Razed (Barnes Brothers #2)(62)

Keelie rubbed at the bridge of her nose. “I’m not blind.”

“Her hair started to change when she was . . . I dunno. Thirteen or so? Abby used to hate her hair,” Zane murmured, remembering how they’d all tease her. Everybody but Zach. “She hated it. Then it started to change and you’d think she’d won the lottery. But the producers hated it. Zach had heard them talking about it—he was like a fly on the wall, heard anything and everything connected to that girl. We’d gone to pick her up for a movie and I went with Zach to the door—Abby answered, trying not to cry. She had this plastic cap on her head, a towel around her shoulders. She couldn’t go. Her mother had people over to deal with a problem—I heard the bitch complaining in the background. She made Abby dye her hair for years. All because the producers thought that the brighter red hair was the only thing that would work for darling Kate.”

“It sounds like typical Hollywood,” Keelie said, looking away.

“Zach wanted to cut his hair that year—so he did it. On his own.” Zane could still remember that butcher job, too. “He all but shaved his head bald and my parents even figured out why. Mom just tidied it up, and even trimmed it shorter right before they were going to start shooting the next season. The director, a bunch of others, freaked out. The director really got worked up, started laying into him. Biggest mistake they ever made, because Mom was there. They never did it again. It’s different for girls . . . women. Some of the biggest double standards are found in LA. But Zach had the time of his life the first day on set—I always liked to go the first day of shooting. It was a family thing. He walked right up to Abby and grabbed his head, started to shriek. My hair—my hair . . . Abby, I could only act because of my hair—they’ll fire me and the show is overrrrrr . . . Then he looked at Blanche and pretended to pass out.”

“Blanche.”

“Abby’s mom.” Zane shoved away from the dresser and moved across the floor, sinking to his knees in front of the bed. “That one was mild. You should have seen the look on her face when she showed up to get Abby after Zach hit this pervert in the head with a skateboard—it was this guy Blanche was screwing on the side, not that she ever admitted to it. She was such a faithful wife, you see. He tried to go after Abby, tried to put his hands on her. Zach showed up at just the right time and bashed him with his skateboard. But of course Abby misunderstood . . . Blanche would never bring a man into the house who’d touched a girl that way.”

“Son of a bitch.” Keelie’s eyes started to burn. “You’re joking . . . no. No, you’re not, are you?”

“No.” He angled his head. “Not too long after that, the show’s popularity started to sag. Zach and Abby weren’t as cute as teens as they had been when they were kids. The show was in trouble. They weren’t offered as much money. Now Blanche, she was all about money. After the show was cancelled, she had this brilliant idea that she’d get Abby into more serious acting—one of the first auditions she’d tried to push at Abby wasn’t much more than a skin flick dressed up as a thriller. She would have been perfectly happy seeing her teenage daughter walk around in next to nothing, acting her way through an orgy, a gang-rape, and then a suicide—Abby hated the script, but that didn’t matter to Blanche. Blanche just saw the potential for a check with a lot of zeroes.”

Zane rose, turned away. “Fortunately, her dad had a better head on his shoulders and he argued. Unfortunately, he started to lose more arguments and one day, he up and killed himself, left Abby alone.”

“I . . .” Keelie blew out a breath. “Shit. I didn’t know any of that.”

“That glamour girl didn’t exactly walk a rose path.”

Keelie flushed at the mention of the mocking name she’d used for Abby. “So I see. It sounds like her mom and my mom might have been great pals.”

“She liked zeroes, too?”

“You know that song ‘Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend’?” Keelie shrugged. “Screw diamonds. If you have enough zeroes in the bank, then you can buy plenty of diamonds. Furs. Cars. You name it. Anyway, family court decided they should give my mom a chance. She was older, smarter, looked like she could provide a stable home life . . . blah, blah, blah. Plus, she was married—I even had a ready-made family, a stepbrother and two half sisters. What more could you want?”

Zane came to her and slid his arms around, tucking his chin against her shoulder. She leaned into him and sighed. It felt so good just to be near him. To feel his warmth, his strength. She felt . . . Keelie closed her eyes and let herself acknowledge how she felt here with him. In his arms, she felt at home. She felt like she belonged, something she hadn’t really felt in years.

“You could want to be happy,” he said quietly, stroking a hand up her back and tangling it in her hair. “It’s not a bad thing to want, not really.”

“Yeah.” She opened her eyes and stared out the window. “It’s not a bad thing.”

Neither of them said anything else.


*

“I still think you should spend the day with me.”

She slid Zane an amused look. “I’ve got stuff to do.”

“I can be stuff.”

She laughed a little, but the laugh died as they came to a stop in front of her apartment. “Well,” she murmured. “This is . . . different.”