Treading Water: Coming Home Part 31

"What about Kate? She's going to need me."

"If they're smart, they won't come anywhere near here when they hear about the press invasion."

"True."

"So you'll come?"

She opened the front door for him as she ended the call. "Give me ten minutes to grab a quick shower and throw some clothes in a bag."

"That's about all I've got." He'd already accepted that he wouldn't have time to go home and change. Good thing his meeting was only with Buddy, who wouldn't care if Ashton met him wearing jeans. Buddy's mantra was the more casual the better.

True to her word, Jill came running down the stairs ten minutes later, wearing a sweater and jeans tucked into boots. Her hair was contained in a ponytail, and she carried a backpack. She stopped short when she noticed him smiling at her. "What?"

"You look like an eighteen-year-old coed."

"I was in a rush."

"I didn't say that was a bad thing, darlin'."

"Oh, that's right. The men in your family like them young."

"That's not nice," he said with a laugh as he ushered her out the door.

"Sorry," she said with a sheepish grin. "That was a softball."

He held the door to the truck for her and then walked around to the pa.s.senger side. When he was in the driver's seat, he reached into the backseat for a jacket he kept there. "Want to put this over your head so they don't recognize you?"

"You really think that's necessary?"

"Unless you want Kate to find out we're together before you're ready to tell her, I'd say it's necessary."

As he pulled up to the gatehouse to punch in the code she'd given him the day before, Jill squirmed down in the seat and pulled his jacket over her head. The instant the gate swung open, Ashton hit the gas, propelling the truck forward too quickly for the reporters to react.

He glanced in the rearview mirror and saw a few of them giving chase, but they drove quickly out of range. "It's safe to come out."

Jill popped up and ran a hand over her hair, glancing back at the mob scene outside the gate. "Wow," she whispered. "So much for the story dying a natural death."

"You need to warn your sister that she's coming back to a hornet's nest."

Jill withdrew her phone from her bag. "d.a.m.n, it went right to voice mail," she said. "Kate, it's me. The media is camped at the gate. You might want to avoid the house for the time being. Call me when you get this message."

"Let me try my dad," Ashton said, dialing as he drove. "Great. His went right to voice mail, too. Dad, you guys might want to avoid Kate's place. I heard it's crawling with reporters. Call me when you land." He glanced over to find Jill staring out the window, nibbling on her thumbnail. "Hey."

She turned to him.

"Don't worry. I know it's easy for me to say, but this'll die down eventually."

"Will she have a career left when it's over? What if all the mothers of those devoted teenage girls won't let them listen to her music anymore?"

"I don't think it'll come to that."

"It could if she doesn't address the fact that she made a mistake."

Since Ashton couldn't argue with that, he didn't try. Rather he reached for her hand and held it all the way into town. When they were getting close to his office, he said, "What do you think about coming to my meeting with Buddy? Maybe between the three of us, we can figure out a next step for Kate."

"You'd do that?"

"Of course I would. Buddy's label has a lot invested in her. It behooves all of us to figure a way out of this."

"Oh."

Ashton pulled into the parking lot next to Buddy's Escalade. "What does that mean. Oh?"

"I thought maybe you were doing it for Kate and not because of business."

"I'm doing it for you, silly." He leaned over to kiss her.

"Oh."

"There's that word again." Tugging on her ponytail, he said, "She's second only to Buddy in terms of sales for Long Road Records, which makes her problems Buddy's problems-and mine. But more than anything, I want to see that worry line between your brows disappear."

She reached up to feel for the line in question. "I don't have any lines."

"Yes, you do. Let's go see what Buddy has to say about all of this."

Inside, they exchanged greetings with Ashton's a.s.sistant, Debi, who sent him a secret smile when she saw him with Jill. Debi had helped to arrange the car to pick up Jill before their trip to Malibu and had called him out about his crush on her months ago, urging him to act on it.

When Jill wasn't looking, Debi gave him a thumbs-up.

Ashton rolled his eyes at her and ushered Jill up the stairs to his office where Buddy Longstreet was sitting in Ashton's chair, feet on the desk, like he owned the place.

"Comfortable?" Ashton asked his G.o.dfather.

"Very," Buddy said, watching as Ashton held a chair for Jill and waited until she was settled before he sat in the chair next to hers. "Fine mess your sister's gotten us into."

Jill winced. "Yes."

"When's she coming home?"

"Today."

"Good. She needs to get her a.s.s out there to defend herself."

"That's what I told her," Jill said. "But apparently she's got other plans."

"What other plans?"

"She hasn't shared them with me yet."

"Huh."

"This is all your fault," Ashton said to Buddy.

"How's that?"

"You told her where to find my dad."

"So what if I did? I never told them to get it on outside where anyone might see them."

Buddy's indignant tone made Ashton laugh.

"How was Malibu?" Buddy asked.

Ashton glanced at Jill to find her staring at a picture on the wall, her face blazing with color. He hadn't told Buddy who he was taking on the trip with him, but his arrival with Jill, both of them in unusually casual attire, was a dead giveaway. "Fine."

Buddy's golden eyes danced with delight. "I bet it was."

As he resisted the urge to clobber Buddy, Ashton's cell phone rang with a call from his dad. Saved by the bell. "Hey, are you back?"

"Just landed. Where are you?"

"At the office with Buddy and Jill."

"We'll meet you there."

"Sounds good." He ended the call and told Buddy and Jill that Reid and Kate were on their way.

"Well," Buddy said with a guffaw, settling into the big leather chair, "this is about to get mighty interesting."

Chapter 13.

Kate didn't want to go to Ashton's office. She went out of her way to ensure their paths rarely crossed, and even now that she was going to marry Reid, she couldn't imagine Ashton would be happy to see her. If anything, the opposite was probably true. After more than a week away, all she wanted was to go home.

But that wasn't possible with the media storming the gates.

"What's wrong, darlin'?" Reid asked as he drove the car they'd rented at the airport.

"Nothing." How could she tell him that seeing his son always made her nervous and brought back that awful day in the parking lot and the ugly accusations they'd hurled at each other? They'd barely exchanged a single word since then, despite their frequent business dealings.

When Kate thought of seeing him again, this time as his father's fiancee, her stomach began to actively ache.

"I wish you'd talk to me," Reid said as he drove through Nashville traffic on the way to Green Hills.

"I'm fine. Really."

"If you say so."

"I'm mad that we can't go home. I really want to see Thunder."

"I was thinking about that. Is there another way onto your property other than the main gate?"

Kate's eyes lit up when she tuned into his thought process. "Yes, but it's through my neighbor's place and only accessible on foot or horseback."

"Could your groom meet us with horses?"

"Yes!" Thrilled with the plan, she leaned over to kiss him. "You're always thinking."

"I don't like to see you unhappy."

"I've got nothing in the world to be unhappy about, so don't worry." Well, other than her father's disapproval of her upcoming marriage, but she refused to think about that today. There'd be plenty of time to think about that later when she didn't also have to face Ashton.

Reid pulled into the parking lot and parked next to Ashton's sleek silver Jaguar and a red pickup truck. She remembered the Saab Ashton had bought right out of law school and how proud he'd been of that car. He'd taken her on her first tour of Nashville, had brought her to Mabel's, introduced her to his friends, and she'd thanked him by having an affair with his father.

Well, that was a pleasant trip down memory lane, she thought as Reid took her hand to lead her inside. Her footsteps felt wooden and heavy as she stepped into Ashton's office for the first time. All her meetings with him had taken place at the Long Road Records offices.

Ashton's a.s.sistant, Debi, greeted Reid warmly, but her eyes bugged when he introduced Kate as his fiancee.

Debi jumped up and tripped over her desk chair in her haste to shake hands with Kate, who reached out to catch the younger woman before she fell.

"Wow, that was embarra.s.sing," Debi said.

Laughing, Kate released her hold and shook hands with Debi. "Pleasure to meet you."

"I'm such a huge fan. Maybe even your biggest fan."

"That's nice of you to say. Thank you."

"Do you think..." Debi shook her head and gestured to the stairs. "Ashton is waiting for you in his office."

"Could I sign something for you before we go up?"

Again, Debi's eyes nearly popped out of her head. "You'd do that?" She hustled around her desk, banging her leg-hard-on the corner but never missed a beat as she handed Kate a notepad.

"How about a pen?" Kate asked, amused.

"G.o.d, I'm a mess," Debi drawled. "I see Buddy Longstreet all the time and never act like this much of a dork around him."

"I'm much more famous than Buddy," Kate deadpanned, making Debi and Reid laugh. She wanted to thank Debi for taking her mind off the meeting with Ashton. The b.u.t.terflies in her stomach had calmed while they talked to Debi. Kate wrote, "To Debi, it was a thrill to meet you. Thanks for listening to my music! All the best, Kate Harrington." She handed the pad back to Debi.

"Thank you so much. I'm going to frame this. Heck, I'll make copies for home, work, my car and anywhere else I can hang it up. Wait till my friends hear that I met you. They'll be so jealous."