I nodded and thanked her again for having me before following Ash up the stairs. Both of our bags were in the guest bedroom, but before I could ask, he said, “I’m gonna sleep on the couch in the game room but keep my stuff in here. You can shower first, okay?”

“You don’t have to do that, Ash. I can sleep out there,” I offered, opening my bag to get my pajamas and toiletries out.

“Scarlett, don’t…” He grabbed my shoulders and made me look him in the face. “You’re sleeping in here. I want you as comfortable as possible so you can get some rest. Now go take a shower. Everything you need is in the cabinet in the bathroom.”

Standing there, staring into his captivating eyes, a wave of desire passed over me. Desire for him to hold me, kiss me, tell me everything was going to be okay. I was pretty sure he felt something too but all of a sudden, he spun me around to face the door and said, “You. Shower. Now.”

I took a quick shower and got dressed for bed so that Ash could do the same. I made my way back to the guest room and slipped into the cool, crisp sheets. The last thing I remembered before passing out was the opening and closing of the bathroom door.

At some point in the middle of the night, I woke myself up crying from an awful nightmare where Evie kept appearing and telling me she knew what I had done. Within seconds, the door opened and Ash came directly to the bed. Without waiting for me to say anything, he lay down in the bed and scooped me into his arms.

“It’s okay, Butterfly. I’m here. It’s gonna be okay,” he whispered into my hair as he rubbed my back.

After a few minutes, I had calmed down and my breathing had returned to normal. “Sorry,” I said softly.

“Stop. Don’t apologize. You haven’t done anything.”

I didn’t say anything for a few minutes, thinking about how wrong he was. I figured there was never going to be a good time to tell him, so as we lay there in the dark, I blurted out, “I had sex with Max.”

MASON

The morning after we had been offered the spot on the tour, I was on cloud nine. Things could not be going better for Jobu’s Rum and I was headed west to see my Angel. Our sexy conversations on Skype were no longer helping with the distance, it was just making me want her more and become more frustrated.

I expected her to still be asleep when I got to the apartment a little before ten since she had been out late the night before. Quietly letting myself in, I planned on joining her in the bed, but as soon as I walked through the door, something felt off. Looking around the living room and kitchen, everything looked normal so I continued back to the bedroom.

The sight of the empty bed made my stomach drop, and I hoped that she had just stayed out with Mina because she had drank too much. I walked to the closet to take my shoes off before calling her when I noticed that all of her clothes were gone.

“FUUUCCCKKKK!!!” I screamed at the empty rods. What the fuck had happened? I immediately grabbed my phone and dialed her number. Not surprising, her voicemail picked up before it ever rang.

“Scarlett?!? Where are you? What happened? Call me back now!” I screamed before hanging up.

I waited about thirty seconds before calling her back and getting the same result. She obviously didn’t have her phone on and I was about to lose my mind. My thoughts were racing. It just didn’t add up. I needed to talk to someone that could give me some kind of answers so I called Mina.

“Hello?” she answered, obviously still asleep.

“Is Scarlett with you? What happened? Why did she take her things?” I peppered the questions at her.

“No, Scarlett is not with me, and what do you mean she took her things?” Her voice filled with concern.

“I don’t know! I just got home, and she’s not here and neither are her clothes! What the fuck happened last night, Mina?!?”

“I don’t know, Rat, and don’t yell at me! She was fine the last time I saw her. We went to Empty’s at the end of the night, and Max was making sure she got home okay. I haven’t talked to her since, but now I’m up and worried.”

“Fucking shit! I am so pissed off! I’m gonna try and call Max; you keep trying Scarlett and let me know if you get a hold of her.”

I hung up the phone and dialed Max’s number. He didn’t answer and I assumed he was probably passed out from the bachelor party festivities. However, I really fucking needed to talk to him. I headed out the door to my bike, I was going to get some answers and fix whatever had happened with Scarlett.

Several hours later I was about to lose my mind. I still hadn’t heard from Scarlett, Max was M.I.A., and I had a sinking feeling that the two were related. I was sitting on my couch staring at a blank television screen, contemplating every possible explanation for her leaving, when Mina called.

“Hello?” I answered eagerly, hoping she had heard something. “Have you talked to her?”

“Not exactly,” she responded.

“What do you mean?”

“Look Rat, I’m just gonna be honest with you. I don’t know what happened, I haven’t talked to her, but Ash called to let me know that he had her. He said she’s pretty messed up.”

“You’re fucking kidding me! Please tell me you’re kidding me!” Why in the hell was she with him? This was so much worse than I had originally thought. What had happened? Fury pumped through my veins; I was going to kill that fucker. “I’m going to get her!” I was already up grabbing my key before I even had the sentence out.

“I’m not kidding and you can’t go get her. They’re not here.”

I froze. “What do you mean they’re not here? WHERE THE FUCK ARE THEY?!? ”

“I don’t know. He just said he was taking her away for a few days and that he would call me tomorrow. I also found Max, he’s at his parents.”

“Let me know as soon as you hear from them! Fuck!” I said before hanging up the phone.

I don’t think I had ever been so mad in my life. There weren’t words that could express the rage pulsating through my veins. I didn’t know what to do with myself, my mind was a fucking mess. I knew I didn’t want to be in that apartment that reminded me of her every placed I looked. I jumped up and headed down the stairs to my bike. I wanted to get as far away from Houston as I could. I needed to get fucked up to the point I was numb and didn’t care about anything. I made one last call before going back to Austin.

“Get something together for tonight, I’m on my way and I’m ready to play rock star,” was all I said when she answered.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

REVELATIONS

Belief ~ Gavin DeGraw

Clarity ~ Zedd

Blurred Lines ~ Robin Thicke (feat. T.I. & Pharell)

SCARLETT

I honestly wasn’t sure what reaction I expected from Ash when I told him about Max. For a split second, his body stiffened and his hand stopped rubbing my back, but just as quickly as he froze, he resumed his comforting of me, and actually pulled me tighter to his body.

“It’s okay, Scarlett. It’s gonna be okay,” he reassured me as he kissed the top of my head.

I didn’t offer any other information and he didn’t ask. I must’ve fallen back asleep shortly thereafter because the next thing I remembered was waking up to the sun shining brightly through the window. I groaned and went to roll over only to find my legs completely tangled in Ash’s and his arms still tightly around my waist. I was torn between wanting to stay exactly where I was and rising to face the reality that waited for me.

Knowing that I really needed to get up and make some phone calls, I managed to slip out of his grasp without waking him up. I made my way to the bathroom to get ready for the day and downstairs to try and find a phone that I could use. Crys was standing in the kitchen when I walked in, fighting with the coffee maker.

“Good morning,” I greeted her.

Spinning around flustered, she smiled at me. “Morning, Scarlett. Did you sleep okay?”

“Yes, I slept just fine, thank you,” I replied.

“Want to join me for a cup of coffee before Will and the boys get up? This is my thirty minutes of peace that I get each morning, so I normally sit out on the back porch and enjoy a little fresh air.”

I joined her at the counter to add the embarrassing amounts of cream and sugar that I fancied in my coffee and then followed her to the chairs on the back porch. The weather was much cooler than I had expected, and I tucked my legs up under my t-shirt as we sat there enjoying the silence that the early morning offered.

“You’ve let your hair grow out,” Crys said after several minutes.

Instinctively putting my hands in my hair when she made the comment, I looked at her questioningly. “Yeah, I have. How did you know?”

“Well it’s quite a bit longer from the first time I saw you, even in just a couple of months...”

“Wait, when have you seen me before?” I interrupted.

“The night you came back to Houston. I was at the bar with Ash. It was the day that we helped my mom move into her new place, and we had gone out for a few beers and so that we could relax after the emotionally draining day,” she answered.

Thinking back to the night I had returned just a few months prior, I quickly replayed the events of that night, and realized that the girl that Ash had greeted off stage wasn’t just another one of his blondes, it was Crys.

“Ahhh… yeah…” I could only assume that she probably wasn’t the biggest fan of mine after that first impression.

She laughed at my lack of words. “It’s okay Scarlett. I didn’t like you so much that night, but I get it. You were doing what you thought was the right thing for you at the time. I can’t fault that.”

I simply nodded and gave her a small smile. “Yeah… too bad I was wrong,” I muttered.

Just then, Ash came walking out the French doors to join us, still in his pajama pants and his hair a ruffled mess. “What are you two talking about out here?”

“We were discussing the national debt bro. We’ve just about got it figured out ,” Crys answered sarcastically as she stood up. “I’ll grab you a cup of coffee.”

Ash sat down in her chair as she disappeared back into the house. I was scared to look him in the eye after my revelation the previous night. I fully expected him to be completely disgusted with me after having time to think about what I had done.

“Butterfly, just stop with all of the crazy thoughts running through your head right now. As much as what you said last night breaks my heart, I just want to help build you back up, not tear you down any further,” he said softly as he looked in my direction.

Meeting his gaze with mine, I smiled meekly. “I don’t even know where to start. I just feel empty inside. I don’t know where to go… who to talk to… I was gonna call Mina and my mom but then I remembered I don’t even know their numbers.”

“Scarlett, stop. Just relax. You will figure it all out, you just need to take a step back,” he said just as his sister rejoined us. She handed him a cup of coffee and sat down in one of the other patio chairs. Turning to her, he continued, “Crys, I think we are gonna go out for a drive today. I want to take Scarlett to see the canyon and then we’ll probably head to the beach. You mind if we take the Jeep?”

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