“That might not be the worst analogy you’ve ever come up with.” His milk-chocolate eyes shimmered with amusement in the low light of the limo. There was sympathy in them too, though.
Reaching out to take my hand in one of his giant ones, he wrapped his fingers around mine and squeezed. “Just remember, honey, they’re your peers. Navigating Broadway might feel like swimming in shark-infested waters sometimes, but you’ve got this. Hell, they’re not even just your peers. You used to be their reigning queen. Just take a deep breath and remember to smile.”
I smoothed out the satin skirt of the extravagant dress he’d picked out for me to make my big comeback to the social scene in. “That was two years ago, Jules. It was before. All they’re going to want to talk to me about is why I took a break and when I’m coming back.”
“We’ve been over this.” He tightened his grip on my hand before releasing it. “Everyone knows about that fall you took onstage. All you have to say is that you had taken on too much and you needed some time off.”
“Two years is a long time to take off.” I fidgeted with the shiny beading on my corset, distracting myself by marveling once again at how unlined his rich cocoa skin was. Jules had been my manager for the entire time I’d been in New York, and he hadn’t aged a day.
He and his boyfriend Chad, along with Tani, one of my former co-stars and best friends, had absolutely carried me through these last two years. My parents had been wonderful too, but there was only so much they could do all the way from Conroe.
They’d flown up after my legs had given out on me while I’d been performing, and they’d been here when I got diagnosed, but eventually, they had to go back home. After begging me for a solid week to leave the city behind and come home with them, they’d accepted it wasn’t going to happen.
Jules slid a long finger beneath my chin and tilted my head up until I met his warm brown eyes. “Your MS is doing great, Ry. The doctor said your accident was just sensory overload and he’s cleared you for all this, remember? Two years was a long time to have taken off, but you did what you had to do. Your health comes first. Always.”
I filled my lungs with the vaguely vanilla-scented air of the limo just as the wheels stopped turning. “I know. I’m ready to evade the questions and answer them eventually, on my own terms, just like we talked about. I’m just nervous. I haven’t really seen any of these people since it happened, and it’s weird to think about it like that.”
“Then don’t?” he suggested with a slight smile. “Now, suck in that stomach, push out that chest, and let’s go rock your re-entry into the world, okay?”
“This isn’t really my re-entry. It’s just a mixer,” I muttered, but he was already straightening his impeccable jacket and opening the door.
Apparently, these parties were supposed to be casual get-togethers for those of us in the industry. If that was how they’d started, the original organizers would be spinning in their graves to see the spectacle they were now.
Everyone was dressed as if they were attending an awards show. There was an actual red carpet to walk to get inside, complete with reporters lining a velvet rope. Just about everyone who was or might become someone was invited.
Excited chatter went up in the ranks of the press when they saw Jules climbing out of the limo, and it blew into my personal version of pandemonium when I followed him onto the carpet. Granted, Hollywood stars would fall down laughing over what I classified as pandemonium, but there had to be at least a dozen people out there screaming their questions at me.
Channeling my inner diva, I followed my manager’s advice and pulled my shoulders back as I walked into the party on his arm. A wide smile was fixed on my face, and I even waved at a few faces I recognized from back when I regularly made an appearance in the entertainment pages.
“Rylee!” Tani called as she attempted to rush to my side. The door swung shut behind us, drowning out the reporters’ questions.
My friend’s face was flushed with excitement, and her green eyes narrowed at everyone who dared not move out of her way. When she finally reached us, she embraced me like she hadn’t seen me in years. “I’m so glad you’re here. I would’ve called the babysitter to give her the night off if I hadn’t known you were coming.”
“We all got ready together at your house,” Jules said, arching a perfectly tweezed, pitch-black eyebrow at her.
“Your babysitter has had every night off from working for you for almost a year,” I said. “I’m sure she’s happy not to be given another night off. Did you manage to get away from your place without Cash raising the roof?”
She sucked her lips into her mouth, shaking her head with her eyes widening. “Nope. It’s not called the Fuck-You-Fours for nothing. Unfortunately for him, this mama of his has had an attitude for a lot longer than he has. If I survived the tantrums thrown by the people in this very room for so long, you can bet your asses that I can handle the tiny human I created. Sometimes anyway.”
“I’ve heard you say at least ten times that you’d take the prissiest of directors over that boy any day,” Jules teased. “Changed your mind now that you’re back among the stars?”
He drew out the last words and rolled his eyes even as he showed us his best jazz hands. Tani lifted her shoulders while she laughed. “I might have forgotten just how prissy they can be. Now that I’ve remembered, would anyone else care for a drink?”
“Me,” I said immediately, but Jules shut me down with a look when I went to move to Tani’s side. “But you’ll have to get it for me. I’m not supposed to look like I’m hiding behind my manager or longtime friend. It’s a mingle party, and I’m expected to mingle this evening.”
He gave me a satisfied smile. “Acceptance. Excellent. If we could work on delivering those lines with a little more enthusiasm, I might actually believe you’re a brilliant actress.”
“I’ve never been that good,” I said.
Tani nodded her agreement with me. “Do you know I’ve been asked three times tonight where Ry had gone, why she went on a break, and if she was coming back? I only got here about ten minutes before you did.”
“Goody,” I muttered, but lifted my chin when they left to get those drinks. We’re sure going to need them tonight. Mine wouldn’t be alcoholic, but still, I could always take a sip if I needed a moment to think.
As soon as they left my side, people started closing in. I’d never been afraid of crowds and I wasn’t now. I just wasn’t used to being bombarded anymore. Other performers, designers, directors, scriptwriters, and even a few people I thought might actually be their mothers approached me.
All of them asked the same basic questions. How are you? Are you back? Where did you go?
No one knew why I really took a break from Broadway but the rumors had been aplenty. The grapevine had carried a full harvest of speculation when I’d first announced I would be taking some time off. The phrase “heard it through the grapevine” had taken on a whole other meaning to me, considering that I’d heard about my own secret pregnancy via the tabloids. I’d also heard that I’d been brainwashed by aliens, had fallen in unrequited love with my last director—who was married—and a whole host of other things.
News spread like wildfire in this town, but rumors? They spread like only a good old-fashioned STD at an orgy could.
“Excuse me,” I said to the latest trawler fishing for the “truth,” and kept my head down as I made my way to the bathroom. Jules and Tani had been bringing me drinks for the last hour, but I declined any offers from anyone else.
My sparkling grape juice might look like champagne, but no one seemed to have realized it wasn’t. Except for one suspicious waiter who was carrying trays of the real stuff around and kept eyeing my glass like I was a traitor for not having gotten it from him.
A small hand closed around my elbow just before I walked into the ladies’ room. I tensed until I recognized Tani’s voice behind me. “You okay?”
“I’m fine.” I turned to smile
at her. “I just needed a breather. Are you guys almost ready to leave?”
“Nope.” Jules came to stand in the doorway with us, steadfastly ignoring all the side-eyed looks he got for being just about inside the ladies’ bathroom. He caught my gaze before giving me a deliberate but discreet onceover. “Unless you’re not feeling well, that is.”
He didn’t say it in so many words, but he was asking if I was feeling any symptoms acting up. I shook my head, reaching out to place a comforting hand on his arm. The man had become as protective as an attack dog. If he so much as caught a whiff that the stress was causing any out of the ordinary effects, he’d have me out of there in a heartbeat.
While it would’ve been a surefire way to get out of there, I wasn’t in the business of deceiving my closest friends. “It’s not that. I’m just a little overwhelmed by all the questions.”
Tani gripped my shoulder. “Just give us the signal when you’re ready to leave, okay?”
“Same to you.” She hadn’t been to one of these shindigs in almost double as long as it’d been for me. The only reason she’d even agreed to come to this one was for moral support in case I needed her.
Cash had been an unexpected surprise that had turned her life upside down. Since he’d been the result of a one-night stand, she’d known from the second she found out he was in her belly that she would be raising him alone.
My ever optimistic, “always looking for the bright side” best friend hadn’t batted an eye before saying farewell to Broadway. He might’ve been unexpected, but Cash became the apple of her eye and her reason for being on the very day she learned he was there.
She’d reached out to some of her contacts in the industry, had gotten a job as a secretary for a production company, and never looked back. Sometimes I envied her ability to approach life the way she did.
Even after my diagnosis, I hadn’t been able to accept that I was done with the stage. In my heart of hearts, I’d always wanted to get back to doing what I loved. I just hadn’t thought it would really be possible until now.
When Tani, Jules, and I walked out of the bathroom, I felt someone’s eyes on me. Jerking my gaze up, I saw the same guy who had been eyeballing me for most of the night. He hadn’t approached me yet, but I knew he would.
I didn’t think he would approach because I had a big ego and thought every man who looked at me would come on to me. I knew he would try to speak to me tonight because I knew who he was. Everyone did.
Nathan Biles was a reporter for the New York Times and one of the few journalists who merited an invite of his own to these parties. I had to steer clear of him, even if he was sex on a stick.
At six-five with his strong shoulders and the cleft in his chin, he resembled none other than Clark Kent himself. He even had the same day job.
But a night with him, even if I’d heard he had no problem with a little super-hero roleplay, wasn’t worth the fallout. Yanking my gaze away before he took it as an invitation to come up to me, I spent the rest of the evening sticking closer to my friends.
Nathan wasn’t easily deterred, though. Near the end of the night when I’d dropped my guard some, I suddenly became aware of a looming presence behind me.
I knew it was him before I even turned around. He grinned when I faced him, a predatory flashing of his perfectly white teeth.
“You making a comeback?” he asked without any pleasantries being exchanged.
I faked a smile of my own and raised one shoulder. “I’m not sure, but thanks for asking.”
Hard pass, buddy. Hard pass.
Jules caught my eye and nodded. We’d put in our appearance, talked, and stayed long enough not to be accused of leaving too early. But there was a time to come and a time to go.
It was definitely our time to go.
Chapter 3
CARTER
Mom insisted on having us all home for Thanksgiving every year. No matter how old we got, we Demming boys knew that the woman who raised us was not to be trifled with—especially not over this particular holiday.
We also respected her enough that none of us even tried trifling. Every year, regardless of what was going on in our own lives or jobs, all five of us put everything on hold and headed back to Conroe for the week.
Technically, it wasn’t just the five of us. It was all seventeen of us.
At twenty-nine, I was the youngest of the brothers and the only one without children or a love interest. And they never let me forget it.
It didn’t matter to my family that I drove a bad-ass motorcycle, was tough as nails to the outside world, or that I protected people for a living. When I walked into our parents’ house, I was the baby brother. The single, childless one who spoiled their kids and got to walk away without having to worry about breaking the habit of sugar before bedtime.
I shrugged when Tucker, my oldest brother, grabbed the candy bar out of my hand. “We’re not having a repeat of last year, Carter. I don’t care if you’ve got more muscles than brain cells now. I can still take you.”
“Boys,” Mom warned, tutting as she propped the hand that wasn’t holding a really big knife on her hip. Her kitchen might’ve smelled like my dreams of childhood, but the expression she was wearing came straight out of my nightmares. “No one is taking anyone. Carter, we’re having lunch in fifteen. You can give the kids more candy once they’ve eaten. Tucker, uncles and grandparents were put on this earth to spoil your kids. You only have to deal with it once or twice a year, so suck it up.”
Jeremy, the brother closest to me in age at only sixteen months older, laughed and held his palm up to high-five our mother. He was standing across from her at the kitchen island with a cutting board in front of him and his three-year-old zooming around with an old sheet tied around his neck as his cape.
“Tell him, Momster,” Jeremy cheered before turning to me. “You know mine can’t have any more candy though, right? He already thinks he’s Superman. Another bite of sugar and he might jump off the roof.”
“Like he’s not going to try that sometime anyway,” Tucker shot back, grinning as he rolled his eyes. “All of you numbnuts tried it.”
“Excuse me?” Mom gave Jeremy his high-five before arching a brow at Tucker. “They weren’t the only ones who tried it. You were first, if memory serves.”
“I’m pretty sure I was first at everything.” He smirked but the smug expression melted from his face when Parker walked in. He was only a year younger than Tuck and had been his closest competition for firsts in everything.
He winked when he met our eldest brother’s eyes. “You’re getting forgetful in your old age. I can remember quite a few things I did first. Getting married, having s—”
“That’s enough.” Mom narrowed her eyes at him, but I saw the smile she was trying to hide. “Yours might be outside with the only other woman who can tolerate you, but there are other little ears in here.”
“You mean the only woman who can tolerate me except for you, right?” He wrapped our mother in a hug and lifted her clear off her feet.
While she squealed and banged on his back in an attempt to get him to put her down, she yelled at him about manhandling one’s mother. Tucker’s six-year-old daughter eyed the package of candy bars I was holding.
“Uncle Carter?” she whispered, poking me to get my attention. “I gave my chocolate to Andy. Will you keep one for me after lunch?”
Andy, also known as Superman, skidded to a halt when he heard his name. His big brown eyes—our family trademark—rounded as he shook his head. “I didn’t get chocolate. I want chocolate too.”
I ruffled his hair and gave Sabrina a small nod. “I’ll hang onto all of these, okay? I promise there’s enough to go around.”
Half my damn suitcase ended up being filled with snacks and treats whenever I came home. Chaos reigned supreme around here, and being armed with bribes made me a favorite of my nieces and nephews, as well as a miracle worker in the eyes of their parents. I liked to think of it as a win-win.<
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“Carter.” Mom’s voice made my gaze snap back to hers. She gave the candy a pointed look until I retreated and put it back in the cabinet. Then she smiled and dusted off her hands on her apron. “Would you go get Dad for me, please, honey?”
“Sure,” I said. “He’s still out back with Justin?” Our middle brother had been engaged in lawn activities with my dad and most of the kids all morning.
Mom nodded. “I think so. Unless they’ve decided to skip town with all the little munchkins, they should be there.”
“Why would they skip town with all them?” Jeremy asked. “Did I miss the conversation where Justin said he wanted to open a circus?”
“He’d have enough acts with all of them,” I said as I backed away from Tucker and toward the door.
Jeremy and Parker roared with laughter, nodding their agreement. Tucker, who seemed to think that because he was the oldest he also had to pretend to be the most serious, rolled his eyes. “Please. No one would pay money to see the Demming Troupe in action. They’d just have to show up at church on Sunday morning.”
“Ladies and gentlemen, guess who still has a sense of humor?” I pointed at Tucker after winding up my arm for a second and then ducked out to get our dad while the other two took over the banter.
Chuckling as I headed outside, I remembered why I liked coming home for the holidays so much. I was a family man at heart. Having to put in for vacation time and face the prospect of coming out was always daunting and seemed like way more effort than it was worth, but when I finally got here, it ended up being one of the highlights of my year.
I joined Dad and Justin outside, not surprised to see them sitting in lawn chairs with a beer in hand while watching the kids play tag. “You got another one of those?”
They looked up when they saw me, and Dad reached into the cooler next to him and tossed a can over. “We’ve always got spares. I’m assuming you’ve got to rally the troops for lunch?”
I nodded. “I got sent by the Chief Commanding Officer herself. We better drink fast and get inside before she sends reinforcements.”
Dropping The Ball: A New Year’s Billionaire Romance Page 2
