Keith relaxed into the couch cushions. Protective instincts aside, this could be a fun idea. With a playful growl, he grabbed the spoon and devoured the chilly bite.
The next ninety or so minutes were spent with massive amounts of laughter from his siblings, groans of embarrassment from Mickie, and silence from him. The movie was terrible no matter how you looked at it. But it had put Mickie on some pretty prominent director’s radar.
Throughout the film, his siblings asked a million questions about her co-star, filming, memorizing lines, and anything Hollywood-related they could think of. Mickie answered each question with a smile and didn’t outwardly seem bothered by their inquiries.
But with each additional explanation of the way the filming industry worked, Keith tensed further. Every time she laughed, recalling a memory of her acting days, or spoke fondly of someone she’d connect with, his stomach twisted with ugly darkness. Mickie’s sparkled as she regaled them with a story of almost missing the Oscars because Ralph was a perfectionist who’d started her hairstyle over at least four times.
It was clear in her tone and body language that’d she’d loved it. And talk of the Oscars reminded him that not only had she loved her career, she’d excelled at it. She’d been honored time and time again for her stellar work. Only in recent years had the toll of the lifestyle become too great for her to endure. There had been many wonderful years for her, and those were the times that would inevitably call her back to her life.
Suddenly, the air in the room vanished. Keith sprang to his feet, making Mickie topple over on the couch. “Excuse me,” he croaked. “Just remembered I forgot to return a customer’s call. I’ll be right back.” He escaped up the stairs, aware of three sets of confused eyes trailing him.
But he didn’t care about them. It was the fourth pair, full of concern, that would be the ones to destroy him eventually.
He lay down on Mickie’s bed, flinging his arm across his eyes as he fought to keep from hyperventilating. After a few seconds, a soft weight shifted the bed beside him. Mortification slammed into him. Of course Mickie saw through his lie. She was in tune with him in a way no one else ever had been.
“Hey, baby,” he said. “I’m good. You didn’t have to check on me.”
“Keith, I had some great years in my career as an actress. Years I loved and will always remember with great fondness.”
He let his forearm slide off his face. She spoke with authority in no-nonsense tone he rarely heard from her. “I’m glad.” And he was. He wasn’t a monster who wished she’d spent every minute of the past ten years in misery.
“But what I do not have is one single twitch of desire to return to it. Not one, Keith. I am happy here in Vermont. I have friends. I have some exciting career prospects which I haven’t even had a chance to talk to you about yet. And I have you. I’m most happy with you. Leaving is not on my radar. And it won’t ever be. What can I do to convince you of that?”
“Don’t give up on me,” he whispered, even though it made him sound needy and weak. When it came to her, he was needy. “I’m trying to believe it, Mickie. My head does. It trusts you. But here.” He grabbed her hand and placed it over his heart much as she’d done the night he confessed his deepest sorrow to her. “It’s so battered, I’m afraid it will never fully heal.”
“It will,” she said. “I know it. But for now, to help the process along, I will promise you this.” She looked straight in his eyes and spoke with one hundred percent certainty. “I promise you that I will not return to my life in Hollywood. There is nothing now or ever that will make me change my mind. I promise.”
He pulled her down for a sweet kiss then wrapped her in his arms. His siblings would know to leave once they’d finished their movie. Like him, they’d become as comfortable in Mickie’s house as they were in their own.
They fell asleep light that, fully clothed, on top of the mattress, and when he woke around three a.m. to a soft body shifting on top of him, Keith felt a confidence in his life and relationship he’d yet to experience.
Gently as he could muster, he maneuvered her off of him and onto her side. Then he gathered her close and watched the peace on her face as she slept.
He’d fallen asleep with many women over the years, sometimes waking in the middle of the night only to scurry out before they woke, occasionally waking them or round two, and once in a rare while rolling over to catch a few extra hours sleep if it was more of a friends-with-benefits type of relationship.