Chapter Six
Kinsey
It didn’t take me long to realize that the relationship between Hazel Hudson and her brother was a love-hate type of thing. Although Mrs. H was thrilled with having both her grandkids in town at once, it was obvious that Emmett saw Hazel’s arrival as a giant hindrance. There was absolutely no in-between for them, and most of their interactions with each other were dripping with sarcasm—especially when Emmett’s drop dead gorgeous sister brought up his career. At twenty-two, she was a year older than he was and thought he didn’t take his future as a musician serious enough. He said she needed to focus on her own life—being a career student. After he’d told her that at dinner, she’d channeled Scarlett O’Hara and thrown her napkin on the table, announced that she was no longer hungry, and had flounced off in an intoxicating cloud of perfume.
With her perfectly coiffed dark hair, her expertly lined green eyes, and her designer wardrobe, Hazel Hudson was a certified drama queen. Not only did she butt heads with her brother, she already clearly disliked me. Every time I spoke, she gave me a look like I’d asked her socialite ass to hold my beer while I went to the next trailer over to see what the fight was about this time. And the only words she’d uttered in my direction so far were one-syllable, impatient, and said with a roll of her eyes.
When I told Lyra about Hazel’s arrival a few days later, right before ending our Skype chat, my friend snorted and rolled her gray eyes. “She sounds like a mega bitch.” She took a sip from her bottle of water. “And I’ve been dealing with one of those around here.”
“More problems with Ronan?” I asked, but she moved her head from side to side.
“Just a crazy-ass diva who thinks she’s the only one on this tour who can use a trapeze.” Lyra winked. “She’s not and she’s a helluva lot older than I am. I’ll be soaring long after she’s retired and off giving someone else hell.” She fluffed the hotel pillows behind her back, her movements giving me a view of her tank top and stomach before her face returned. “And sorry for the boob shot, just had to get comfortable. The floor and my ass had an epic argument today. Obviously, the floor won.”
I frowned. “You have big lady balls, Lyra Amador. Seriously, be careful.” As she promised that she’d try, I pulled my hair up into a bun on the top of my head and looped a ponytail holder through the golden tresses. “So how are things with Ronan?”
As usual, she quickly redirected the conversation back to my problems. “Have you confronted Hazel and asked her why she’s a mega bitch?”
Groaning, I scrubbed my hands over my face and shook my head. “She’s had very little to say to me since she’s got here, and when I open my mouth to say something to her she slithers away, so there’s been absolutely no confronting.” Besides, with Hazel’s constant name-dropping, her sparkly Mercedes, and her bags of clothing she refused to wash in Mrs. H’s washer and dryer, the woman’s issue was obvious—she thought she was better than me.
“Hold her down and make her listen.”
“I wish.” Tapping my nails on the sides of my laptop, I release a frustrated noise from the back of my throat. “And she’s everywhere. Every time Emmett and I …”
My friend lifted a delicately arched eyebrow. “Uh –oh. Every time you and Emmett what?”
I bit my bottom lip. Despite Hazel’s arrival, things between Emmett and me had just became more entangled—to the point where a couple nights ago he’d found me down at the pond to talk. For over an hour, we’d talked about everything from his childhood summers spent with Mrs. H in Marietta to his mother’s death from breast cancer two years ago to his music career. By the time Hazel had conveniently stumbled on us, her brother’s tongue was in my mouth and his hands were all over me, seconds from unsnapping my bra.
It was probably best she had interrupted. I was stupid around Emmett and his intense green eyes and delectably sexy body. But the way Hazel had wrinkled her button nose at me and curled her lips had rubbed me the wrong way.
In fact, everything about her rubbed me the wrong way.
Telling Lyra about the encounter down at the pond, she twisted her lips down and gave me a sympathetic look. “You guys are gonna have to get a hotel room or something when you finally get down to it.”
A flush crept over my skin. “How do you know—?”
“Because I’m a psychic,” she said, feigning a thick Eastern European accent. “But mostly because I am not an idiot. You grin every time you say the guy’s name.” A second later, there was a knock on Lyra’s door and she scrambled from the bed, setting her computer on the nightstand. Struggling to hide her excited grin over whoever was standing outside her hotel room (my guess was Ronan the Undecided), she leaned over and wagged her finger at the screen. “Okay, I’ve got to go. Be careful and I’ll talk with you soon. And don’t let Emmett’s sister get to you—if she wants to be a douche, that’s her problem.”
“I won’t,” I promised as Lyra blew me a kiss and then disconnected the video call.
♫
During the next few days, Hazel continued to avoid speaking to me, but a week after she rolled into town, we finally had a chat longer than five words when I walked outside to find her on the phone, deep in conversation with someone.
She narrowed her pale green eyes at me. “Do you mind? This is a private call.” Covering the speaker with her palm, she briskly nodded at the front door and flicked her hand at it, like she was shooing away a disobedient puppy. “Well, go on. I’ll tell you when you can come back out here.”
Wow. Was she serious with that crap? Biting the inside of my cheek, I slipped back into the house, but not before I heard her tell whoever she was talking to, “I’ll be glad when Grandma puts out the trash.” Whatever their response was made her giggle. “Well, yeah but that’s because Emmett’s stupid and thinks with his dick.”
With my ears burning, I started to head upstairs to my bedroom, but the screen door flinging open stopped me. “It’s all yours.” I turned around to see Hazel flipping her wavy, dark tresses over her shoulder. I must have been trashy all right, because all I could think about in that moment was ripping a few strands of her immaculate hair from her rude head. She smirked as I walked by. “Just so you know, Emmett’s flighty. Whatever he’s told you, just remember that when he goes back to Nashville, he’ll forget about you and his career will come first again.”
Pausing at the door, I offered her a tight smile over my shoulder. “Guess it’s a shame the only thing Emmett’s told me is about his album.” Hazel’s sneer faded slightly. “I’d hate for him to forget his own lyrics.”
“He said you sing, too.”
“I do.” I mimicked her smirk and placed my hands on my hips. “But don’t worry, I have no plan to screw your brother in exchange for a duet.”
Then, leaving her with her mouth hanging open, I stalked back outside. I started to head to the pond, but the sun glinted off something sitting on the floor of the porch by the steps. Squinting, I knelt down. It was a necklace. A very costly looking necklace—a diamond encrusted olive leaf dangling from a simple white gold chain.
I knew it had to be Hazel’s, and for a split second, I almost considered tossing it into the grass and letting her find it herself. But then I realized just how awful that thought was, and I picked it up. Poking my head in the house, I yelled her name.
“What?” she snapped. I looked up the stairs to see her staring down at me over the railing. “What do you need?”
Ugh. I really, really should’ve thrown this stupid thing in the grass. “I think I have something of yours,” I said and dangled the delicate piece of jewelry from my index fingers.
Racing back downstairs, she looked at me with a scowl on her face. “Why on earth do you have that?”
Geez, so much for a thank you. “You dropped it outside.”
“Just give it to me.” She held her hand out, and I dropped the necklace in her palm. As she flounced back upstairs, I mentally shanked myself for not leaving the
thing where it lay.
♫
“Your sister hates me,” I told Emmett a week and a half later on the way to the Fourth of July parade and fireworks at a nearby park. I had stupidly figured that Hazel would be long gone back to Texas by now, but I’d had no such luck. She had made herself at home and who knew how long she was planning to stay. And for someone who stared at me like I was a piece of lint on her designer halter dress, she was surely everywhere I went.
Emmett groaned and rubbed his large hand over his face. When he gripped the steering wheel again, his expression was serious and just a little irritated. “Has she been talking shit to you?”
I vividly remembered the way she’d responded to me finding her necklace over a week ago, and I shrugged. There was no use complaining to him about Hazel. He would only confront her and then she’d likely take her bitchy attitude to the next level.
Instead, I asked, “So you are aware she hates me?”
Cocking his head, he looked over at me and even the half-smile that formed on his lips made my heart skip a beat. “Hazel hates everyone.”
“Everyone involved with you,” I mused, and he nodded as he searched for a good parking spot. “Well, except for Gianna.”
“Yeah, well, Gianna’s not exactly Miss Congeniality.” He drummed the steering wheel for a moment. “So you’re finally admitting we’re involved?”
Toying with my necklace, I cleared my throat. “Yeah, we are.”
“So now you’ll tell me why you’re always touching that?” His hand closed over mine, stilling the fingers that rubbed over the key and electrifying my skin. “It’s driving me crazy not knowing.”
I ran my tongue over my lips. “You’ll probably think it’s stupid …”
“I can’t think anything if you won’t tell me.”
Dragging in a painful breath, I laughed. “Guess you’re right. It—it’s just the key to this little house my parents rented when I was in middle school.” He let go of my hand and trailed his fingers down to my leg. Through the flimsy material of my red and white sundress, he squeezed my thigh and my stomach clenched. “We’d been living with relatives up until then, moving from place to place, and I was so happy when they got the house. A new start, you know?”
He nodded, and I put my hand over his and glanced into his green eyes. “I was thirteen when we moved, and my mom got me this little key made at some grocery store kiosk. For afternoons when I got home from school and they weren’t around.” Shrugging, I glanced down at the necklace. “We were only there for a month before my dad got arrested again, so I never got to use it. I kept it to remind myself that things were almost fine.”
“I’m sorry, Angel.”
“Don’t be,” I whispered. “Like I said, it’s probably stupid to wear this damn thing just because I have childhood abandonment issues.”
Finally putting the car in park, he scooted across the cab until our thighs rubbed and bent his head close to mine. I shivered when his breath touched my skin and closed my eyes. “It’s impossible to stay away from you, Kinsey.” He cupped my face in his hand, using his thumb to make tiny circles on my cheek. “I mean that.”
Well, he hadn’t stayed away from me. And for the last couple weeks, I hadn’t even tried to fight my attraction to him. I wanted to kiss Emmett Hudson—wanted him in my atmosphere. “Yeah, I can’t stay away from you either,” I murmured when I felt his fingers on my shoulder and then in my hair.
“So what are we gonna do, Angel?”
He tilted my face up to his, and I was lost—in his green eyes and the way his fingers felt on my skin. And before I could stop myself, I blurted out, “Tonight.”
Surprise widened his eyes, but he recovered quickly, nodding. Just before he slanted his lips over mine, he repeated my words.
“Tonight.”