Small Town Secret: Mayfield Springs Book 1 (2 page)

Great news! Chris is coming to the wedding. He changed his schedule as a wedding surprise for me. Isn't he a darling. C xx

"Oh no," I whispered, as the screen illuminated my face in the darkness of my bedroom. " I can't see him, I just can't."

I flung my phone on the floor and pulled the covers up over my head. Now I wasn't even remotely sleepy, and my stomach churned as I thought about the man who had broken my heart. I couldn't bear to see him.
There must be some way I can get out of going to the wedding
. I chewed the idea around in my head until I realized I couldn't possibly back out. Cassie needed me and she wouldn't forgive me if I couldn't make it. I clenched my eyelids shut and begged my brain to let me sleep.
It can't be true,
I thought.
Chris wasn't meant to be here. And he doesn't even know about Bella.
 

CHAPTER 3

CHRIS

A pounding hangover, the third this week, gripped my head and throbbed across my forehead. I felt as though my face was so heavy it couldn't be lifted from the pillow. In those liminal moments between being asleep and awake, it was sometimes difficult to remember where I was. And even worse, I often couldn't remember who I was with and how I got there.

I propped myself up on one elbow in the bed and looked around. Not at home. Definitely in a hotel room. Mine? I didn't know. And the girl asleep beside me, a mane of golden blonde hair spilling out across the white hotel-grade pillow. Who was she?
 

I lay back on the luxurious bed and stared at the ceiling.
Shit, you've done it again. You're a dickhead Chris; you know that?
I lectured myself, tasting the sour aftermath of overindulgence across my dehydrated tongue. I tried hard to piece together what I could remember of the night before. Memories came to me in flashbulb-lit images. A red carpet...paparazzi...a party. Of course, it had been the premiere of '
Foxglove Fighter
'. My new movie.
 
And as they say in the movies, the crowd had loved it.

For now, I was the man of the moment. The biggest grossing star in Hollywood. The highest paid actor in the world. My name on a movie was a guarantee of box office success. The whirlwind of Hollywood sucked me in the moment I landed my first job, and I knew without a doubt that it would spit me out at some point, but for the time being I was going along for the ride, and it was fun - even if I couldn't remember a lot of it.
 

I looked back at the girl beside me, trying to remember who she was and drawing a total blank. Long, blonde, wavy hair, perfectly smooth hairless skin, long tanned arms - she could be anyone. She had probably spent a fortune on hair extensions, hair removal, fake tan, and Botox so she could be the most beautiful version of herself but what these girls didn't realize was they all ended up as carbon copies of each other.
 
She looked the same as a hundred other girls I'd woken up beside in hotel rooms just like this. I didn't feel bad about it. She wouldn't love me. She probably wouldn't even like me. She got what she wanted. She'd be able to boast to her friends that she slept with
the
Chris Taylor. For me, the novelty of sleeping with all these girls wore off a long time ago, and I longed to be with someone who loved me for who I really was.
 

Of course, there once was a girl I loved and who loved me... a beautiful, young artistic girl who was more like a siren than the skinny starlet beside me. What I would do just to hold her right now, be with her in this bed and feel the warmth and touch of a real, proper, curvaceous girl instead of some plastic android. But I wasn't going to get to hold her. I'd had my chance with her, and I blew it.
 

My mind flicked back to my present predicament. I knew that these situations got way too complicated if the girl woke up. It was much easier if I could just make a quick exit. I scanned the room. Perfume and makeup on the dressing table. A suitcase full of women's clothes lay open on the floor. Nothing of mine except last night's designer suit lying crumpled on the floor. Good. It was her room. That made it easier. All I had to do was get myself out of the room without waking her and without being seen leaving.
 

The bed made no sound as I edged my way out of it. As I stood up, I caught sight of my naked body in the mirror on the other side of the room. I looked good - even if I said so myself. I allowed myself a moment to take it all in. I'd worked hard to get that rock hard six pack and those tanned guns. My muscled thighs were bulked up like a weightlifter and my dick stood semi-erect. Just looking at it sent a rush of blood to my groin. There was a stirring in the bed behind me. God, I'd better go before I ended up back in bed again.
 

I pulled my clothes on and checked myself again in the mirror, smoothing down my hair and trying to straighten my suit jacket to make it look like I hadn't slept in my clothes. Making an escape from a hotel room was never the most dignified of acts.
 

 
Pulling open the door, I prayed I wouldn't wake this girl. For a second she stirred in her sleep and murmured something inaudible. Then she rolled over and began to snore softly. It looked like the coast was clear. I tiptoed out the door into the hotel corridor.

The maid in the hall smiled at me in recognition, and the bellboy in the elevator tried hard to look at me, but I could tell that he was quivering with excitement at being able to stand next to Chris Taylor even for a few seconds. Fame... it's the weirdest thing.
 

As the elevator doors opened on the ground floor, I heard them immediately. Paparazzi. Human vultures who lurked amongst life's landscapes, waiting for their vulnerable prey before pouncing. The bastards.
 

I pulled my sunglasses out of my pocket and put them on. Then, I pulled the baseball cap that I kept for moments like this out of the inside pocket of my jacket and pulled it hard down over my face. I took a deep breath, put my head down and headed for the side exit from the foyer. I never used the main exit anywhere - unless I wanted to be photographed that is.
 

Just before the exit, I ducked around a corner and shielded myself behind a large fake fern. I looked around for the name of the hotel - '
The Meridian'
- never heard of it, and texted my driver to come and pick me up.
Ten minutes away.
Shit.
 

I leaned with my back against the wall waiting and thought of what would be coming up in the next week. Cassie's wedding. A chance to get home to Mayfield Springs. It couldn't be more different than here, than this weird moment hiding behind a pot plant and waiting to escape.

Amy was going to be there. Amy, the love of my life. I wondered if she'd even talk to me again after what I did to her. I was a total asshole. I knew it at the time, and I still knew it now.

I'd known Amy, my little sister Cassie's best friend since she was a kid. I'd never thought of her romantically, but when I went back to Mayfield Springs for Cassie's graduation, Amy was different. She wasn't Amy the tomboy anymore - she was this gorgeous, amazing looking woman with Amy's voice and sense of humor packaged in this amazing body as well. How could I not fall for her? But it was bad timing. I was six months into a marriage that no one at home knew about. And when my wife Stacey heard rumors that the reason her husband was staying on in Mayfield Springs was that I had taken up with a girl there, she soon made sure everyone in Mayfield Springs knew about her existence. The moment when I opened the door to Stacey my wife on the doorstep of my parent's home was the worst in my life. I sighed.
 
I lost my wife, the girl I really loved, and the respect of my mom and dad in the space of a second.
 

"Chris, Chris." An urgent whispering of my name broke my thoughts. It was Manuel, my driver.
 

Thank God, I was finally going to get out of this hotel.
 

CHAPTER 4

AMY

"There's just no way I've gone up a dress size," I pouted into the mirror and prodded at my hips.
 

"You look gorgeous, so stop worrying about it," said Cassie, as she stood behind me snapping endless pictures with her cellphone.
 

"Stop that Cass!" I laughed. "I look like I've put on heaps of weight."

"Oh my God Amy, don't be so ridiculous. You look beautiful."

"But I'm so much bigger than you are," I said, glancing over Cassie's perfect body.
 

It had been a few years since we'd seen each other but as lifelong friends do, we chat on the phone regularly. But, Cassie looks so different from the last time I saw her. She practically looks like a model. She's got her brother's looks and that lofty arrogance that seems to be a Taylor family trait.
 

I looked up and down her pin-like legs and couldn't help but feel envious. And her stomach? My God, I would do anything to have abs that flat. I'd hate her if I didn't love her so much.
 

"Hey," she snapped her fingers in front of my face. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Like what?" I said, trying to pretend I hadn't been checking her out.
 

"You were staring at me as if you had a bad smell under your nose or something," Cassie moaned.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean it," I responded. "It's just that I'm feeling..." I slumped into a nearby chair and looked despairingly at the way the bridesmaid's dress puffed up around me like a rising meringue. "So ordinary and boring and fat."
 

"Oh honey," said Cassie as she rushed to my side, her heels clacking along the tiled floor. "You're far from boring, and you're definitely not fat. You've just got curves. Trust me, you're gorgeous," she said giving me a tight squeeze and kissing me on the cheek.
 

"Thanks," I said, smiling weakly as I hugged her back.
 

"But where has all this self-doubt come from?" Cassie asked as she sat down beside me, squeezing her tiny bottom in next to my rather larger one. "What happened to the wild girl who loved to party and who was proud of how she looked? The girl who didn't think twice about disappearing off to art school?"

I thought about my old self and my teenage years when I never said no to anything and was always on the lookout for a new adventure.
 

"I grew tired," I said, looking down to the floor. "I grew up... and I became a mom."

An awkward silence hung in the air between us, the only noise the sound of the bridal boutique's stereo playing cheesy love ballads.
 

"Don't get me wrong. I love being a Mom, but it's tiring, and it's so different to what I thought I'd be doing. I love Bella, but I'm just so miserable and disappointed with how my life has turned out." I sighed.
 
"Sorry, Cass, I don't quite know what's come over me," I said as I leaned into the nook in her neck and held her tight.
 

"Oh Amy," she held onto me. "Why don't we go for a drink and talk this out? I can't stand seeing you like this."

I looked up at her and smiled, trying my very best to look happy.
 

"I'd like that."

The bar was crowded but relaxed, and we took a seat in one of the corner booths. As we made our way through the busy tables, I couldn't help but notice Cassie getting her fair share of admiring glances. I had to admit; I felt a little jealous. I wanted to feel attractive too. I know I'm not ugly, and it's not like I want a man but... I'm not the glamor puss that Cassie is, and it wouldn't hurt to feel wanted once in a while, by someone other than the drunk at the bar.

We'd only been sitting down for a few seconds when Cassie began to talk. She seemed to have forgotten that she was going to try to make me feel better. Or maybe she thought that talking about herself would help me take my mind off my troubles. But, on and on she spoke about her perfect life in New York where she already had her dream job and her dream man.
 

"I just can't wait for you to meet Daniel," she said as she sipped at her mimosa. "You'll love him, he's a real prince," she giggled.
 

"He sounds great Cassie, " I said looking disappointedly at my sparkling water and wishing that I had a mimosa but knowing that I had to drive home.
 

"So what's up? You've been miserable today. What's going on?" she asked as she pushed a plate of bruschetta towards me.
 

I shook my head politely and raised a hand.
 

"I shouldn't. I'm getting bigger by the day I swear."

"Oh, nonsense!" Cassie replied. "You look almost the same as you did when you were a teenager," she said before draining half her glass. "Which reminds me, talking about the good old days, are you looking forward to seeing Chris?"

"Oh... Sure!" I said, albeit in the most unconvincing way.
 

"You don't sound so sure that you want to see him," said Cassie narrowing her eyes skeptically. "Don't tell me that you haven't got over the breakup yet. It was four years ago, Amy. You should put it behind you. And you know he's not married to Stacey anymore. He's single you know," she smirked.

"Of course, I'm over it," I lied. "But just because Chris is single, it doesn't mean that I'd be interested or that he'd be interested in me. Once bitten, twice shy," I said. "I'm not going to get burnt a second time."
 

"Oh Amy," replied Cassie. "He's grown up since then too. You should give him a second chance."

Cassie raised two fingers to a passing waiter, and he returned promptly with more drinks. This time, however, the sparkling water was replaced with a mimosa.
 

"I shouldn't drink Cass; I'm driving."

"So? Take a cab," she replied, leaving no room for doubt that she wanted a drinking buddy.

I sighed. Cassie's flippant attitude was beginning to annoy me but how could she possibly help it. She lived the life of an NYC 'It' girl, getting her way all the time. With her high flying job and opulent lifestyle, she probably found me quite dull. I doubt she imagined that I'd love to join her in a drinking session but that I couldn't afford the mimosas... or the cab.