Page 3 of All of You

“I would have known you by your voice, Whit.”

I could hear the smile in his tone.

“Oh, okay. Well… thanks for taking my call.”

“I’m unlikely to ever not take a call from you, even if I have to walk out of church to take it.”

“You were at church? You could have called me back—it’s not urgent.”

“It’s all right. What can I do for you?”

His voice sounded warm and smooth, and I marveled, my stomach plummeting, at his asking what he could do for me. Assistants and staff, even random people, were always asking me that, but in this case, it felt more genuine than any time before now.

I cleared away the surprise, launching into business mode, where I should have started. “I’m wondering if you’re busy two weeks from yesterday.”

Silence.

I pulled the phone back and checked to make sure the call hadn’t dropped—it hadn’t.

Finally, he spoke. “You know, I’m not sure what day that is. Do you know the calendar day?”

Something off tinged his voice, but I couldn’t tell what.

“The fifteenth of October.”

A low voice murmured on the other end, Ben’s response covering it, though it was muffled, like he held the phone against his chest. “I should be free the fifteenth, sure. What am I signing up for?”

“It’s a charity event. A fundraiser for a local music school. It should be relatively low-key, though I’m sure you can guess that doing anything with me isn’t particularly low-key.”

I kept the regret firmly out of my voice. I didn’t need pity for my fame—didn’t want it, either.

“I can imagine. Do I need to know anything before we do this?”

I crawled onto the couch and sank back into the plush pillows. “I don’t think so. Probably just that you should simply nod and smile, and don’t worry about answering questions.”

That covered the basics. I didn’t want to overload him, and the small event should mean there wouldn’t be too much press.

“And your boyfriend? What’s he going to say about you showing up there with me?”

I smiled to myself, enjoying Ben’s casual approach to the subject.

“Since he doesn’t exist, I don’t expect he’ll say much at all.”

“Jamie Morris doesn’t exist?”

A chill ran through me. So he did know a bit about me.

Weeks ago, when we chatted, he’d seemed entirely oblivious to everything surrounding me except my music and a little bit about how I came to fame through the show. Of course, he’d also just found out I was Reese’s cousin. Whether he’d talked to Reese about me, which would have been fruitless since I knew Reese wouldn’t share any personal details, or Ben had searched the Internet, he’d clearly found out about the gossip and a sliver of my dating history.

“Jamie Morris does exist, but he has no bearing on this conversation.”

Another pause. Then, “All right. I’ll be there.”

CHAPTER TWO

Whit

“This seems like overkill. I don’t need stage makeup for this event.” I relaxed my eyes as Amanda, my makeup artist, readied my fake eyelashes.

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