Page 36 of Saving Graces
Three seconds later, the back door opened and cool air swirled into the room. Kinsey’s brain stuttered to a halt. Stepping into the kitchen, her cheeks flushed with cold, was Rosalie.
She was every bit as beautiful as Kinsey had remembered, perhaps more so, dressed down in a pair of leggings and a loose cotton shirt. The denim blue made her hair seem redder, her sea green eyes sparkling and her hands full of fragrant rosemary. Kinsey swallowed, feeling slightly dizzy. What in the world?
“Hey!” Rosalie’s voice was bright as she saw Cassidy. A split second afterward her eyes fell on Kinsey. The moment their eyes met, Rosalie flushed intensely, incriminatingly red. It wasn’t the kind of blush you could ignore, her creamy skin changing shades so dramatically that everyone in the room looked at her curiously.
“You good?” Savannah asked her, with a slight frown. Rosalie blinked.
“Totally!” She dragged her eyes quickly from Kinsey. “Just warm in here after the cold outside.” She dropped the herbs on the kitchen counter, before coming to give Cassidy a hug, her smile slightly fixed.
“This is Cassidy’s bandmate, Kinsey,” Savannah said. “Kinsey, Rosalie.”
“Nice to meet you,” said Rosalie offering her a handshake, her eyes uncertain and Kinsey couldn’t help her smile.
“We’ve met,” she reminded her, gently grasping her hand. Rosalie’s blush deepened.
“Oh,” she said, “of course.” Kinsey’s eyes narrowed a little. They both knew damn well she’d not been forgotten. Rosalie tugged her hand back and Kinsey caught the moment that she swallowed, hard.
“I’d almost forgotten about that,” Lane butted in, “Kinsey led a class for me at the center a couple of months ago, when I was sick that time.”
“Oh?” Savannah shot her an interested look, her gaze focused. “What did you teach?”
“Songwriting,” Kinsey managed to say, not sure she could even use that word in front of someone with that many Grammys.
Her head spun. Rosalie was Savannah Grace’s best friend? Rosalie was… staying here? Here in the house that Kinsey was staying at? She couldn’t stop looking at her. Rosalie turned away to pour herself a very solid glass of wine. Her blush was only just starting to fade, her beautiful hair tumbling over her shoulders, her curves still unmistakable under her casual outfit. Kinsey swallowed. Who’d have thought there was a person in the world who could steal Kinsey’s attention from the fact that Savannah Grace was three feet away, cooking her dinner?
“That,” Savannah said, pointing at her now with a small slice of red pepper, “is an excellent idea. Ros, we should absolutely do that as a regular session, the kids must have loved it.”
“They did,” Rosalie confirmed briefly, taking a large gulp of her wine. She very carefully kept from looking at Kinsey at all.
“You should invite her back,” Savannah suggested. Rosalie looked into the middle distance, taking another sip of wine, clearly lost for an excuse.
“You should,” Kinsey agreed, with a shrug. Rosalie’s gaze flickered to her, her eyes narrowing slightly before she turned back to Savannah with a little frown.
“Well I would if I was allowed to run my own damn center,” Rosalie said, her voice light. There was a slight bite in her tone but Savannah only smiled.
“You will be,” she said easily. “After you lose that stick up your butt.”
As Kinsey listened to the tease between them she faintly remembered Rosalie telling her she and her best friend had created the center. She drew a quick breath. Savannah Grace was quietly bankrolling a service for queer kids in Tennessee. Her celebrity crush went up another eight notches. It also explained why the center didn’t seem to be hurting for cash and owned great guitars.
“You’re taking a break, Rosalie?” Cassidy asked, leaning back against Lane’s body. Honestly, those two were ridiculous.
“Your sister literally kidnapped me,” Rosalie told her flatly and Savannah huffed.
“Thank god for the tranquiliser gun,” she said, “or I’d never have gotten her on the jet.”
Kinsey couldn’t stop the small laugh that bubbled out of her. Rosalie’s eyes jerked to her with that slight reprimand Kinsey liked so much and her stomach clenched. She didn’t drop her gaze. Rosalie looked pointedly away but Savannah gave Kinsey a smile so big it was like a blaze of light.
“She’s a handful,” Savannah said.
Kinsey swallowed a large gulp of wine. “I’m sure she is.”
Savannah’s housekeeper, Lucille, arrived and offered to show Kinsey to her room so she could unpack and get ready for dinner, whatever that entailed. Lane towed Cassidy out to see their room too, though there wasn’t a person in the kitchen who didn’t know a euphemism when they heard it.
Kinsey was sure as hell that there were eyes on her back as she exited. She barely took in the gorgeous surroundings as Lucille led her up the stairs, along a broad white corridor filled with black and white framed prints and opened a door for her. She thanked the housekeeper and closed the door behind her. Immediately, she collapsed on the giant white fluffy bed and stared up at the ceiling.
Rosalie. Her brain hurt. As if it weren’t flabbergasting enough to be staying in a house with Savannah Grace and Brynn Marshall; she’d barely had three seconds to adjust when Rosalie walked in. Kinsey flung her arm over her face, swallowing a groan. The woman had been taking up far too much of Kinsey’s brain space for someone who just wanted to be a one night stand, and suddenly there she was being dangled right in front of her again. For how long? Kinsey was supposed to stay for two weeks. Was Rosalie here for a couple of days? Or longer? How in the world would she cope?
It was clear from Rosalie’s blush and her clear confusion as to how to act that she was just as thrown as Kinsey was. But it was equally clear from the way their night together had ended that she was uncomfortable with both their age gap and Kinsey’s proximity to Lane, two issues that would only be exacerbated now, with her and Cassidy and Lane all jumbled up in each other’s lives and Rosalie right there in the mix. Kinsey almost wondered if Rosalie was going to straight up flee or at least try to avoid her altogether.
