Stargazing (The Walker Family Book 2) (6 page)

Kent watched as Bethany smiled, just as he had at the woman. The strain showed in her eyes, but he figured he was the only one that saw it, since he was doing it too.

Bethany took the camera and snapped the picture of him and the woman. He then proceeded to take the camera and reciprocate the favor.

“Oh, thank you,” the woman beamed and she clenched her book to her body. “You two make a lovely couple. It’s kind of exciting to have a famous couple living here. I hope you’ll be at more of these book club events. Lydia doesn’t always invite the good authors. I don’t always come. But if you two are there, I’ll be here,” she said on a giggle as she waved and walked away.

He heard Bethany let out a breath. “I’m going to get Lydia. She should be helping you. This isn’t where I should be.”

He reached for her hand as she stood to walk away. “You don’t have to go.”

“Oh, yes I do. Good luck with your signing and your book. It’s very good.”

In a moment she was gone and out of sight. He’d lost her again, but now he knew who she was and perhaps where to find her.

He smiled at the next person in line and signed the book, all while he thought of seeing Bethany again.

They had a spark of electricity—or static—between them. He couldn’t leave Georgia without knowing what it really was. Homelessness now had its perk. He had nowhere to be but there—wherever Bethany Waterbury was.

Bethany nearly ran over Susan as she began to pack up totes and stack them by the door.

“Are you in a hurry?” Susan stopped her before she began to load the next tub.

“I just want to get out of here.”

“What happened?”

She felt everything inside of her begin to unravel. “I don’t belong here. People want to take my picture. I don’t want to be that person anymore. I just want to hide here.”

Susan’s eyes widened and she gripped Bethany’s shoulders. “Bethany, what’s going on?”

Her skin was growing hotter. “I just want to go home. I’ll help you finish packing up and then I want to go home.”

“I’ve got this. Why don’t you head back to the house? Eric should be there soon. Do you want me to send someone with you? Did something happen?”

“No. I just don’t want to be around all these people.”

Susan nodded. “Okay. Go home. You call me when you get there. I’ll be awhile, but when I get home I’ll make you some tea and we can talk.”

She nodded in agreement, but she didn’t want to talk. She just wanted to get away from people who called out her name and took pictures and…

Bethany held her breath and fought back her fear. No one was going to hurt her again. She was among family now. This was what she wanted.

“I’ll meet you at home,” she said as she picked up her purse and hurried out of the building.

An hour later Bethany sat in her car, parked outside of her sister’s bridal shop. It wasn’t her first choice for stops. She’d actually called her therapist first, but he was out of the office.

Maybe talking to a man wasn’t what she needed either.

This was the first time in her life she was risking emotional failure on needing one of her siblings. Never in her life had she reached out to them for anything.

Pearl had been gracious to her. She’d made it a point over the past few months to include her as much as she could. This was new territory for her sisters and brothers too. They hadn’t been included in each other’s lives. She knew why now. That psychopath Douglas Brant had ruined Bethany’s life long before she’d come to Georgia. Her father had been protecting her by shutting her out.

She stepped out of the car and walked across the street. Pearl looked up when Bethany pushed open the door to the store and a small bell chimed.

She smiled wide as she helped a young bride with a veil.

“I’ll be a few minutes,” she said.

“It’s okay. Do you mind if I wait for you in back?”

Pearls eyes locked on her as if she knew something was bothering her. It was a sisterly thing, Bethany assumed.

“I have bottles of water and soda in the fridge. Help yourself.”

Bethany made her way to the small room behind the counter. She opened the refrigerator and pulled a Coke out. Sitting down at the small table, she contemplated not opening the bottle for nearly a full minute. Her mother’s voice rang in her ears. “No man wants a woman who lets herself go,” she’d say to her whenever Bethany even thought of eating junk food or drinking soda.

Unable to go through with it, she replaced the soda and took out a bottle of water instead.

Pearl glided through the door as Bethany sat back down. Her sister was a sight, she thought. Her blonde hair was in a bun, or a twist—something fancier than what Bethany would do with her own hair. She had bands of pearls around her neck and her wrist and small diamonds in her ears.

Suddenly, Bethany was glad she’d reached for the water. The few strands of red curls that had worked their way out of the band that held her hair up, hung over her eyes. She quickly brushed them behind her ears. It was only then she realized she still had on the red apron from the event.

“So how was the book signing?” Pearl asked as she took a Coke from the refrigerator, opened it, and took a long, satisfying sip that ended with an “Ah!”

“Fine I guess. It’s still going on.”

Pearl pulled out a chair and sat down across from Bethany. “So what’s he like?”

“Who?”

“The author. Kent Black?”

“Nice enough, I guess. He rambles when he talks. Observes too much when he’s in a crowd. Has a dimple in his chin,” she said with a smile and then pursed her lips to conceal it.

“Lydia promised to get me a signed book since I couldn’t be there.” Pearl took another sip of her drink. “So what brings you by? I didn’t have you down for a fitting for the dress Susan picked out.”

“No. I was just needing a sisterly moment I guess.”

Pearl’s eyes actually went moist, she noticed. “Oh,” she said on a small gasp and smiled. “I like that. You look like something is bothering you.”

Bethany opened her water and took a sip. Where did she begin?

“Kent Black is a really nice guy.”

Pearl’s brows lifted. “This is about him? Didn’t you just meet him?”

“I did. And I’m not interested,” she said convincingly. “It’s just that…well…I realized that I’m scared.”

Pearl reached for her hands and held them tightly in hers. “Honey, nothing is going to happen to you. Douglas is locked up.”

“I’m not worried about him.” she sucked in a breath and let it out slowly. “I don’t want to be who I was anymore.”

Her sister’s grip tightened. “I’m not understanding. You don’t want to be an actress?”

She shook her head. “No. I don’t. I don’t want to be known as Violet Waterbury’s daughter. I don’t want people to look at me and say
loved your movies
. It came with a price that I’m not happy I paid. I want to be…normal.” Her voice shook and Pearl’s eyes clouded with worry.

“What price did you pay?” her sister asked in a careful tone and Bethany’s stomach began to clench.

“I shouldn’t have come here. I don’t need to drag you into this. I am who I am.” She stood and turned, but Pearl reached for her.

“You’re not leaving. Sit down. Drink your water. I’m going to lock the door.”

“You can’t close your business because your baby sister is in your back room crying.”

“I most certainly can. Now sit.”

Pearl disappeared out of the room and returned only a few moments later with a box of tissue and a plate of chocolates.

“I had a bride bring me these as a thank you. We’re eating them.”

Bethany stared at them as if they were the evil her mother had always spoke about.
You’ll regret every bite you have.
She’d say before she herself would gorge on something, such as a plate of chocolate, and then purge later.

Pearl picked up one of the candies and popped it into her mouth. “Oh, Lord, that is wonderful. Here.”

Bethany only stared at the plate. “I shouldn’t.”

“Um, yes, you should. We are having girl talk and this is what we do.”

Her hand shook as she reached for a chocolate that was no bigger than the tip of her finger. Slipping it past her lips she let it melt on her tongue as if it were going to be the last thing she ever ate again.

Panic rose in her chest. The very thought of running to the bathroom to throw it up crossed her mind, but she forced down the vile feeling and the chocolate.

“Good, huh?” Pearl bit into another one and let out a moan. “Audrey would die if she knew I had these and hadn’t called her to share them.”

“Will she be mad?”

“No, she’s just got a sweet tooth,” she said on a laugh before she became very serious again. “Now, what’s going on in that head of yours?”

Chapter Seven

Smiling all afternoon was exhausting, Kent thought as he sipped from the glass of water Lydia had brought him. The party was over. The guests had gone. But Kent was too tired to move.

Okay, who was he kidding. He was sort of hoping that Bethany was still there.

She’d left in a near panic when that woman wanted her picture. Shouldn’t she be used to something like that? He wasn’t offended. He’d wanted her autograph too, but he thought that would have been more awkward than their couple of conversations had been.

Lydia was walking toward him with a check in her hand. “Here’s the money collected from the books you brought. I thought I’d ordered enough. I can’t believe we sold your supply too.”

“I’m honored that your friends thought that much of me.”

“I had to turn people away from the luncheon. You’re very talented, Mr. Black.”

“I appreciate that. So does my mother. She’s told me that for years when I’ve torn up entire manuscripts.”

Her mouth fell open. “You’ve done that?”

“You see, I don’t think I’m horribly talented. My mind wanders and a story forms. I write it down and by the luck of the universe, people seem to like it.”

She blinked a few times. “I’ve never met anyone so talented.”

“Thank you.”

She handed him the check and he tucked it into his pocket without looking at it. That would have appeared untrusting.

“I guess I’ll be on my way,” he said fishing his keys from his pocket.

“Are you in town a few more days?”

He shrugged. “I go where the road takes me. But, I do like it here. I thought I’d stick around a few more days.”

“I’d like to invite you out to dinner if you’d be interested. Susan and her fiancé, who is my cousin Eric, my brother, and another cousin,” she said with a wave of her hand, “are going to dinner tomorrow. I know they’d love to meet you. If that’s not awkward or anything. I’ll bet you think I’m crazy now.”

He laughed. “I think that sounds nice. The one thing about being an author is I can blend into a crowd. It doesn’t seem that easy for Bethany.”

Lydia clasped her hands. “What happened when she came to help you? She got upset and ran out.”

He felt the hope drain from his body. So she wasn’t there. “She left?”

“Yeah. She was very upset.”

“Some woman recognized her. Asked her for a picture and told her she was as beautiful as her mother was. She didn’t seem to like being recognized.”

“I don’t know her very well. Perhaps there is some reason she doesn’t like that.”

“You don’t know her well? I thought you were related.”

Lydia laughed easily. “I’m related to her cousin, but not to her. The Walkers and the Morgans have a very interesting dynamic. You know, the kind of things books are written about.”

Now he laughed. “Maybe I should stick around and document it.”

“Real life is always stranger than fiction.”

“Very true.” He picked up the book he had on the table. “Would you give this to Bethany? I was hoping she was still here.”

Lydia took it. “I will.”

“And I’d love to have dinner with you and your family tomorrow. What time and where?”

~*~

Bethany’s eyes stung. It had been a long time since she’d cried that much in front of anyone. Was that what sisters were about? Pulling out your deepest, darkest secrets and holding you while you cried like a baby?

She’d had no intention of laying her life out in front of Pearl when she’d gone to her. She’d gone to bitch about her mother and about Hollywood’s rejection—nothing more.

But now it was out there and Pearl knew all of her secrets. In Hollywood, they wouldn’t have mattered. Everyone had the same secrets. In Macon, Georgia—that was another story.

She checked her face in the mirror. Hopefully, she could just run up the stairs and hide out in her room all night. Her cheeks were flushed. Her eyes were pink. The bun on the top of her head had completely given out and her hair was a mess of curls going a million different directions. This was her reality. This was why she’d come to Georgia.

She climbed from the car and headed toward the front door. When it swung open, she let out a yelp.

Eric stood there in the doorway, his arms crossed over his chest, and his brow furrowed.

“Where in the hell have you been?”

Bethany stopped on the step and simply stared at him.

“Where have you been?” he asked again in his demanding tone.

“I was with Pearl.”

“Susan is sick with worry over you. She said you were coming straight home. You don’t answer your texts or your calls. In light of recent events, you don’t get to have the freedom to just wander where you want.”

Bethany set her jaw and narrowed her eyes on her cousin. “You’re not my father.”

“No, I’m not. I give a damn a whole lot more.”

“I’m twenty-four years old. I can take care of myself. And,” she held up a finger, “I think that recent events prove that.”

“It proves that when someone attacks, you can defend yourself.”

“Well, it seems as though I’m in the wrong place at the wrong time then. I’ll pack my stuff and be out of your way. I’d hate you to worry about me all the time.”

“Don’t you…” he started toward her when Susan pulled him back and walked out onto the porch.