Above Rubies (Rockland Ranch) (30 page)

              Naomi came back in at five thirty to start breakfast before the girls had to catch their plane.  She found the three of them still there and scooped up the waking baby before she disturbed them.  She knew Kit’s bags were packed and waiting by the garage door.  Joey had told her some of what Kit had been doing at school and Naomi knew she had to be exhausted.  She let them sleep, fed Joey and Mimi, and packed a breakfast Kit could take with her, before waking her at the last possible moment. 

             
Kit smiled at Naomi and raised her head to look around.  When she saw Rossen was still asleep leaning on the couch beside her, she leaned over to gently kiss the top of his head, then gave Naomi an impish grin and whispered, “Don’t tell him,”

Chapter 16

             
Nick himself was in the limo that met them at the airport at ten thirty California time.  Kit was finally awake.  She'd touched up her makeup and hair and had eaten the breakfast Naomi had sent, and felt ready and excited to face the next three days.  When Nick climbed out of the car at the curb to help them with their bags, looking just like the star he was, she was honestly glad to see him.

             
They headed straight to the studio and as they drove, Bryan Cole called Nick’s phone.  He answered and handed it to Joey.  Nick and Kit smiled at each other as they listened to her side of the conversation.  Bryan was apparently cajoling Joey into spending the day with him instead of just waiting at the studio with Kit.  She was giving him flack, but they both knew she'd eventually give in.

             
She did, and Kit was glad.  She knew Joey had been bored last time, but they didn’t really want her hanging out in the city alone.

             
Nick was watching Kit and she knew it, but she wouldn’t meet his eyes.  She knew he was interested in her, but she truly felt it was no more than the interest he had in a hundred other girls in this town.  Still, she was actually a little glad when they unloaded and had to face the cameras and fans at the studio.

             
Bryan was already there, waiting in a sleek Porsche with tinted windows. Joey ran from one car to the other as Nick put his arm around Kit to shield her as they pushed through.  Dr. and Mrs. Mitchell brought up the rear with relatively little trouble.

             
Once inside, they got geared up and then Nick began talking Kit through the lineup while they waited for Shane and Joss.  He took her to a quiet corner and began to play and sing her parts to her.  He was so close she could feel his breath on her skin and smell his aftershave and she unconsciously backed away from him.

             
They would be working on Nick’s own music all day.  One of the songs was a his and hers duet about finally coming home, that he told her he'd written on that Sunday morning when she’d left without saying good bye.  It was the perfect combination of ballad and classic rock and roll, and Kit loved it, although she still worried a bit about something tender she saw at the back of his eyes.

             
Shane and Joss showed up and they worked the rest of the morning straight through, the seven of them focused and intense.  Just before one o’clock, they started on
Coming Home
, and the song came together almost effortlessly.  Nick and Kit’s voices were as if they were made for each other and the harmonies flowed between the rocking back beat and hot guitars.  Kit was having a great time dancing and singing with Nick beside her as she played.  They sang to each other time and again and she knew without a doubt it would be a new big hit for him.  Her guitar was a living thing in her hands. 

             
Kit was into the music and singing her heart out when she glanced up and into Nick’s soul.  The look in his eyes as he watched her rock out shocked her to her toes.  She hit two wrong notes in a row as she dropped her eyes to dance away.  Nick groaned, and his guitar screeched into silence as he let it fall to hang from the strap over his shoulder and ran a hand through his hair.  The others stopped playing in bewilderment, looking at each other and wondering what the heck had just happened.  Kit never hit wrong notes, and Nick was not a temperamental musician and nobody else had a clue.

             
Nick started to slip the shoulder strap over his head.  “Let’s break for lunch and try it again after.  Somebody . . . Shane, call and order us some lunch, would you?”   He set his guitar down and stalked out the door.  Kit set hers down and followed him.  Behind them, the other four and Ian in the control room all remained silent, until finally Shane said, “Okay.  So . . .  What sounds good for lunch?”

             
Kit followed Nick up the stairs to the second floor, where he stood looking out some big windows into a garden courtyard behind the building.  He ran a hand through his hair again as she came to stand beside him.  She leaned against his shoulder as she quietly said, “I’m sorry.”

             
He gave a self-deprecating laugh as he wrapped her in a hug to rest his cheek against her hair.  “What are you sorry for?”

             
She shrugged in his arms.  “I’m not entirely sure.  I just know you’re upset with me and I’m sorry.”

             
He pulled back far enough to look into her eyes and then turned away to stare out the window again.  His voice was gentle and almost sad when he said, “I’m not upset with you, Kit.”  Finally, he turned to her again and asked, “How old are you?”

             
At first she didn’t even want to answer him and when she did, it was her voice that was sad, “Eighteen.”

             
She stood beside him looking out the window in silence, unsure of how to comfort him and wondering how they even got to be here in their friendship at this point in time.  They'd been together a total of three and a half days, really with a three week span between.  It was the fifth time in two weeks she'd found herself apologizing for that look in a man’s eyes and she honestly didn’t think she'd led any one of them on. 

Nick was by far the most troubling.  He wasn’t some punk college kid and she'd grown to have a great deal of respect for him.  She finally decided to try to downplay things and be as cheerful as possible.

              She took his hand and said, “Come on.  Let’s go eat, I’m starving!  We’ll play this afternoon and be fine.  Maybe we can try that song again in the morning when we’re fresh and not tired.”

             
They ate and played and got through the afternoon, and when he asked her to have dinner with him, she was surprised.  She agreed to, even though she was unsure it was wise.  He rode with them in the limo to drop them at the hotel and left her to change, saying he’d be back to pick her up in an hour. 

Joey came in as she was dressing and mentioned, “This gorgeous
rock star just drove up in an awesome Maserati downstairs and is about being mobbed by fans.  You might need to rescue him.”

             
Joey was having dinner with Bryan, so Kit didn’t worry about leaving her as she went to rescue Nick.

             
She came through the revolving doors in a slim fitting black dress that just brushed the top of her knees and two and a half inch black heels that put her height at five eleven.  Her hair was almost the color of her dress and she felt pretty as she walked toward him with a smile on her face.  Cameras flashed over and over in her eyes as he disentangled himself from the crowd to take her elbow and help her into the waiting sports car.  He smiled over at her as he pulled away from the curb and said sincerely, “You look like a million bucks.”

             
She smiled back shyly. “Thank you.  It’s probably a good thing.  It would be a shame not to look pretty in this car.”  Tonight he looked like a rock star and had an almost animal grace behind the sleek wheel. 

             
He drove far into the foothills, the car purring over the winding, hilly road. He finally pulled into a small elegant restaurant.  A valet took the car and they were shown discreetly to a quiet table overlooking the entire city with the ocean behind it in the setting sun.  She'd never been anywhere even remotely close to this kind of elegance, and she sat and stared out at the lights below, wondering what the man across from her was thinking.  She looked up into his brown eyes, trying to read his thoughts, but their chocolate depths remained a secret.

             
This afternoon, when she'd told him she was eighteen, she had fully expected him to walk away and even wondered if he would ever have her come back again to play.  Then he'd asked her out with totally unfathomable eyes, and now she was wondering what was up with him more than ever.

             
She was glad she'd worn the dress and was trying to figure out why he had decided to reveal this more luxurious lifestyle with the car and the opulent restaurant.  Even braving the crowds at the hotel to pick her up was more of a publicity move than he'd indulged in much with her before.

             
When the server came, they ordered and Nick chose a glass of wine with his meal, but didn’t even ask if she wanted one, and didn’t seem to notice when she ordered only water again with hers.  While they waited, he talked to her about growing up in New York City and how California was different.  Occasionally he asked her a question about her own life, but she usually gave him one word answers and coaxed him back into telling more about himself with another question. 

When the meal ended, he sat for a moment looking into her eyes in the candlelight, but when she looked away to study the city lights spread out below
, he stood up and helped her out of her chair.  Taking her hand, he walked to the car in silence.  She almost felt like he was trying to decide something in his head as he went.

             
                                          ****

             
He was trying to decide something.  He’d never felt this way about a woman in his life and didn’t know whether to flat out run from these feelings, or try to get close to this girl.  She was only eighteen.  And although she was exquisitely beautiful and graceful, and unbelievably talented and smart, she was also unabashedly sweet and innocent, and obviously clean living and wholesome.  He honestly questioned whether he even had any right to be with her after the life he'd led. 

He wasn’t necessarily a bad guy, and now he was considerably more respectable than he’d been at times in the past, but he’d had his moments.  No one could describe his lifestyle as clean living, no matter how much of a stretch they tried.  Although she was the first girl he’d ever been truly fascinated by, she was still one of a long line of hundreds of girls and he knew it and he was sure she did too.  He also knew she'd seen how he felt about her today before lunch.  And where
most every other woman he had known would have been thrilled, Kit hadn’t hesitated to shy away.

             
For whatever reasons, she wasn’t just another groupie, happy to be included in his life for however much time he gave her.  It both intrigued him and challenged him.  At the same time, he hesitated to even consider being with her for fear of ruining something so pristine and unspoiled.  As all these thoughts went through his head, the one that finally won out was the simple truth that she was absolutely worth trying to obtain for his own and that was what he really wanted. 

Never in his life had he even considered settling down with one woman, but he’d known for three weeks now that he’d do it in a heartbeat with Kit if she’d have him.  The only problem was she hadn’t shown even once that she wanted him.  She was friendly and polite, and even openly appreciative of his talent.  And she danced and laughed with him as they played and sang, but she would have been that way with her brother
, too. 

             
She treated him with respect, but she'd never once given him so much as a come on with her eyes, and he honestly wasn’t even sure why she accepted his invitations.  Sometimes he wondered if she wasn’t actually trying to want to be with him.  It was a bit hard on his ego, but it was the truth.

             
Back in the car, he turned onto a road that wound along the base of the mountains where the view was incredible and turned the radio on low as they drove.  He started asking questions about school and that was somewhat easier to talk about as she actually opened up.  He asked what she was majoring in and was surprised when she said Fine Art Visual. 

“Not music?”

              She laughed her magical laugh and answered, “That’s exactly what Dr. Mitchell asked me.  He said it was a shame guitar wasn’t my passion.”

             
Nick looked back at the road.  “It is a shame.  Your talent is an incredible gift.  So, what’s your passion?”

             
“Sculpture.” 

He was
surprised, but he considered this for a long moment and then said, "It’s funny.  With your mind you could be the most gifted physician or scientist, and yet you’ve chosen the arts.  And I’m sure you’re as talented a sculptor as you are musician.”  He reached across the car and took her hand.  “I’ve never known anyone like you, Kit Star.”