Page 39 of Double Standard

I watch as Levi engages his abs to try to sit up. He woke up again after a round of X-rays, just before a neurological exam. When he did, he grabbed my hand, and I haven’t let go since.

“Easy there, cowboy.”

“You know, I think calling me cowboy is even worsenow that I’ve been thrown off a horse,” he replies with a sharp intake of breath, the kind someone takes when something—everything—hurts. “Are you insulting my skills? Or is thatsarcasm, and if so, where’s my signature Ana Barlow eye roll?”

“Glad to see your personality is still intact, but please, tell me where the pain is so I can call the nurse.”

“You should see the other guy.” He adjusts his position in bed, and his face twists with a wince. “Speaking of, is Nesbitt OK? I hope I didn’t bang him up in the fall.”

“Levi, Nesbitt is twelve hundred pounds of pure muscle. He banged you up and trotted away like it was nothing.”

“I’ll heal just fine.”

This man, bloodied and bruised, with dirt matted in his hair, is trying to convince me all of this is just another workday. He attempts to contort his mouth into a smile, or something approximating it, before pain pulls his lips back from his teeth.

I move my chair even closer and bring my hand to his hair, freeing a small twig from it. “Do you remember what you said to me, once?”

He shakes his head. “I’ve said a whole lot to you, sweetheart.”

The endearment, and the feeling behind it, pinches at my heart. Needles at the part of me I’ve tried to seal shut.

“Your reality isn’t a burden.That’s what you said to me that night of the tornado warning when we were talkingabout my bruises. Your reality isn’t a burden to me, Levi. I wouldn’t be here if it was. It’s OK if you’re not OK.”

“You came all the way here and stayed all afternoon just to tell me it’s OK if I’m not OK?”

“No, I’m here because I needed to see you. I left set because we were supposed to talk, and I was supposed to apologize, and then you went and got yourself flung off a horse. Honestly, if you didn’t want to hang out with me, you could have just said so.” What was supposed to be a chuckle at the end of my sentence comes out choked.

His eyes meet mine, vulnerable. “Wait—they didn’t wrap for the day? You left set in the middle of filming to be here? After I wasn’t honest about Colt?”

“I left because I couldn’t physically bear the thought of staying behind.” I clear my throat and bring my hand back to his, sliding it gently under his palm to avoid the IV threaded into his skin. “I left because I think this... what we have, or had... is fixable. The idea that I might not have the chance to fix it, that something could happen to you before I got the opportunity—it wasn’t something I could live with. So I’m here.”

He nods before pushing his fingers through mine. “You can go back, if you want. Now that you see I’m going to live. We don’t have to talk now if they’re waiting for you to film.”

I give him his eye roll. “What I realized on the way here is that I don’t care. I don’t care if the crew is mad at me, orif the tabloids print something about me ‘storming off set.’ And until now, that’s been the only thing I’ve ever cared about—making sure I look a certain way and act a certain way so I can control perception. But as I was running to meet the Uber...”

“Youtook anUber?” Levi is incredulous.

“Yes, Levi, I took a fucking Uber because I realized, for the first time in my life, I have something I care about more than controlling what people think of me. I also realized that while calling you selfish for keeping what Colt said to yourself, I was selfish for expecting you to share it. I... I don’t want to be selfish with my heart anymore.”

“Sweetheart, that’s a lot for me to take in right after a concussion.” He gives me a wink that makes me want to smother him, or at least press my body flush against his. Levi has always known how to diffuse my big feelings with well-placed levity, even during that very first date at the gym, like he somehow knew me before heknewme. What a gift it is to be known.

“Thank you for being here.” His voice turns serious. “I... God, I was so glad to see you. I want to apologize too, and I want to do it right. Can we do that?”

“We don’t have to do anything right now. I don’t need anything from you other than the knowledge that you’re OK.”

“Promise not to fake date the backup they bring in to replace me?” Levi’s hand grips mine tighter, and I laugh at the absurdity of how we got here and with hope for thepromise of where we could go. The way he fights a chuckle and his chest stutters under the weight of his visible joy, even while in a hospital bed, has warmth flooding my veins and wrapping around my heart. I twist my pinky finger around his.

Nashville Lifestyle Daily Newsletter

Not So Fake? Ana Barlow Abandons Filming for Injured Levi Stephens

By Camille Stockton

According to several sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity, it’s crunch time forAthena’s Waras the cast and crew plan to wrap up filming next week.

So why, then, was lead actress Ana Barlow spotted fleeing the set in the middle of a workday, still dressed as Athena, as she climbed into a rideshare? While we haven’t been able to confirm the nature of the incident, rumor has it that stuntman—and Barlow’s alleged fake boyfriend—Levi Stephens was injured while filming a scene on horseback.

Perhaps their relationship isn’t so fake.