Playing it Kale (The McCain Saga Book 4) (12 page)

And his request closes that gap.
 
Music is what brought us together.
 
And singing to him makes me feel like he’s
here.

“What do you want to hear?” I say
quietly.
 
I don’t know why, but maybe I’m
trying to pretend like we’re still at that cabin, trying not to wake Calvin up.
 
We’re still in our own little world.

“The Angel one,” he says like he’s
breathing it right into my ear.

I finished writing Kale’s song on the
plane ride down here.
 
And it may be my
favorite song I’ve ever written.
 
So I
sing it for him, softly, and pretend like his arms are around me and nothing
bad will ever happen.

CHAPTER
NINE

Elysium wants a twelve track
record.
 
I give them the terrible
recordings I made with my phone in my bedroom of all the songs I’ve done, which
is a lot.
 
They start going over them
immediately, picking them over, requesting lyrics.
 

And they ask me to perform all my new
stuff.
 
I’ve got seven new songs I
haven’t had time to record yet, brand spanking new in the last few weeks.
 
And that doesn’t include the viral video
song.

I debate the entire time if I’ll sing
Kale’s “Angel” song.
 
But in the end, I
sing “Angel
On
Your Shoulder” for them.
 
And they go crazy.

This will be my headline song.
 
This is what’s going to be played on every
radio station.
 
This will launch my
career.
 

Of course it will.
 
My career started with Kale.
 
Of course it will continue with Kale.

“Okay, I’ve been on the phone with
Shurrock’s
representatives all day,” Hadley says as we
climb into the car at the end of the day.
 
We’re on our way to a dinner with some media mongrels.
 
“Everyone, and I mean everyone, is scrambling
to do a photo shoot with you and Kale together.”

“What?” I ask, choking on my water from
my water bottle, that’s now dribbled all down the front of my shirt.
 
“An actual shoot?
 
Like, for the press?”

“Yeah,” Hadley says as she scrounges
through her purse for something to clean up my clumsy mess with.
 
“Everyone wants to see something official and
Elysium and
Shurrock
are going ballistic trying to
maximize the press while it’s all still hot.
 
The shoot is scheduled for a week from Wednesday.”

For some reason, the thought makes me
sick.
 
Like everything secret and
hush-hush about me and Kale’s private life is being ripped away and exposed
naked for the entire world to see.
 
I’ve
only gotten a few days of him to myself.
 
I’m not ready to share
us
with
the entire world.
 

Because
us
still doesn’t quite feel real.

Hadley must see it all on my face, because
she grabs my hands and my eyes snap to her face.
 
“I know you were cannon shot into all this,
and you’re not ready for the entire
celebrityhood
to
be dropped on you, but the world already loves you.
 
They adore you, and they barely know
you.
 
And they really love you and the
world’s most beautiful face together.
 
So
don’t worry.
 
I’ll make sure everything
goes smooth.”

“Promise?”
I say as I try to calm the storm inside of me.

“Promise,” she says with that smile of
hers.

Each day of my new life, I grow slightly
more accustomed to it.
 
Just slightly.

The flashing cameras that follow me
everywhere are still scary and overwhelming, but I don’t feel like I’m going to
have a panic attack.
 
The questions that
are flung at me eventually don’t shock me so much with their brutal honesty and
prying nature.
 
And seeing my face on the
news or online isn’t such a surreal experience.

One day at a time.
 

I’ll adjust.
 
I’ll survive.

I wake in the morning on Wednesday with
gleeful anticipation.
 
I roll over and
check my phone.
 
There’s a text from
Kale.

Hope
this doesn’t wake you up, but I’m boarding the plane now.
 
See you in t-minus six and a half hours.

He sent
this
three
hours ago.
 
I knew he was catching the
red-eye flight, and we’re three time zones apart.
 
Three and a half more
hours.

I spring from my bed and jump into the
shower.
 
I think of how he’s going to
look getting off that plane.
 
The smile that will curl on his lips.
 
The glow that will reach
his eyes when we finally see each other.
 
How his shirt will stretch across his muscled chest, how his biceps will
flex with a backpack slung over one shoulder.
 
That chiseled jaw.
 

I barely get all the conditioner washed
out of my
hair,
I’m in such a hurry to get out of the
shower.
 

I dry my hair, roll it into curls.
 
I pull on a gray T-shirt and some black
shorts.
 
My favorite
pink Converse shoes.
 
I throw my
phone into my purse, and head for the door, when…

Hadley knocks on it.

“Hey,” I say, startled.
 
I open the door wide for her, and she lets
herself in without looking up from her phone.
 

“You’re not going to the airport,” she
says as she clicks away on it, never once glancing in my direction.
 

“Why?” I asked
,
annoyed that people are starting to think that they can tell me what to
do.
 
Even more annoyed that technically
they can.

“Mobs showed up at the airport this
morning when Kale tried to leave,” she says.
 
“He couldn’t even get into the airport.
 
Calvin had him taken to a smaller airport and they chartered a private
jet.”

“Holy crap,” I say as my purse slides to
the ground.
 
He didn’t mention that in
his text.

“There’s a crazy crowd downstairs
waiting for you,” she says as she holds her phone up to her ear.
 
“Somehow word got around that he was headed
here.
 
Everyone’s in a Whitney-Kale-Whale-whatever
frenzy to get a real live look or pic of the new favorite couple.”

Tony lets himself into the apartment,
glancing over his shoulder as he does.
 

Hadley starts talking into her phone,
and from everything I can figure, she’s arranging a place for us to stay.
 
There’s lots of “uh
huhs
,
that’s not good
enoughs
, and
how’s
the
securitys
.”
 
Finally, she seems satisfied and she hangs
up.

“How do you feel about going home?” she
asks.
 
“Sort of.”

“What are you talking about?” I
ask.
 
Everything happens so fast and
crazy in this new life of mine.
 
I don’t
know how to keep up.

“The press is getting too hot and
crazy,” Hadley says, already back on her phone.
 
“Elysium wants you to be able to focus on the recording of this album
for the next few weeks and they’re afraid you won’t get that done around
here.
 
They have a few houses scattered
around the country with recording studios in them.
 
They’re going to send you back to some place
called Bellevue?
 
Know of it?”

“Yeah,” I say with a nod.
 
“It’s really close to Seattle.
 
Kale’s sister and brother-in-law live there.”

“Great,” she says absentmindedly.
 
She starts talking non-stop about what the
plan is.

Bounce.
 
Bend.
 
Go with the flow.
 
Don’t shake apart.

That’s what I am.

“Bet two weeks ago you never would have
thought you’d be bouncing up and down the west coast,” Tony says as he raises
an eyebrow at me.
 
I just look at him and
give a little disbelieving laugh.

“Okay,” Hadley says, finally putting her
phone into her purse.
 
“Pack a bag.
 
The helicopter will be here in five minutes
to pick us up and take us to meet Kale’s plane.”

“A helicopter?”
I question.

“Yes!” she says with exasperation.
 
She starts pushing me toward my room.
 
“Go grab whatever.
 
We need to get moving.
 
They’ll be on the roof any minute!”

I pack.
 
A helicopter does indeed land on the roof.
 
There is a landing pad there and
everything.
 
And then we take off to some
airport I didn’t even know existed.
 
I
guess it’s a popular spot for celebs to get transported from.

There’s a limo waiting for us there, as
if in replacement of a waiting room.
 
So
we wait in there for about a half hour.

And then we see this shiny, beautiful
jet descend and land.

My heart breaks out into rocket speed,
cause
I know exactly who is on that plane.

As soon as it has the stairs rolled up
to the side, I open the door and dash out before Tony or Hadley can stop me.

My Converse slap across the pavement as
I dart for that plane.
 

And then, there is his beautiful face.

He only makes it down two of the stairs,
before he hops the freaking rail and jumps to the ground.

We collide when we meet, and we both go
down, me on top of him.

We’re both laughing and smiling, and
there might be tears that are stinging the back of my eyes.
 
I can feel the heat of him underneath me,
protecting me from the hard concrete.
 
His eyes dance as one of his hands wraps around behind my back and his
other comes to my cheek.

“Hell, I missed you,” he laughs before
he consumes my lips.

It’s hot.
 
And crazy.
 
And a million degrees of
passionate.

I feel him harden underneath me.
 
And instead of freaking me out like it
probably would have a few weeks ago, it turns me on so freaking hard.

One hand splayed on the concrete next to
his head to hold me up, another slipping up his shirt cause I just can’t get
enough of him, my lips part and his tongue teaches me a million new moves.

“You’re here,” I say as emotion and heat
and all the stars in the universe are a thrashing typhoon inside of me.

Kale squeezes me closer to him, like he
wants to climb inside of me and be one single person.
 
At least that’s how I’m feeling.

“Damn, I love you, Whitney Ford.”

And I suddenly jerk back, my shocked,
wide-open eyes staring down at him.

“Shit,” he whispers as he looks back at
me in horror.
 
“Way too
soon, huh?”

But I’m not horrified, or scared, or
ready to run or anything.
 
I’m just…I
shake my head.
 
“No,” I say as I reach
down and caress his cheek.
 
There’s a bit
of stubble there.
 
Like
he was in too much of a hurry this morning to shave.
 
“There are seven point two-two billion people
on this planet.
 
You’re my one in, Kale
McCain.”

A relieved smile erupts onto his face
and he sits up, rocking me into his lap, my legs wrapped around his waist.
 
“You say the most amazing things.”

“I may even sing them for you later,” I
say as his lips meet mine again.
 
I bite
his lower lip.

“Time to get back in
the air!”
Calvin yells from the plane.

“Just give me like, twenty minutes!”
Kale yells back without looking away from me.

“I’m afraid we don’t have twenty
minutes!”
 
And the tone of Calvin’s voice
makes both of us look.
 
He’s pointing
toward something at the terminal building.

There, standing in plain sight, is a
photographer.
 
And his flash is going
crazy.

“They’re freaking everywhere!” I say as
I scramble off of Kale and pull him to his feet.

“Ignore them,” he says as we all head
for the jet.
 
“It’s just me and you,
angel.
 
Nothing else is real.”