Acting Up (45 page)

“Your grocery list?” Shirley asked with a chuckle.

“I don't know…” Her voice trailed off as she glimpsed the handwriting. Addison recognized the messy scrawl.

Miss Addison,

Thank you for being our frend. We prayed so Daddy would not be sad.

Then you came and he was happy. You are not a mean lady. You are a
SWEET
lady.

We will luv you 4ever.

Jason and Carson Thomas

They must have snuck the note into her purse when she went to dinner with Ethan. Addison could barely finish the letter through the mist of tears. Like a bolt of lightning, clarity thrummed through her veins, heading straight to her heart.

“Addison, are you all right?” Shirley asked.

Glancing up from the paper, Addison saw a room full of faces ranging from unease to curiosity.

“Yes, everything is fine,” Addison said as she stood up.

“What are you doing?” Shirley asked, voice rising in alarm.

Addison took in each member of Bobby Keith's team. “I'm sorry, but I've been given a burning bush, and I think it's high time I listened.”

Shirley's eyebrows nearly met her hairline. “A what?”

“A sign,” Addison said, waving the note. “A canoe, a speed boat, and helicopter all in one.”

“Ms. Covington, are you sure you're feeling well?” Bobby asked, looking like he was about to call the nearest funny farm.

“Yes. I'm sorry, but you'll have to find another Serena Ireland.”

His eyes widened in shock. “I'm sorry?”

“I have another role in mind for my life.”

“What role?”

“Alice Faye Jones.”

Shirley caught up with her out in the hall. “Addison, have you lost your mind? You're turning down the best opportunity of your life.”

“No, I almost lost my best opportunity.”

“And what about your career?”

“Drive with me to the airport and we'll discuss it,” Addison said, taking her agent's arm.

****

Warmth. Humid air. Bright sunshine. There had never been a more beautiful sight than Rice Lake. Addison grinned all the way through town. A few minutes later, she pulled into the parking lot of the elementary school. The school secretary was flustered when Addison walked into the office. Amazement turned to consternation when she asked to take Carson and Jason out of school without permission.

“I realize this is highly irregular,” Addison said. “But if you could make an exception this once.”

The principal had emerged from her office by this time. “Do we have a problem here?” She came to an abrupt halt. “Ms. Covington? Aren't you supposed to be in L.A.?”

“No, I'm supposed to be right here,” Addison said. “I need to borrow two of your students for awhile.”

The explanation did not ease the woman's confused expression. “What?”

“She wants to take Jason and Carson Thomas out of class,” the secretary explained. “I already told her we're not allowed to just let students go—”

“Why do you need to see the Thomas boys?” the principal cut in.

“For a special project concerning their father.”

Something on Addison's face must have given a clue about her intentions, because the principal grinned. “Mary, please send a runner for Jason and Carson Thomas.”

The secretary shook her head, no doubt wondering if the earth had run off its axis.

“We didn't do nothing,” Jason declared when they arrived a few minutes later.

“It's anything,” Addison said. “We didn't do anything.”

They froze and then turned as one. Joy spread across their faces. “Addison!”

She sank to her knees as they rushed forward. The dual scents of sunshine and earth filled her heart, and she rained kisses over their sweet faces until they giggled and squirmed away.

“Are you on hitus?” Jason asked.

“Hiatus. And no. I'm restructuring my contract.”

Carson's nose wrinkled. “Huh?”

“It means I'm going to be in your lives forever.”

“You're gonna live here?” came the twin response.

“Well, I'd like to marry your daddy and live with you guys. Do you think he would mind?”

They grinned.

“Daddy's been crabby,” Jason said. “Yesterday he yelled just ‘cause we left the hose running.”

“And sad,” his brother added. “He goes around like this,” he said, making a mopey face.

“Okay, then I need your help.”

Their heads bobbed. “We can help.”

Addison glanced at the principal, ready to beg. Tears coursed down the woman's cheeks, and she wiped them away, barely managing to get out a watery “Go.”

The boys spent the entire ride to the high school filling her in on every minute detail of what they'd been up to since Addison had left. Together, they hurried inside to the main office. The secretary who'd enrolled Aaron was typing away on a computer.

“Excuse me,” Addison called out.

“Be right with you,” the woman said without looking up from the screen.

“I wondered if I could speak to the principal.”

At the sound of Addison's voice, the secretary whipped around. For a moment she didn't move. “Ms. Covington!”

“Hi.”

“What are you doing here?” Then she noticed the twins. “And with the boys?”

“I need to speak with Ethan,” Addison said. “It's important.”

A smile spread across the woman's lips as she rose from the chair. She took a step toward Ethan's office, then after one more glance, broke into a run. A moment later, a door crashed against the wall, and Ethan rushed out, a frantic look on his face.

He spotted the boys first and ran to them. “What are you doing here? Are you hurt?”

“Nope,” they chorused.

“How did you get here?”

Addison stepped forward. “They came with me.”

Ethan's head swiveled around. He froze. Blinked twice.

Addison drank in the sight of his handsome face. Gloried in the fact that she was looking into the primeval forest behind his eyes once again. Like the first day she'd spotted him across the gas pump, she felt a
zap
careen through her body.

“I finally figured out the best thing for everyone,” Addison said.

He took a step closer. “You did?”

“Yeah, and what I realized is that the best thing for me, for all of us, I hope, is being with you and the boys.”

Another step. “Why?”

“Because I love you.”

Ethan stopped in his tracks. His eyes closed for a moment, and when they opened, the green was blazing in their depths. “Say that again.”

“I love you.” There was no fear in the words. Only a deep certainty Ethan Thomas was meant for her. There was a strength that came from knowing she could lean on him and trust he would never let her fall. “And I love your sons.”

Ethan covered the distance in two strides and whipped her up into his arms. Addison clung to him, reveling in the feel of his strong body against hers. The body she seemed to know as well as her own. The heartbeat she recognized in the depths of her being.

“One more time,” he whispered against her lips.

Addison laughed. “I love you.”

“You see?” he said, a beautiful, sweet smile spread across his face. “It's not so hard to say.”

“It's pretty easy once you start.”

He swooped in for a kiss. “I was going crazy. Nothing felt right after you left.”

“I know.”

“No, you don't understand. I started looking at schools in L.A.”

“You did what?”

He framed Addison's face with gentle hands. “Your career is part of who you are. I can't ask you to give up something so important to you. So, if you need to be in California, we'll go there.”

A roomful of roses could not have been more romantic. Addison placed two fingers against his lips. “That is the most beautiful thing you could ever say, but I'm not uprooting your family.”

“Addison, it's all right. I can't let you quit. You'd be miserable.”

“No, you don't understand. I'm not giving up my career. I'm simply restructuring.”

The twins squeezed in between them. “What's that word mean?” Jason asked.

“It means I spoke to my agent, and I'm taking my career in a different direction” Addison said. “Movies that film in the summer. Plus, Meredith Vining is planning to open an arts center, so I'll be teaching drama classes and whatever else she'll let me.”

“Can you dictate where and when you work?” Ethan asked.

“If a producer wants me badly enough, yes. Besides, I'm a hero now.”

He dropped another kiss on her lips. “Yes, you are. You're my hero. You saved my life.”

“I think we saved each other,” Addison said. “So, I have one more question.”

“What?”

“Do you think you could use a substitute teacher?”

He lifted Addison off her feet, looking at her like she was his own personal miracle. Addison knew he was hers.

“No, but I could use a permanent wife.”

THE END

Keep reading for a sneak peek of
Imagine That,
Kristin's next book in the
Covington Falls series.

Chapter One

A stomach-churning
thunk
. A disaster-laden
chug
. A scary, threatening
gurgle
.

Emily Sinclair's hands clutched the steering wheel as she guided her how-could-you-give-out-on-me-now convertible to the side of the road. With a last ominous
blunk
and
splutter
, the car gave up the ghost.

She switched off the engine, waited a few seconds, and then turned the key again. Nothing.

Not surprising. As if anything
glug-glugging
like an octogenarian trying to cough up a lung was going to restart with so little effort.

A cranky yowl went up from the passenger seat. Emily glanced over at the pet carrier and sent the fat Persian inside a confident smile. “Don't worry, Wordsworth. This is why modern man invented cell phones.”

She fished her phone out of her purse. A blank screen stared back at her. Pressing more buttons did nothing.

Dead.

Dead as her car.

With a sound of disgust, Emily tossed the useless phone aside and stared out the windshield at the deserted country road in front of her. The
very
deserted country road that stretched around a sparkling blue lake and disappeared into the back of beyond. The kind of road featured in all the best horror stories. Emily's mind conjured up every one, along with the opening line in the newspaper article.

Once
-f
amous children's author found mangled to death. Quest to locate her lost imagination and revive faded career ends in disaster… as her mother predicted.

Muttering an oath, Emily climbed out of the car and slammed the door as hard as she could. What a fix. And ironic. There were rules about writing. Not grammar rules, like where to put commas or when to use a semicolon. No, the unofficial rules for fiction writing. Chief among them is that an author should never start a novel with the character driving or thinking. No, readers wanted action right off the top, and you could never have the car break down.

In college, Emily had written a short story where the heroine's car stalled in a typical these-people-will-murder-you-in-your-sleep town. Emily's professor had written
cliché
in bold, red pen across the page. Not satisfied, she'd added
boring cliché
, underlining the
boring
with three thick red lines. The critique had stung. The fact that it had come courtesy of Professor Vanessa Sinclair, Emily's mother, had been like ripping off an old bandage.

Emily was breaking all three cardinal rules of writing at once. Though technically the driving rule didn't apply. Same for the sitting rule. She was thinking, though. Thinking her entire life had become a cliché, so what did it matter if she broke her mother's precious writing rules? She was a one-hit writing wonder. A flash in the pan. A big-haired eighties' rock band that had scored one giant hit and then disappeared into the oblivion of those nostalgic ‘
Where are they now?'
music specials.

Emily sighed. If one had to break down somewhere, one could do worse than… what had the sign said back there? Covington something. Covington something, Georgia. Muted afternoon sun shimmered off the surface of the lake. She lifted a hand to ward off the eye-watering glare and focused on the water. In her previous life, the golden flecks of sunlight reflecting off its surface would have transformed into a million different kinds of fantastical creatures. Or maybe something nightmarish would charge out of that bank of oak trees across the lake.