“What is over?”
“The Christmas show.It’s not going to happen.”
“What?Why?”
Reaching around him, she picked up the phone and held it out to him.Rainey’s message was still open.
“Oh, honey, I’m so sorry.”
He pulled her into his embrace again.Zach’s embrace should be comforting, like it was a few minutes ago, but this time it wasn’t.This time it felt stifling, and she pulled away from him.
“I have to fix this,” she muttered, although she had no idea how.Who was going to come and be part of a show they would have no chance to rehearse?
Okay, she could sit there and wallow, or she could do something about it.She still had the list of people she’d contacted.Maybe the Christmas spirit had hit someone.
She’d talk to Ryder and see if he could persuade someone from the rodeo circuit.Of course, Tilly was pretty sure a rodeo cowboy didn’t moonlight as a singer.
“There are sandwiches in the oven,” she muttered as she got up and headed for her office.
“Where are you going?”
She whirled back to face him.“I’m going to fix this.”
It didn’t take her long to gather her binder and come back at the table.Zach was cleaning up the kitchen.She opened it to her list of stars, all thoughts of food forgotten.
She stared at the top name.
Kathryn Lancaster.
Chapter Twenty-One
“Zach?”
No, please, no.
The second he’d read the email and had seen the way Tilly had thrown off her despair and the flare of determination in her eyes, he’d been waiting for it.Waiting for the moment when she asked him for the one thing he couldn’t do.
“I can’t.”
“You don’t even know what I’m going to ask.”
“Tilly, I do.And I’m sorry, but I can’t.”
He knew with every word that he was killing whatever chance he had with her, but his relationship with his mother was complicated.And even though the season was one of goodwill, he couldn’t extend that to her.
How long had Tilly thought about this?
Slowly, he felt his heart start to crack.Had she been biding her time, waiting?
Had Rainey Webster even said she would do it?Had it been a ruse the whole time?Had Tilly sent the email to herself from a fake address that looked like it belonged to Rainey?
Was she that calculating?
He’d known her for less than two months after all.
“How long?”he demanded.
“How long, what?”Her hazel eyes shone with confusion.He hardened his emotions against it.No way was he going to be sucked in to her act, even though a part of his brain was telling him he was jumping to conclusions.That he was making assumptions that were baseless.He ignored it.
