Little Secret, Red Hot Scandal. Cat Schield

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СКАЧАТЬ one else but Mia would do. “Mia knows the music industry and will understand what I’m saying.”

      “Daddy?” Ivy’s dismay was palpable.

      Nate fixed Javier with a flat stare. “Surely you can spare her for a month if it means getting Ivy’s album done.”

      Javier glanced at his daughter. “W-well,” he stammered. “Of course. If that’s what we need to do.”

      Nate gave a satisfied nod. “It absolutely is.”

      * * *

      Mia sat in a chair beside the window of her bedroom in Ivy’s house and stared at the front lawn. An hour earlier she’d watched her father’s Mercedes retreat down the driveway, and still couldn’t believe that she’d been forced to stay behind. More than ever her role as Ivy’s personal assistant grated on her.

      Though Mia felt trapped by her responsibility to Ivy, she knew that her sister carried an even heavier burden: the weight of their parents’ expectations. Mia barely remembered a time when her sister didn’t sing. She recalled their modest house in San Diego, where the twins had shared a bedroom with their older sister, Eva. Their mother had homeschooled all three girls, which offered the flexibility for Ivy to audition anytime an opportunity presented itself. And their parents were able to buy a bigger house when Ivy signed a contract for a new TV show on the KidZ Channel. While she wasn’t the star, in the show’s four-year run Ivy had demonstrated star potential, which had led to her landing a role in a Broadway musical and eventually a record deal with West Coast Records.

      With each rise in her career, the family home got bigger and better. Their father had quit his job with the post office to manage Ivy when she signed with KidZ Channel. Ivy became his whole focus.

      Which brought Mia to tonight, and the business meeting her father and sister were attending with Nate. And just as her presence hadn’t been needed at the Mayfair Cosmetics meeting earlier that day, Mia wasn’t included now.

      She wondered if Nate’s choice of WP24 had been for her benefit. She’d mentioned how she’d always wanted to try the restaurant, but that had been a couple months ago. Had Nate remembered?

      Mia’s stomach grumbled, reminding her she hadn’t eaten anything since noon. Even though her appetite was nonexistent, her body still needed fuel. Time to stop brooding and scrounge up something for dinner. Ivy’s housekeeper usually cooked some chicken in case Ivy felt like supplementing her junk food diet with something healthy.

      After pulling out the fixings for a salad and chopping up a chicken breast, Mia splurged with an extra tablespoon of ranch dressing. Too bad she gained weight simply by looking at French fries. As she headed into the den to watch some TV and hopefully take her mind off what was going on at WP24, she reminded herself that Nate had appreciated her full breasts, small waist and round hips.

      Both Mia and Eva took after their mother with their dark brown hair and eyes, pale skin and curvy bodies. Ivy was built like their dad, lean and sinewy, but she had their mother’s hazel eyes, smoldering charm and singing ability. Sharon Bliss had been an opera singer in her youth, but happily traded a career on the stage for being a wife and mother when she got pregnant with Eva.

      Mia had barely sat down when her cell phone rang. She smiled when she saw that the caller was Melody. “I feel as if I haven’t talked to you in ages. How are you doing?” she said by way of greeting.

      “I’m doing great. Working on my album.”

      “How many songs are you up to now?”

      Melody was a prolific songwriter with a powerful voice and distaste for the spotlight. The two women had become close while on tour. Mia didn’t realize how much she missed having a friend until she and Melody had clicked.

      “I don’t know,” Melody said. “Maybe around fifty. They’re not all good, but many of my favorites are the ones with the biggest flaws. How am I supposed to choose between them?”

      “I know the feeling. Some of my best stuff will never be heard.” Until she’d gone on tour, only her family knew that she—and not Ivy—was the author of Ivy’s hit tunes. Then she’d met Nate and Melody, and both of them had figured out her secret. Or maybe she hadn’t tried very hard to conceal it. Both were such talented songwriters that Mia couldn’t resist the urge to talk to them about their process.

      To preserve the illusion that Ivy was writing her own songs, Mia was always careful to work when no one was around. But sometimes a tune got into her head and she caught herself humming it. The same thing happened with lyrics. It was why she always carried around her journal.

      The notebook contained bits and pieces of songs and snippets of lyrics. It also included doodles and miscellaneous thoughts. She filled one every six months or so.

      “Nate could help you with that. I’m sure he’d be happy to work up some demos with you that you could shop around the industry. You never know what might get picked up.”

      “Actually, he’s already offered.”

      “And what are you waiting for?”

      Mia hadn’t explained to anyone the real reason she stayed at her sister’s side despite the way she was treated like hired help instead of family. It wasn’t Mia’s story to tell and she knew neither Ivy nor her parents would appreciate the information getting out. Not that Melody or Nate couldn’t be trusted with yet another of her secrets.

      “I’m not waiting for anything. It’s just that I barely have enough time to write, much less create demos.” But with Ivy scheduled to record her album at Nate’s Ugly Trout studios in Las Vegas, perhaps she would have time to do something for herself for a change.

      “Speaking of Nate, did you know he was going in for throat surgery tomorrow?”

      “No.” Mia’s heart gave a worried thump. “I knew he was struggling while we were on tour, and that he pushed through because he didn’t want to cancel any shows, but we haven’t spoken much since the tour ended.”

      Nate had made it perfectly clear that he wanted to continue the relationship. As intoxicating as their affair had been, Mia knew it was only a matter of time until their paths diverged. He wanted her to choose him over Ivy, but she just couldn’t leave her sister. Would the time ever be right? It was the question Nate had posed that last morning in Sydney. Mia had no clear answer.

      “I’m worried about him. He’s using a car service to get to and from the doctor’s office tomorrow, and he doesn’t have anyone staying with him at the hotel to help him after the procedure. I was wondering, since you are in LA, if you could check on him.”

      “Of course.” It was something a friend would do and they’d parted on reasonably good terms. Why hadn’t he said anything to her when they’d met earlier?

      Mia ran through what she would say to her sister tomorrow about taking care of Nate, and decided she would simply tell her that she needed some time off. It wasn’t as if Mia got to take vacations like a regular person. All the time she spent around Ivy was work, even when she was technically off. They might head to the Caribbean or the beaches of Europe together for a little R & R, but it wasn’t as though Mia got to party all night, drink too much and sleep in.

      “Do you know what clinic he’s going to?” Mia asked. “And what time the surgery СКАЧАТЬ