Chapter 1
Lindsay Connings was one of
Jeanie’s best friends. She was a talented recording artist and also the better
half of A.J. McLean for almost a year now.
“No…why? She’s in Florida with
A.J., right?”
Kevin had a funny feeling Lindsay
was no longer in Florida. He also had a feeling she would never be with A.J.
again. Not after last night.
Lindsay Connings was twenty-one
years old and she was a star. She had no idea it would be this hard. She didn’t
mind the hours or work. It was all the crap that hung heavy like dense fog, day
in and day out that bothered Lindsay. It was press. It was being homesick. It
was traveling and traveling and traveling.
She sat in the front seat of the
rental car parked outside Jeanie and Kevin’s. She been there for almost thirty-minutes,
sitting in the dark and wondering if she should go in, go home, or go back to
A.J.
Any other time, any other problem
and Lindsay would have beaten a path to Jeanie’s door. Jeanie was her
pseudo-mom and big sister, confidante and teacher. She couldn’t imagine life
without her. She loved her and she knew without a shadow of a doubt, that
Jeanie Kirkpatrick-Richardson loved her back.
This wasn’t just Lindsay’s
problem. She couldn’t confide in her friend what had happened because Jeanie
would want to know everything…and everything included Kevin.
Lindsay had been on a video shoot
in New York. The shoot was scheduled for Thursday and Friday and Lindsay
planned on spending the weekend with her parents and family. A.J. said he
understood…he’d pick her up at the airport when got home on Sunday night.
She didn’t realize that her
parents weren’t in New York. They were on vacation in The Bahamas. So she
visited with friends on Friday night and Saturday, then opted for an earlier
flight home and left for Orlando early Saturday evening. She tried to call A.J.
before she left, but the answering service picked up.
Lindsay took a cab from the
airport. By the time she got home, A.J. was there. So was Kevin. In fact, there
were several automobiles parked in the circular drive. Apparently, he was
giving a party because music could be heard all the way outside.
She paid the cab driver and told
him to keep the change and wrestled with her two suitcases. “Screw this!” she
muttered, and left them on the front porch vowing to send one of the guys back
for them.
When she unlocked door and walked
into the foyer, she realized she was right. A.J. was having a party. What
shocked her were the guests: no men…only women. She quietly walked to the patio
and pool… two women were skinny-dipping in the pool, but no A.J. and no Kevin.
Lindsay didn’t say a word. She
took the stairs three at a time and burst through the bedroom door. She knew
what she would find before she ever walked in, but had to look anyway.
A.J. was there as was Kevin. They
were in the company of two very well endowed naked women.
“So, this is what a foursome looks
like…” she muttered and she stormed from the room.
A.J. and Kevin couldn’t catch her
and even if they did, they never would have stopped her. Not tonight after what
she had just seen.
They were both standing in the
driveway screaming for her to stop as peeled down the drive and out onto the
quiet street.
Lindsay left A.J.’s car at the
airport. In fact, she’d left her bags sitting on the front porch. She had no
luggage. All she had was credit cards and broken heart.
She didn’t know where to go or
what to do. All she could think of was coming “home” to Texas. Now that she was
here, she couldn’t make herself go in.
Her cell phone rang again. She
looked digital display. It was A.J. She turned off the phone.
Lindsay leaned her head back on
the leather seat and closed her eyes. For so long, she’d worshipped the ground
A.J. McLean walked on. He was first lover…he’d been her only lover. She knew
A.J. had been with other women, but she trusted that once they’d moved in
together all that was over.
She was wrong. And Kevin...
For years, Lindsay angrily watched
as he lived and loved his away around the world and Jeanie Kirkpatrick blindly
trusted him. Jeanie loved him that much. There was a time when Lindsay admired
that kind of devotion. It was true love and blind faith and somehow, in the
end, it was happily ever after. Jeanie got the guy of her dreams and they had a
beautiful baby daughter as proof of their love and devotion to each other.
Kevin…
Kevin was with another woman.
Tears welled in Lindsay’s dark
eyes as the reality hit her. There is no such thing as a happy ending. If
Jeanie, who loved Kevin more than life itself, couldn’t hold on to him and make
it work, how in the hell would Lindsay ever hold on to what she A.J. shared?
All Lindsay had ever wanted was
A.J. She didn’t need the fame, she was famous in her own right. She didn’t want
his money, she had plenty of money. The only thing she’d ever wanted from him
was love. She wanted his love…
She wiped her smudged mascara with
a tissue she found in the bottom of purse. Taking a deep breath she started the
car and pulled slowly toward the ranch.
Hopefully, the baby was already
down for the night. Hopefully, Jess was on a date or out with her friends.
Hopefully, Lindsay beat Kevin home.
Wasted love, wasted time, and
wasted energy. A.J. didn’t want her…
If losing A.J. wasn’t bad enough,
now she had to tell her best friend that the man she worshipped wasn’t any
better than A.J.
Lindsay knew her love for A.J.
wasn’t strong enough to endure this kind of pain.
After everything Jeanie had been
through, would she still love Kevin?
For the first time, Lindsay had
her doubts….