Notorious

by Leanne Davis

  “For only a few hours. I’m sorry if he misled you.”

  “Yeah, it’s fine. I just was afraid…”

  “I know. I know what you’d be afraid of. Tim shouldn’t have misled you like that. That’s why I didn’t even want you to know.”

  “Okay then,” he said, at a complete loss for words. This was the most painful conversation he’d ever had.

  “Oh my God. Are you two for real? After all you’ve gone through, this is how it’s going to go? Kelly, Luke came thousands of miles to see you. It’s obvious he isn’t just checking on you.” Sarah interrupted after watching the strained conversation.

  Luke didn’t say anything, neither did Kelly.

  “Well, at least come back to Kelly’s condo. You need to stay somewhere tonight. Right, Kelly?”

  “Yeah, fine, whatever. I’ve got a meeting I’ve got to be at in fifteen minutes, so you’ll have to go without me.”

  “I should have just called. I’m sorry. I didn’t consider that…”

  “That I had a life here? No, you’ve never really considered my career important. For that matter you haven’t really considered me all that important. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to get de-modeled.” Kelly pushed them out of the room and shut the door.

  Luke cringed at the tone of anger in her voice, emphasized by the loud smack of the door.

  Sarah looked at the door. “Well, I guess she isn’t as happy to see you as I was. You’ve got some work to do. Come on, I’ll take you to her condo.”

  “You weren’t kidding. Things are different here.”

  “I tried to warn you. You have to keep in mind however, that this is business-Kelly. As soon as she gets home, she turns back into the woman we both know and love.”

  “She’s right, you know. I never really considered her life here important, or how important she was.”

  “She is, important, I mean. Now with the shop and the new charity, she’s usually tied to a phone or meeting with someone or another. Sometimes, it’s startling to see the names of who’s calling her. The rich, the powerful, and the famous are regulars for her. And then I have to remember she’s one of those, too.”

  “I should leave.”

  “No, you should stay. You need to tell her if you do love her. And maybe grovel a bit. You haven’t made her life easy, you know.”

  “Grovel?”

  “Yeah, grovel. You took awhile to get your head out of your ass concerning Kelly. I’d be mad, too, if I were her, but it doesn’t change that she still loves you. You just need to convince her that you have gotten your head out of your ass.”

  “How do I do that?”

  “I don’t know, but you happened to make one of the most beautiful woman alive fall in love with you, so you must do something right.”

  “That was back in Seaclusion where I didn’t feel like the poor, red-necked relation.”

  “Well, cowboy, you’re going to have to do it here. Come on.”

  Luke followed Sarah to a luxury car that he learned was Kelly’s. Luke wasn’t prepared for any of this. He only wanted to get to Kelly. He planned to grab her and kiss her senseless the first moment he could. But instead, he found a woman and a world he didn’t recognize, or know how to navigate in.

  He was a fool to think that just because he’d had a life-altering epiphany, that Kelly would get that. Why should she? He should have had it when he was with her, not when he got the news she’d been hurt. His timing stunk, and now he was going to pay for that.

  He followed Sarah into Kelly’s condo, a corner unit on the top floor, overlooking the skyline of L.A.

  He wondered at its price tag. Kelly had the kind of money he couldn’t even comprehend. It made his little condo back home probably look like her version of a hotel room.

  “I knew it.”

  “Knew what?” Sarah asked.

  “She’d have flowers everywhere.” It comforted him to see he wasn’t totally wrong about Kelly. Instead of ultra-sleek contemporary leather and white like one would think Kelly would have by the location and expense of her condo, the inside looked like they’d stepped into an ad for country living.

  Her sofas were lavender floral prints, a theme which carried into all her accessories and drapes. It was warm and homey, and feminine as could be. Although mildly in disarray, that comforted Luke, too. Kelly looked like she lived here, not just showed it off.

  “I didn’t know that about her. I was shocked the first time I visited her. Of course the luxuriousness was hard to get used to, but I expected her to be more hip. Not quite so Martha Stewart meets K-Mart, decor.”

  “She likes flowers. She thinks they make anything look pretty. She likes it to be pretty around her, not necessarily expensive.”

  Luke looked at Sarah, who looked back at him. Luke couldn’t fathom sitting down and waiting. It was as if bugs crawled up and down his legs. He wanted, no, he needed to do something.

  He needed Kelly. But he didn’t know how to tell her that.

  “Do you know where she was going?”

  “Yeah. An interview.”

  “An interview? As in TV?”

  “Yeah. You’ll get used to it. She’s been particularly busy promoting Heather’s House. You don’t watch much celebrity news and stuff, do you? You haven’t seen her?”

  “No. I can’t stand to read anything about her. It’s all so wrong that it makes me nuts. So I don’t. I had no idea about any of this.”

  “Well, she’s going to Evening Review right now.”

  Luke was stunned. She was, right then, taping one of America’s most watched evening news programs? He’d landed in an alternate universe.

  “Do you want this? I know you didn’t like being photographed back in Portland after her mom’s death. If you’re with Kelly, this is all part of her world. She’s famous, and who we see at Seaclusion is Kelly on vacation. If you do this, if you pursue her, you have to be willing to live with this. Leave now, if you can’t. She doesn’t deserve to get her hopes up and once again be hurt by you. So be sure before you do this.”

  “You don’t think I should?”

  “You came because of the car accident, didn’t you?”

  “Yeah. Although obviously, it wasn’t a big deal.”

  “No, but if that’s the reason you’re here, then I think you should go home.”

  “I’m here because I’m ready for her. I love her.”

  Sarah nodded. “Good. Then I guess you’d better make it big.”

  “What big?”

  “Your declaration. You kind of owe her a big deal. Give it the wow factor, doesn’t she deserve that?”

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  Sarah grinned. “I know just what to do, if you’re serious.”

  “I’m serious.”

  “Come on then.”

  Luke followed Sarah out the door, sensing his day was about to get a whole lot weirder.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Kelly smiled at the interviewer, after her answer, trying hard to keep her smile from looking fake. She’d told the story of her mother’s tragic death and how it propelled her to start Heather’s House to honor her mom’s memory, so many times, that by now, it was easy to repeat without feeling much. The story she told about her mother’s decline from meth was true. She just kept out the part that her mother never really had a decent life to start with. And after reciting her spiel ten or twenty times, it had begun to get a tad redundant.

  The interviewer was Kyle Drake, who usually added a little more drama than necessary to anything he said. Kelly tried to keep from letting her eyes roll at Drake’s dramatic summary of Kelly’s life story. Kelly wouldn’t have dreamed a year ago, that she’d willingly be giving the media any kind of details about her life. But with the rehab clinic opening, she needed all the publicity she could get, i.e., money she could raise. And Heather Reeves’ story worked wonders.

  Plus, Kelly felt good about what she was doing. She hadn’t helped her mot
her, her mother had never wanted her help, but at least she’d finally made something positive out of her mother’s life, and her own fame.

  “So are you retiring from modeling then?”

  Kelly focused on the next question, one she’d been asked fifty times before tonight. Smiling again, she kept her voice even. She was good at these interviews and came across as both intelligent and genuine, something that surprised her, given how much she detested doing them.

  “Yes. I’ll still be the poster-girl for Sarah’s Secrets, a shop my partner Sarah Langston and I have in Seaclusion and L.A. Most of my work will now be for Heather’s House and Sarah’s Secrets. Let’s be honest—I’m thirty, and no one lasts beyond that in the modeling world. The next big name in modeling is probably thirteen years old and ready for my job.”

  Drake laughed at her honesty and she smiled again, pleased she plugged both her business and charity, as well as answered Drake’s question all at once. Sarah was going to have a hernia when her name aired over the national airwaves.

  “Oh hold on, we have a surprise here. Your business partner is here.”

  “Sarah? She’s here?”

  “She’s here, my producer is telling me, and it sounds like there’s someone else who wants to say something to you, and my producers have given him the go ahead.”

  Kelly glanced into the depth of the studio, trying to keep her face from showing the sudden angst and anger. What kind of scheme were they pulling? This wasn’t “Jerry Springer” for God’s sake, and there better not be a nasty surprise jumping out to embarrass her, or ruin her.

  Then…Luke. Luke was walking toward her.

  Luke was behind a lady wearing a headset with a clipboard in her hand.

  The camera was still on her. The lights were hotter than usual as her sudden attack of nerves made sweat seep from every pore in her body. Then Luke was beside her, and the lady handed him a microphone. The shuffling around the studio had to make terrible TV. Still no one was complaining.

  “What are you doing?” she finally asked, unable to keep her cool any longer. She could have handled Tom Cruise or Brad Pitt interrupting her interview, not Luke Tyler. Not Luke.

  “It was Sarah’s idea,” Luke said, quietly. His eyes searched her face.

  “Idea for what?”

  “She thinks I owe you.”

  “Owe me for what?”

  “Everything.”

  Kelly froze. Somehow, looking into his blue eyes, she forgot they were being watched by not only the studio full of people, but eventually, millions of people all across the country. She was only aware that Luke was there. He was really there. Standing in front of her.

  She was terrified to think about what he was going to say next. She was terrified he’d only come because of the car accident that Tim had obviously blown out of proportion. She wasn’t sure she could handle his rejection again. She was battered and bruised and it wasn’t because of her ribs, it was her heart. She didn’t know that she was so fragile until she fell in love with Luke Tyler.

  “You hate attention. You hate the media.”

  “You’re right, I do. But apparently, I have to get used to this.”

  “Get used to this?” Kelly echoed her tone nearly a whisper. Her very life hung on the tip of what Luke was saying, and doing.

  “If I’m not too late.”

  “Too late?”

  She sounded like a dazed parrot, but she couldn’t fathom that Luke Tyler was there before her. And she couldn’t dare to dream what he was saying to her.

  “Am I? Too late in telling you I love you, too?”

  “What are you doing? We decided. You love your wife. I can’t do this again.”

  There was a collective gasp by the onlookers at hearing “wife.” Luke glanced around as if remembering he and Kelly weren’t alone.

  “My first wife died four years ago,” he said, to inform their audience that he wasn’t a total prick.

  Kelly looked around, too. “Why are you doing this here? I don’t understand.”

  “I know. Sarah said you wouldn’t believe me unless I did this big, and went outside of myself, to let you know how important you are to me. And you are important to me, Kelly Reeves, the most important woman in the world to me.”

  “No, I’m not, Shelly is. I understand that.”

  “No, you don’t understand. She’s my past, and I do love her. But I’m in love with you. I finally get that.”

  Kelly’s heart quit beating. “But how?”

  “You. You are how.”

  “I never expected you to get over it.”

  “You were right, I don’t have to get over it. But I do have to live with it, and it’s better when you’re by my side. Because you loved me, you changed everything for me. My life was over, all my living was done. I was wrong. There’s you.”

  “What are you saying?”

  “I’m saying I’m in love with you and don’t want to go another hour without you in my life. That I’m done being sorry about loving you, and I’m ready to act on it. That is, if you can forgive me for taking so long, and if you’ll let me make it up to you.”

  “This is going to be all over the papers. Everyone’s going to see this.”

  “I know. That’s the point. Everyone’s going to see it, especially you.”

  “I think what America wants to know is, do you still love him, Kelly?” Kyle Drake’s voice suddenly boomed around them.

  Kelly looked toward Kyle Drake. She’d forgotten all about him. She looked at Luke, and then they both started laughing at the spectacle they had just made. Everyone was watching them as if holding their collective breath for the shocking ending of a movie.

  “I do. I still love him,” Kelly said finally, her voice in usual interview tone. Her eyes locked on Luke’s as a smile took over her face.

  “Come on,” Luke said, putting his hand out for hers. She grabbed his hand, and they nearly sprinted off the stage, leaving Kyle behind them sputtering, not finished with the interview, and hoping to prolong the unexpected and probably ratings-boosting scene.

  They stopped when they were out in the parking lot and finally alone.

  “I can’t believe you did that.”

  “I can’t believe it took me so long to do that.”

  “I don’t understand, what changed?”

  “Me. You changed me.”

  “But how?”

  “I don’t know. I guess I finally was ready. When Tim said you were hurt everything stopped for me. Even Shelly. And somehow, I knew then, I was in love with you, and nothing could stop that. I’ll do everything I can to make you happy.”

  “You don’t have to do anything. You’re being with me makes me happy. All this,” Kelly said, waving her hand in the general direction of the TV studio they’d just come out of, “is what keeps me busy. You make me happy.”

  “Even when I’ve been such a jerk?”

  “No, you just needed time to heal.”

  “I think I’m committed now. I just announced it in front of all of America.”

  “And you meant it?”

  He looked into her eyes. “I meant it.”

  “Even with all the craziness that surrounds me?”

  “I’m crazier without you. I don’t care where we live, or what we do. I just want to be with you.”

  “I don’t want to live here. I don’t even like L.A. It just was an obvious place to live given my professional life. I want a total life, not just a profession. I want a life with you.”

  “Then we’ll start over, both of us, together.”

  “I have to finish up some things I started here. The opening of Heather’s House, some last contracts, the shop. But when it’s all wrapped up, I don’t want any of this anymore. I want to go home.”

  “Home? As in Seaclusion? You’re Kelly Reeves. I get that now. You can’t live in Seaclusion, Washington. I don’t care where our address is; we’ll figure it out.”

  “I do. I want to live there. I’ve made enoug
h money. I’ve been rich and famous and traveled, but none of it made me happy. I was happy there. I have a friend in Sarah, who I think proved today, is my best friend. And there’s Cassie and John, the kids, and your parents. And there’s Shelly.”

  “I don’t need to visit her every week any more. It’s okay for me to leave.”

  “But it’s also okay for you to stay, too. To keep visiting her. She’s as much part of us as we are. I think we could be happy there.”

  Luke smiled. “All right, we’ll go home. And then get married on the beach, just like I tried to convince Cassie to do with John, but she wasn’t game. Are you?”

  Kelly opened her mouth. No words came out. She swallowed. “I didn’t think you wanted to get married again.”

  “I didn’t. At all. Ever. Turns out, I was wrong.”

  “I don’t need labels or marriage. I just need you.”

  “Ah, sweetheart, you can’t proclaim your love on national television and settle on just being a boyfriend. Besides, I have my heart set on a beachfront wedding, rain or shine.”

  She laughed as tears spilled over her eyes. “Do you really love me?”

  He looked at her long and hard. “I really do. I love you, Kelly Reeves.”

  “I think Kelly Tyler has a nicer ring to it.”

  “Yeah? Even though Kelly Reeves is the multi-million-dollar name?”

  “I think,” she said as she kicked off the heels that had her several inches taller, and grinned when they were finally eye-to-eye, “that Kelly Reeves has finally retired.”

  Keep reading for a sneak peek of

  SECRETS, Book Three in The Seaclusion Series:

  Chapter One

  The teenager grabbed a shirt off of one of the shop’s display racks and stuffed the silk blouse into her backpack, then turned to exit the shop. Sarah Langston sighed. She resented shoplifters, and even more, hated dealing with them, the confrontation, the denials, and usually the police. Why was it mostly young girls who were the culprits? Young girls such as the one trying to exit her store. She could let the girl go. She could pretend she hadn’t seen the blouse disappear.

  As if. Sarah straightened her spine and walked out from behind the sales desk. Letting this teen go now, without any consequences, would most likely make Sarah’s Secrets become the place where shoplifters felt free to plunder.