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“I was hoping to have a word with you in private.” Trey looked down and didn’t miss the exchange between the twins. He had a feeling nothing was ever private around the house. The girls had inherited their father’s spying abilities and their mother’s nose for gossip.

  “Sure, come on in. Gem, can you watch the girls for a minute?”

  “Of course. Come on, girls. Playtime is over. Time to feed the animals.”

  “Aw, Mom…”

  “Nope, that whining may work on your father, but it doesn’t on me. Off with you two.” Gemma tried to sound serious, but Trey heard the laughter in her voice as he followed Cy into the house.

  “So, what’s going on?” Cy asked as he grabbed a beer from the fridge and passed it to Trey.

  “You know Taylor and I have been together for a long time now. I still have trouble believing she wants me, but after all this time I guess I’m finally ready to admit she actually wants to be with me. It’s funny. I would come home from practice and always expect her to be gone. I was waiting for her to realize she could do so much better than me.” Trey looked blindly down at his beer as he held it in his hands.

  “That’s the sign of having a good woman. Gosh knows why they stay, but you love them even more for it. So, you’re finally ready to make an honest woman out of Taylor, huh?” Cy twisted off the cap to his beer and took a drink.

  “I am, but beneath her edgy personality lies a traditional woman. She told me she always dreamed of a man asking her father’s permission to marry and then her father walking her down the aisle. Well, I had the honor of meeting her father this week and now understand why that dream of hers died.”

  Cy put his beer down hard on the counter. “You met her father?”

  “Father and mother. They were horrible. They came storming into the house right when I was about to propose and demanded that I leave their daughter alone. Taylor came home and the look on her face was heartbreaking. All they wanted was to be her manager again, for twelve percent. Oh, and to have her marry Grant instead of me and be his manager too.” Trey took a deep drink of his beer as he tried to keep his calm.

  Cy didn’t bother trying. He slammed his hand hard against the countertop. Glasses in the cabinet rattled and his hazel eyes turned to stone.

  “You have to protect her. They are dangerous. Her mother and father used to abuse her both mentally and physically. They are constantly high on drugs and looking for their next fix of cocaine or the spotlight. They’ll take either and in the process will use anyone to get it, not caring who they hurt along the way.”

  Trey nodded. Taylor had told him all about her parents when they were in college. But hearing it was different from seeing it. “I will. It’s the reason I'm here. In reality, you’re more of a father to her than anyone else. It’s you she calls every week. It’s you who helped her get a place to live, taught her to cook, and how to drive. It was you who helped her get ready for her first date and who met the guy at the door. It was you who helped her get her GED and who attended her college graduation. And it’s you we spend the holidays with. So, it’s you I feel I should ask for permission to marry Taylor. “

  Trey took a gulp and watched as Cy took a calming breath before a smile broke out on his face. “Well, you have it, son.” Cy held out his hand and Trey shook it with relief. He hadn’t realized he had been so nervous.

  The screen door was thrown open as Gemma, the twins, and the Rose sisters all tumbled in. “About time, young man! Now, what do you think of the first weekend in May?” Miss Lily asked.

  CHAPTER SIX

  “Take it from me. A lady likes a man with a little bad boy to him.” Henry Rooney, a Keeneston defense lawyer, winked.

  Neely Grace Rooney, his wife and law partner, rolled her eyes as she bounced their three-year-old daughter, Addison, on her hip. “You know better than to listen to him, right?”

  Trey laughed as Henry looked wounded before looking back at Trey and giving him a smirk. “It worked, didn’t it? I got the most beautiful and classy woman in the entire town to marry me. Now, come here, precious. Let Daddy protect you from all those bad boys.”

  Henry took their daughter from Neely and headed to where the little girls were shaking their heads in bafflement at the boys down in the yard throwing dirt at each other.

  “Congratulations to you and Taylor. We won’t breathe a word of it until she calls to tell us the news herself. Oh, there’s Chrystal and Dinky with little Landon. Last play date, Landon kissed Addison and I thought Henry was going to blow a gasket.” Neely Grace hurried away to calm Henry who was trying to protectively keep Addison behind him as Landon toddled over.

  “This will be you someday. I can’t believe it. It makes me feel old,” Will Ashton joked as he and his wife, McKenna, approached.

  “After a couple years in the NFL, I already feel old. I don’t know how you did it for so long,” Trey said with wonder. Will had been a very successful quarterback in the NFL for almost a decade. Further, he came back to Keeneston and took up coaching the high school team that Trey had played on along with Coach Cade Davies.

  “You thinking of coming home? I could use a running back coach,” Will smiled at him.

  “Not yet. But I think that’s our plan. When we’re ready to have kids, we’ll move back here.” Trey and Taylor had already discussed it. There were advantages they could give their kids with their NFL and Hollywood connections. But they both agreed that when it came to raising them, it was better to raise them in a place like Keeneston.

  Mo and Dani's car pulled up and their twin eight-year-old boys, Zain and Gabe, leapt out and dashed to where the other boys were playing. Sienna and Carter, Will and Kenna’s children, quickly got everyone’s attention as Sienna tossed a football back and forth with her brother.

  “Wow, she’s got an arm on her,” Trey said with wonder as Sienna threw a bullet at her brother.

  “Yup. She got her mother’s fashion sense and my arm. At ten, she’s now old enough to really be competitive. She’s the quarterback for the local flag football team. And Carter, three years younger, is dying to be old enough to play. But he has no interest in throwing the ball. He likes catching and running with it.” Will watched his kids as Sienna organized the older kids into teams.

  “Do you think he wants to play in the NFL?” Trey asked as he watched Sienna throw a zinger to her brother.

  “Nope. He wants to race horses. We don’t really care what he does, as long as he’s happy. Now Sienna lives and breathes football, but she’s only ten. They have lots of time to grow up and decide what they want to do in life. Gosh knows she argues like her mother, so I wouldn’t rule out her being a lawyer either.”

  Trey watched the kids play a little more and then couldn’t help but cringe as Sophie, Annie and Cade Davies’s nine-year-old daughter, landed a huge hit on Gabe.

  “Nice hit, huh?” Annie asked as she and Cade approached, Cade shaking his head.

  “I can’t get her to stop. Someone enjoys teaching her takedowns. Welcome back and congratulations.” Cade pulled him in for a quick hug and a pat on the back.

  “Thanks, Coach.”

  “I think you can call me Cade now. I haven’t been your coach in years.”

  Trey couldn’t do it, though. No matter how many years passed, he and Will would always be “Coach” to him. They settled down and talked football, Taylor, and the movie before Paige and Cole joined them. Their sons, Ryan, nine, and Jackson, six, ran off to play football with the group after saying their congratulations.

  “I have some clothes and things for you to take to Taylor after you pop the question. She had wanted them for the movie,” Paige told him as she rolled her eyes at Ryan blowing a kiss at Sienna. “I swear, Cole. Your son is going to be shot and I wouldn’t blame Will for doing it.”

  “I’ll go talk to him, again,” Cole sighed as Dani and Mo walked up to offer their congratulations.

  “Do you think you’ll get married here?” Dani asked.

  “Dear, don�
�t you think he should be allowed to propose first?” Mo asked sweetly.

  “They’ve been together seven years; it’s hardly a surprise and I’m sure they’ve already discussed it.”

  “Oh, they have. And I know it’ll be here,” Gemma called out from across the porch where she sat with the Rose sisters.

  John Wolfe lumbered up the steps and shook Trey's hand. “First week of April is lovely,” he said before taking a seat next to his girlfriend, Miss Lily.

  “If it’s the second week in May, the sheriff’s office will be happy to help with keeping the gossips, including my lovely sister-in-law, away,” Marshall Davies joked as he and his wife, Katelyn, made their way up the steps.

  “I heard that!” Gemma laughed.

  “Mr. Everett, can I be a flower girl?” eight-year-old Sydney asked. Marshall and Katelyn’s six-year-old son, Wyatt, already had run off to join his cousin Jackson.

  “I want to be one too!” seven-year-old Layne and Piper called as they ran over.

  “Pleeeeeeease?” they all begged.

  Trey laughed as Miles and Morgan whispered to Layne that it wasn’t polite to request to be in someone else’s wedding. Similarly, Tammy and Pierce informed Piper of that fact as their four-year-old son, Dylan, struggled to get down so he could play with his friends.

  “It’s okay,” Trey smiled at the three pairs of matching hazel eyes. The cousins looked nothing alike except for those eyes. “I’ll talk to the boss about it after she agrees to marry me and see what I can do.”

  The girls’ faces lit with excitement as they headed off to practice being flower girls and Trey got updates on how everyone was doing. Miles’s farming company was expanding. Morgan’s consulting firm was growing to include public relations, including helping Taylor out with promotion for her movie. Katelyn was getting ready to hire a new vet at the animal hospital. Tammy was happily running Rooney & Rooney since Kenna had left to become the county's prosecutor.

  “Thank goodness when Kenna left, Neely Grace was there to fill the void. I don’t know how I’ve kept from shooting Henry and those horrible pick-up lines. I think he feels he has to use them all on me since Neely gets mad when he uses them on her,” Tammy told him. He could believe it, but Henry wouldn’t be Henry unless he acted just a little sleazy.

  “And how’s the Cropbot doing?” Trey asked Pierce about his farming invention.

  “Doing great. We sell out every year and are upping production. Soon we’re going to outgrow the facility we’re in and will have to find a new one,” Pierce told him. It was hard to imagine that these two dressed in jeans and cowboy boots were millionaires or that Dani and Mo were royalty of the small Middle Eastern nation of Rahmi. It was one of the wonderful things about Keeneston—everyone could be themselves and be treated as such.

  Soon the Rose sisters, along with Marcy Davies and Betsy Ashton, started setting out food. Almost naturally, the men, women, and children separated into their respective corners. The women sat on the porch telling stories while the kids sat on the lawn under a large maple tree. The men moved to the stairs as they balanced plates of food on their knees.

  “Have you thought of a special way to propose?” Mo asked as he took a bite of fried chicken.

  “Not yet. It has to be super romantic, though. Taylor deserves a perfect proposal.”

  “I think you’ll find that as long as it comes from you, it will be perfect,” Miles informed him in such a serious way it seemed the complete opposite of the romantic words he said.

  “So says the man who painted a water tower to ask his wife to marry him,” Cy teased.

  “Oh, and riding into town on a horse was what? Just convenient?” Marshall teased his brother Cy. “Why don’t you just ask her? I asked Katelyn at home. It was private and completely ours.”

  “And completely boring,” Cade laughed before turning to Trey. “You know how I proposed to Annie—on the field after the championship game. You could do something like that at the Vultures field. You could do it two ways: at the first game in front of everyone or have a romantic night out and end up on the field all alone.”

  “No woman can resist a man on a horse. I’m just sayin’,” Cy put in as the debate of best marriage proposal raged on.

  * * *

  Taylor gripped her coffee mug tightly and took a deep breath. It was two in the morning and they’d been filming since ten the previous morning. If Melanie didn’t hit her mark, then Taylor was going to kill her. This was the twenty-eighth take and it was so easy Cyndi Lu, the friendly stalker, could do it.

  Jim was yelling at Melanie. Grant was on his cell phone probably doing a live play-by-play via social media. The cameramen were yawning and the boom mic was dipping dangerously close to Melanie’s head as she yelled back at Jim. It was a nightmare, to say the least. But they had to get this scene done tonight or they’d fall behind in production. With the chance of rain in the forecast, she didn’t want to risk pushing it off for another week.

  Taylor slammed down her coffee mug and drew everyone’s attention. The cameramen were startled, the boom mic shot back into the air, and Jim and Melanie stopped yelling. Even Grant looked up from his cell phone.

  “Jim, go direct. Gentlemen, get ready to film. Grant, get in position,” Taylor ordered in a voice just short of a yell.

  She grabbed Melanie by the arm and half-dragged the starlet down to the nearby ocean. “This is when you see Darin for the first time since receiving the flowers he sent you. You’re standing in the waves and look up at the gazebo lit up with lights mixed between the flowers. You see him standing there with flowers in his hand. You run to him. Despite only knowing your first name, he’s somehow tracked you down across the state to tell you he loves you. You run to him and then stop where the big X is on the grass about five feet from him,” Taylor called over her shoulder as she took off in an excited run.

  Emotion of the scene filled her eyes and face conveying the shock, excitement, and love Kathy felt for Darin. Taylor slowed as she approached the X. “Darin?” She whispered as if she was seeing a ghost. She stopped at the X and waited for Grant to say his line.

  Instead of Grant’s line, the sound of creaking metal ruined the moment just as the lights overhead used to cast the soft romantic glow broke loose. Taylor only spared a quick look at the lights about to crash down on her head before leaping forward. At the same time, Grant had started rushing toward her as the lights smashed into the ground right where Taylor had been standing. She jumped into Grant’s arms and cried out as a piece of glass sliced into her leg, but was otherwise unhurt.

  “Taylor!” Jim called as he ran forward issuing orders.

  She heard Melanie crying hysterically how she was almost killed–she as in Melanie, not Taylor. Grant yelled at Melanie to shut up as he pulled Taylor all the way into his arms.

  “It’s okay. You’re safe now,” Grant whispered against her hair and held her tightly as she began to shake. “Let me see the cut, babe.”

  Taylor finally looked down and saw the blood pooling around the shard of glass sticking out of her calf. “Oh crap. That’s gonna hurt when it’s pulled out.” She laid her head against Grant’s broad, make-up-bronzed chest and closed her eyes.

  Paramedics and the on-set doctor rushed in followed by Millie and Cyndi Lu staring from the driveway of the resort. Grant held her hand as the shard of glass was removed and the area cleaned and closed with four stitches.

  “It’s all over,” Grant said soothingly. Taylor opened her eyes and saw Millie and Cyndi Lu looking worriedly over at her. Melanie was in front of Millie waving her arms and telling how she almost died while Jim stood over Taylor looking worried. “Come on, I’ll take you home,” Grant offered.

  Taylor nodded and stood up before she thanked the doctor. “I’m okay, really. I’m sorry I sort of shut off there for a moment. But, I’m alright now.”

  “No,” Jim cut in seriously. “Let Grant take you home while I look into this.”

  Taylor looked o
ver at Grant and gave him a nod of her head. “Okay for tonight only. Let’s get the set back in order ASAP and keep our fingers crossed we can film tomorrow night.”

  Heat and pressure pulsed on her leg where her stitches were. She hissed in discomfort and was surprised when Grant hurried to put his arm around her and help her toward his rented Porsche.

  “Taylor, are you okay? Is there any truth that someone is trying to kill Melanie?” Millie called out.

  “Come on, not tonight,” Grant shot back, annoyed at the questions.

  Taylor was shocked. She thought for sure Grant would be in front of the camera retelling his heroics over and over again. Magnifying her shock was the fact his hands were staying in respectable locations as well. “I’m fine, Millie. Thank you. And no, no one is trying to kill anyone.”

  “Miss Jefferies! Watch out for him. I may not think Trey Everett is good enough for you, but Grant Elliott is a pig,” Cyndi Lu screamed in warning.

  “Oink-oink, babe.”

  “Really, Grant?” Taylor rolled her eyes as he helped her into his car. “I was almost thinking you were a decent guy.”

  Grant shut the door and strolled to his side. “Never think that, babe. I’m not a decent guy. I’ll do anything to keep climbing in this industry.”

  “Even suck up to the producer? You may fool others, but I think you’re a nice guy under all that oil,” Taylor teased as he drove her the short distance home.

  “Come on. I’ll help you inside. Then I can exploit the fact I was in your house while Trey was gone.”

  Taylor shook her head in sympathy. It must be hard to be Grant. It must be exhausting. She saw how much he worked out. She hated to say it, but it was a shallow industry and one of the reasons she hired him was because he looked the part of a Hollywood heartthrob.

  “Go on. It’s your reward for being so kind to me tonight.”

  Grant stopped in surprise as he helped her to the couch in her living room. “Yeah, and then one of the top running backs in the league will be having a private talk with me. Geez, Taylor. This place is so . . . un-Hollywood.”