“No, Nicholas.” Ellen broke out her corrective mother tone. “But your brother did bring Taryn home with him. She’s the one who cooked most of this delicious food, including the turkey you’re enjoying.”

Ryan set the gravy boat down. “Who knows, Nick. Maybe next year we could have Thanksgiving at my multi-million dollar completely pretentious house,” Ryan snarled. “I’m sure Taryn will be gracious enough to spend an entire day cooking for my family again. And, by the way, the next time you feel inclined to dry-hump your ‘Charles’ pillow, imagine ten percent of all the royalties going into your daughter’s trust fund before you get yourself off. By the time she’s two, she’ll be worth ten times more than you.”

“Okay, that’s enough,” Bill reprimanded, trying to tell his sons to knock it off.

“I’m just teasing him, Dad. I don’t know why the superstar is getting all sensitive,” Nick defended.

Ryan set his dinner fork down and pushed his chair back, audibly noting his departure from the table. His fingers touched my chin. “Honey, I need some air. I’ll be back.”

“Son, sit back down,” Bill somberly requested, but Ryan didn’t listen. He grabbed his coat and keys and stormed out the kitchen door.

I folded my hands on my lap when I heard the Shelby squeal out of the garage.

“Taryn, I’m sorry,” Nick uttered, trying to sound sincere.

I stared at him for a moment. “Thank you, Nick. But I’m not the one you should be apologizing to.”

“I can’t help it if he can’t take a joke!” Nick laughed uncomfortably, stuffing more food in his mouth like his insults were no big deal.

I sat there in shock. I couldn’t believe how a member of Ryan’s own immediate family, his only brother that he looked up to, could be so callous and cruel. After all the crap that Ryan has to put up with being an actor, coming home to his family should be a relief for him, not another source of pain. I looked at their parents before I turned my attention back to Nick. I couldn’t hold my thoughts any longer.

“Before you chastise your brother, Nick, you should know how much he envies you.”

“Envies me?” Nick scoffed.

“Yes, you,” I stated calmly. “You have things in your life that you take for granted every day - freedom, anonymity, privacy, security. Things your brother no longer has. His success that you tease him about comes at a very steep price, but I thought you knew that already.” I glared at him.

“You also have things he desires - a home, a wife, a child - normalcy. You know what your brother has?” I tilted my head, making sure to hold his eye contact.

“He has acute paranoia from deranged stalkers and fans coming after him, public humiliation on a global scale when they print lies about him in forty different languages, negative criticism about everything he tries to do, and constant scrutiny by everyone – even from his big brother that he adores.” I counted them off on my fingers. “But surely you must know that already. So if you feel inclined to let him know how remorseful you are, perhaps you should think of that before you apologize.”

Nick looked completely dumbfounded. He was sitting there with his mouth hanging open.

“Would you excuse me, please,” I whispered at Ryan’s mother before rising from the dinner table. “I’m going to make sure he’s all right.” I grabbed my coat from the closet and called Ryan’s cell.

“Honey, come back for me. I want to go for a ride too. I’ll be waiting outside.”

Chapter 26 - Tests

“Call me once you’re in the limo, okay?” Ryan sighed. “Just so I know you made it home safely.”

I could see the sadness clearly in his expression. It matched my own. We both knew it would be almost three weeks until we saw each other again, and the last minutes we had together were flying by. He turned his Shelby onto the main road that led into the airport.

“I will.” I sniffed, trying not to cry. I didn’t want to leave but I had to get back to running my pub. Ryan was planning to spend some well-earned time away with his friends, Matt and Scott, and his brother before leaving for Scotland. The four men were going hunting. He and his brother also had some making-up to do.

“You know you really didn’t need to do this… Marie or Pete could have picked me up,” I muttered.

“Taryn,” he groaned, looking over at me. “You know why. I don’t like that you’re flying home alone either.”

I stared out my window, thinking that he worried too much. Our stalker was incarcerated and most of the Seaside fans left town once the filming wrapped. The reasons to be frightened and paranoid were gone.

“I’ll be all right. You should stop worrying,” I whispered.

He shook his head at me; his lips frowned at my words.

All too soon we were parked in front of the doors for departing flights.

I leaned across the center console and kissed him. I had to turn my Mitchell’s Pub baseball hat on his head so the visor would be out of my way.

“I love you,” I uttered, missing him already.

“I love you too. I’ll see you in L.A. on the sixteenth.” He took my face in his hands and kissed me again. “It’s going to feel like forever,” he whispered, resting his forehead on mine.

I turned to look at him one last time before walking into the airport… alone. No security, no police escort, no one taking my picture, no one shouting my name or his. No one really even looked at me. I stood in line to go through baggage screening and security completely unnoticed. The airport was busy with holiday travelers, but none of those travelers even looked twice at me.

I sat in the waiting area right outside my gate, not hidden away in some VIP lounge. There was no reason to hide. It dawned on me that my heart rate was… normal. My heart wasn’t pounding in my chest like it was when we first started this trip. Fear was pleasantly absent from my blood. a young woman approached me. She gently smiled before asking if the seat next to me was taken. I smiled slightly to myself; I didn’t even make a blip on her radar.

The only difference between this flight home and any other flight I’d ever taken was that I was flying first class instead of sitting in the economy seats in the back of the plane. Flying first class definitely had its perks but the actual flights were so short that it didn’t really matter what seat I had to sit in to get home. I said a little prayer of thanks when my plane finally landed in Providence. I was not a fan of flying either.