Maxon
“CAN YOU STOP?” JARED SAID with a frustrated huff. “Fucking hell, you’re making me anxious, and I was chill as fuck five minutes ago.”
I glared at him as I stopped drumming my fingers but didn’t comment.
We’d been in New York for three days doing TV shows and appearances, and I couldn’t get out of here until late tonight. The guys wanted me to stay for a last night of clubs and parties . . . I’d laughed.
I’d been counting down until I could get back to North Carolina and Libby since the minute I left.
One more photo shoot.
One more appearance.
And then I was on a plane.
I started drumming on my legs again.
“I’m starving,” Ledger grumbled from where he was lying in the back seat. “Can we stop for tacos?”
“You want to eat tacos before a shoot?” Lincoln asked him dully. “A shirtless shoot?”
“Fuck yes, I do. My stomach’s eating itself.”
“Jesus Christ, man.” Jared hit my hands. “Stop. If you need to get laid that bad, we’ll find you someone to bang.”
“What the hell’s your problem?”
“You’ve gone a year without her before. Try to go a few days without pissing me off.”
“Fuck you,” I snapped. “What’s with you lately?”
“What’s with me?” He bit out a sharp laugh. “I’m not the one changing our lives because of some pussy.”
My fist connected with his face before I registered the movement.
After I got a second hit in, he grabbed the collar of my shirt and shoved me against the door.
“Fuck me. We need tacos before we kill each other,” Ledger yelled. “Driver, please. Find us tacos.”
“I don’t care that she’s there,” Jared yelled, his face red from my fists and his rage. “I don’t give a shit what she means to you. I left that town and I wanted to be done with it.” He shoved me harder against the door before releasing me and moving across the seat to position himself against his own door. “That town is nothing but bad memories.”
“It’s bad memories for all of us,” I bit out. “But Libby . . .”
“Man, fuck Libby.”
I launched across the seat and was immediately shoved back when his foot connected with my stomach.
“Say that again,” I said through clenched teeth. “I fucking dare you.”
“She was supposed to come with us,” he yelled. “We all thought when your bullshit deal ended, she was coming with us.” He flung his hand toward the back of the car. “Not forcing us back to that damn town.”
“No one’s forcing you anywhere. The three of you can live anywhere. You can choose to live anywhere else.” I leaned forward and lowered my voice. “I know your home life sucked. I know you wanted to get away. We all did. That’s how we came together, Jared. Jesus.”
“You’re not the only one who had a shitty home life, man,” Lincoln murmured calmly from where he sat in the front. “Maxon and I were beat and went without food half the time. Ledger had it worst of all. But we all got away from it, and those people are paying now.”
“Tacos,” Ledger whimpered.
“Shut up, Ledger,” Jared yelled before turning on Lincoln and me again. “I have dealt with ending tours there. But I can’t live in a place where every street is a nightmare. I can’t act like I don’t hate everyone in that town for pretending not to see what was happening to us.”
“Sometimes you gotta face your demons to live your life,” Lincoln said. “Can’t let the past haunt you.”
No one was closer to Libby than me . . . and I hadn’t had a clue what was really happening to her family. In her world.
Right in front of me.
Right in front of all of us . . . in a town the size of freaking Wake Forest.
“You ever think maybe they really didn’t know?” I asked.
“Uh, Max . . .”
“Shut up, Ledger,” we all said.
“You need to check your phone,” he said hurriedly. “Like, now. Driver, dude, we’re definitely gonna need those tacos.”
All three of us had our phones out, but I only had time to put in my code before it was ringing.
It was Nate.
“Yeah?”
“Have you seen it?”
The way he was talking instantly had my stomach clenching with unease.
“No, Ledger just—shit.” My stomach dropped and heart painfully skipped a few beats when Jared shoved his phone in front of my face.
“Yeah,” Nate said on a sigh. “I’m getting calls from the shows you boys just finished, wanting to know why they didn’t have this scoop. I’m already getting requests . . .”
I didn’t hear anything else he said.
I didn’t hear what the guys were saying to each other or to me.
I could only focus on the pictures loaded onto the celebrity news site, with the headline: “Henley’s Maxon James Heats Up The South.”
The first picture was from last week in Brooks Street Café. I’d kissed her hard and fast . . . but she’d been pinned up against the wall.
The second was the night we left for New York. I’d gone into The Jack to say goodbye one more time. I was leaning over the bar, but the picture clearly captured exactly how long and slow that kiss had been.
“Shit,” I said, cutting off whatever Nate had been saying.
We need to get these pulled.
I skimmed the article, and only breathed a little easier when I didn’t see Libby’s name anywhere on there.
He sighed, then assured me, “We’re working on getting these pulled. But you had to know pictures were going to surface. Especially if you aren’t worrying about public affection.”
I ran my hand through my hair and groaned. “It’s Wake Forest. Public isn’t supposed to matter there, Nate. It’s people we’ve known our entire lives. She knows that this kind of thing will happen, but I wanted to keep us just us for a little longer. That town should’ve been a safe space.”
“I don’t know what to tell you, Max. It comes with the . . .” He spoke away from the phone for a few seconds before uttering, “Uh, I’m not sure what, uh . . .”
When I tried to scroll to the top of the page again, it stalled before disappearing completely, leaving the screen with a page-not-found error.
“Was that you?” I asked Nate.
I hit refresh, only to get the same error page.
“No. We’re still trying to deal with legal.”
My furrowed brow smoothed, and I laughed in wonder. “Einstein,” I muttered, then handed Jared his phone.
And then it hit me that if Einstein got the page taken down, then Libby might already know, and I needed to call her. “I need to go, Nate.”
“Uh . . . yeah,” he whispered, still sounding confused by the disappearing page.
I glanced at Jared and shifted lower in the seat. “One more thing. Thought I should warn you before you saw proofs from the shoot. Jared’s face hit my fist. Twice.”
I hung up before Nate could respond just as Lincoln asked, “What happened to the page?”
“I think Einstein shut it down.”
“Badass,” Lincoln murmured.
Jared huffed a laugh. “She is kind of a badass.”
“Dude, that little genius is the shit,” Ledger agreed, then shouted, “Tacos. Finally.”
I rolled my eyes and called Libby, my heart pounding and fingers drumming on my leg.
Glancing at Jared, I said, “Sorry about your face.”
He shrugged. “We’re good. I’ll pay you back later.”
A weak laugh left me just as Libby’s voice filled my ear. “You might want to avoid Dare for a few days. But hey, at least we look good kissing.”