He shook his head in apparent amazement. “I had no idea that the public would decide I was as interesting as my stories. Most of it, of course, comes from having a good publicist. Once my photograph got into that embarrassing ‘Fifty Most Beautiful People’ article, he took it and ran with it. And I guess I’m pretty good at working the TV shows—I like talking to people and making them laugh. Again, I suspect that the public interest won’t last forever, though I hope they continue to enjoy my books and films.”
Savannah hadn’t known about the “Fifty Most Beautiful People” thing. She had always thought Kit was gorgeous, but it was a bit daunting to realize that he was officially recognized for his looks.
She couldn’t help wondering again what she was doing with a man like this. A man whose life was so diametrically different from hers.
She still found it hard to believe that, with all that attention and all the women he must surely have available to him, Kit had chosen to follow her to Campbellville, to spend the past few days with Savannah and her family.
“You, er, never married?” she asked, toying with her food.
“No. I came close a few years ago. It was during that early flush of success. I was dating a fashion model and I thought I was incredibly lucky to have gotten her attention. But all she was interested in was the fame and the parties and the attention. I realized then that I wanted a marriage like my parents had—one that would be as strong during the bad times as it was during the good. I wanted to be part of a union that held together when everyone else turned away, when there was nothing else to hold on to but each other.”
He looked a bit embarrassed by his outburst. “That’s the way I always thought of my parents,” he admitted. “They have such a great relationship. I’ve seen them have some pretty heated battles during the years, but I’ve always known that nothing could come between them for long. I didn’t have that with Kyra—and I knew I never would. That was when we went our separate ways. She pretty much shrugged and moved on to the guy who plays the lead character in the films based on my books. They’re still together, for now, but I’ve been hearing rumors that she’s getting restless again.”
He made a face and refilled her wineglass. “Enough about me. Tell me more about yourself. Why did your mother name you Savannah?”
Caught off guard, Savannah answered automatically. “My parents honeymooned there. I was conceived there. Mother thought it was appropriate.”
“What was your father like?”
“Kind. Funny. Very hardworking. He died when I was ten.”
“I’m sorry.”
“So am I.”
“Tell me what it was like when you were growing up. How you learned to love the old songs and movies.”
A bit awkwardly at first, and then with increasing ease, she talked to him. Savannah had spent many hours with her grandmother after her father’s death, and it had been Grandma McBride who’d loved the old standards and had shared her enjoyment of them with Savannah.
Kit seemed to be fascinated by everything Savannah said. Encouraged by his apparent interest, she found herself revealing more than she’d intended about her youth. She told him about the long hours Ernestine had worked in a grocery store in Honoria to pay for her daughter’s stylish clothes and dance lessons, cheerleader expenses and pageant dresses. It had been so important to Ernestine for Savannah to be popular. She had deliberately sought the kind of attention for her that Kit’s father had warned him about.
“Why was it so important to her?”
“Mother came from the wrong side of the tracks, from a poor, rather dysfunctional family that left her with a lot of emotional scars. She wanted better for me, but she was a bit confused about what constituted a truly happy childhood. She measured it in peer popularity. I’ve learned that there’s a great deal more to it than that. I’ve tried to pass that advice on to my children.”
With Kit’s prodding, she went on to describe the years since she and her mother had moved to Campbellville, twin babies in tow. She talked about her job with the construction company, the few close friends she’d made there, the challenges of raising twins. How carefully she’d tried to live a quiet, unremarkable life, giving the local gossips little to say about her.
Kit’s expression held an understanding that she found oddly touching. “You have a real thing about gossip, don’t you? Did people talk badly about you when you had the twins?”
She nodded. “Honoria, the town where I grew up, is very much like Campbellville. Small, tight-knit, wellinformed about the lives of its residents. And, yes, the people there talked about me. Particularly when my boyfriend decided to deny his own responsibility by spreading stories that he wasn’t sure he was the twins’ father. It wasn’t true, but he had money and a prominent position in the town, and enough friends willing to lie for him that my reputation was trashed.”
Kit reached across the table to lay a hand on hers. She thought she saw a flash of anger in his eyes, and knew that it was directed at the people who’d hurt her. “You didn’t have any friends willing to speak up for you?”
“My cousins did, though they weren’t taken very seriously because the McBrides already had a reputation for being wild and irresponsible. A couple of my closest friends tried to defend me. No one believed them.”
She shrugged. “To be honest, there was some general satisfaction in seeing me brought down a few pegs,” she said matter-of-factly. “I’d been head cheerleader and homecoming queen, and I’d gotten pretty spoiled. Just as you did at first—I believed my own publicity. I thought I was hot stuff. Thought I would always be everyone’s sweetheart. There were some who believed I deserved exactly what I got.”
Again, his expression was sympathetic. “And maybe a part of you agreed with them.”
“No, of course not,” she protested, though she couldn’t quite meet his eyes.
“So why did you move to Campbellville? Isn’t one small town the same as another when it comes to gossip?”
“My mother had a cousin who owned a store here. He offered her a job that allowed her to support us all until I finished school and went to work myself. We talked about moving to a bigger city, like Atlanta or Macon, but she only had the grocery-store experience and she wasn’t sure she could find a job right off. Besides, we thought it would be better for the twins, in the long run, to grow up in a small town with good schools and a low crime rate.”
“And how did people here react to your arrival with two babies? Did they pry?”
“Some did,” she admitted. “