Acting Happy (Texas Desires #2) Read online

  Acting Happy

  By Rylie Roberts

  Acting Happy

  Copyright © Rylie Roberts 2016

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  Edited by Jae Ashley

  Cover art by Reese Dante

  http://www.reesedante.com

  First Edition March 2016

  Published by: Rylie Roberts

  All rights reserved under the International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher, Rylie Roberts, [email protected]. No part of this book may be scanned, uploaded or distributed via the Internet or any other means, electronic or print, without permission from Rylie Roberts. Warning: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000. http://www.fbi.gov/ipr/). Please purchase only authorized electronic or print editions and do not participate in or encourage the electronic piracy of copyrighted material. Your support of the author's rights and livelihood is appreciated.

  Acting Happy is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Licensed material is being used for illustrative purposes only and any person depicted in the licensed material is a model.

  Dedication

  To my little girl.

  It’s always about you.

  Trademark Acknowledgements:

  The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of the following trademarks mentioned in this work of fiction:

  Academy Awards: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Corporation

  Advil: Wyeth, LLC

  American Express: American Express Marketing & Development Corp.

  AP: The Associated Press

  Associated Press (AP): The Associated Press Corporation

  Bacardi: Bacardi & Company Limited

  Bentley: Bentley Motors Limited

  Birkenstock: Birkenstock Orthopaedie GMBH & Co.

  Bluetooth: Bluetooth Sig, Inc.

  Blue Bell: Blue Bell Creameries, L.P.

  Boys & Girls Clubs: Boys and Girls Clubs of America, Inc.

  Bud Light: Anheuser-Busch, Incorporated

  Cherry Garcia: Jerry Garcia Family LLC, Keelin Garcia Testamentary Trust, Deborah Koons Garcia

  Coke: The Coca-Cola Company

  Corona: Cerveceria Modelo, S.A. de C.V.

  DFW International Airport: Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport Board

  Enterprise: Enterprise Holdings, Inc.

  FaceTime: Apple, Inc.

  Ferrari: Ferrari S.p.A.

  Fruit of the Loom: Fruit of the Loom, Inc.

  Google: Google, Inc.

  Grizzly Adams: Grizzly Adams, LLC

  Heineken: Heineken Brouwerijen B.V.

  Hilton: HLT Domestic IP LLC

  Instagram: Instagram, LLC

  iPhone: Apple, Inc.

  Jeep: Chrysler Group, LLC

  Keurig: Keurig, Inc.

  La-Z-Boy: La-Z-Boy, Inc.

  LeapPad: LeapFrog Enterprises, Inc.

  Mrs. Smith's: Schwans IP, LLC

  Mellow Mushroom: Home-grown Industries of Georgia, Inc.

  Miss Universe: IMG Universe, LLC

  National Domestic Violence Hotline: National Domestic Violence Hotline Non-Profit Corporation

  Neiman-Marcus: NM Nevada Trust

  Oscars: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

  PAM (cooking spray): ConAgra Foods RDM, Inc.

  Prada: Prada S.A.

  Rolex: Rolex Watch U.S.A., Inc.

  Salvation Army Thrift Store: The Salvation Army National Corporation

  Sexiest Man Alive: Time Inc.

  Skype: Skype Corporation

  Spam: Hormel Foods, LLC

  Sprite: The Coca-Cola Company

  Superman: DC Comics General Partnership

  Target: Target Brands, Inc.

  TMZ: Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.

  Twilight Zone: CBS Broadcasting Inc.

  University of Texas: Board of Regents, The University of Texas System

  Victoria's Secret: Victoria’s Secret Stores Brand Management, Inc.

  Voss: Voss of Norway ASA Corporation

  Wheel of Fortune: Califon Productions, Inc.

  WWE: World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc.

  YouTube: Google, Inc.

  Prologue

  With a push of the last thumbtack, Ty Bateman turned his head to survey his progress. The Bryant family living room was complete. He and Reed had hung the final streamers. Bray and Connor were tying off the last of the helium-filled balloons, and Mrs. Bryant had the table decorated prettily with a giant chocolate birthday cake in the center. The place looked perfect, and he couldn’t hold back a grin. They had somehow managed to pull off a surprise birthday party. He was pretty sure his mom had no clue and that made him all the more excited.

  “Okay, boys, the pizza’s gonna be here soon. We got the soda chilling, ice cream in the freezer,” Linda Bryant said, her voice growing stronger as she came inside the living room from the kitchen, ticking off the mental list with her finger. “Oh, it looks great, guys!”

  Ty climbed off the chair he’d been using to hang the streamers from the ceiling while Reed gathered their leftover supplies. “I think we’ve got about fifteen minutes before she’s here,” Ty said, carrying the chair back to the kitchen.

  “Traffic’s always heavy this time of day,” Mrs. Bryant started, and like normal, she went around the room fussing, trying to make sure everything was in place. “Boys, kick the balloon ribbon under the chair so no one trips on it. Connor, get Cole off the phone with his girlfriend, and you two go get the ice chest off the back porch. It’s got the water bottles and Cokes inside.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Connor answered, going immediately to the kitchen where the phone hung on the wall. They watched Connor do what he did best—handle both Cole and his big personality better than any of them. Clearly, Cole must have heard the instruction and anticipated Connor’s next move. He turned and ducked, trying to hide the handset from Connor’s reach. The cord wrapped once around his body.

  “Hang up,” Connor ordered.

  “Go get it yourself. Mary-Beth’s mom doesn’t let her talk on the phone at night.” The fight was on as Connor began to reach around Cole for the phone. “Dude, really, help a brother out. We only have ten minutes left.”

  Connor got the break he needed; at thirteen years old, he was physically stronger than the rest of them. He yanked the cord behind Cole’s head and did one of the wrestling moves they learned on WWE. The phone slipped from Cole’s hand as he grabbed his gut in pain.

  “Mary-Beth, he’ll call you later.” Connor had the receiver on the hook in less than five seconds. Cole recovered quickly from the pain that had him doubled over and turned all that red-faced anger toward Connor, lunging for him.

  “Take it outside,” Mr. Bryant yelled, his voice stern.

  “Dude, seriously, Lauren was your girlfriend last week. Before that it was Maddie Tomlinson. Get over it,” Connor said, not even fazed by Cole’s anger; instead bumping him in the chest to get him moving. When the back door shut, Linda finally turned back to Ty, Reed, and Braden. All eyes were on the kitchen because that whole scene could have easily played out a d
ifferent way with Connor and Cole going at each other in the house.

  “I’m glad you boys aren’t love-sick like that,” Linda teased.

  “Bray is,” Reed shot out like only a brother would do, and then gave a pretend look like he didn’t mean to let that slip. Bray’s murderous glare from across the room made Ty bust out with a laugh. When he and his mom had set out on their own, she’d moved them close to Linda, her childhood friend. Ty was as close to the brothers as he could be and knew Bray was already plotting his retaliation against Reed.

  “What?” Linda asked, turning toward her son. “You have something to tell me?”

  “No!” Bray called out, but Reed was quicker.

  “He asked Carolyn Jenkins to be his girlfriend,” Reed supplied and then ducked and dodged as Bray moved closer, punching at his brother. Ty extended a hand to Reed’s back, keeping him in place when he tried to take a giant step back to avoid Bray’s swing. As hilarious as this was, both guys were like brothers to him. He had to help Bray out. Ty would expect it in return.

  “Bray, did you really? She’s a sweet girl. What did she say?” Linda asked after snapping her fingers at the boys to get them to stop roughhousing.

  “She said yes!” Candace, Bray’s little sister, answered while carrying a tray of fruit to the table. Anytime there was an opportunity to give Braden a hard time, she was right there, ready to add her two cents. Fortunately for Bray, the doorbell rang, ending the moment, which was technically a good thing for them all. Linda had been on Bray to get a girlfriend for a while. If that doorbell hadn’t rung, they’d all be forced to listen as Linda questioned everything, from how Bray asked to how Carolyn accepted. For Ty, that would have been torturous—no matter how much Bray squirmed and Reed laughed.

  “Hide everyone,” Ty said excitedly, forgetting everything else going on around him. He swiftly grabbed his mother’s birthday present off the coffee table so she couldn’t see it and ducked behind Mr. Bryant’s recliner.

  “It’s probably the pizza,” Mr. Bryant said, appearing out of nowhere, pulling his wallet out and heading toward the door. Ty grabbed Reed’s arm, tugging him down beside him just in case it was his mom. A surprise party was something she’d talked about always wanting, but never had one. When he’d talked to Mrs. Bryant about that, he’d gotten lucky; she thought they could pull it off too. His mom had always been good to him. He was past excited that he might finally be able to give her something fun back.

  From this angle, the front door opened wide, and he peeked around enough to see his mom standing on the front porch. His heart froze in his chest. Right as Reed started to lift and shout surprise Ty clutched his arm and stopped him. Linda must have seen his mom’s face, too, and moved toward the door.

  She was crying or at least trying not to cry until she saw her best friend, Linda. They embraced tightly, standing there several long seconds until Ty just stood, dread filling his heart. His mom had driven to Dallas today for a big doctor’s visit. She’d gone there several times over the last couple of weeks.

  All those tears couldn’t be good.

  “Come on. Let’s go to the study,” Mr. Bryant said gently. When Ty saw the tears in Mrs. Bryant’s eyes, he instinctively knew his life was about to change significantly.

  Chapter 1

  The ever-present creak in the back door hinges hit just right, sending the familiar spine-tingling jolt up McKenzie Stanton’s back and straight into her shoulders. She physically cringed, ducking before shaking out her arms, trying to get out from under the unwanted sensation. More times than she could count over the last few weeks, she had intended to take care of that awful noise. By God, that would be the last time, no more procrastinating. She marched toward the kitchen pantry, pulled out the can of PAM and held the cooking spray as a shield of armor as she walked back across the room.

  She didn’t touch the door while giving each hinge a good coating of the spray. After a minute, she forced herself to man up, not hiding the wince as she anticipated the squeak when she opened the door. Already, the sound wasn’t quite as terrible. Standing in the open back door, she sprayed each hinge from that direction too. Kenzie quickly moved the door back and forth to fully coat the metal until the noise completely disappeared. Score! Job well done. She shut the door, twisted the bottom lock, and went back across the kitchen to place the can where it belonged.

  “Mama, you in here?” she called out toward the rest of the house as she shut the pantry door. She walked through the kitchen, tugging the ponytail holder from her hair, letting the long strands of blonde hair tumble free until she stopped, bent over, and gathered them together again, quickly binding the hair-tie back in place.

  The question was kind of a silly one, and of course she knew the answer. She could hear the television blaring from the living room with her parents calling out random statements that made no sense to any possible conversation, meaning they were all directed to the twenty-five-year-old television set in the front of the room.

  Before she got too far out of the kitchen, she looked over her shoulder at the clock on the so-old-it-should-be-an-antique oven and smiled—later than she’d originally thought. So they were now in the nightly routine of carefully planned evening network television. This was probably the not-ever-missed Wheel of Fortune. Kenzie shook her head and smiled even bigger—another steadfast pattern that never changed. She hid the giggle at her father’s latest attempt to solve the puzzle. She couldn’t remember a time that he’d ever gotten any of them correct, but that never stopped him from trying, over and over, day after day. She went to the entrance of the living room and propped her shoulder against the doorframe to wait for a commercial.

  As a hormonal teenager, this scene had bothered the heck out of her. She’d sworn when she finally grew up and got out, she’d never own a television set, and for the most part, that had stayed true. But now, she understood this was just their thing, and everybody had a thing. It didn’t seem to be as bad as she’d once thought.

  Instead of watching the screen, she looked over at them. Her mom and dad both sat in rickety old La-Z-Boy recliners strategically positioned for the best view of the television. An ancient TV tray with an empty dinner plate sat in front of each chair, where they would remain for the next three hours until network television ended and the news came on. Only then would they do the final dinner dishes together before going to bed for the night.

  Funny, after the beating she’d taken last five or six years, this boring life seemed tolerable. As cheesy as it sounded, she now understood that her mom was the peanut butter to her father’s jelly. Their relationship didn’t seem nearly as dull as she’d thought when she’d made her escape from this small town ten years ago. Luckily, a commercial saved her from mentally reliving the mistakes of her past, making her head crazier than it already was.

  “I closed down the store. Locked everything up,” Kenzie stated, and hid her smile when they jerked their heads in her direction. No surprise there, they’d clearly not noticed her standing in the doorway.

  “Thank you, dear, but you don’t have to do that. That’s what we hired William for,” her mom said, pushing back her tray to rise. Kenzie stopped her, immediately stepping forward, first gathering her mom’s plate, then reaching over for her father’s.

  “I got these, Mom. Need a refresher on that, Dad?” She nodded to the nearly empty thirty-two ounce Route 66 prize plastic cup that had to be at least twenty years old.

  “No, baby, I’m fine,” he said, chomping on the last of the ice from his glass. Stacking the plates on top of each other, she reached out and moved his tray. He immediately pulled the recliner out, extending the footrest.

  “I fixed you a plate, honey. It’s in the oven,” her mom said, smiling up at her.

  “Thank you. Smells delicious.” Kenzie clutched her mom’s tray, tugging it out of the way. These television trays, like everything else in this house, were old. Neither folded any longer. They were just placed to the side of the chair in e
asy reach for tomorrow night’s round.

  “Come join us, McKenzie,” her dad suggested.

  “I’ve got some laundry to do,” she lied. Luckily the show returned from commercial, and she instantly lost their attention when Pat Sajak started to speak. Kenzie went back to the kitchen, placing both plates in the soapy water made ready for these few final dishes.

  Opening the oven door, she found a foil-covered plate. The smell gave the contents away, but she went ahead and peeked under the tinfoil to see a large chunk of roast, mashed potatoes, and creamed-style corn, most likely from a can. Her mom’s Thursday night special. Kenzie pulled the plate out, opened the refrigerator, and placed the plate inside, moving last night’s dinner to the trash. That plate went to the soapy water in the sink.

  Being a vegetarian was such a foreign concept to her mother. It didn’t seem to compute that she didn’t eat meat and tried for organic fare whenever possible. Kenzie quickly washed the dishes, placing them in the rack to dry before going back to the refrigerator and grabbing the last protein shake she’d had shipped in last week. She’d need to do better on her food intake, maybe make a trip to the health food store in Gatlinburg. Like always, the internal lecture started. Her clothes were falling off her body. She could only sustain on protein drinks for so long, especially since this was her last one. She needed to stop living in the mental depression and failures of her life.

  Reaching for a water bottle and an apple, Kenzie plastered the fake smile she wore whenever she thought about her current circumstances, which was entirely too often, and headed to her bedroom, saying a quick goodnight to her parents. The childish room was still decorated just as she’d left it ten years ago. On a deep sigh, Kenzie changed into her pajamas, washed her face, and propped up in her bed. Three hours later the small alarm clock on her nightstand read ten o’clock. She’d watched all the YouTube she could find, checked email, and looked over social media.