Rising Star (11 page)

“
Thank you, Jeffrie. For
everything.”

Selena held on again as Matt raced through
traffic, weaving his car from lane to lane to pass slower
vehicles.

“
You know we have plenty of
time before my flight don’t you?”

Matt laughed and eased back on the throttle.
“Sorry. It’s just a habit.”

Selena checked in at LAX and got her
boarding pass, then they found a quiet table in a coffee shop.
There was floor to ceiling glass facing out onto the busy walkway
and Selena watched the hurried travelers, rolling neat black
suitcases behind them. She was shocked when a man stopped and took
their picture through the glass.

“
Paparazzi,” Matt laughed.
“They’re always hanging out at LAX. You’ll probably see our picture
in one of those rag mags next week. We’ll be lucky if they don’t
make up a juicy story to go with it.”

“
I could never get used to
this life,” Selena sighed. Even though she knew she would miss Matt
horribly, she was looking forward to getting home and riding Rusty
across the silent desert.

Matt took her hand on the table. “I’m really
going to miss you, Selena. I haven’t enjoyed myself this much since
New Mexico.”

Selena had finally worked up her nerve. “Do
you think I’ll ever see you again?”

Matt threw back his head and laughed. “I
guarantee it. One way or another, we’ll see each other again.”

Selena smiled, the tension easing from her
shoulders. She really wanted to believe him, but she knew there
would still be eight hundred miles separating them.

They chatted quietly for a while, their
heads close together, until Selena knew she had better go. She
still had to get through security and find the correct gate.

Matt still hadn’t got around to asking her
his question. He hadn’t found the right time or the right way to
phrase it and he didn’t want to embarrass her, but still he
wondered…had she been waiting for the right guy and, if so, did she
think he was that guy? He didn’t think the airport was the right
place to discuss a girl’s virginity, but still…he had to wonder.
And, if she had been waiting for the right guy, he felt honored
that she’d chosen him. He held her tight and kissed her lips
repeatedly before he finally let her go, a gloom of sadness
settling onto his shoulders as he watched her walk away.

Chapter 17

Selena graduated with her class the
following day, smiling in her cap and gown while her parents
snapped pictures. She wished she could tell them just how much she
didn’t want to have her picture taken ever again, but she knew how
much it meant to them. A lot of the kids were having parties that
night, but Selena turned down the invitations. She only wanted to
sit at home quietly, without the noise and crowds. And besides, she
was hoping to hear from Matt. She sat alone in her room all night,
thinking of Matt and their night together. She paced her room for a
bit, then finally sat down in front of her old computer. She
wondered if she should just give up writing after all those
rejection letters, but she felt somehow compelled to write, as if
it would clear her own muddled thoughts. She began another story in
her anticipated mystery series, with her smart, strong lead
character, Trish off onto another adventure. She felt free as she
wrote, her mind quickly escaping into a fictitious world of her own
choosing. She wrote for hours, escaping into the life of Trish,
which was much easier than dealing with her own confused
feelings.

Selena loaded Rusty into the horse trailer
the following morning and set off to the west mesa for a ride. She
breathed a sigh of relief when she topped the hill of the mesa in
her dad’s old truck and looked out across miles of empty desert. It
looked serene and beautiful after the noise and crowds of L.A. She
parked the truck and then saddled Rusty as she enjoyed the
stillness of the desert. There was nothing as far as the eye could
see, except for a few rangy beef cows, and the silence almost hurt
her ears. She could hear a buzzing in her ears as the silence
engulfed her after all the noise she’d been subjected to. She rode
for hours across the desert, allowing Rusty to pick his way slowly
between clumps of sagebrush. She had no destination in mind and no
agenda for the day. Just her horse and a canteen of water. She
could feel all the stress and tension easing from her muscles as
she rode. No crowds, no pictures, no racing through traffic. That
made her think of Matt and the way he drove through traffic and she
felt a sharp pang in her chest. She missed him horribly and she
hadn’t heard from him at all since arriving home. She was still so
afraid that he was only using her and she prayed that wasn’t the
case. She hadn’t meant to give herself to him, at least not until
she felt more sure of him—it had just sort of happened.

She rode for most of the day, wandering
quietly across the desert, through canyons and washes. She took in
the beautiful sights as if seeing them for the first time. The busy
city had given her a fresh perspective of her treasured desert.

Selena was practicing with Rusty on the
barrels in her back yard the following week when she saw Beth race
up her drive in the new car her parents had given her for
graduation. Well, not new, new. Like her own red car, Beth’s was a
few years old, but still in good condition. Beth screeched to a
stop and jumped out of the car, waving a handful of papers over her
head at Selena. Beth’s face was flushed with excitement when Selena
rode over to her. “You’ve gotta see this,” Beth said, still holding
the papers above her head.

“
Okay, just let me unsaddle
Rusty first and we’ll go inside.” Selena threw her saddle over a
fence rail and turned Rusty loose before following her friend into
the trailer. She could see now, the papers in Beth’s hands were
magazines. What now, Selena thought with an uneasy feeling. She
still hadn’t heard from Matt and she was more sure than ever that
he’d only been using her. She didn’t want to see his picture now in
magazines, with whatever starlet he’d picked up this week. Beth
dropped the magazines on the kitchen table and they each dropped
into a chair as Beth began flipping pages. “Ah, here it is,” Beth
said as she pushed the magazine toward Selena.

Selena caught her breath as she stared at
it. It was a full-page layout of herself sitting on Catalina in the
surf. It was the picture they’d taken from the side, as Catalina
had stopped and pawed at the water. Selena hadn’t even been looking
at the camera, she was looking ahead, creating a profile picture,
with her dark hair blowing in the wind. The white dress had
billowed around her as the cameramen had wanted. The overall effect
was mystical—almost magical. There was a small picture in the top
right corner of the ad. It was a bottle of perfume—Fantasy
Perfume—it said over the picture. Selena stared, almost in a state
of shock. These Hollywood people had transformed her and Catalina
into mystical creatures. She just couldn’t believe the beauty of a
simple perfume ad.

“
It’s amazing, isn’t it?”
Beth said with awe in her voice.

“
I can’t believe it,”
Selena said. “I just can’t believe it came out so good.”

“
Yeah, well see if you
believe this one,” Beth was flipping pages again.

Selena sucked in her breath when she saw the
picture of her and Matt, sitting together intimately at the
airport, their heads close together as Selena stared at the camera.
Selena felt her face flush as she saw the headline:

NEW FLAME FOR MATT MASON?

She read the short article underneath their
picture.

Matt’s new flame is a newcomer to
the scene. Sources reveal the auburn-haired beauty is model Selena
Summers, see perfume ad on page 4. But the real question, is it
serious with Matt or another in a long line of beautiful models for
him?

Selena felt like crying, but she was
determined not to let her emotions get the better of her. Beth
flipped through the other magazines. The full-page picture of her
on Catalina was in each one, but thankfully, nothing more of her
and Matt. Until they flipped through the last one. There was a
picture of Matt pressing her against the limo in Malibu as he’d
kissed her. There must have been paparazzi on the beach or out on
the street. Selena felt like her face was on fire. She could not
imagine her friends and family seeing this picture. She had always
been a very private person and she felt utterly humiliated.

“
This is hot,” Beth said
excitedly, as she stared at the picture. “I guess you’re the next
rising star of Hollywood fame.”

“
No. I’m not,” Selena said
as she angrily slammed the magazine closed. “I don’t want any of
it,” she said in a quieter tone, her voice trembling.

“
Not even hottie
Mason?”

“
I don’t know. I mean, I
do, but now I haven’t heard from him. Again. I just don’t know if
he’s taking advantage of me.” Selena paced around the small
kitchen, her pent-up emotions finally getting the best of
her.

“
I say roll with it,” Beth
said brightly, trying to cheer her friend up. “See where it all
takes you, and Selena, look at this.” Beth flipped back to the
picture of Matt and Selena at the airport. In the picture, Matt was
leaning toward Selena across the table as he stared at
her.

“
He’ll call,” Beth said
happily. “Look at the way he’s looking at you.”

Selena was rounding the third barrel on
Rusty the following Sunday and making the mad dash back through the
gate to cheers and applause from the onlookers. The summer rodeo
season was getting under way and she’d went to the local arena with
Beth. There was only one younger girl on a small black mare that
was giving her any competition and she was pretty sure she’d just
beaten her time. She raced Rusty through the gate, then spun him
around as he slowed. As he trotted back toward the fence, she
recognized a familiar face. Matt was clapping and smiling along
with the group of locals standing along the arena fence. Selena
hopped to the ground as Rusty stopped beside Matt. Her face had
already been flushed from excitement after her run around the
barrels, now she blushed even deeper as she stared at Matt, her
emotions tripping over themselves. Before she could ask him what he
was doing there, he removed his black cowboy hat and swept her into
his arms for a kiss. Matt broke the kiss finally, but before Selena
could ask any questions, she heard her name on the loudspeaker. She
had won the barrel racing event and, with her eyes still locked
with Matt’s, she moved to Rusty and quickly swung into the saddle.
She broke the stare finally, as she trotted Rusty into the arena to
collect her blue ribbon.

Matt had drawn his own crowd and, as Selena
returned with her blue ribbon, she saw a group of teenagers
surrounding him. He signed autographs and laughed as he joked with
the group, until finally he was able to break away and join Selena
by her horse trailer, where she was unsaddling Rusty.

“
What are you doing here?”
Selena thought she was beginning to sound like a broken record, but
Matt seemed to keep showing up wherever she seemed to
be.

“
You’re mother told me
where you were.”

“
And how did you find my
house?” Selena was embarrassed to know he’d been to her home. The
small trailer must have looked mighty poor compared to his rich
mansion in the hills.

“
I have my sources,” he
answered, his mischievous smile crinkling the corners of his
mouth.

Selena turned away as she loaded Rusty into
the horse trailer.

“
Is it okay? For me to show
up here, I mean?” Matt grabbed her arm as she went to close the
door behind her horse. “I missed you, Selena,” he said
tenderly.

“
I missed you too, Matt.”
Selena’s heart raced as she listened to his words. “But you keep
doing this. I don’t hear from you at all, then all of a sudden,
you’re back in my life.”

“
Does that mean you want me
in your life?” Matt wrapped his arms around her waist as he said
it. Selena had to lean back to look up into his face.

“
Yeah, I do,” she
whispered.

Matt leaned down and kissed her hard on the
mouth. “I’ll do better, I promise,” he said. “I’ve been really
busy. “I start filming a new movie in Toronto in a couple weeks.
I’m just passing through, on my way to the location.”

Selena’s heart sank as she heard it. She
didn’t want to think about him leaving again. “How long can you
stay?”

“
I don’t know, a few days.”
he smiled, happy to hear that Selena had missed him as much as he’d
missed her.

Matt went for his car to follow her home,
the shiny black Mercedes standing out like a sore thumb in the
dusty lot of the arena, filled with beat-up pickups and horse
trailers.

After Selena had unloaded Rusty and fed him,
she took Matt inside to meet her parents.

“
Pleased to meet you
ma’am,” Matt said politely as he took her mother’s hand. He turned
and shook her father’s hand too. “Mr. Summers,” he said.

“
Call me Dave,” her dad
said with a smile.

Selena was surprised at her parents. She had
expected some paternal protective instinct from her father, at
least.

“
We saw the pictures of you
two in the magazines,” her mother said. “All the girls at work were
passing them around. We were just waiting for Selena to get around
to telling us.”