Page 22 of Sweet Obsession
A long pause hung on the other end. Finally, Phil found his words. “Cancer?”
“No. She’s confused.”
Phil scoffed. “Blake, half the world is confused right now. Heck, probably more than that. I’m going to say yes.”
“Do that and you’re fired.”
Another silence and Blake could almost feel the steam coming from Phil’s ears right through the cell phone speaker. “You can’t throw your career away because your grandmother can’t remember when your birthday is.”
So he did recall their conversation right after his grandmother’s middle of the night birthday call. “Saying no to a benefit, or even canceling a concert if it comes to that, is not going to end my career.”
“Wait. Canceling? Blake, I don’t know what you’ve been smoking, but you need to get your head on straight. I’m going tolet you sleep on it. I’ll call you tomorrow. And next time, answer the damn phone.”
Before Blake could respond, the line went dead. What Phil didn’t seem to understand, and what Blake was becoming increasingly aware of, was that his head might very well be on straight for the first time in a long time.
“Everything okay?” Jillian stood in the back doorway, her hands on the screen door. She really grew up to be beautiful in so many ways.
“Not sure.” Glancing down at his phone, he briefly wondered what stunt Phil might pull next, before footsteps from the house had him lifting his gaze to meet hers.
“That doesn’t sound good.” She came to a stop at his side, only instead of looking at him, or his phone, her eyes followed the stars sparkling in the sky like a diamond on velvet. “Something about the night sky that always makes me think nothing is insurmountable.”
Taking a good long look, he realized it had been forever since he’d seen a sky like this. There was no room for argument. The Texas sky could make anyone and their problems seem small. “Are we talking about my problems, or your problems?”
Heaving in a deep sigh, she slowly blew out a long, easy breath. “Both, I guess.” She spun around so her back was to the rail and the sky. “Are you sure you want to do this? Bail out my family?”
There was no need to think, he was already nodding his head.
“I snore.” Her cheeks took on a pinker tone. “According to Rachel, like a chainsaw.”
That had him laughing softly, quickly forgetting his own troubles. Without thinking, he lifted his hand and gently tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. “I’m a very sound sleeper. Once in LA, I slept through an earthquake. Woke up to find thekitchen cabinets had swung open and pretty much every glass and plate in the house was smashed on the floor.”
“Good to know.” Her smile was so dang sweet. Just like her name. “So, now what?”
He shrugged. “Y’all have done this four times already. Maybe you should tell me?”
“Well,” her gaze darted to the house and back, “each one put on a show for Mom and the town, then quickly had an excuse to marry. The hard part was everyone had to live here under Mom’s nose. Originally Preston and Sarah Sue thought they’d live in his apartment, but when it burned down and there became a shortage of housing, everyone had to live here.”
Nodding, Blake thought about that. He didn’t own a house here. Living with his parents or her parents was six of one or half a dozen of the other. Living under a microscope, at least while he was in town, wouldn’t be easy. “Has the housing shortage improved any? I mean, could I buy a house for us?”
Her head shook from side to side. “Everyone displaced snatched up anything available. There isn’t much property turnover in Honeysuckle, and Preston’s apartment building is still under construction. Determining the cause as well as permit issues delayed the repairs. I heard there was a debate whether to refurbish or tear it down and start over.”
“Who won?”
“The refurbish side. Though by the time it’s done, there won’t be much, if anything, original on the inside.”
“So it sounds like we date, we get engaged, we marry, and at first, we live here?”
“That about covers it.”
“How much time do we have to pull all this off?” He had a crazy urge to take her hand, or better yet, pull her into the fold of his arms. Not smart.
“Yesterday would have been good.”
He sucked in a hiss of air. “That soon?”
This time her chin dipped in an affirmative gesture, but he could see from the way that she nibbled on her lower lip, she wasn’t anymore comfortable with the timeline than he was.
Debating how he was going to pull off dating Jillian and keeping a low profile, he reached for her hand, and before he could fully process what he was doing, he’d pulled her into his personal space. Ignoring the squeak of the screen door hinges, leaning in, he pressed his lips ever so gently to hers.
