gate! Adam told them to go away!”
Ben glanced swiftly over at his brother who nodded. “Yeah, that’s what happened. Lizzie says your name is all over Facebook or something. What did you do?”
“He didn’t do anything.” Lizzie wrapped an arm around Adam’s waist and smiled at Ben. “For some reason he’s got caught up in some celebrity nonsense. Yvonne says it’s the same at Morgan Ranch.”
“Ben Miller!” His father came through into the kitchen already in full-on yell mode. “What the hell have you been up to now!”
Ben winced as Adam frowned at their dad. “Roman’s here, so mind your language, okay?”
Jeff patted Roman’s head. “Sorry, son.” He turned back to Ben. “What’s going on? I was in town at Maureen’s and there was a man asking her all sorts of questions about the Morgans and us. She told him nothing, but I still don’t like it.”
Ben cleared his throat. “Okay, so you all should hear this. I took Silver Meadows on a trail ride a month or so ago. The media have gotten hold of that information, found out about the accident, and now they’re after me. I’m sorry for all the disruption this stupid mess is causing.”
“Silver Meadows?” Jeff asked. “That pretty girl I met at the Morgans?”
“Yup, that one.” Ben nodded. It was ironic that he was the one who had promised not to blab about anything that had happened during their trail ride and yet Silver was the one to renege on that assurance.
“Well, no wonder she didn’t want to hang around with you.” Jeff shook his head. “She’s gone back to her Hollywood lifestyle and can go out with anyone.”
“Thanks, Dad,” Ben said. “I appreciate the support. Hopefully, once they realize that they can’t get to me here, they’ll go away, or focus on the Morgans.” He glanced over at Adam. “Can I help with anything for dinner?”
* * *
“What did you do?” Silver marched into the family dining room and fixed her father with an accusing stare. “Why is Ben Miller’s name plastered all over the gossip sites?”
Her father sighed. “Can we all sit down and eat our dinner before we get into this?” He glanced over at his wife. “Alva’s been cooking all afternoon.”
Silver took a seat and sent her mom an apologetic glance. “Sorry.”
“It’s all right, my love. You know how I love to cook when Dee has her afternoon off.”
In an attempt to be civil, Silver looked over at her sister. “How are the auditions going?”
“They aren’t.” Spring continued to cut up her fish into bite-sized pieces. “No one wants to talk about me at the moment. All they want is info about you, and I’m not playing that game.” She ate a tiny amount. “And, to be honest, I think I’m over this whole acting thing anyway. I’m never going to be as good at it as you are, and I’m tired of having to pretend everything is okay.”
Silver looked at her dad. “Did you know about this?”
He shrugged. “I’ve been trying to persuade her it’s just a phase because she hasn’t been as successful as she’d like recently.”
“Maybe she wants out,” Aaron said, and turned to Spring. “You should go to college like I did, and get out of this weird bubble.”
“I think I’d like that.” Spring ate another minuscule portion of fish.
“Then you should do it,” Silver urged her. “There’s plenty of money to pay for college. What do you want to study?”
“I’d like to be a teacher,” Spring said.
“You’d be awesome at it,” Silver agreed before she smiled at her parents. “Think about how much free time you’ll have to spend together when Spring’s at college and I’m managing my own career.”
Neither of her parents looked thrilled at the idea, but Silver was not going to let it go. “You could travel the world, buy an RV, and visit all the states in the USA!”
Her father set down his glass. “We have to sort out the current media issue before we think about anything else.”
“We’re going to talk about that now?” Silver focused in on her father. “Who told you what happened when I was on the trail ride?”
“Surely the question should be, why didn’t you tell me?” her father replied. “If I’d known . . .”
“If you’d known, you would’ve gone in there suing everyone in sight. It was nobody’s fault, and we all got out alive,” Silver said firmly. “I intended to tell you when I got back. It just slipped my mind.”
She’d been too