her voice on every radio talk show, and her picture on every billboard. Then there were the TV talk shows, the interviews, and the ads running for the movie. Trent felt as if he literally couldn’t escape her.
And there were her texts. Still, even after all this time. Trent received a text from Skye once or twice a week. Thinking of you. What are you up to? He’d never responded, yet she’d kept texting. Sometimes she’d tell him about her day or send a funny selfie. He hated to admit it, but he looked forward to each text she sent. He’d eagerly look at his phone only to feel the betrayal of being just one of many.
Karri had even come a couple of weeks after he’d left California without so much as a “see ya.” She’d brought a gift basket full of all the things he’d told Skye he loved. Bourbon, books, even a tool he’d been thinking about getting. Trent had looked at Karri and shoved it back at her.
“I don’t understand,” Karri had said to him.
“You don’t need to buy my silence. I won’t sell my story,” Trent had said back to her as if he wasn’t in pain.
Karri had looked at him questioningly then. “Look, just talk to her. Please. She’s my best friend and I’ve never seen her like this.”
“Like what?” Trent had asked.
“In love.”
Karri had spun around and left. The gift basket was at his feet as she drove away. Had he been wrong? Was Skye in love with him? He’d pulled up her text and stared at it. All he’d need to do is type and send two letters— “hi” and he knew she would reply.
Instead of texting her, Trent googled her. She’d released a new interview and desperate to hear her voice, he’d watched it. Then he’d heard her say she was leaving to film in Europe.
“What kind of impact does all this travel have on your personal life?” the interviewer had asked.
“What personal life?” Skye laughed and memories of their night together flashed before him. “No, but seriously, I don’t have time to date. Right now my career comes first.”
So Trent had put down the phone and never picked it up again . . . except to look at the news alerts. He still couldn’t stop wanting to know how Skye was doing. Now, even months later, Trent picked up his phone when it sounded with a news alert. He clicked on the article and there was a picture of Skye smiling as Hollywood’s leading man hugged her tightly to him. Love on the set of Skye Jessamine and Mason Hemming’s new movie!
Trent turned off the phone and set it down, vowing to be done with Skye Jessamine.
“Still pining away?”
Trent rolled his eyes as his cousin Ryker’s voice came from the door of his woodshop. Trent had opened the bay doors to allow the fall air in as he worked. Unfortunately, that also allowed nosy cousins to sneak up on him.
“I am working with pine. How did you know?” Trent asked innocently as he looked down at the wood he was shaping into a rustic headboard.
“I meant for the actress.”
Trent turned around and saw his cousin standing with his hands in the pockets of what had to be a handmade suit. To say Ryker, business tycoon extraordinaire, was out of place in his wood shop was an understatement. “Did you need something?” Trent asked, ignoring the question about Skye.
“Yeah, you’re late for dinner.”
Trent’s head fell back as he groaned. “I forgot. I was so wrapped up in this piece.”
“Piece of something.” Ryker was determined to push, but Trent wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction. “We all ate, but we’re hanging out at Harper’s. Come on, let’s go.”
Trent took off his safety goggles and stripped the gloves from his hands. “I need to shower.”
Ryker shook his head. “Gator and Turtle just got back from the swamp, so no need to worry about showering. You can’t possibly smell worse than they do.”
“Okay, but please no Skye talk.”
Ryker shrugged his shoulders and walked out, leaving Trent to shut down his shop and hurry after him.
“Did you see that article about Skye dating her co-star?” Trent’s cousin Tinsley asked the second he entered the bar owned by his cousin Harper.
The Faulkner cousins wasn’t an especially large group. There were seven of them, but the seven were quickly expanding as they married. There was Trent and his brother, Wade, who was in the Coast Guard. Wade