Playing it Kale (The McCain Saga Book 4) (11 page)

“Oh thank heavens,” she says
dramatically, slumping back into the armchair.
 
“Having a baby would have totally derailed your next few semesters.”

I shake my head, feeling my blood rise
in temperature.

“Settle down, Monica,” Dad says, giving
Mom a look.
 
“Let the girl talk.”

“I’m sorry,” Mom says and it’s hard to
tell if she actually feels sorry or not.
 
“Go on.”

“Thank you,” I say, feeling
annoyed.
 
I should just leave with no
explanation.
 
“You’ve seen all the
attention our video got over the last few days.
 
Well, it also got attention from music labels and management
companies.
 
I just signed with a manager,
and we’re headed down to LA right now to sign a contract.”

“What do you mean by contract?” Dad asks
as he takes off his glasses.

“She means a deal with a music company
to record an album,” Kale says.
 
He
squeezes my hand, giving support.
 
“Whitney is going to be famous.”

“I don’t understand,” Mom says as she
closes her eyes and shakes her head.
 
“How are you going to keep working at EM if you’re going to be stuck
down in Los Angeles for who knows how long?
 
When will you be back?”

My eyes fall away from them, because I
feel it rising up in me.
 
Guilt.
 
That I’m
letting my parents down, that I’m derailing our plans that we’ve had in place
since I was in diapers.

Kale rubs a thumb over the back of my
hand, and I look up at him.
 
There’s so
much support in his eyes, so much confidence.
 
It’s still a wonder to me how he came to be in my life and how, in such
a short span of time, he’s come to mean so much.

“I called Lance this morning and told
him I couldn’t keep working at EM,” I say as I look back over at my
parents.
 
“And I don’t know when I’ll be
back.
 
If things go well, it might not be
for a long while.”

Kale’s phone starts ringing.
 
He looks down at it and I see Calvin’s name
on the screen.
 
One second later my own
starts ringing and
it’s
Hadley.

“But what about your
real life?”
Mom says.
 
“What if this fantasy doesn’t work out?
 
What if all their promises mean nothing and
you go back to just being Whitney and life goes back to normal?
 
What will you do then?”

My teeth clench tightly, and I take two
quick breaths in and out through my nose.
 
My eyes narrow at Mom.
 
“Then I’ll
be extremely grateful that I got as far as I did.
 
Most people don’t get that opportunity.
 
We have to go now.”
 
I stand, pulling Kale up with me, never letting
go of his hand.
 
“We both have a plane to
catch.”

Kale looks dazed and out of sorts as we
cross back to the door.
 
I open it and
Kale steps out.
 
I pause, looking back at
them.
 
“I can do this,” I say, giving a
small little nod.
 
“I know I can.
 
Someday you’ll see it.”
 
I sniff when the back of my eyes sting.
 
“I love you both.”

And before any other words can be said,
I close the door behind me.

“You did
good
,”
Kale says as we walk back to the elevator.
 
“They’ll see it someday.
 
It’s
just too new and fresh right now.
 
Give
them some time.”

“Yeah,” I say as I discreetly wipe at a
stray tear.

Kale pulls our hands up and presses a
kiss to the back of my hand.

We get back to the ground level and
climb back into the car.
 
Suddenly, I’m
exhausted.
 
I relax into Kale’s side as
the driver pulls back onto the road.

“It sounds like Hadley will have an
apartment arranged for you pretty quick once you get settled in LA,” Kale says.
 
His mood is instantly
back
up, excited and confident.
 
I’m positive
that he’s trying to pick my mood up.
 
He
talks enthusiastically, like he’s not worried about the distance or the work or
the time.
 
And I try to mirror his
excitement.
 
“So, either I can get a
place close by or…”

“Or you can just stay with me?” I
suggest shyly.
 
“I still want to take
things slow, but this weekend was really…incredible.”

“I was hoping you’d say that, angel,” he
says with a smile.
 
He leans forward and
presses a soft kiss to my lips.

And rights everything
once again.

All too quickly, we pull up to the
airport.

Tony will be traveling with me and
Hadley.
 
I don’t even have money yet, or
anything,
and I’ve already got a manager and a security man
in my employ.
 
It’s a surreal and
panicking feeling.

So, with hats and
glasses on, Kale and I, and the whole entourage head into the airport.

Kale gets more than a few glances in his
direction.
 
He’s recognizable, even in
his sunglasses, since he models in them frequently.
 
Heads perk up, whispers spread.
 
Twice, women come up to him asking for
autographs, which he quietly gives them.
 
But always, he comes back to hold my hand.

I see eyes lock on my face, as
well.
 
They whisper.
 
But thankfully, everyone keeps their
distance.

We’re taken through a separate security
check,
individual TSA workers take our bags.

And in the blink of an eye, it’s time.

Kale and I are taking off from separate
terminals.
 
And both our flights leave in
less than twenty minutes.

He meets my eyes when I stop in front of
him.
 
He wraps his arms around my waist,
and my arms loop behind his neck.

“It’s only seven days,” he says, and the
way he says it, it sounds like he’s trying to reassure himself.
 
“I’ll see you at your new place exactly a
week from today.”

“You’d better show up,” I say.
 
I try to make it sound light, like a
joke.
 
But there’s a very real part of me
that’s scared of the fact that anything can happen in seven days.
 
The seven days we’ll be apart is longer than
the six days we’ve been together.
 
He
could change his mind.
 
Or forget about
me.
 
Or remember that he’s used to
glamorous girls who are far more up to his level than I am.

“That’s not funny,” he says to my
surprise.
 
And he actually looks upset.
 
“You better answer all of my calls.
 
I expect at least four a day.”
 
At this, he does chuckle.

“I promise,” I whisper.
 
He leans in, and our lips connect like
magnets that were made to polarize to one another.

“Whitney,” Hadley says from behind
me.
 
“It’s time to go.”

“We’re going to miss our flight if you
don’t get moving,” Calvin says with impatience.

And regretfully, we break apart.

“Call me when you land,” I say as I look
over my shoulder.

“The very second,” Kale calls as he
walks backward in the opposite direction.

I hold his eyes until I round the
corner, and he disappears for the next seven days.

CHAPTER
EIGHT

One, two, skip a few, ninety-nine,
rocket speed.

That’s about what it feels like.

We land.
 
Drive to meetings even though it’s six in the evening.
 
Kale calls just before I have to step into
our first one, giving us thirty seconds to talk.
 
A bidding war starts.
 
Hadley may look innocent and inexperienced,
but she’s a bulldog in the conference room.

The numbers that are rocketing out of
everyone’s mouths are making my head spin.
 
They don’t seem real.
 
The tours
and the promo photo shoots and everything can’t possibly be attached to the
name Whitney Ford.

But they are.
 
And this is happening.

By the end of the day, I’m
exhausted.
 
Someone drives Tony, me, and
Hadley to an apartment not far away.
 
It’s gorgeous and bright and comfortable.

It doesn’t feel like mine, though.
 
With only one bag that contains all of my
things, how could it ever feel like my place?
 
Suddenly, I feel kind of homeless.
 
Where am I going to live?
 
What is
to come?
 
Will I get to go home to
Seattle, or will I live the rest of my life in this crazy, smog-riddled city
with ten million people and no trees?

The next morning, Hadley brings me coffee
to the apartment.
 
We go over contract
offers.
 
Numbers.
 
I’m smart, so yeah, I can process them
all.
 
But I can’t believe them.
 

Together, we pick the best
label,
at least the one we think will be the best fit for
me.
 
It’s not the highest offer, but Veronica,
the PR person they are assigning me, seems great.
 
She’s already got a photo shoot set up and a
line of shows in two months they’re ready to schedule.

Like I said, rocket
speed.

The following morning, Hadley and I sign
the papers, contracting me to the huge label, Elysium Tracks.
 
I know every one of their artists.
 
And my heart breaks into a sprint.
 
Cause
on Monday,
we’ll meet about the track list and start figuring out my backup instrumentation.

“Not so bad, right?” Hadley says as we
walk to the elevator, Tony leading the way.

“No, I guess not,” I say as we step into
it and Tony pushes the button for the ground floor.
 
“I have to say, I’m glad to have you in my
corner.”

“I might not look like much,” Hadley
says with a smile.
 
“But I’ve got plenty
of fight in me.”

I chuckle.
 
“I’m pretty sure Tony does, too,” I say as I
bump him with my shoulder.

He smiles down at me, and I’m surprised
at the warmth in his eyes.
 

“Thanks for upending your life and
coming down with us,” I say to him.
 
“Bet
last week you never would have thought you’d be in LA.”

“Believe me, this is far better than
walking the dark halls of Digit Securities every night,” he says in that crazy
deep, rumbly voice of his.

The elevator lets us out into the lobby.
And the second we open the doors to step outside, I’m blinded by flashing
lights.

“Miss Ford!” everyone yells, begging for
my attention.
 
Microphones and recording devices
are pushed into my face.
 
“Is it true you
just signed with Elysium?
 
Are you and
world famous model, Kale McCain, an exclusive couple?
 
What do you have to say about that picture he
posted today?”

“What?” I say, trying to shield my eyes
from the crazy flashes of the paparazzi and reporters.
 
“What picture?”

“Don’t say anything,” Hadley hisses as
Tony bulldozes his way through the crowd, and we dart to the car as the crowd
presses in and keeps firing off questions.

“Do you expect the two of you to be the
next big celebrity couple?” another question assaults my ears as someone hits
me in the cheek with their recorder.
 
“Is
Whale going to be gracing the covers of all the magazines?
 
Are you concerned about the distance and
demands of your careers?”

My eyes are wide and I probably look
like a spooked puppy as we finally duck into the car and Tony slams the door
behind us.
 
He climbs into the passenger
seat and our hired driver takes off, swerving to avoid the crowd.

The second I take a deep breath, my
phone starts ringing.

“Kale?”
I breathe as I watch men and women with cameras chase after us.

“Whit, I am so sorry,” Kale suddenly
starts talking really fast on the other line.
 
“I don’t know what the hell I was thinking.
 
I just missed you and I forget that people
are crazy and don’t want to respect the fact that we’re actual human beings.”

“What are you talking about?
 
And what where they saying
about some picture?”

But just then Hadley hands me her
phone.
 
There on her screen, is a picture
the two of us took together, that night at the cabin.
 
Our faces are close, Kale’s lips lightly on
my temple.
 
Below the picture is a
caption,
Miss this girl like you wouldn’t
believe.

“That’s…sweet,” I say as a smile crosses
my lips.
 
And seeing his face, seeing us
together, it makes a sharp ache form in my chest.
 
“But holy aftermath.”

“I know,” he says.
 
“I’m sorry.
 
I’m watching TMZ, and
there’s already pictures
of you popping up.
 
And they’re replaying
that video I made of you that night over and over.
 
The media is going nuts.”

“This isn’t a bad thing,” Hadley says as
she starts scrolling through her phone.
 
“Everyone is talking about you.
 
Hashtag
who is Whitney Ford
is
trending right now.
 
So is
Kale and Whit
.
 
And
Whale
.
 
Really, Whale?
 
Not the nicest sounding celeb mashup name.”

“Calvin is on the other line,” Kale says
through my phone.
 
“He’s probably going
nuts right now.
 
I breathed without his
permission.”

I take a deep breath of my own and lean
back in my seat.
 
“Is it always going to
be like this for us, Kale?” I ask quietly.

He takes a second to respond.
 
Like he’s trying to make sure he words this
very carefully.
 
“I hate to say it, but
probably,” he finally says.
 
“Do you
regret it?”

And that yank in my heart, the one when
I hear how scared he is to ask that
question, that
serves as all the answer I need.
 
“No.
 
Not one second of it.”

“Good.”
 
I can hear the smile in his voice.
 
“Cause I miss your face like hell, and I can’t wait to see you in a few
days.”

“Me too,” I say as a grin spreads on my
face.

“Crap,” he hisses.
 
“That’s Calvin again.
 
I’ve got to deal with him.
 
I’ll call you tonight?”

“You better.”
 
And then he’s gone.

“Welcome to the world of being a
celebrity couple,” Hadley says.
 
“Way to
break into Hollywood with a bang.”

I can’t help it.
 
I watch all the celebrity news channels that
night.
 
There’s
a whole slew of pictures of Kale.
 
There’s
a handful of me.
 
All ones that they pulled from my infrequently used
social media profiles.
 
There’s
that picture they managed to snap at my apartment in Seattle, the one of him in
his underwear, mad, behind me.
 
The
picture he posted of the two of us today.
 
And the video.

They play it over, and over.

They talk about me, how I’m an
unknown.
 
How I was a wedding singer—even
though that’s not really true, it was a one-time thing.
 
They’ve dug up my bachelor’s degree and how I
got it at eighteen, how I’m almost done with my masters.
 
How I’m a “scientist.”
 
Who is
this girl?
they’re
all saying.

Then there’s Kale.
 
They talk about his insane career.
 
They talk about him always being with
women.
 
How he dated Angelique Harris for
five months.
 
How he is the bomb-
diggity
.

And they talk about how we just
met.
 
How fast this happened.
 
They speculate that we must have known each
other from
before,
cause how could this gain so much
serious traction if we
just
met?

My phone rings, and I answer it
absentmindedly.

“Are you watching all this?” Kale’s
voice comes through the other line.

“It’s kind of hard not to,” I say as I
turn the volume on the TV down.
 
“But
it’s also kind of like watching a train wreck.”

“Ouch,” he says with a laugh.

“No,” I say
, shaking
my head even though he can’t see it.
 
“That’s not what I meant.”

“I know,” he says, and I hear him shift,
like he’s standing.
 
I hear a door open
and there’s the faint sound of a breeze.
 
I imagine him standing out on his balcony, looking down over his
city.
 
I go out onto my own balcony.

I’m on the twenty-first story, so I’m
not too worried about getting recognized from this high up.
 
But knowing we’re both doing the same thing,
looking down over our cities, I don’t feel like he’s quite as far away.

“I saw the news about Elysium Tracks
today.
 
Congratulations.”

“Thanks,” I smile.

“So what do you have going on the next
few days?” he asks.
 
There’s sadness in
his voice.
 

This distance is killer.

“We have meetings tomorrow,” I
start.
 
I don’t really want to talk about
work—crazy as it is that it’s work now—but I don’t want to talk about how bad
my heart aches right now either.
 
“I’ll
talk with the
producers,
meet with some back up
musicians.
 
All that stuff, I guess.
 
Then we’ll start playing with the
instrumentation for the songs over the next few days.
 
They’re hoping that we can start recording
the actual album a week from Monday.”

“Man, they’re not wasting any time, are
they?” he asks.

“It’s crazy!” I say with a chuckle.
 
I watch people walk on the streets below, and
it’s bizarre to think that just a week and a half ago, I had a life as normal
as them.
 
“How’s your week gone?”

“Good,” he says, like everything he does
is normal.
 
“We just finished the new
underwear shoot today.”

“Wish I had been there for that,” I say,
trying to sound confident, not awkward and out of place saying something so presumptuous.

“I’ll give you a private viewing when I
get there in a few days.”
 
I can almost
imagine him, that confident smirk I just know he’s wearing.
 
The mischief in his eyes.
 
The perfection.

“Are you really my boyfriend, Kale
McCain?” I say, even as I blush.
 
“
Cause
I’m pretty sure I’m still in one of my crazy, fanfare
dreams in my outdated apartment in Seattle.”

“This is a really cruel dream if it is
one,” he says.
 
And always, Kale surprises
me with his moments of sincerity.
 
“I
don’t want to wake up from this.
 
Knowing
I’m your boyfriend and you’re waiting for me is what’s getting me through the
longest week in the history of mankind.”

I sink into the chair on the balcony
with a contented sigh.
 
“Three more days.”

“Three more days,” he echoes.
 
We’re quiet for a while, each lost in longing
and the distance between us.
 
“Will you
sing to me?”