InHap*pily Ever After (Incidental Happenstance) (4 page)

            They threw on
some clothes and Dylan poked his way through Tia’s cabinets, putting on water
for tea and pulling mugs from her cabinet. He frowned when he saw the paltry
selection of food in her fridge.

            “I know,” she
said, interpreting his frown. “I kind of haven’t been eating too well lately,
and I’ve been avoiding the grocery store…”

            He was
reminded again of what she’d had to go through the past weeks, being bombarded
with the forged photographs of him and Penelope that made them look like the
couple of the freaking year. “I haven’t exactly been the poster child for
healthy eating lately either,” he admitted. “But I think my appetite is finally
coming back.” His stomach grumbled again in agreement.

            Tia looked at
the clock, and saw it was just past 11. “How about I order us a pizza?” she
suggested, reaching for the phone.

            “Brilliant,”
Dylan replied. He’d missed a lot of comfort food while he was in New Zealand,
but perhaps none more than a greasy Chicago-style pizza dripping with cheese
and slathered in pepperoni. “And while we’re waiting, you may as well start
packing. I’ve got a room in the city, and I think we ought to stay there
tonight. I don’t know how long the secret will hold, and we don’t need to deal
with a mess of paparazzi just yet.”

            To emphasize
his point, Tia turned on her phone to find twenty-three missed calls and
seventeen voice mail messages. As she scrolled through the numbers, she saw
that most of them were either from other schools in her district or from work
friends. Apparently Ned’s warning to keep the information quiet didn’t keep
people from passing it along. She couldn’t blame them, really, it was too juicy
a story to keep—she knew it all too well.

            She ignored
the messages and called for the pizza, then went and pulled her suitcases from
the hall closet. Damn it, she thought, as she rummaged through her closets and
drawers, trying to decide what to pack. Her plan had been to shop for some new
clothes to wear in Australia; her teacher clothes didn’t even come close to
fitting the bill; but since they’d allegedly broken up, she’d never gone. She
had precious little that would work for meeting Dylan’s parents, and even less
that would be appropriate for going on national television as Dylan Miller’s
girlfriend. She pulled things out and then put them back, tossing things into
drawers and frowning all the while.

            “Tia,” Dylan
laughed, pulling her from her concentration as she hauled out all the clothes
she’d bought at Harrods when they were in London; the only things in her
wardrobe that even came close to being worthy of taking with her. “Sit down for
a second. You’re like a bloody tornado.”

            She sat on the
edge of the bed and he rested his hand on her knee. “I’ve got nothing, Dylan.
Nothing worthy of being on television, nothing for meeting your parents…”

            “Don’t worry
about that,” he said. “We’ll take care of it later. I’ll have Jessa get a few
things for the early interviews, and the two of you can go shopping between
appearances.” She opened her mouth to protest, but he silenced her with a kiss.
“Hey. What’s mine is yours now, love,” he said. “One of the things you’re going
to have to get used to is that you don’t have to worry about money. I have
plenty to share and I would love nothing more than to spoil you a little.”

            Tia scowled,
but then threw her hands in the air in surrender. “Well, I don’t see that I
have much of a choice. Most of the stuff I bought in England doesn’t exactly
project the image I want to put out to the public, I’m afraid.”

            Dylan smiled,
remembering the smoking hot red dress she wore the night in Northampton when
his friends realized, before he even did, that he was hopelessly in love with
her. “I agree. That red dress should be for my eyes only,” he teased. “Just
worry about the basics, then.” He watched with interest as she opened a drawer
and started pulling out panties and bras; leopard print, pink with lace
accents—and had visions of taking them off of her slowly, maybe with his
teeth…  “Damn,” he said, shaking his head. “Imagining you in those makes
me
want to get down to basics.”

            “Yeah, you
like?” Tia teased, holding up a lacy purple bra over her faded Bears sweatshirt.
“It’d only take me a minute to change.”

            “Nothing would
make me happier,” he said, “but we have a lot of details to work out in a short
amount of time. I think you should put that near the top of the suitcase,
though,” he added, waggling his eyebrows, “for later.” Tia pulled out some
matching panties, and tucked them into a pocket of the bag. “Ah, I so wish it
didn’t have to be like this…I just want to hole up with you for about a week
and ravage you non-stop, but we’re going to have a very busy couple weeks, I’m
afraid.”

            “Tell me
something I don’t know,” she said sarcastically.

            “Ha ha,” he
replied with just as much sarcasm. “But let’s put things in perspective, shall
we? Before we even worry about talk shows or interviews, we have some business
to take care of here. First and foremost, I need to meet your parents, Tia. I
need to thank them for raising such an incredible woman, and let them know my
intentions are pure. Then we need to make appearances at as many of your
hang-outs as we can. If you don’t make personal introductions people will be
insulted, and that can cause a lot of negative backlash.”

            “Grrrr,” Tia
growled, sucking in a deep breath. “God, I know,” she said, drawing the words
out in exasperation. “Oh Dylan…I do want to tell everyone—I’ve been wanting for
so long to tell the whole world who I’m in love with—but I just want to keep
you to myself, too. I know those two worlds can’t coexist, but still…”

            Dylan raised
one eyebrow at her. “You know, it was pretty hard not to notice that no one you
work with knew I was ‘your Dylan,’” he said. “I think Lilly about had a bloody
heart attack when I walked into the office.” He smiled, remembering the school
secretary’s confused expression as she matched the face in the photograph
tacked to her wall with the one on the man in front of her. “Does anyone know?”

            Tia looked
down at their joined hands and shook her head slowly. “No,” she confessed.
“After what happened at the airport in Italy, I was afraid to tell anyone. I’d
kept you a secret for so long already; I just figured it would be easier to
deal with all the changes when we were together.”

            He raised her
hand to his mouth and kissed it. “I don’t know whether to be impressed…or
insulted,” he teased. “Seriously…no one knows?”

            “No one but
Lexi,” Tia said, adding, “Can you believe she’s kept the secret all this time?”

            “I have to say
that I’m definitely impressed about that,” Dylan chuckled. “I’m really glad
that you waited actually—I would’ve been worried sick being on the other side
of the world and thinking of you dealing with the media all alone, even without
the whole…other situation. Plus, it’s given you a lot of time to think things
through. I bet you’re more ready for this than you think you are. You’ll be
brilliant.”

            “Oh, I don’t
know if
ready
is exactly the right term,” she said with a smirk. “But I
can say with complete confidence that I’m ready for that part of it to be
over.”

            “This’ll be
the fun part,” he smiled, “meeting your family and friends.”

            Tia was lost
in her own thoughts for a moment before she responded. “Wow, I have so much to
tell everyone,” she whispered “especially my parents. It’s been horrible having
to lie to them. None of them know about Paris, or Wembley, or the songs you
wrote me…I’ve only been able to share a few pictures; and now I can finally
tell them everything! That part of it’s going to be amazing…it’ll be like
reliving the whole thing over again now that I can finally talk about it.”

            “And I’m
excited to share that with you,” Dylan said. “So let’s think about this. We’re
leaving Sunday for California. I promised my good friend Tony that I’d give him
the exclusive, and he’s worked out a Sunday night special for our little
‘coming out party.’ He’s sending his private jet over…”

            “Tony
Granger?” Tia asked. It was the only Tony she knew of who had that kind of
pull—he had the number one late night talk show on television. She realized
that she and Dylan still had a lot to learn about each other—she hadn’t known
that the two of them were friends.

            “The very one,”
he said. “He was one of the first people to give InHap the stage and an
interview, and we’ve been friends ever since. I called him during my layover in
San Francisco and he had it set up within a couple of hours. I don’t know the
whole schedule yet—Jessa’s working on it—but I do know that we’ll do that on
Sunday, and a couple other smaller shows on Monday. We’ll head out to New York
sometime during the week to do it all over again on the East Coast, and
Jessa’ll change our flight so we can leave for Australia from there. That means
we only have today and tomorrow to make all the introductions…”

            “Oh no,” Tia
said. “Not today. I’m going to have to share you with the whole damn world way
sooner than I want to—I’m keeping you all to myself today.”

            “Absolutely
agreed,” Dylan replied. “But that means tomorrow’s going to be really busy.” He
took a deep breath before continuing.  “I know you probably don’t want to hear
this, but I think maybe we should meet your parents at the country club. I know
you don’t hang out there much anymore…”

            “I don’t hang
out there at all,” Tia sighed, “but I had a feeling you were going to suggest
it. Most of those people don’t mean anything to me. Why there?”

            “Well, first
of all, we should really do as many personal intros as we can before we hit the
air waves,” he explained, “and a lot of people there know you. I know the place
might not mean anything to you anymore, but it does to your parents. This’ll be
a huge story, and they’ll be part of it too, especially in their social circles.
You said yourself that your mother loves her gossip. She’ll be at the top of
the pecking order with this one—her only daughter will be at the center of a
big media circus, and she’ll get to be one of the stars.” Tia looked at him
from the corner of her eye, contemplating, and pressed her lips together in
reluctant consent.

             “I thought
that might be a selling point,” he continued, “but I’ll admit that I have a bit
of a selfish reason too…” he paused, and Tia turned to him, furrowing her
eyebrows. She’d never seen Dylan do anything selfish.  “I’d be lying if I
didn’t admit that I’d like to have the chance to get a look at that Jace
character. Call it my jealous nature, or maybe it’s just a man thing, but I’d
love to see the look on his face when he sees us together. It might just teach
him a little humility, or something.”

            Tia smiled at
the thought. It was hard to believe that Dylan Miller, Sexiest Man on Earth,
could be jealous of someone like Jace. She certainly didn’t relish the thought
of seeing him again, but the thought of
him
seeing
her
with Dylan
gave her a bit of smug pleasure. It wasn’t even the celebrity factor that made
her feel that way—it was more Jace’s cocky assumption that Dylan wouldn’t be
faithful to her because he was a musician. If ever there was a person who
deserved to be put in his place, it was Jace; especially after the way he’d
treated Bitsy. And if ever there was a person who could put him there, it was
definitely Dylan Miller.

            “Oh, all
right,” she sighed, “that’s what we’ll do.”

             “It can just
be a hit-and-run, you know; we can go somewhere more private after we make an
appearance. We’re kind of making this up as we go along; this is a first for me
too, remember.”

            “I’ll have my
dad get the DND. The guy who built the country club had this one table in the
restaurant built in to be totally private—it’s kind of tucked in the corner and
surrounded by high walls, and there’s even a private hallway that leads to
other exits so we can make a quick getaway if we need to. A lot of business
deals go down over dinner and drinks at that table, so it’s kind of labeled,
‘Do Not Disturb.’”

            “Brilliant,”
he said. “Sounds perfect.”

            Tia’s eyes
brightened and a smile split her face. “Oh my God, I can’t believe I can
finally introduce you to them! I’ve wanted to for so long…”

            “I really
can’t wait to meet them, Tia, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous.” He
pressed his lips together in a half-smile. “Do you think they’ll like me?”

            Tia’s heart
nearly melted. She was privately thrilled that he’d be anxious about meeting
her parents—especially since she was downright petrified about meeting his. But
she knew better than anyone that Dylan didn’t put himself on a pedestal…he
didn’t assume people would like him just because he was famous. And he was just
down to earth enough not to realize that pretty much anyone would like him just
for being himself. It saddened her that not enough people gave him that chance.