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“Yeah. I thought so too. I gave her back the money we’d taken from her. I gave her every penny I had, and I left Dell and Maya and moved back in with Mom. The girl, Casey, she moved in with us too.”
“How did I not hear about this?” Dani asks. “I talk to Mom at least once a month.”
I shrug. “She didn’t stay with us more than a month. Casey had already been accepted to a university in Vermont. Mom got in touch with the school and explained Casey’s lack of funds and her pregnancy. They got her set up with family housing, financial aid, and a job. Mom even sweet-talked them into giving her a small scholarship.”
“Mom is amazing,” Clover says.
“Mom is a tiger. She doesn’t take no for an answer when it matters.”
“I can’t believe she sent you to live with—”
“Boo!” A head pokes through the cave entrance and Dell crawls inside. “Where’s my treasure, ladies?”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Jaxon
"I hate you,” someone yells from a passing car as I walk down the sidewalk, a security agent, Kane, on one side, Heidi on the other.
I wince, but keep walking. It’s not the first time someone’s shouted at me since I got back to LA.
I’ve been called a man whore, Satan’s spawn, a fuck boy, but I’ve also been mobbed for autographs and had people gleefully shouting my name.
Some people keep up with celebrity gossip better than others and there are more than a few Lucia stans who will blame me for everything no matter what the truth might be.
And none of it has had the emotional impact I expected while I was hiding away. All of it feels far less important than it did before I left. I’m not sure why. I mean, missing Honey is part of it. A broken heart, as it turns out, makes most things seem less important, even eating and sleeping, but it’s more than that.
Something about getting away for a while changed me at a cellular level and the goals I’ve been working toward since I was a kid. Everything that seemed vitally important to my survival just feels like part of a job now. It feels less like it defines me.
Heidi pulls open the glass door to the towering, modern building and I step inside, Kane close behind. People, most of them in suits, barely glance in my direction. They get celebrities in here on the daily. I’m barely a blip on their radar.
Heidi takes care of everything, and I follow along. The elevator carries us to the tenth floor and then it’s hair and make-up and shaking hands and smiling at ad execs. I pose with an energy drink I’ve never tasted and have no desire to try, allowing the world to think they should drink it if they want to be just like me.
It’s never bothered me before, endorsing something I’ve never actually used. It’s part of the job and brings in money when I’m not touring.
I can’t explain why it bothers me now. Maybe because it feels like a con. I can’t deny I judged Honey when she first admitted to her past as a con artist. No one would argue what she did was right or good. But aren’t I just as bad? Convincing people to spend money on something that might be trash for all I know?
Or maybe it’s because there’s a rhythm pinging in the background of my thoughts, lyrics pushing at my cranium, wanting to be put down on the page before they’re lost. I’ve always loved to write, but it’s never felt so urgent.
Maybe because I’ve never felt so many conflicting emotions at one time.
“Mr. Hayes?” A man in a suit walks over to me, expression severe. “There’s a man downstairs who says that he has an appointment with you.”
I almost laugh aloud at the tenseness in his expression. I’ve seen other celebrities at these sorts of things have people showing up to see them, but I’ve never had anyone here. “What’s his name?”
“Asher Aldridge, sir. Security is prepared to remove him. We just need the word from you.”
“He’s a good friend of mine. Send him up.”
The man, who looks younger than me, nods, though his eyes have gone wide as saucers. Asher’s a big, brawny guy, but he’s good-looking enough to fit in around here. I have no idea why this man is shocked I’m letting him come up.
Heidi hurries over from where she’s been talking to the make-up artist. “You have a visitor? You didn’t you tell me someone was coming by.”
Heidi likes to always be in the know. It’s how she does her job as well as she does.
“I wasn’t sure he was going to make it. The jet was delayed.”
“You sent the jet yourself?” Heidi’s practically bouncing in place. “This isn’t that guy you were fighting with in that diner, is it?”
