Author: Bella Andre

Abruptly, Nicola shoved at his chest, knocking him away from her. Both of her hands were clamped over her mouth and her eyes were wide with horror.

Nicola turned in the general direction of his family. “I’m sorry I ruined your lunch,” she said in a broken voice, then turned and ran toward the house.

Marcus had never put his heart out on the line to anyone like that before, only to have it returned sliced and diced into tiny little pieces. His pride told him to let Nicola go, that he hadn’t needed her before and he didn’t need her now.

At least this time he knew enough to tell his pride to go straight to hell.

A heartbeat later, Marcus Sullivan was chasing down the pop star who had stolen his heart.

* * *

“Wait a minute,” Lori said in the wake of Marcus’s departure. “What just happened here?”

Her twin snorted. “Seriously, are you still the only one who’s completely clueless? Can’t you pay attention to anyone’s life but your own for three seconds?”

Before Lori could turn around and jump down her twin’s throat, Zach said, “Looked to me like Marcus just completely blew it.” He shook his head, looking less than impressed. “Man, that was messy.”

“It might not end up being quite so funny when it happens to you,” his mother told him with a pointed arch of one eyebrow.

“No chance,” Ryan said. “The rest of us are perfectly content to leave love out of it.”

Knowing it would irk his siblings, Chase said, “Not all of us,” then planted a big wet kiss on Chloe’s lips. She laughed and kissed him back.

“I just don’t understand,” Lori said. “When did Marcus and Jill break up?”

Speaking as if she were addressing a two-year-old, Sophie told Lori, “I guess he finally dumped her and now he’s in love with Nico.”

“He says her name is really Nicola,” Smith pointed out and Sophie shot him a death glare.

“As I was saying, the only problem is that she doesn’t seem to be in love with him.”

Gabe’s radio went off suddenly, a loud shrill noise that couldn’t be missed, along with a quick burst of information about the situation that they all listened in on as he turned the volume up.

He was already standing and pushing away from the table before the fire dispatcher stopped speaking. “Sorry to eat and run, especially when we’ve just gotten to the good stuff.”

Mary stood, too, and gave him a hug and kiss. “After all these years, I should be used to watching you leave on a call.” She reluctantly let him out of her arms. “Be safe, honey.”

“Don’t worry,” Gabe replied. “Nothing’s going to happen to your favorite son.”

“He’s right,” Smith joked. “I’m going to stay here and be just fine.”

Everyone laughed but Lori. As soon as Gabe left, she said, “I can’t help feeling responsible for everything with Marcus and Nico. I mean, Nicola.” Her usually bright smile was completely nonexistent. “I mean, I’m the one who introduced them and then left them to have dinner alone.” She bit her lip. “Or whatever else it was they ended up doing.”

“Don’t feel bad, Naughty. Evidently he met her before you introduced them.”

Lori looked at Chase with huge eyes. “No way. He had no idea who she was when I introduced them and she—” Her words fell away. “Oh my God, Marcus must have been the guy she was telling me about that day at the studio. And then they both tried to act like they didn’t know each other. No wonder he was so weird that afternoon and she kept forgetting the steps that she’d known all morning.”

Everyone leaned in closer. “What did she say to you about him?” Sophie asked.

Suddenly, Lori seemed to realize that she was spilling Nicola’s secrets. “I shouldn’t tell you guys.”

Ryan and Smith grinned at each other, both of them knowing how close they were to getting more dirt on their until-now perfect older brother. “We’ve already seen the worst of it, Lori,” Ryan said, followed by Smith with, “Maybe we can help him if we know more.”

Seeing right through her sons, Mary said, “Smith, Ryan, I think we’ve already seen and heard enough about their private business.”

“Mom’s right,” Lori said. “Besides, all she said was that she met some guy the night before and then she fell asleep on his lap before they’d even kissed.”

Zach laughed out loud. “Poor sap couldn’t even keep her awake.”

Mary shushed her kids. “Enough. We’re not going to sit here gossiping about your brother when there are tables that need clearing and plates that need washing.”

After everyone hopped to attention, Chloe said to Chase, “Your mother is so sweet that sometimes I forget she raised eight children on her own and knows perfectly well how to handle all of you.”

“She didn’t do it alone. Marcus helped her more than any of us.” He twined his fingers through hers and pulled her close to him beneath the shade of a large oak tree. “He sacrificed a ton for us. He deserves a happy ending.”

Chloe tilted her face to look into his eyes. “I’m betting he’ll get one. Really, really soon.”

“How can you say that after what went down here today?”

“Women’s intuition. Nicola is in love with him.” Before he could ask how she knew, Chloe pressed a soft kiss to his lips. “A woman in love always recognizes the signs in another woman in love. Like Lori said, suddenly it all makes sense—the way they couldn’t take their eyes off each other during lunch, the way he jumped all over Gabe for making her laugh and Ryan for calling her gorgeous. I guarantee Nico is head over heels for your brother, whether she wants to be or not.”

“Good thing Sullivan men are so persuasive, isn’t it?”

Chloe wound her arms around Chase’s neck as he pulled her closer. “Yes,” she agreed. “It’s a very good thing.”

Chapter Twenty-two

Marcus came flying out of the house, only to stop short when he saw Nicola standing beside Lori’s car. Nicola knew that if she were smart, she’d keep running away from Marcus, away from everything that hurt so damn bad.

But she’d come here today to face him down one last time, hadn’t she? Only to panic in front of his entire family.

“Your sister picked me up and brought me here. I can’t leave without her.”

“Don’t leave.” Marcus approached her slowly, cautiously. “Please don’t leave.”

She could still taste the sweetness of his kiss as she licked her lips. “I shouldn’t have run like that.” She swallowed hard, made herself say, “Not when I know we need to talk.”

She saw relief mix with wariness on his face as he came closer. “I’m sorry if I embarrassed you back there.”

“It’s okay.” And it was, because she understood the desperation he’d felt. How could she not, when she felt it too?

“No, Nicola. You deserve better. So much better.” He reached out a hand to her. “Give me another chance. Please.”

She wanted so badly to take his hand, to give him that chance.

But she couldn’t. Not when she knew it would only end up hurting him.

“Marcus.” Her throat caught on his name. “Is there somewhere we can go that’s more private than this?”

He nodded, his jaw tight as he dropped the hand she hadn’t taken. He led them down the sidewalk to a short path that cut between houses. A small children’s playground that looked like it hadn’t been used in a decade sat forlornly beneath the old oak trees.

“We used to come here and play when we were kids.”

Her heart ached for the child Marcus had once been...and for how short his childhood had been. Fourteen years old was far too young to have to shoulder the responsibilities he had taken on.

“Your family is amazing, Marcus.” She sat on a cracked bench. “I’m so glad I got to meet them all. There was so much love in your mother’s backyard."

He didn’t move to sit beside her, but went to his knees in the dirt before her. She let him take her hands, utterly unable to push him away one more time. Not with her hands, anyway.

“Did you mean what you said on the beach? Were you really falling in love with me?”

She met his eyes, read his pain in them, his surprising fear that she might not actually love him. She shouldn’t admit that she still did.

But she had to.

“Yes,” she said softly. “I love you.”

“Thank God.”

“No,” she said quickly, “I’ve done a lot of thinking since last night.” She swallowed hard, shook her head, tried to fight back the tears that were right there, waiting to fall. “I can guess why Smith wanted to talk to you in the garage. He was warning you about me, about what it would be like to date me, for real, out in the open, wasn’t he?”

“What you and I are doing is none of Smith’s business.”

“No, but I’ll bet everything he said to you about the circus of lives like ours is true.”

“I’ve always liked the circus.”

She wanted to throw her arms around him, wanted to kiss him for saying he would give up everything for her. But she knew she’d never forgive herself for being so selfish. And, ultimately, he’d never forgive her either.

He’d already given up so much for his family. She couldn’t let him give up even more for her.

“I cheated last night,” she confessed. “I looked you up online. I read all about Sullivan Winery. I saw how magnificently you’ve done with it and what an important role you play in your community. You deserve to have a wife who can support you in all that you do, one who can be an equal partner in it all. Not someone who’s on a different plane every week to another state, another country, another hemisphere. It didn’t take me more than five minutes with your family to see that you’re not like Smith or Lori or even Ryan. You’re not about the party. You don’t need everyone to want to take your picture. You don’t need to use your charm and charisma to try and impress people. Who you are at your core is what’s impressive, Marcus, and you don’t need a big stage or a crowd to know your own worth.”

He opened his mouth to interrupt and she put her hand over his lips before he could say something that would break her resolve.

“See, the thing is, I know my life is crazy and a circus and even though it sometimes drives me nuts that I can’t go out like a normal person to get a coffee or go see a movie, I still love it. I don’t just want to sing for a little while. I want to be around twenty years from now, still writing and playing songs that millions of people want to listen to.”

“You will.”

“Thank you for believing in me so much,” she told him. “Despite the words we threw at each other yesterday on the beach, you’ve never treated me like a dumb pop star. You’ve respected me and now I need to respect you just as much. It’s just another reason why I can’t do this to you, why I can’t ask you to be a part of my world.”

“Shouldn’t that be my decision, kitten?”

The endearment nearly broke her, enough that she admitted, “Do you know the craziest thing about all of this? I wanted to be the one to heal all of your heartache. But instead—” She had to stop, try to take the breath that was lodged in her throat. “Instead, I was the one who made it all so much worse. I’m so sorry for that, Marcus. So much sorrier than you’ll ever know."

She made herself slip her hands from his and stand up. “We can’t see each other anymore. If you could take me back to my hotel now, I’d appreciate it."