Page 36 of All of You

“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe it was due to the interrogation the minute I stepped into the house?”

“What did you expect?” she said, pushing me away from her.

“Maybe something like, ‘oh, hi, Ben. Great to see you. How was your drive?’” I said in the mocking voice I always used when making fun of her.

She pulled her phone from somewhere (did her dress have pockets?) and shoved it toward me. “I’m supposed to see that and not demand the full story?”

I looked down at the screen and read the headline that accompanied a photo of Whit looking dazed past the camera, our bodies pressed together, my head ducked down—probably from when I had been whispering in her ear. My hand was on her shoulder. Her expression… whoa.

Country’s Queen Whit Grantham hits the streets with new man, Lieutenant Ben Holder, US Army. More on this ‘Stolen Moment’ below.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Whit

Six nominations.

Six.

More than I’d anticipated, for sure.

Best Country Solo Performance. Best Country Song. Best Country Album. Best Album. And there they were—Best Pop Duo/Group Performance, and Best Record for the song I did with Jamie. I swallowed, chuckled a little bit, and clutched the phone.

A weird, giggling laugh broke out as tears leaked from my eyes. “I can’t believe this.”

Nikki shook her head, allowing herself a full smile, for once. “I can. You’ve worked yourself nonstop since you won that contest, and it shows. Your work is paying off. This is going to go a long way toward working with Johnson.”

At the moment, I didn’t care about Johnson—I wanted to scream and jump on the bed and drink a bottle of champagne alternating with homemade ice cream. And the strangest thought that I wanted to toast with Ben.

Hmm.

I hadn’t seen him in two and a half weeks—between Thanksgiving, my schedule, and his, especially since he was about to take two weeks off to join me on tour, we hadn’t planned any dates.

But I’d missed seeing him. We’d swapped Happy Thanksgivings and otherwise hadn’t interacted. But then, as though I’d summoned him with my thoughts…

@TheRealBenHolder: Congratulations! Just saw the very impressive list.

I smiled to myself, a simmering pleasure growing in my chest as I thought of him checking for my name on the list of nominees.

@WhitGranthamOfficial: Thank you! I’m blown away.

@TheRealBenHolder: We should celebrate. You can’t be this fancy and not get taken out by your boyfriend, can you?

That feeling in my chest warmed, expanded, took over, but then, I realized I was booked solid tomorrow and Friday. I didn’t have time for him again until Saturday for our next date.

@WhitGranthamOfficial: I’m sad to say I don’t think I have time until Saturday.

@TheRealBenHolder: What about tonight? It should be a rule that you don’t wait more than a few hours to celebrate six Grammy nominations.

Well, that was adorable. And appealing. I checked my watch—four o’clock. I was pretty much done for the day.

@WhitGranthamOfficial: I could actually do something tonight.

@TheRealBenHolder: Done. I’ll be there at six—six thirty at the latest.

@WhitGranthamOfficial: See you then.

I wandered around the house after Nikki left, chilled a bottle of champagne, put things in my Amazon cart and then didn’t check out. Finally at six-fifteen, the doorbell rang. Knowing he was right outside had me jogging to the door.

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