My Blue Havyn (Hearts of Hollywood - Christian Romance Novellas) Read online

  Reaching over, Rayne looped her arm through his and leaned her head on his shoulder. “Well now, Blake, that’s for Levi and me to know and maybe for the rest of the world to find out.”

  Levi gritted his teeth and hoped his smile didn’t look too strained.

  Blake must have asked about his and Rayne’s totally nonexistent relationship. Gil had specifically asked them not to deny a relationship—but he hadn’t said they needed to fuel the rumor flames.

  He sighed inwardly. If anything was going to make this a long two weeks, it would be Rayne. She should be staying here in the good ol’ US of A, where she belonged. Having been on several building trips overseas, he was already dreading spending two weeks in the wilds with her. A talented actress, she might be. But an adventurer, she was not. And she certainly will be out of her element.

  As the reporters turned their focus on Rayne for a few minutes, he thought back over the movie that would release next month. He really hoped the romantic chemistry between his British officer character and Rayne’s tea-plantation-heiress-in-distress came through, because that was some of the best acting he’d ever done in his life—and not because he’d never played a British officer before.

  He chastised himself for his unkind thoughts. Maybe the Lord would use this trip to help Rayne see there was more to life than fame and all the trappings that went with it.

  Movement at the corner of his eye drew his attention to the building team gathering for a quick powwow before boarding.

  His breath hitched a little at the sight of Chelsea Tan.

  Not because of her, but because of the memory of another she brought to mind. Havyn Jessup. Even before he’d left California he’d planned to look Havyn up after this building trip. But he didn’t know whether she’d want to see him. What was she up to these days? There had been a day when Chelsea and Havyn were nearly inseparable.

  Chelsea noticed him looking her way and raised one hand, wiggling her fingers in a little wave. He dipped his chin slightly in acknowledgment, thankful to see a flight attendant headed toward the gate desk to hopefully get them boarding.

  It was time to send the press on their way. “Ladies and gentlemen, I’m afraid Miss McQuaid and I need to be going.”

  “You’re right, darling. We really shouldn’t keep them waiting any longer.” Rayne tossed her long blonde curls in a seductive dismissal. “Bye, everyone!”

  “Y’all be kind to us in the press, hear?” He offered his parting plea with a grin and pointed Rayne toward Pastor Chad and the rest of the team.

  Leaning into his side, Rayne slid her hand down his arm.

  He was just about to pull his hand out of her reach on the pretense of waving goodbye to the cadre of reporters, but Chelsea bent down to pick up her bag right at that moment, and behind her stood Havyn.

  Every thought in him froze.

  His wave died midrise, and Rayne’s fingers entrapped his lax ones.

  Havyn’s back was to him, but he would have recognized her if she was wrapped in a gunnysack. Wearing a pale pink T-shirt with short lace sleeves, and a pink Mariners ball cap turned backwards, she looked as good as ever. The T-shirt curved over slender hips, stopping just short of the swirls of pink jewels studded into the pockets of her jeans.

  She flipped a glance over her shoulder as though feeling his perusal. Her gaze met his for a brief second, before skimming to where Rayne’s fingers were threaded through his. Her eyes narrowed slightly as she rolled her lips inward and pressed them together. Then, with a little shake of her head, she returned her focus to Pastor Chad.

  He felt her dismissal like a punch to the gut. I probably deserved that.

  Beside him Rayne shifted. “Who’s she?”

  “Someone I knew a long time ago.” Someone he’d never even come close to forgetting. He extracted his hand from Rayne’s, retrieved her huge Coach tote along with his own much smaller bag, and followed her to join the group.

  Pastor Chad smiled largely and stretched out one hand. “Levi. So good to see you again. Rayne. So happy you could join us.”

  Levi felt the attention of the group begin to zero in on them.

  Pastor Chad cleared his throat. “Everyone, I’d like to introduce you to the two members who weren’t able to join us for our meetings the past few weeks. Many of you will know Levi Carter, who grew up in our church, and this is his costar and another face you’ll undoubtedly recognize, Rayne McQuaid.”

  “Rayne McQuaid! No way!” one of the young men exclaimed.

  Rayne offered her famous smile and spun a little circle on the point of one stiletto heel. “Way!”

  Levi chuckled along with the group. It was no wonder Rayne was one of the top box-office stars in the industry. She had charm, charisma, and the ability to morph into any role she found herself in. Maybe the next two weeks wouldn’t be so bad.

  “Levi.” Chelsea was suddenly before him, pulling him into a friendly embrace. “It’s so good to see you again. Went and made something big of yourself, didn’t you?” She clasped his shoulders and pushed him out an arm’s length, giving him a once-over.

  He rubbed the back of his neck. “Well, I’ve tried.”

  Chelsea blew a raspberry. “Tried?! Look at you being all modest!”

  “So how have things been at home?” His attention wandered to Havyn. She backed a step away from the guy who seemed bent on talking her ear off and approached Rayne, holding out her hand with a friendly smile. Rayne seemed a bit surprised. But Levi wasn’t. Havyn had always had a way of making people feel welcome wherever she went.

  Chelsea whipped a glance over her shoulder, apparently trying to assess what had caught his attention. “Good. Slow. I mean, you know, neither Havyn or I have men in our lives or anything, so…” She gave a little shrug and offered a subtle wink.

  Lord love Chelsea. He sure did.

  Havyn was already settled in a window seat and peering out at the runway as he worked to stuff his little carry-on into the overhead compartment next to Rayne’s monstrosity. What did Rayne have in that bag, anyway? Her entire wardrobe for the next two weeks?

  Havyn leaned over and said something to Chelsea. She hadn’t even glanced at him again since that moment in the terminal. Did he really mean so little to her now? Or was she purposely ignoring him?

  He had tried to call her numerous times after he’d left so suddenly for California, and she’d never once returned his calls. After a while he’d simply given up. So…she didn’t really have a right to be so aloof.

  But seeing her again had him kicking himself all the way to next week for backing off so easily.

  With one final shove against Rayne’s bag, he finally got the latch to click.

  Chelsea glanced up with a soulful expression from the seat beside Havyn, who was once again studying the bustle of activity outside her window.

  He looked from his empty seat next to Rayne to Chelsea and back. He wanted to talk to Havyn…what better opportunity than while she was strapped into a seat at thirty thousand feet above sea level?

  He winked at Chelsea and gestured from her to the seat next to Rayne, raising one eyebrow.

  Her eyes widened and she shook her head. She subtly tipped her chin toward Havyn and made a throat-cutting gesture to indicate Havyn would kill her if she voluntarily gave up her seat to him.

  He winced. “That bad?” he mouthed.

  Chelsea’s brows rose and she nodded emphatically.

  He rubbed at the tension in the muscles of his neck. Okay…so the direct approach was the only way, and he needed to do it quickly because the stewardess was taking her place at the head of the aisle, about to announce that everyone needed to be in their seats.

  He glanced at Rayne. She was already immersed in her own little world, thumbing through a magazine with her headphones cupping her ears. She wouldn’t even miss him.

  He strode to Chelsea’s side. “Hey, Chelsea? There’s a couple things Havyn and I need to clear up. Would you mind taking my seat for this fligh
t?”

  Havyn stiffened and folded her arms, but to her credit she didn’t deny they needed to talk. She didn’t remove her attention from the scene outside her window, either, but…at least she hadn’t demanded Chelsea remain right where she sat.

  “Sure!” Chelsea gave him a covert thumbs-up, grabbed her small bag, and slipped to the seat up one row and across the aisle, next to Rayne.

  Levi sank into the spot she’d just vacated, fastened his seatbelt, and rested his head against the seat.

  Other than scooting slightly closer to the cabin’s wall, Havyn acted like she didn’t even know he was there.

  The stewardess gave her spiel, the plane took off and rose until there was nothing to see outside her window but clouds far below them, but still she kept her attention focused away from him.

  He leaned closer and bumped her with his shoulder. He spoke quietly to keep their conversation from being heard above the thrum of the engines. “So is this how it’s going to be all the way to Amsterdam? Me hoping you’ll talk to me and you hoping I’ll just go away?”

  She flipped around to face him then, and he caught a whiff of soft coconut. So she still used that same shampoo. Back when they were dating, he would bury his face in her hair just to take in his fill of that scent. She’d never worn perfume, and rarely any makeup, and it didn’t look like much had changed, because the hazel-blue eyes squinting at him with decided displeasure glowered from clean, clear skin. She had a face any actress would kill for, full lips that were at this moment pinched in aggravation, and long, dark lashes that would make even the most successful of women envious.

  She leaned toward him, sparks shooting from her eyes. “What in the world are you doing here, Levi?”

  He swallowed hard and gripped the armrest firmly to keep from reaching up to wrap a strand of her long, dark hair around one finger. “Pastor Chad called, and my producer saw it as a good investment…” Lame, Carter. Why not just tell her he’d hoped to see her in the two weeks’ vacation he’d planned at home after the trip? Why not tell her he hadn’t dared to dream she might be on this trip, but it was so good to see her? Why not apologize for the way he’d walked out on her? Instead, he’d gone and said something he knew was sure to raise her hackles higher than an angry cat’s.

  She stuck her lower lip out and nodded her head. “So you came on this trip purely as a stunt to raise money for your next movie. Nice, Levi. Real nice.”

  He gritted his teeth and refused to rise to her bait, even though he’d started her down that path. Instead, he cut to the heart of what he’d really wanted to talk to her about. “I called you multiple times after I left. You never answered.”

  Her shoulders slumped, and she returned her focus to the empty space outside her window. “You never left a message.”

  The words were so quiet he barely heard them. His eyes dropped closed at the edge of hurt in her voice. “What I wanted to say was too important to leave in a message.”

  She laughed outright, but it was soft and full of pain. “That’s not going to cut it, Levi. You wanted your space and I gave it to you. And, in the end, it appears it was a good thing. You’ve gone far, and neither one of us would be where we are if things had gone differently. We’ve both moved on. And things can never go back to the way they were. So…let’s not linger in regrets.”

  He studied her profile outlined against the light shining through the window. The soft shadow beneath feminine cheekbones. The caress of light against full lips. The wisps of hair that inevitably escaped her backward ball cap. Her beauty had matured. Grown from a bud just emerging to the breathtaking exquisiteness of a rose in full bloom.

  He swallowed. Not linger in regrets? No possible way. He’d been an idiot to walk away from her.

  Havyn could feel the warmth of his searching gaze. And as the moment stretched and she still hadn’t heard him move, she felt every hair at the nape of her neck stand on end.

  She rolled her lips in, pressed them together, and turned to see what exactly had caught his attention.

  Head resting against the seat, he studied her from the depths of his smoky blue eyes. He still wore his dark hair short on the sides and a bit longer on the top in a casually mussed style. And a couple days’ worth of stubble dusted his firm jawline.

  Drat if he still didn’t have the ability to make her knees go weak and her skin prickle with the awareness of his every breath. One of the very reasons she must never let him inhabit any portion of her heart again.

  She cleared her throat and forced her gaze to her lap, reminding herself he had that effect on every woman in America.

  Havyn had been to every one of his movies. A couple of them multiple times. And some woman always left the theater fanning herself and oh-la-la-ing over what a hunk he was.

  But not Havyn Jessup. No sir. She’d done an admirable job of moving on, and maybe even finally convincing Chelsea she was over him. She’d even taken dates to a couple of his movies.

  But now that he was next to her, warm and smelling like Drakkar Noir, her favorite cologne, she couldn’t deny the power he still had over her.

  And that just wouldn’t do, because she had no intention of getting hurt by the man ever again. Not to mention the fact that he was very attached to the woman sitting just across the aisle and up one row.

  “Havyn?” Levi touched her arm with the backs of his fingers.

  A thrill of pleasure raced up through her shoulder and down her spine, and she chastised herself for feeling it even as she pulled her arm away and forced herself to meet his gaze. “Yes?”

  “It’s good not to live in the past, but we can never change if we don’t face our regrets. And the truth is, I’ll always regret that I walked away from you…from us. I was selfish and only thinking of myself. And I should never have given up on trying to reconnect. I’m sorry.”

  She nodded because she didn’t trust herself to say anything remotely coherent without melting into a puddle of tears. And, of course, because she wasn’t entirely certain she believed him. How could he regret walking away from her when he’d ended up with the gorgeous Rayne McQuaid? Obviously he just meant the way that he’d walked away. And she could deal with that. After all, how many high school couples really remained together? Even if they had made it a couple years through college? And even if the guy did promise the girl on a rainy afternoon during their sophomore year that he’d never leave her?

  Like her father had.

  She swallowed.

  “So what are you doing with yourself these days?” He folded his hands, studying her sincerely. “Mom says you’re a PE teacher?”

  She released a slow breath. What a relief to have the awkward confrontation over with so soon. Thankfully Levi Carter had always been a take-the-bull-by-the-horns kind of guy. Now maybe they could just get on with the next two weeks and then move on with their lives.

  He quirked a brow, and she realized he was waiting for an answer to his question. “I am.” She spread her hands. “Mr. Krozer retired, and the timing lined up right, and the high school hired me.”

  “So your summers are free to do stuff like this trip? That’s great.”

  “Well…actually in the summer I teach classes at the YWCA to lower-income women on the importance of nutrition and fitness. But I had these two weeks already set aside for a vacation. And then Chelsea called to say someone had backed out on the trip, so…” She shrugged. “Here I am.”

  He shifted and studied her seriously. “Well, I for one am glad you were able to fit it into your schedule.”

  Havyn cast a quick glance at Rayne. And just as she’d suspected, the woman was peering at them over the top of her seat. Peering wasn’t exactly the right word. More like glowering. And not at Levi, but at her.

  Just great. It was good to smooth things over with Levi, but she didn’t want to spend the next two weeks fending off displeasure from Rayne McQuaid. She’d seen the poignant need in the woman’s eyes the moment Pastor Chad introduced her. She supposed that
was one gift her father had given her—the ability to read pain in other women’s eyes, often with just one glance.

  She knew offering her friendship was what the Lord would want her to do. Still, she’d surprised even herself by heeding the urge. What could a woman as together as Rayne McQuaid need from someone like her? Not to mention, Rayne happened to be the woman Levi Carter was dating. But, despite her misgivings, she’d made the first overture. And now making Rayne think she was trying to steal Levi away was not going to further the creation of their friendship.

  Time to put an end to this conversation, no matter how badly she wanted to talk to him about his movies and what he had planned next.

  She grabbed her sweatshirt out of the bag under the seat in front of her. “Yeah, I’m glad it worked out. But…I had a really late night with a client who needed a listening ear. And then with the early flight this morning…I really need to catch some more rest. So…it’s been nice to talk to you again…but I hope you won’t mind if I try to get a little sleep.” Without giving him a chance to respond, she folded up the sweatshirt and stuffed it between her shoulder and the wall of the plane.

  At least this would keep him at a safe distance and keep Rayne from thinking she was trying to steal her man. But there was no way she would be able to fall asleep with him so close.

  After they’d been in flight for a couple hours Levi and Chelsea changed seats, once again, and Havyn really did get a little sleep. And by the time they arrived in Lilongwe, Malawi, at ten o’clock Thursday evening, she was really glad she’d gotten that nap, because she hadn’t been able to sleep a wink since then, despite the fact that the rest of the flights were uneventful.

  Exhaustion weighted the backs of her eyes as she stood in the baggage claim area with everyone else, waiting for them to get their luggage.

  Levi pulled Rayne’s three huge suitcases off the belt, and Havyn had enough energy to lift one brow. She wondered how much the actress had been charged for the extra luggage. Chelsea pointed out her bag, which was about half the size of one of Rayne’s, and Levi hefted it off and set it by her side.