Blinding Trust (Mitchell Family #7)(10)
Author: Jennifer Foor

I handed her a spoon and let her taste one of the items I had made. She blew on it before putting it near her lips. “Wow. You did great. Zeke will love this.”

“That is a relief. Do you like it?”

She looked toward the doorway and then back to me. “What you made tastes good. Zeke is all about eating this way. If it were up to me, I’d have a hamburger and fries.”

We both laughed together.

“It must be crazy being married to someone famous. Do you mind me asking how you met?”

She shook her head. “You know, I really thought you’d have checked us out online or something. Don’t you read magazines?”

I felt embarrassed for buying those tabloids, so I didn’t bother sharing the things that I had learned about them. “I read Better Homes and Gardens.”

“It’s probably a good thing. Some of those papers just like to cause drama. Half of the things you read in those articles aren’t true. In fact, I’m pretty sure that they cause most of Hollywood’s divorces.”

I started thinking outside of the box, realizing how hard it must be. “So where are you originally from?”

We sat down at the kitchen table. It was better than me having to go back into the other room with the guys.

“I was born in Berlin and then my parents moved to America when I was two. My father started a small bakery and he and my mom still run it together in Richmond, Virginia.”

“Have you been back to Berlin?”

She tapped her fingers on the table. “Not until I married Zeke. We were the last of my family to come to the states, so we never had a reason to go back. My parents moved here for a better life.”

“How did they feel when you married a rockstar?” I just had to know how her parents felt about her marrying someone so rough looking.

She shrugged. “They stopped talking to me. Picture the most old fashioned parents in the world and multiply that times ten. Then you will have my parents. It wasn’t just the tattoos, or the piercings. I think they could have lived with that. It was the fact that he was married when I met him. My mother is very serious about her beliefs and extramarital affairs aren’t acceptable. I kept it a secret from them until I landed on the cover of one of those supermarket tabloids. My parents only spoke to me one time since they saw that picture and it was to tell me that I was no longer a part of their family.”

I felt so sad for her. I could see the pain in her eyes. “That’s horrible. I’d do anything for my kids, no matter what.”

“It’s fine. I’m used to it. Besides, I was the one who decided to live this life. The night I met Zeke, I wasn’t even supposed to be where I was. I lied to my parents so that I could sneak out to a concert with my girlfriends. I had no idea I was going to meet him.”

I remembered reading about her meeting him in rehab. It was hard to wonder if she was telling the truth, or the tabloid. I held up my hands. “I’m not judging you, but were you like a groupie?”

She laughed. “No way! Groupies are little sluts who just want to sleep with the band. I wasn’t promiscuous at all. In fact, I wasn’t very experienced. When I met Zeke, I was standing in the corner of the room, avoiding the drinking and drugs that were all around me. He took me up to the roof and we spent the rest of the night just talking.”

“So, you got together then?”

She smiled and shook her head. “No. I didn’t see Zeke again until a year later. I didn’t exactly hang around with the good crowd, so it was no surprise that one of my friends had to go into rehab after drunk driving and killing someone. Part of their sentence was to spend eight weeks in rehab. On one of the visitation days, I saw Zeke sitting outside smoking. Of course, I didn’t think he would recognize me. He’d been drinking the night we met and he was around so many women that I never thought I’d made an impression. My hair was a different color and I even dressed differently.” She laughed out loud. “He called me by name when he saw me. I was floored. That’s actually the day that our picture was taken and my parents disowned me.”

“Without a place to go, Zeke moved me into one of his houses. The paparazzi went wild, taking photos whenever we were together. I knew he wasn’t a saint. He’d cheated on his wife a million times, but I didn’t sleep with him until he had filed for a separation. You probably think I’m terrible.”

The thing was, I actually didn’t. For some reason, I really liked her. Of course, I wouldn’t have chosen her life, but she seemed like a nice girl. You can’t help who you fall in love with, or when it happens. “Don’t feel bad. When Colt and I got together, I had kind of promised myself to his cousin. We’d known each other for years, but something happened between us and we just couldn’t stop it. I’ve been with him ever since.”

“He’s very handsome. I can see how he’d be hard to resist.” She looked like she was embarrassed for saying it.

“He was. My ex was also very good looking and he was in a coma. Now you probably think I am the horrible one.”

She put her hand over her mouth, like she was in shock.

After a few seconds, she finally dropped her hand back down on the table. “Did it cause problems in the family?”

“Only for a little while. We’re all best friends now. He’s very happy with his own family.” I wasn’t even going to explain that Ty had married Colt’s cousin Miranda. That was just too hard for people to interpret.

We talked for a little longer about our parents and then she helped me set the dining room table. The guys were still in the living room and I was completely fine keeping Piper occupied. Besides, it gave me a chance to get to know her more. I had to admit, she was sweet and seemed to be more normal than I ever could have expected.

When it was finally time to eat, I heated up Noah some chicken tenders, so that he wouldn’t have to eat the concoction that we all had to. I saw his lip curl when he saw me open up the pot. It didn’t smell bad, but I was sure it didn’t taste good.

Watching my husband trying to swallow the mystery food was so hard to do without laughing. He tried his best to keep an even face, but as each spoonful hit his mouth, I could tell he wanted to spit it out. The texture and taste were nothing like we’d even eaten before.

“This tastes great, Savanna. Thanks for going to the trouble. Next time I can have my chef make it for us, so that you don’t have to spend the whole day in the kitchen. I know it’s time consuming, but it’s so good for the body.”