TWENTY-ONE
Fallon
“That was the longest ride of my life, almost literally.” She flopped onto the bed, backpack flying beside her.
“Almost literally?” I tossed my wallet and keys onto the nearest surface and fell into the massive king with her.
A king room was the last they had, but she’d taken to sleepin’ at my side all night anyway, so the extra bed we’d had before now was always a waste. It was odd, how quickly I started adjusting to her presence, accommodating her needs, thinking of her before myself.
Wasn’t used to that at all, but being with Augusta Belle was just so easy.
She held up her phone, punching in the password for the Wi-Fi before opening one of her many social media apps. I watched her scroll mindlessly before a notification popped up that she had 99+ new friend requests.
“What the hell?” She frowned. “I don’t recognize any of these people.”
She gnawed on her bottom lip, and hell if I didn’t want to be the one gnawing on it right now. I flipped onto my side, running a hand up her ankle, sliding my fingers to the tender spot under her knees before creeping up her inner thigh.
“Holy shit, Fallon.”
I grinned, adding a second hand to her other thigh, ready as fuck to continue the path we’d been on earlier.
“Fallon, look.” She turned her screen around, thrusting it in my face.
“I can’t read that shit. Gives me a headache.” I ducked, nipping at the outside of her knee, dragging a tongue across the elegant indent that always made her squirm.
“Fallon, I don’t think you’re getting this right now, but we’re front page on TMZ.”
My hands fell, eyes slamming closed as I fell back into a world I’d escaped not long enough ago.
“What the fuck?” I pulled the phone from her outstretched hand, scrolling the bullshit text of what they claimed was a breaking story, that ex-country rocker Fallon Gentry had found his whiskey girl again.
I winced.
“They have my name, Fallon.”
I attempted swallowing the lump clogging my throat. “Saw that.”
“What if they start digging into my past, what if they find out about my parents and us and just…everything?”
“They will,” I muttered, pushing myself off the bed, eyes on the minibar instantly.
My fingers twitched, a slow ache settling at the base of my skull that I couldn’t shake.
Jim Beam. Jack Daniel’s. Maybe a local oak-aged. I wondered what a place like this would offer in the minibar. Probably just vodka. I’d have to hit the nearest liquor store if that was the case.
I groaned, realizing that old train of thought was eating up my insides again.
I hadn’t had a drop of whiskey since Augusta Belle’d walked back into my life.
Well, almost. There had been that bender, but hell if I could do that again.
I heaved a breath, tortured by what to even offer next. “They have your name, so we’re pretty much fucked.” I pushed a hand through my hair and stalked across the room. “Shoulda expected this. It’s my fault. I shouldn’t have let you up onstage that first night in Memphis. It was too much publicity. Hell, give ’em another day, and they’ll be down here with boom microphones in our faces.”
Augusta Belle’s eyes watered as she sat cross-legged on the bed, eyes fixed on the screen in her hands, fingers already trembling. “I can’t let that happen.”
“It already is, sunshine.” The endearment I’d called her earlier didn’t have quite the same ring as it had hours ago.
“No, Fallon.” Her irises widened, and she pressed up on her knees until she was eye level with me, inching closer until her hands were within reach. “That can’t happen.”
“I know it’s gonna suck, believe me, been there. But we’ll get through it. Maybe get you a wig or something. And no more singing onstage, all that…sexual chemistry just attracts them like honeybees.” I held her wrists, preparing to pepper them with reassuring kisses when she yanked them away and leaped off the bed.
She shook her head back and forth, eyes sliding everywhere around the room but on me. “What if they find out about—” She pulled out her backpack, tearing out some papers she had and perusing them quickly. “I wonder if there’s any other documentation…”
“Oh, if there’s documentation, they’ll find it.” I hovered over her shoulder, planting a hand on the dip of her spine in the hopes of calming her.
“No, Fallon, no! You don’t understand.” She finally looked up, her eyes wet with tears and terror that stole all the breath from my fucking lungs.
“What, Augusta Belle? What’s wrong?” I slid a hand into her hair, my palm at the back of her soft neck.
“There’s more.” She swallowed. “There’s one more thing I haven’t told you about.”
I nodded, unable to form a word, trying to blink some sort of silent signal to encourage her on, but the truth was, I didn’t think I wanted her to.
I wasn’t sure I was ready for whatever else she was about to tell me.
“I spent so many nights crying, so many nights wondering what I could have done different. I could hardly eat. Missing you was the darkest time of my life, Fallon.” She wrung her hands, swallowing again before her eyes darted from my gaze to my lips and back again. “I missed you so much those first few weeks at school…” Fresh tears tracked down her cheeks. “I didn’t even know I was pregnant.”