Something new, p.6
Something New, page 6
That lesson held her in good stead when she got to Los Angeles. When she was forced to room with other girls and seeing everyone try to have this sense of solidarity and sisterhood, but Anna knew better. She played the game, being friendly but guarding her heart carefully. Sure enough, when it came down to jobs and roles, friends betrayed each other and sisterhood was abandoned for personal gain. Anna never worried about that. No one got close enough to her to have enough information to spill to the tabloids or gossip rags. Many careers were ruined with poor choices in friendships or bedmates.
Anna didn’t trust easily anymore. Thank you, Delaney Winters.
Wyatt wrapped an arm around Anna’s waist, pulling her hard against his side. “Stop being such a bitch, Anna. Why the hell did you bring so much shit?”
She ducked out of his embrace and glared at him. “Not going to happen, mister. No way. Not again.” She snarled. She stalked the remaining steps down the hall and into a room at the end. “Bring the bags. Please.”
Wyatt shrugged. “Love those fiery Latinas.” And he followed her down the hall and into her room.
He dropped the bags on the floor. “What crawled up your ass and died? Delaney used to be one of your best friends and you were beyond a bitch to her. She’s been through a rough time and didn’t deserve your shit.”
Anna whirled and got up in his face. “When I want your opinion, Wyatt Turner, I’ll ask for it. Until then, thanks for the bags. You can go now.”
She placed her hands on his chest and gave him a shove, catching him off balance.
He paused in the doorway, a pensive look on his face. “You know, Anna, I don’t know what’s going on with you, but remember these are your friends and I have a feeling you need them, maybe more than you know. Don’t alienate the last people who might actually give a damn about you.”
He stepped into the hall and she slammed the door in his face without comment.
Chapter Five
Wyatt tossed his duffel into his room and closed the door behind him. The hallway was empty and Anna’s door was closed, no sound coming from her room. He studied the white door, tightly shut, much like the woman who he barely recognized today. Anna more closely resembled the porcupine than the warm, sexy, flirty woman he remembered from their dating days. Her body was spiked with sharp edges and tension, while her words were poisonous and barbs, flaying everyone around them. He leaned against the wall and tried to reconcile this Anna with the woman he had expected to see.
He hadn’t expected her to be the same woman she was five years ago. Hell, they had all changed. Life changed all of them. But Anna seemed much harder, more brittle, as if she could shatter with the slightest touch. She was always touchy but this was different. His mind wrestled with the change, but another part of him challenged it, wondering why he should even give a damn when she had shown her true colors by walking out on him when he needed her the most?
He knew better than most that Anna was a brilliant actress, able to be whomever and whatever anyone wanted or needed her to be. She had certainly played the part of devoted girlfriend through his first knee injury, although guilt probably played a huge role in her decision to take on the part. But, when his second injury came around, Anna was in California, setting up her career and she made it very clear she wasn’t coming back to Texas and nursing him through another round of rehab, especially not with the uncertainty of his career hanging in the balance, a career both knew was most likely over. Instead, she began building a name for herself in the tabloids, on the arms of eligible bachelors, costars, and anyone who could elevate her career to the next level. Her strategy paid off. She was now a star and obviously thought she was too good for Wyatt or anyone there. It was amazing she even deigned to come home again.
She had changed and it wasn’t his responsibility to figure out why she was such a bitch or to run interference for her anymore. His days of keeping Anna steady and smoothing the waters were over. He couldn’t do it, couldn’t risk getting sucked into the black hole of her life again because he knew where that story ended. With him shredded and bleeding out in a hospital, alone and miserable with nothing left in his life.
Her door opened suddenly and she stepped out, having combed her hair and touched up her makeup. Always putting on the right look for everyone, donning her armor for the crowd.
“You know the paparazzi aren’t here right? They can’t get on the private beach so you don’t need to be so damned perfect and made up all the time.” He snarled at her, words coming a bit harsher than he anticipated.
Her eyes widened in surprise then narrowed. “I don’t do this for the paparazzi. I do it for me, because I like to look nice for my friends.” She let her gaze travel over his worn jeans and UT football coach’s t-shirt. “You might try it sometime.”
He only arched a brow at her. “I’ll risk it. My friends like me for who I am, not what I wear or what I look like. Can your friends say the same?”
She flinched but the hurt was quickly masked by a cool expression on her face and a hair toss. “My friends like me too.”
He stepped forward into her personal space, forcing her to look up, a defiant expression on her face. “And which friends are they? The ones you haven’t seen in five years or the ones you ostensibly have in California?” Judging by the flash of hurt in her eyes, he had scored. Only he wasn’t sure if it was a victory or something else.
“I have plenty of friends, both here and there. I don’t need to kiss up.”
“Well, you’d better work on your technique if your meeting with Delaney was any indication.” He stepped away, starting to head down the hall then stopped. “Can I give you a piece of advice? We’re going to be here for a whole week. You might want to let go of past frustrations and grudges if you want the week to go well.”
She folded her arms in front of her and cocked her hip. “You’re one to talk, oh master of grudges.”
He paused and slowly pivoted in his sneakers, an icy cold chill of anger slithering down his back. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Like you’re not still pissed off at me for living out my dream when you can’t. I see your anger every time you look at me. You snipe at me, make snide comments, and insult my job. But I remember a time when you supported me, encouraged me, and told me to go for it while you rehabbed your knee. But it seems now, you’re singing a different tune. Although I don’t know what else I expected.”
He advanced on her, anger burning deep inside. “And what is that supposed to mean?”
She cocked her head, a smirk on her face. “What do you think? Your fragile ego can’t handle someone else being successful, especially me.”
“Fragile ego? Me? I do not have an ego, fragile or otherwise.”
“Of course you do. All men do.” Anna waved her hand in the air as if the words meant nothing. “Really, it’s no big deal, Wyatt. Only, you’re so quick to condemn me for something you did yourself five years ago. How long was it before you contacted any of your friends?”
She took a couple of steps forward, going on the offensive, getting into his personal space so he could smell the coconut scent of her shampoo and the unique scent he never could get out of his mind whenever he thought of Anna. “I was there, Wyatt, during your injury, surgery, and rehab. I had to force my way into your hospital room when you shut me out, not just emotionally but even physically, trying to bar me from your room. As if your injury and risk to your career made you less of a man to me.” Her voice lowered, deepened with remembered pain and anger. “I fought for you.”
He struggled to take a breath, her words a painful reminder of the beginning of the end of his professional football career. “It was guilt you felt, nothing more. And, if I recall, you left eventually and didn’t bother coming back when I needed you.”
She lifted her chin, steel in her dark chocolate eyes. “Yes, damn you. It was guilt, but that’s not why I stayed. But I think you need to remember why I left, and your role in that departure. Because you clearly have forgotten details of our history.”
She pushed past him, headed for the stairs, while he remained frozen in place. “How about you, Anna? Have you forgotten anything about our past?”
She paused at the top of the stairs, hand on the railing, staring straight ahead. “I have forgotten nothing. I relive it every night.”
Anna rushed down the stairs, avoiding Wyatt but hesitated to go out onto the patio, needing some time to compose herself. She wandered into the front sitting room, enjoying the soft French countryside touches Caroline’s mother had added. Instead of making the house pretentious or a showpiece, she had kept the cozy homey quality as if it truly was a family home and not a magazine spread. Anna sank into one of the chairs and strove for a measure of control, practicing her breathing in an effort to tame her racing heart and ping-ponging emotions.
Coming back to Texas was going to be hard, that much she had expected. When she had come back for the bridal shower a few weeks ago, she had been the triumphant heroine, returning home to accolades. She was no longer the forgotten middle child of a middle-class restaurateur family. No, Caroline’s family and her social equals admired Anna, asked for her autograph, wanted her advice on fashion, gossip in LA, and the next big thing. Anna was important.
What a difference a few weeks made. While no announcements had been made, the rumors were damaging. Her character was allegedly in a coma and her contract might not be renewed. She knew all of that was true but the fans didn’t know it for sure, but they had heard that on the Internet and the buzz was growing. In the past, her popularity with the fans might have saved her role, but it might not be enough anymore. Being a nighttime television bad girl had finally shown the negative side and it had bitten her in the ass.
Wyatt’s slow and measured tread, sounding like the footsteps of doom, on the stairs alerted her that she couldn’t remain isolated for long. Someone would come looking for her and she’d better be ready, better know how she’d play this. She could never let her friends know how bad things had gotten. For now, she might be an actress with a dying career, but she still had one role to play. The role of a successful and up-and-coming actress, instead of failing at everything—career, life, love.
She headed for the patio and came to a halt when she saw Delaney and Wyatt in the doorway to the patio. Delaney had a genuine, relaxed smile while Wyatt’s head tilted to listen to her, a soft, gentle look on his face, a look Anna never saw aimed at her. Anna leaned against the doorjamb to the kitchen and watched the interaction, jealousy itching beneath the surface.
He treated Delaney as if she were spun glass, a princess in the tower, while he pushed Anna, prodded her like a sore tooth or, worse, something he found on the bottom of his shoe. She hated that she was jealous of Delaney, hated that Delaney had more of a right to be close to Wyatt than Anna did, hated that Anna wanted to be the one Wyatt treated like she was special. But she gave up that right years ago and, even when they dated it was less about being placed on a pedestal than the combustible fire that always seemed to explode around both of them. Maybe it was better that they had ended it when they had, before they went supernova and burned everyone out around them when they blew up. She got burned enough as it was with the scars to prove it, even though they were deep inside, where she could hide them from the world.
It was the hug that pushed Anna over the edge, forced her to act, even as she stuffed down the jealousy that burned like acid in her stomach, mixing with guilt for feeling jealous, all combined to churn up a sour taste in her mouth. And this was only the first day. Imagine how the rest of the week was going to go?
Anna pushed off the wall and stalked into the room just as Delaney stepped closer to Wyatt. Not a flirty come-on, and Anna knew it, but damn if she didn’t see red.
“What are you doing now?” Delaney asked, her head tilted to one side as if Wyatt was the most important person in the world at that moment. They probably taught that move in finishing school.
Anna glared at the cozy scene. “He’s coaching football now at our alma mater, UT. The quarterbacks. I would have thought you would have known that since you stayed here in Texas. Or is football beneath you, Delaney?” She tossed her long black hair and planted a hand on her hip.
Delaney sucked in a breath and turned to Wyatt, laying a hand tentatively on his right arm “Coaching at UT? That’s great, Wyatt. I was sorry to hear about your injury.”
His face tightened, a muscle jumping in his jaw. Anna steeled herself against her own pain, her own guilt at her role in his injury and, instead, painted on a smirk, her eyebrow cocked, waiting for his reply.
Wyatt stared, a carefully blank expression on his face. “Well, you were going through a lot when I got hurt. After the incident, I had surgery and rehabbed the knee but it was never stable enough for me to rely on it. I tried a few walk-on tryouts but I never got picked up. UT hired me to work with the quarterbacks a couple of years ago.”
Delaney closed her eyes briefly, playing the perfect part of the victim, as usual. She really needed to learn how to have a thick skin. How had Delaney survived the past five years by rolling over and playing dead? Anna would have come out swinging with both fists, making sure no one ever hurt her or her family ever again. She wouldn’t have run away, wouldn’t have hidden. Then again, Anna had to fight for everything she had while Delaney just had to look pretty and wait for everything to come to her.
Delaney blinked, sadness in her eyes. “I’m so sorry, Wyatt. Your dreams.”
He shot an enigmatic glance at Anna, with an underlying burning resentment. “Well, not all of us are meant to follow our dreams, I suppose. But I’m still working in football and that’s all that matters.”
Anna narrowed her eyes at him, not willing to bend at all, despite Delaney’s sound of sympathy. “Well, that was your choice, wasn’t it? You chose to stay here in Texas.”
“I love Texas. It’s my home. I didn’t feel the need to run away like some people.” A muscle jumped in Wyatt’s jaw but he remained outwardly calm.
Anna narrowed her eyes but turned to Delaney instead. “I think Delaney is the one who knows all about running away, am I right?”
Wyatt wrapped an arm around Delaney’s shoulder. “Shove off, Anna. Maybe if you weren’t such a bitch all the time, and not just on television, people wouldn’t feel the need to run from you.” Wyatt’s voice was hard and rough like granite.
Anna flinched before she could catch herself, then she regained her control, saying the first thing that came to mind. “Who would give a damn about Anna Costado?”
Delaney looked startled by her bitter tone but Wyatt only looked suspicious, as if he wondered what game she was playing. She snorted. Some things never changed. Before they could continue, Ethan stepped up next to her, frowning hard at the couple in the doorway. It was the perfect opportunity to divert attention from her to something else. She went with her standby—flirting. She leaned into Ethan’s arm with a sexy little moue, and laid a hand on his forearm. Ethan looked surprised, pulling his attention from Delaney and Wyatt.
Delaney took a small step back from Wyatt, putting some distance between her and the tense situation. As if the movement broke the ice, Wyatt turned to her, a muscle jumping in his jaw.
He exhaled, visibly relaxing his muscles, and held out his arm to her, ignoring the scowling Anna. “Shall we beard the lions together, milady?”
Delaney laughed. “My hero. Thank you.”
She took his arm and walked out with him onto the patio. Immediately, all conversation died, everyone staring. Ethan murmured something Anna didn’t quite catch and she shrugged off his hand, pushing around Wyatt and Delaney to the get to the drink cart. If she was going to survive the night, she was going to need some liquid fortification.
Ethan and Wyatt joined her at the cart. Ethan pouring two glasses of wine for him and Delaney, while Wyatt opened a bottle of Lone Star beer and stared hard at Anna, as if willing her to look at him. She ignored him, ignored the pull of his gaze, and focused on the conversation swirling around her. She avoided his gaze and took a seat on the low rock wall, sipping her vodka tonic.
Matthew Coughlin stood and gestured to a man standing with Brigid. “Anna and Delaney, you haven’t met my brother yet. Grady Coughlin, meet Delaney Winters, Caroline’s best friend since forever and maid of honor.”
“A best friend wouldn’t have disappeared for years,” Anna muttered from her perch on the stone wall.
Matthew colored slightly and sucked in a breath. Wyatt shot Anna a look but she only lifted her eyebrow. She wondered if Delaney had any fight in her or if life, and her father’s crime, had beaten it out of her. Besides, Anna was tired of having to treat Delaney with kid gloves. Delaney had messed up all of their lives, tossed their friendship in their faces and now expected them all to welcome her back with open arms like the prodigal son from the bible. Well, Anna gave up on religion a long time ago and forgiveness was hard to come by.
Delaney cocked her head and studied Anna in mock seriousness. “I thought you would have left Bianca St. John behind for this weekend. Or maybe you and Bianca are one and the same. Isn’t she the bitch? Or was that you?”
Anna’s jaw dropped and her eyes narrowed, surprised that Delaney would take her on so publicly. She closed her jaw with a snap and hopped off the wall, standing toe-to-toe with her, Anna at eye level due to the heels she wore.
