Starstruck

Chapter Nineteen

Ashley jerked her gaze up, just in time to see Jason standing in the doorway, looking strong and masculine and wonderful, before Kendyl rushed to him and threw her arms around his waist.

"I missed you so much, Daddy. Did you buy a new horse on your trip?"

"A couple of them." He hugged his daughter, but his gaze rested on Ashley and she felt hot and cold at the same time.

"Are they pretty?" Kendyl asked.

"Beautiful," he murmured, but his gaze never left her. A wild heat flared inside her and she couldn’t seem to catch her breath. Try, she ordered herself harshly. The last thing she needed right now was to hyperventilate and pass out at his feet. Then he would really think she was an obsessed fan.

"I was really good for Miss Barnes all week," Kendyl told him. "Wasn’t I, Miss Barnes?"

She cleared her throat and tried to force her oxygen–starved brain to function again. "Uh, yes. You were wonderful."

"Oh!" Kendyl said suddenly. "I forgot my leaf pictures. I left them in Mrs. Cook’s classroom in art class so they could dry, but I need to take them home and show Aunt Kasi."

In a heartbeat, she rushed out the door, leaving the two of them alone.

Ashley couldn’t look at Jason, but she was aware of him moving into the classroom and walking closer to her desk.

"How are you?" he asked.

She finally lifted her gaze at the quiet sincerity in his voice. "Still more embarrassed than I’ve ever been in my life," she admitted.

"You have no reason to be embarrassed. It was my daughter who tried to play matchmaker."

"Kendyl would never have gotten the crazy idea in her head if I hadn’t been talking about you with Marcy." She sighed, knowing she had to confront this or she would never be able to look him in the eye again. "Marcy has been my best friend since second grade. She knew all about my silly crush on you. Everyone knew. I’m afraid I was a little obsessed. I was fourteen and you were, well, you. You were heroic and passionate and…and gorgeous."

Her face flared with color and she knew she had to be beet–red, but she cleared her throat and plowed on. "Marcy thinks it’s a hilarious twist of fate that I’m teaching your daughter, all these years later, and she’s been teasing me about it since school started. That’s what Kendyl overheard, just two old friends remembering something that seems another lifetime ago."

He was quiet and she thought she saw something like pain flicker in his eyes. "You know I’m not that man, right? I hated being a celebrity. I never wanted it, everything just sort of fell into my lap. I was more surprised than anybody when I turned out to be moderately good at making music and for a while it was heady and addicting and I got sucked into the whole thing. But for my own survival, I had to get out when I did and I’ve never been sorry."

"I know. I don’t see that heartthrob, anymore, when I look at you, Jason. Not after the other night."

He seemed to absorb that for a moment, then to her shock, he reached for her hand. "What do you see?" he asked, and the sudden intensity in his voice snatched away her breath again.