‘So, tell me what happened. How did Garrett ever convince you to be his Tess Delaney? To be honest, I’m surprised he could even convince you not to shoot him on sight.’
‘I don’t own a gun,’ Kendra said, finding a colander to rinse the blueberries.
‘Better for Garrett. Now, tell me what happened.’
And, strangely enough, Kendra found herself quite comfortable talking to Stacie. She had told her everything except for the part about the emails and was setting the table when they both turned to find Garrett standing in the kitchen door, freshly scrubbed, hair still damp, with his arms folded across the unbuttoned, untucked black cotton shirt, and God, he looked hot.
Stacie smiled up at him. ‘Sit down. Breakfast is served.
‘Smells great. Thanks, Stacie,’ he said, but his gaze was locked on Kendra, like it wasn’t Stacie’s pancakes he wanted to eat.’
‘I see you two haven’t killed each other,’ he said.
Kendra shrugged and moved to pour him coffee. ‘How was your shower?’
‘Not as good as it could have been.’ He raked her with a hungry gaze.
All the way through a delicious breakfast, Stacie regaled them with her adventures in some of the more remote regions of Japan in search of exhibits for the grand opening of her New World Gallery West. She owned New World Gallery in New York City, and was now expanding to the West Coast.
‘Since there’s a large Japanese influence in the Northwest, I thought that would be a wonderful way to open New World West,’ she said, cradling her coffee cup between her hands. ‘That would be half of the exhibition, and the other half I’m hoping to dedicate to the natural beauty of the area itself. I want to exhibit some of the best wildlife and nature photography, photographed by local photographers.’ She nodded to Kendra. ‘I’d like to get your friend Harris Walker to display some of his work. In fact, I’d like to have him be the main exhibitor. Problem is he won’t talk to me now that he knows who I am.’
Kendra nodded. ‘You mean after what happened with Dee and Ellis.’
‘A little surprised you’ll talk to me, actually.’ She held Kendra’s gaze. ‘What happened was totally unintentional, you know.’ She glanced at Garrett. ‘Neither of us ever wanted anything but the best for Dee and Ellis.’
‘I know,’ Kendra said, laying her fork down and folding her hands in her lap. ‘But you have to understand, the three of us are close. Really close, and we’re really protective of each other. We have been for a long time.’
Stacie and Garrett shot each other a knowing look. ‘We do understand,’ Garrett said. ‘If anyone understands, we do.’
The conversation was light and easy, a thing Kendra hadn’t expected. There was nothing between Garrett and Stacie that felt in the least like lust. The relaxed way the two were together reminded Kendra a lot of how she was with Harris.
It was the ringing of Garrett’s BlackBerry that interrupted their relaxed chat. ‘That would be Don.’ He sighed. ‘I hung up on him last night. Surprised it’s taken him this long.’
‘You’d better answer it,’ Kendra said, sorry for the interruption of such an unexpectedly pleasant morning.
Garrett didn’t even manage a hello before he shot Kendra a glance that said this was not a happy call, and the shit storm was well on its way. ‘Christ,’ he cursed out loud, not bothering to put his hand over the phone. ‘He says to turn on the damn TV again. I knew I should never have had the stupid thing installed.’
Kendra could make out only Don’s garbled displeasure on the other end of the device as they all three left the table and crowded onto the sofa in the living room where Garrett switched on the TV.
‘How could he do this to her?’
A woman in a book store clutching a hardback copy of Tess Delaney’s latest to her chest practically yelled into the microphone the reporter thrust at her. Her eyes welled with tears.
‘I mean, I knew it wasn’t a good sign when Tess Delaney showed up at the Golden Kiss Awards on Garrett Thorne’s arm. Everyone knew that. OK, it’s true the man is gorgeous, but everyone knows he’s not worthy of her.
Stacie cursed.
Next to Kendra, Garrett stiffened, and she could see the muscles along his jaw tense. She felt her insides clench in empathy, and fought back the sudden urge to throw something heavy at the television.
The woman continued, ‘Then, even while poor Tess is bravely slaving away under death threats from a stalker, as if the poor woman doesn’t have enough to deal with. Then this!’
‘Death threats, what death threats? What stalker?’ Stacie was practically bouncing off the sofa. Both Garrett and Kendra shushed her. And the woman on the television sniffed back another sob.