Kennedy pinched the bridge of her nose. “I am way too jet lagged for this conversation.”
Pru just wanted a chance to regroup. How could she have gone from that glorious, heady feeling of being swept away…to this? “I’m sure you’ll want to discuss it more later, but we have guests we need to see to.”
“I need to be getting back out there for the second set.”
“Go ahead. I’ll be along in a minute.”
Flynn’s eyes lingered on hers, a silent question of whether she’d be all right alone with them. That was very much debatable, but she needed to face this, and someone had to deal with their guests. She squeezed his hand. With a faint nod, he slipped out the door.
Across the room, Kennedy dropped into a chair. “Pru, I don’t even know what to say about all this.”
“Look, I know it’s a shock, and it’s not ideal, but—”
“Ideal? No. It’s a clusterfuck. We’re going to have to lie to the social worker. If she finds out…”
Xander laid a hand on her shoulder. “Hey.”
“I am aware of the stakes, Kennedy,” Pru snapped. “If you think I haven’t worried myself sick over the whole thing, you’d be wrong.”
“It’s not just that she could take Ari away. It’s the situation. Honey, I’m worried about you. Flynn is the kind of guy you’ve spent your whole life avoiding for very good reasons. What’s this going to do to you when it’s over? You’ve been down this road before, and it damn near killed you.”
Pru opened her mouth to say it wasn’t the same, but the door swung open and Ari barged in. “Flynn’s going to stick.”
She was too speechless at the utter conviction in Ari’s voice to chastise her for eavesdropping…again. Fresh worry bloomed. They hadn’t talked about this, not since the beginning. Maybe that was a mistake on her part. Maybe she should have kept reiterating the transient nature of their circumstances instead of letting herself get carried away by the fantasy.
“Honey, you understand that this is temporary, right?” That felt more real now that Kennedy and Xander had burst their happy little bubble. “As soon as things are finalized, Flynn’s going to leave.” Because that’s what men like him did. Like her father. That’s what Kennedy was implying. The idea of it had a pit yawning in her stomach.
Ari shrugged, apparently unimpressed with the argument. “Maybe. But his first reaction to this whole thing was to marry you. Think about that.” And on that note, she walked back out.
~*~
Flynn had never wanted a performance to be over with more than the jam session that night. So, of course, it ran long, with guests and townsfolk lingering and socializing. Kennedy and Xander stuck around for a bit, listening, visiting with locals, and Pru had been a little bit dimmer for their presence. Now that he’d had the chance to see her without it, he recognized the shell she’d worn when he first met her—or maybe it was really armor. She’d pulled into herself in the face of Kennedy and Xander’s disapproval, and Flynn hated it. He hated seeing the worry back in her eyes.
At the end of the night, after Ari had crashed and the Nashville girls had been poured into bed—literally in the case of a few of them—Pru still moved around the kitchen, putting together a massive casserole for the next morning’s breakfast. “Deanna’s booked a massage tomorrow, and I need to get up with Abbey to see if she’s willing and able to come in for a group facial for the Nashville girls. We’ll need to clean up from tonight’s shindig, of course.” She continued to ramble on about anything and everything except how things went with Kennedy and Xander.
At last, Flynn simply stepped into her path and wrapped his arms around her. “Breathe.”
On a shuddering breath, Pru burrowed in, leaning against him. “God, Flynn. This is not how I wanted this to come out. I wanted to explain it to them in a controlled fashion, make them see the logic of it. And instead…”
“It will be all right.” If it was within his power to grant, he’d make sure of it.
She tipped her head up to look at him, those dark eyes brimming with anxiety. “How will it? For our plan to work, they have to agree to it. They have to be willing to lie for us. You saw them.”
“They’re worried about the situation—rightly so. And Kennedy is legitimately worried about you.” Flynn hesitated. “What did she mean you’ve been down this road before?” Pru stiffened, and he rushed to explain. “I saw Ari hiding and started to come back to talk to her about it. I heard the last bit of your conversation when she went into the room.”
Her expression shuttered and she stepped away from him. It was such a contrast to the warmth he’d grown used to with her, he almost rubbed his arms as if against a chill. A new knot of anxiety curled in his gut. “What aren’t you telling me?”
“It was forever ago. It doesn’t matter now.”
“Obviously Kennedy thinks it does. What’s she talking about, agra?”
“My father.”
Whatever he’d expected her to say, it wasn’t that. “Your father? I don’t understand. What does that have to do with me?”
Pru sucked in a breath and let it out in a gush. “Because you’re exactly his type. The type I have spent my entire life avoiding getting involved with.”
“What