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“No,” I say.
Heidi air claps next to me.
“What?” Lucia’s voice goes watery.
“I’m not covering for you anymore, Lucia. If you try to spread some story that you and I were on a break when those pictures were taken or that we had an open relationship or that you knew about my cheating and ran to Theo for help mending your broken heart, my team will rebut your story with everything we have.”
“This will ruin my career. Everyone will say I’m a horrible person.”
“If you can’t handle it, I fully recommend hiding out in a small town and taking some time to yourself to really think about who you are and what you want out of life.”
“What?” she screeches. “What the actual fuck, Jaxon? I stayed with you, even when you were being an asshole and trying to talk about our feelings all the time. I listened to you whine about fixing our relationship for freaking months and you can’t even do this one simple thing for me?”
At another time, her words might have hurt my feelings, but I have perspective now. Enough to see she’s got far bigger problems than I have and none of this has ever been about me. “I’ve done more than enough for you, Lucia. We’re done.”
“I will destroy you, Jaxon. I will—”
Heidi hits the end call button with a decisive flick of her finger. “That was the highlight of my year.”
I study my assistant. “Did she always talk to you like that?”
She nods. “Every single time.”
I could get mad at Heidi for not letting me know about Lucia’s dark side, but Heidi’s not my friend. She’s my assistant. She was doing her job and saying anything to me back then would have probably gotten her fired. I wouldn’t have believed her, because I was so determined to believe Lucia was right for me. “I’m sorry you had to deal with that.”
“You pay me enough that nasty people like that can’t hurt my feelings. Now, what can we do about your broken heart? Want to stop by the gym to hit the punching bag before your first meeting?”
“It’s going to take a lot more than a punching bag to make me feel better.”
Heidi gives me a sympathetic look before her phone rings and she gets back to work organizing my life. I can’t think of a single person in this city who I can talk to about my broken heart or the way getting back to my career doesn’t feel nearly as good as I’d hoped it would.
The first thing I do after I dig my phone out of my carry-on and power it up, is check the text thread I have going with Honey’s security team. Dell is still several miles away from Honey, who’s safe at home. Apparently, she and her sisters are having some sort of huge party with tons of people camping out on their property.
I advise security to watch her even more closely and make sure Dell doesn’t party crash.
I’m sure they’re annoyed with my micro-managing, but I don’t care.
Next, I call my publicist and warn him about Honey’s past and the stories that could come out about her. I want him to be ready to do whatever he can to prevent the story from getting out and to change the narrative if it does.
After I hang up with him, my phone vibrates in my hand with a text from Aunt Lorraine. It’s a picture of her holding up a t-shirt with an image of Bigfoot wearing sunglasses and playing a guitar. It makes me smile.
I stopped in to see her on my way out of Catalpa Creek and she yelled at me for not letting her know I was in town sooner, then she thanked me for increasing her sales and fed me chocolate chip cookies she’d bought from the grocery store.
She’s promised not to tell anyone I was Bigfoot, but she’d ordered the t-shirts as soon as she saw the diner video of my fight with Dell. Aunt Lorraine is smart, and she knows me well.
I text her back a smiley face and tell her I love her. I’ve promised to visit her again soon for longer. She didn’t ask me to stay this time, probably sensing my sadness. If I’d stayed, I would have told her about Honey and Lorraine would have convinced me to go back to her, because she’s always thought I should have whatever I want.
Maybe the career of my childhood dreams and the opportunity to spend a few weeks in Honey’s life is the limit of good things I can have. Maybe it should be enough.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Honey
Levi flicks a chunk of mud off his forearm, aiming it at my cheek. It bounces off and hits the ground. “Thanks a lot, Honeybear. I’m going to have to hose myself off for the third time today.”
“I told you I didn’t want to play.” I cross my arms over my chest, staring straight ahead, my back against the barn wall.
“You’re a Weston. It’s the fourth of July. Family game day doesn’t care about feelings or broken hearts. And all you had to do was stay on my shoulders for another hundred yards and we would have won the race. What the hell happened?”
