Page 21 of Sweet Obsession
“Looks like everyone has heard.” Kade slipped his phone into his breast pocket.
While more siblings and their spouses made their way into the family kitchen, their voices creating a symphony of sound, Jillian wondered what all this would mean for Blake.
With just about every family member accounted for, when the front door swung open, all eyes turned to see the man himself walking into the house. At the dead silence that had struck, and everyone’s attention on him, Blake stopped suddenly and glanced down at his feet. “Did I step in something?”
“That depends.” Kade walked over to his friend and handed over his cell phone.
Blake’s eyes grew wider with every swipe. “What the hell is Phil thinking?”
“That there’s no such thing as bad publicity?” Her mother’s tone dripped with enough sweetness to bake a cake.
Several voices began speaking all at once, but Jillian’s gaze remained fixed on Blake. The way he scrolled through his own phone now, his lips pressed into a thin line, the muscle in his jaw almost twitching from the tension, his gaze narrowed and focused. Inching closer to him, she couldn’t resist reaching out, letting her hand rest on his arm. Pleased when the tension in his shoulders eased the slightest bit, she stood there silently offering support.
When Blake heaved a sigh and placed his free hand on hers, still resting on him, the silent communication felt oddly comforting. At least to her.
His one hand still flicking at the phone, his other hand shifted, grasping her hand in his. That alone made her breath catch, but when he squeezed her hand before sliding the phone into his pocket, she thought her heart would pound its way out of her chest.
“I think I need to make a phone call.” Blake eased away, his gaze on Jillian. “This won’t take long.”
All she could do was nod. As he stepped onto the back porch, her siblings still talking over each other, her gaze landed on her mother. From the way one arch rose higher than the other and her hands had stilled from their kneading, Jillian would guess her mom had been the only one in the room watching her and Blake’s interactions.
What she couldn’t figure out was why that seemed to bother her. The entire trust fund plan would only work if their mom believed each and every one of them was marrying for love not for money to save the ranch, and yet, knowing this, knowing that soon, very soon, she and Blake would have to start putting on a show, this felt very different, and all too real. And once again she had to ask herself if pretending with Blake wasn’t the worst idea she’d ever had.
Chapter Eleven
“What the hell are you doing?” The screen door had barely slammed behind Blake when he punched in his manager’s private number.
“So you remembered how to use a phone?” Phil Mercer could be so annoying some days.
“Never mind me. What’s this I’m missing thing all about?”
“Hey, I had to find some way to flush you out. Apparently, it worked.”
“You couldn’t have just left a voice mail?” Blake leaned against the railing.
“I tried that. You didn’t return my calls.”
“I didn’t have anything to say.” Not yet, he wanted to figure out what was going on with his grandmother and he didn’t want Phil telling him why he couldn’t do that.
“The production company in London wants you fly in a week early.”
“No.”
“They want you to do a benefit concert for one of the king’s favored charities and the week before the first concert is not only perfect timing, it will do a lot to help with sales when we release the live concert album.”
“What part of no isn’t clear?” Normally sarcasm wasn’t typical for him, but he was really ticked off at what Phil had done to get his attention.
“Are you listening to me? I saidthe king.”
“I heard you.” No one was more important than his family. The thought caught him by surprise, but it was heartfelt and sincere. No matter the cost, his grandmother had to come first. “I need you to retract the statement to the press. The last thing I need is for every Tom, Dick, and reporter hunting me down like a rabid dog.”
“I’ll see what I can do, but you know how this sort of thing works. Putting the genie back in the bottle doesn’t always work well.”
“I don’t care how you do it, just do it.”
“Okay. And I’ll let the team know that you’ll do the concert.”
“The answer is still no. My grandmother isn’t well.”
