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“Not too bad,” I replied, smoothing a hand down Kennedy’s back. “How are you holding up?” I asked her.
“All right.” She glanced around the room. “I can’t believe everyone turned up like this,” she murmured for my ears only. “Last week, they hated me, but now they’re here to help.”
I drew her to my side, erasing as much distance between us as I could. “Learning the truth probably helped on that front, but when it comes down to it, you’re one of us, and we support each other.”
Her smile was hopeful as she looked up at me. “You really mean that?”
“I do.” God, I wanted to kiss her. But now wasn’t the time or the place.
“Kennedy,” Mum called. “You haven’t tried the fudge chunk cookies yet, have you?”
I grinned. My family had rallied around Kennedy regardless of our rocky past, and I loved the hell out of them for it.
ChapterThirty-Six
KENNEDY
A shrill ringingdragged me from a pleasant dream where I was floating on a cloud above Destiny Falls, gazing down on the township while birds flew past in bright flashes of color. I flopped an arm out of bed and reached for my cell phone, which was on the nightstand.
“Hello?”
“Kennedy, it’s Owen.”
Ugh. Owen was my agent. The one I’d tried to let go when I’d flown to New Zealand, but he’d insisted I’d be back and in need of his services, so he’d refused to be dropped.
“It’s five in the morning,” I groaned. “I was sleeping.”
“Oh.” He sounded surprised. “Sorry, I hadn’t thought about the time difference.”
I forced myself to sit up and flick on the light. “No one ever does.”
He ignored my comment. “I’ve been talking to Jeff.”
I stiffened. “Oh?”
“It’s time to come back,” he said imperiously. “For your own safety, if nothing else. We can take care of you here.”
Despite my annoyance, I smiled. He’d like me to see this as him protecting me, but even if there was a degree of that involved, his call was driven more by self-interest than anything else. He wanted me back in Hollywood, making movies, so he could collect his cut.
“Not happening.” No matter how muddled my morning brain was, I wasn’t wavering on that point.
“Please, Kennedy. Be reasonable.”
“I’m being perfectly reasonable,” I told him. “My career as an actress was an unplanned detour from what I really want to do with my life. I appreciate everything you’ve done for me, and I’m grateful for the chances I had because they mean I’m financially set for life, but I’m ready to get back to the original plan now.”
Owen scoffed. “That ‘detour’, as you put it, is the kind of happy circumstance most people dream of.”
“I know.” I gentled my tone. I knew how blessed I was and didn’t ever want to forget that. “I appreciate that I was able to support my family and provide a secure future for each of them because of it, but it’s never beenmydream.”
“Fine.” Owen sounded defeated. “Can’t blame a guy for trying. Keep in touch? I do care about you, you know.”
“I know. Bye, Owen.” I ended the call and stretched, then looked around the room. After yesterday, Blair had wanted to sleep on my couch, but I’d convinced him to stay next door. Having people around in the evening had soothed my nerves. They’d all been so determined to make sure the cottage was safe, and even though I’d been overwhelmed by their presence at first, I’d felt reassured by the company and the fact they’d double and triple checked the security systems.
I sat up, too awake after my conversation with Owen to consider trying to sleep again. I padded out to the living room, collected my laptop from the coffee table, and brought it back to bed. I’d discovered that Destiny Falls Heritage Museum had a website, and I felt the urge to look up the photograph Arthur had shown us near the end of our tour. The one of Rocky and Jewel near the waterfall.
I brought the webpage up and studied it for a long moment. There was an energy about the couple. A sense of love and devotion. Perhaps I was reading too much into things, but I really understood how Destiny Falls had become a romantic destination based on this photograph. I copied the image and tried a reverse image search through a browser, bringing up dozens of tourist pages and blogs with copies of the photo and various versions of the story Arthur had told us. None of those blogs named the couple though. Wistfulness curled through me. I’d love to know who Rocky and Jewel really were.
Then a smile stretched my lips. I opened my inbox and typed a quick email to a private investigator I’d hired to do background checks on staff. I sent him a link to the photograph and a request for any information he could find about them. It was a long shot, but I had the money and the interest, so why not? That done, I opened the files for some of the photographs I’d taken during the weekend and started touching them up.
