"That's the only reason he likes you, because of how you look?"

"Well, no, but he thinks I'm Kari—a famous rock star. I can't keep him from finding out the truth, though. The tabloids spotted us together and now they’re saying Kari is cheating on her boyfriend, and Kari isn't going to let that slide. Which reminds me, you might want to keep Abuela out of the grocery store for a while. I'm sort of on the cover of the National Enquirer kissing Grant.”

She sputtered. "You’re what?”

I didn't have time to go into an explanation of that. "Mom, I don't know what to do. I'm so afraid of losing him.”

For a moment she didn’t say anything. I wondered if she was thinking about how she'd felt about Alex Kingsley when she was my age. Then she said, “You need to tell him the truth. He needs to know who you really are."

I waited for her to say more. She didn’t. I said, "Mom, that didn’t work out very well for you. Alex Kingsley knew who you were and he never called you back. I’ve seen pictures of his Grammy dates, though. They were starlets, singers, and supermodels.”

Her words grew painfully quiet. "I know. But if Grant doesn’t like you for who you are, then he's not worth it.”

It was true, and yet I still didn’t feel that way. I wondered if she felt Alex Kingsley wasn’t worth it. It seemed to me if she had, she would have burned those posters of him long ago.

"The longer you put it off, the more difficult it's going to be,” she said.

My steps on the sidewalk faltered until I hardly moved. "I know.” I hadn't expected her to tell me any different. She couldn't have offered up some magical solution. Still, I needed to know that at least one person understood how hard this was.

"I told Maren that I quit,” I said. “I'll try to get a flight out tonight.”

"You’re leaving before you’ve met your father?”

For a moment I thought of staying and trying to meet him, but the desire had vanished. I couldn’t imagine telling him what I’d done or pretending none of it had happened. "When I get home, I’ll think about having a lawyer contact him. Then if he wants to meet me, he can come out to West Virginia.”

"We'll talk about it when you get here,” she said. I knew she meant to soothe me, but it only made my failure sting worse.

I hung up with my mom and then texted Grant, asking where he was. He texted back, "I'm done with a music video and about to go home. Where are you?”

"On my way to your house,” I wrote. The cab picked me up ten minutes later, and I gave him Grant’s address.

CHAPTER 14

The entire cab ride there, I tried to formulate how to tell Grant the truth. When the cab pulled up to his house, I still hadn't figured it out. I paid the driver extra and told him to wait for me. I hoped I wouldn't need a ride to Kari's quickly, but I figured it was better to be prepared.

Grant met me at the door with a hug, then shut the door behind me. I leaned into him, breathing in the scent of his cologne and imprinting it into my mind.

"I know what you want to talk about," he said. "You saw the tabloids from this morning, didn’t you?”

"Maren showed them to me.”

He put his hands on my shoulders and held me a little ways away, looking into my eyes. “Judging from your expression, you weren’t too happy with the coverage.”

"It complicates things."

His hands traveled down my shoulders to my hands, and he pulled me closer to him again. "I know. My publicist has been getting calls from shows and magazines wanting to know what our relationship is." He leaned closer, keeping his gaze on my eyes. "I figured I should talk to you before I announced anything.” But then he didn't talk. He leaned down and kissed me. I wound my arms around his neck and kissed him back, trying to capture this moment, to clasp it, so I could always remember what it felt like to hold him this way. If I just kept kissing him, I would never have to let him go.

He lifted his head and rubbed his hand across my back. “So was that a 'they're a happy couple and don't have any further comment’ sort of kiss?"

“No, that was a ‘we need to talk more about it’ sort of kiss.”

He smiled and his eyes glinted. “If that's how we’re going to talk about it, I'm happy to discuss it with you at length.” He bent down and his lips brushed against mine again.

I stepped away from him. “No, I meant we should really talk about it.”

“Okay.” He took hold of my hand and pulled me into the living room. “That reminds me—did you go over the duet?”

“Yeah, it's a beautiful song, especially the part that says you should give people a second chance...”

We’d reached the couch, and he sat down. I sat beside him, noticing all the little things I loved about him. His broad shoulders. The curve of his jaw. The rich brown color of his hair.

“I’m glad you like it," he said. “If we hurry and spend some time practicing it, we could debut it at your concert next Friday."

No, we couldn't. I ran my free hand through my hair, suddenly hating it for being blond. I wanted it to be brunette again so at least something about me was real.

He tugged at my hand, mistaking my agitation for something else. "I know you’ve been working hard preparing for your concert and you’re nervous about it, so I'm bringing you a surprise. I think you’ll like it.”

He'd never talked about coming to my concert before, but I should have known he would plan on it. Why had I let things go so far? How could I have let myself get into this situation? This had always been a disaster waiting to happen—I just hadn't seen it. Even if Maren hadn’t threatened me, I would still have been here having the same conversation in not too many days.

He squeezed my hand. "Why do you look so serious?”

I raised my eyes to his, staring at their deep blue color. His eyes would be the easiest things about him to remember. "You really want to tell people we're a couple?”

He shrugged as though it was obvious. "Of course."

"Let me ask you a question. Would you still want everyone to know we were a couple if I wasn’t a celebrity?”

I knew he'd say yes. Whether he actually meant it remained to be seen, but I was sure he would say yes.

Instead he let go of my hand and slid his arm around my shoulder. "Listen, I know you're concerned about your debts and Lorna's book, but you’re too young to worry about being a has-been. Who knows, maybe the book could be a good thing. After it comes out, you can go on the talk shows, give your rebuttal, and then sing something from your new album. It’ll be great publicity. And People will pay a ton of money to get the first scoop interview about how hurt you are that a former employee turned on you this way. Lorna might be doing you a favor.”

Which wasn't my point. I tried again. "Okay, but I mean if I was a small-town girl, living in a . . . well ... a small town, if I was just a normal person. Would you still be interested in me?”

His gaze ran over me, and a grin slid across his face. "You’re too talented to be a normal person. Normal people don't have hit songs on the radio.” As though to prove it, he stood and pulled me up with him. He towed me in front of a large mirror that hung in the entryway hall. "Look at yourself."

I did. I looked at my long blond hair and at him standing behind me, hands on my shoulders. I looked at the muscles in his arms and his perfect features.

He lowered his face to speak softly in my ear. "You surpassed normal a long time ago, and there's no going back to being one of the nameless masses. When our relationship goes public, I’m going to be the envy of every guy.” No, he wouldn't be.