Me:I know. Have you tried chamomile tea?
King:No, thank you. Doesn’t your new client arrive today?
Me:Yep. He’s charming Carli and Cassi right now.
Me:Once he’s had his coffee, we’ll head out to the new property.
King:Oh.
There were dots, then they disappeared. More dots…then nothing. More dots.
Me:You should come have dinner with us. He’s staying at Chance’s, so everyone will be there tonight to meet him. Elyse and Marc are coming over, too.
And dots. More dots.
King:Sorry. I’m busy.
King:All week.
What? Since when was he busy? If he wasn’t at work, he was at the pond behind the manor half the time.
King:Gotta get back to work.
Well, shit.
“Who you texting?” Ego asked, looking down at my phone.
I shoved it in my back pocket. “No one.”
He looked disbelieving as he handed me a steaming hot mug. “Cassi said this is your favorite.”
“You’re an angel sent from above,” I said.
Cassi giggled, but Carli shook her head. “You two go away. You’ll be bad for business.”
Ego put a hand to his chest, affronted. “Moi? On the contrary. I think I’d be excellent for business.”
“For sure,” Cassi agreed, nodding like a bobble-head.
“They’re not wrong, but I think it would be best if you keep a low profile until the work on your new place is done. Once you’re ready to establish yourself as a part-time resident, they’ll get used to you quickly enough,” I said.
Carli nodded her agreement, but Cassi looked doubtful. Unfortunately, so did my cousin. He’d grown up longing to be seen, but I thought perhaps the last few years of fame had been more than he bargained for. In the beginning, being thrust into the limelight had brought him joy. Not so much anymore. He wanted—needed—anonymity.
“Where is the new place?” Cassi asked curiously.
I waggled my finger at her. “Oh no. That shall remain a mystery for now. Someone’s bound to see him walking out of here, and?—”
The bells above the door jangled as a new customer walked in, proving my point. As Ego whirled to hide his face, the person gasped.Busted. He immediately gave that dazzling smile that drew people in like bees to nectar. I stood back, watching him ooze charm in that silky voice that had made him famous.
In this moment, he wasn’t my cousin, he really was a star, and watching him in his element felt both foreign and familiar. To me, he’d always be that snot-nosed kid I’d missed after our fathers fell out. But to the world, he was this, and both suited him.
“You better rescue him,” Carli eventually hissed to me.
Agreeing, I wrangled him away from his admirer, thanked the ladies, and hustled him out to the car. “Thanks,” he said as the door closed him inside the isolation of my car.
“My pleasure. Is it always like that?”
He huffed. “It’s usually worse. Maybe this small-town thing will be exactly what I need.”
