with this for a long time. It’s been nearly two years for me and let’s be honest. This has been coming for a long time. You need to move forward. It’s the only way to come out on the other side in one piece.”
Alex sighed and closed her eyes. “All of the financial stuff was in Glenn’s office. He fired our accountant last year when he decided it would be his new hobby. The problem is I can’t find anything.”
The pair took their coffee into Glenn’s office, two of the walls lined floor-to-ceiling with leather-bound volumes, every literary classic of the last one hundred years. Alex had read nearly all of them at some point in her life. Right now, she was revisiting The Great Gatsby. Glenn was more of a paperback detective novel kind of guy, not that she thought anything less of him for it. At least he liked to read.
Lisa plopped down in the oversized black leather executive chair. “No computer?” she asked as she began rifling through the desk.
“He took his laptop with him. The checkbooks and ledgers are all gone.”
Lisa flipped through stray legal pads, blank CDs, pens and paperclips. “There’s nothing in here.” She shut each drawer in quick succession and reached to the bottom one closest to Alex, jerking on the handle. “Ah, ha. This one is locked.”
“I know. I was going to jimmy it, but we spent a fortune on the desk.”
Lisa opened the center drawer again and peered inside before reaching in and pulling back the blood-red velvet drawer liner. “And this is why you love me so much.” She twisted the key between the tips of her fingers. “Let’s see what we have behind door number three.”
It didn’t take long before Alex’s heart was bobbing in the sea of her sour stomach.
“There’s got to be more. Somewhere.” Lisa collected a stack of envelopes, all with the same bank logo and red block letters on some—“Past Due”. “I know this seems bad, but this can’t be right. He probably forgot to pay the mortgage. Or it was late because he’s the lead singer in a band and not a real accountant. Dipshit.”
“I hope you’re right.”
“Where else can we look? What about upstairs?”
“He used to keep some papers in his underwear drawer, but I think he stopped doing that years ago.”
“Not surprised. He never seemed like the type to wear underwear.”
“Would you stop?”
Alex and Lisa climbed the sweeping curved staircase to the second floor. Lisa patted Alex’s back as they poked their heads into the bonus room. Every wall hosted gold or platinum albums and an assortment of posters for Double Damage, the band that Glenn had been in since he was seventeen with his best friend, David. Alex’s son, Page, noodled on a guitar while his younger brother, Tyler, played a video game, his brow furrowed in concentration.
“Hey, guys,” Lisa said.
Page shot her a gl
ance, but quickly returned his sights to the fret board. “Hey.”
“Tyler, can you please say hello to Lisa?” Alex asked.
Tyler’s eyes never left the screen. “Hi, Lisa. Can I talk to you later? I’m trying to beat this level.” His hand dipped and swooped the remote.
“It’s a date,” Lisa answered, turning out of the room. “Don’t worry about it,” she whispered to Alex and they continued down the hall.
As she stepped through the double doors into her bedroom, Alex’s heart broke into a full-on gallop, not knowing where in the hell Glenn was, unsure if she wanted to kill him or cry.
“We need some light in here.” Lisa strode past the elaborate four-poster to the far side of the room and yanked back the chocolate brown velvet drapes.
“I guess it was a little gloomy.” Alex’s voice faded. Even though she’d spent the last two nights alone in this room, it hadn’t hit her, not like this. Glenn is gone.
Lisa strode over and gripped Alex’s elbow. “Look, sweetie, I know how you feel right now. Okay? But that’s what I’m here for. You’ll get through this. We’ll get through it.” She leaned, catching Alex’s gaze, which was squarely directed at her feet. “Let’s go check out Glenn’s underwear.”
The closet was so expansive it almost needed its own zip code. Alex was a connoisseur of jeans and tank tops, but her biggest weakness was chunky wedge sandals. Glenn’s Italian suits and tailored shirts sat in place, but his jeans and T-shirts, his Rock ‘n’ Roll uniform, had largely been liberated from the confines of the closet.
Alex opened the drawer. “See? Empty.”
Lisa peered over Alex’s shoulder. “So it is.” She sighed.
It’s empty. He took everything. With a jolt, Alex yanked open the second drawer, pulling out the stray items that remained, chucking them at the floor. “His passport was in here,” she blurted, jerking open more drawers. He took it all. She rested her forehead on the top of the dresser. “What am I going to do? I looked online and there’s only a few thousand dollars in the main checking account. Savings is almost empty.”
“Investment accounts?”
“I don’t know. Glenn dealt with all of that.”
“If it wasn’t Sunday, I’d drive you to my lawyer’s office right now. You need to call him first thing in the morning. And I think you should call David.”
“I don’t want to bother him and he’ll probably side with Glenn. And you’re only suggesting that because you want me to set you up with him.”
Lisa grasped Alex’s shoulders and forcibly twisted her around. “He’s not going to side with Glenn. He’s a sweetheart and he’s known you forever. He might even know how to find your idiot husband. He’ll at least be able to give you some advice on the money thing.”
“I suppose.”
“And of course I still want you to set me up with him, but we can talk about that later.”
Chapter Two
David’s cell phone rang and he couldn’t take it anymore. If this is Tanya again, I’m going to have to change my number.
“Oh, Jesus,” he muttered, when he saw the name on the caller ID. “Alex, what’s up?”
“Are you home? I need to talk.”
David’s heart thumped an erratic rhythm. “Yeah, I’m here. Is Glenn with you?”
“No. He isn’t. Can I come over?”
Without Glenn? “Uh, yeah. Of course.”
“I’m in the car. I’ll be there in five minutes.”
David scrambled to put the dishes in the dishwasher, pissed he’d given the housekeeper the okay to clean the house in the afternoon. Otherwise, it would’ve been perfect. He lit a candle in the kitchen and decided he’d better put on a shirt. Alex never seemed to warm to his super-bachelor lifestyle.
When she arrived, the sight of her knocked the breath right out of him. She’d never been more stunning, even though there was quite obviously something wrong. Whatever it was swirled in her stormy blue eyes.
“Thanks for letting me come over,” she said.
“Of course.” Please. Come over without Glenn more often. “Can I get you something to drink?”
“Coffee would be great if you have it. I need caffeine.”
They walked down the wide hallway graced with terrazzo floors and Venetian plaster walls in warm terracotta to the kitchen. He poured her a mug of coffee from the carafe, and grinned as she put one, two, three spoons of sugar in her mug and stirred it. She wrapped her hands around the cup and closed her eyes for an instant, her long, pin-straight brown hair back in a ponytail, high cheekbones catching the soft mid-morning light, natural pink lips pursed to blow and cool the coffee. As beautiful as she was when they’d met in high school, she was much more so now, like a different person in many ways. He sat next to her at the massive granite kitchen island, casually keeping his barstool close to hers.
“So, what’s going on?” He set his hand on her back to comfort her and felt a tug, deep in his stomach.
“I don’t really know how to say this, so I’m just going to say it. Glenn is gone.”
David cocked his head. “Gone? I don’t understand.”
“He left. I woke up Friday morning and there was a note on the kitchen counter saying that he was leaving.” Alex’s face was stolid and firm, as though she’d convinced herself it was better to be detached rather than register true human vulnerability like sadness.
“Glenn left. For good?”
“I don’t know. He said he feels like he lost touch with himself. Probably something I did.” She shut her eyes again, kneaded her forehead. “I have no idea where he went or if he’s ever coming back. All he said was that he’d be in touch. I’ve been lying to the boys for three days.”
David’s hand settled on the creamy skin of her forearm, forgetting that touching her was not the best idea if he was going to keep his wits about him. “I’m so sorry. What are you going to do?”
“I have no idea.” Now the tears started down her cheek, tiny rolling beads. It felt as if she was holding back, as she did with most things, maybe saving the rest for later. “I spoke to the volunteer coordinator at the library and she thinks they might have a part-time job for me, but that’s nothing. I have tuition to pay for next year. Tyler’s speech and occupational therapy costs a fortune and insurance doesn’t cover a penny. Glenn left me with almost no money.”
“That can’t be right.”
“If there’s money, I can’t find it. I thought we were fine, but I think Glenn has been lying to me and we’re behind on the mortgage. There’s no way I can raise two boys and get us out of debt. I have a high school education. I could never earn enough money.”
“Come here.” David took her in his arms and rubbed her back. She felt frail, tiny. This physical proximity was both exhilarating and excruciating, but he took every instant he could. For the years he’d wanted to do this every day, he could put up with the pain. “I’m here for you. Just tell me what you need. Double Damage has always been a family. You know Glenn is like a brother to me.” A selfish asshole of a brother. “What can I do?”
“I need help figuring out what I can sell, fast. I can’t sell the house. It’s in both of our names. The lawyers are going to have to sort that out. Maybe Glenn’s recording equipment? You could help me unload it.”
“Whoa. Alex, you need to slow down. Glenn will hit the roof if you dismantle the home studio. I mean, really hit the roof. Why don’t you let me give you some money? Until you get on your feet and we get things sorted out for you.”
She sniffled and wiped her nose then got up and poured herself a second cup of coffee. This time, she didn’t bother with a spoon, sifting sugar straight from the bowl. Leaning against the counter, she stared into the mug as she stirred. “That’s sweet of you to offer, but that isn’t going to solve anything. Then I would just owe you a bunch of money.”
“You know you don’t have to pay me back.”
She smiled, a forced fraction of a grin, but David felt as though his head
was swimming.
“I’m not going to take money from you.”
“What if I knew a way for you to keep the house and the recording equipment and still make a big chunk of money?”
She cocked an eyebrow. “I’ll never cut it as a hooker. I have no boobs.”
His pulse picked up as he zeroed in on her chest—true, not much in the way of boobs, but he’d gladly take his chances with what was there. “Very funny. No, I have an idea. But we’d need to find you and the boys a place to live. If you want, you could move in here for a while.”
* * *
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