18. Chapter Seventeen
Sitting in Bri”s dressing room while he waits for his girl feels like an eternity. She plays her last concert before the holiday break, and he wants to spend as much time as possible with her. He spent most of the past two days coming up with a plan to make sure they can spend every moment together. He”s not playing while she”s on hiatus from entertaining millions of people.
”Talk about whipped,” he says and sees a message from Brett with a link to an article. ”But there”s no one I”d rather be with.”
Kace gasps at the headline and clicks on the article to see what exactly happened.
”Johanna McDaniels has been caught in a web of lies, starting with her claim that Easton Duffy fathered her unborn baby,” he reads aloud. ”Duffy”s camp said his management team started asking questions when he shared the ultrasound images of his unborn child, and the document showed how far along the baby was. Based on the timeline, many believed this child couldn”t be Duffy”s, and court ordered tests confirmed this yesterday afternoon.”
Oh, he can”t wait for Bri to come in here. She”s going to die when she sees this. Her ex humiliated himself by simply being... well, himself. Stupid.
”When confronted, McDaniels admitted to sleeping with multiple men, and Duffy was the only one willing to stick around. Because of this, she told him the baby was his, knowing it wasn”t.”
Kace can still hear the sound from the concert, so he calls Brett.
”Did you read the article?”
”What the actual fuck?” he asks, laughing.
Brett laughs with him. ”I thought the dude was stupid before, but this takes the cake.”
”Bri said the pregnancy told her he started cheating long before he got caught. Turns out, the dude”s just too stupid to figure out how conception works.”
”Is this going to bother Bri? Finding out Easton cheated and showed off his pregnant girlfriend when it was all just a stupid lie?”
Kace thinks for a moment, rather confident in his answer. ”She won”t care. She”s over him.”
”I saw an interview she did saying you two were officially together. I thought you weren”t going to make an official statement.”
”We weren”t, but after the way things have been going, we decided to make it official.”
”Wait, this is still a publicity thing, right?”
Realizing just how long it”s been since Brett and he have gotten together, he never filled him in. ”I guess we haven”t talked in a while. It”s not for publicity anymore. It hasn”t been for a while.”
”You”re really in a relationship with her?”
”It was impossible to not fall for her, man. I mean, she”s remarkable. I just like being around her.”
”And you don”t care about Sasha anymore?”
Sasha? Laughing, he shakes his head. ”God, no.”
”So, you took back the engagement ring?”
Shit. It”s the one thing he hadn”t gotten rid of yet. ”Um, no, not yet.”
”Kace...”
”I forgot I had it,” he says. He really had. When everything happened, he shoved it into a drawer and never gave it another thought.
Brett sighs. ”You better not let her snoop around because if she finds it, it might look like it”s for her.”
Oddly, the thought of being engaged to Bri doesn”t scare him. In fact, the idea makes him feel settled. ”That”s a good point. I better get rid of it because it”s not the ring I”d get for Bri.”
”You”re thinking about rings? It”s that serious?”
”I”m not planning on proposing for Christmas or anything, but if I”m honest, I can see myself with her. Forever. She constantly amazes me. Just when I think I have her all figured out, she flips the script on me. In the best way possible. She makes me want to be better, Brett. It sounds stupid, and I always thought people who said that were pussy whipped, and maybe I am, but it”s the God”s honest truth.”
The music stops, and he knows she”s on her way back. If he plays his cards right, he can join her in the shower before they spend the day together.
”I think the concert”s done. I”m gonna let you go because I”m more than anxious to see her.”
”You”re at her concert?”
”Yeah, why?”
Brett lets out a sigh. ”Kace, before you go...”
Kace pauses and waits. And waits. ”Brett? Still there?”
”So I may have-”
”No, you have to go!” Bri”s voice calls down the hall loud enough Brett stops talking. ”I don”t want to talk to you.”
”Is she talking to you?”
Kace walks towards the door. ”No. I gotta go see what this is about. I”ll call you back.”
Hanging up, he opens the door to find Bri standing in her last outfit of the night. She doesn”t notice him, and he stays out of sight until she needs him.
”Bri, we both know you don”t want a hockey playing jock. He doesn”t understand you. He can”t.”
Easton. The asshole who just lost one girlfriend now wants Kace”s?
”He understands me just fine in all the ways that matter,” Bri says. ”Now go.”
”You need another creative, Bri. Someone who understands not only the business but the process of making music. Performing. Everything.”
”Easton, I”m not going to tell you again. You need to leave before my security realizes you got back here and kicks you out.”
Kace hears him step closer rather than back away, and he clenches his fists. ”Kace Lyons will never understand.”
”Understand what? He understands plenty, and he knows me better than you ever did. Now, please, just go.”
”I want you back, Bri. I knew the moment I got caught I”d made a mistake.”
Bri takes a step back. ”The moment you got caught? If you hadn”t gotten caught, you wouldn”t have even told me, would you?”
”That came out wrong. It was all a mistake.”
Kace finally steps forward to make himself known. ”Yeah, you did make a mistake. You fucked up, Duffy, but she”s not yours anymore. She”s mine.”
”You think you”ve got a leg up because you play a sport for a living? Get real.”
”Her security won”t need to kick you out because I”ll body check you myself. Into a fucking wall. Get away from her now!”
Easton puts his hands up and steps back. ”Bri, think about what I said. What you really need, okay?”
Rather than respond to him, she turns, wraps her arms around Kace”s neck, and kisses him. ”What are you doing here?”
”I came to surprise you.”
”Color me surprised. Or, as your dad would say, I”m ”tickled pink.””
She quotes his dad? Damn, if he thought she couldn”t seem any more perfect, she just topped herself. ”I have a proposition for you about the time off from the tour whenever you have a moment.”
”I really need to shower. Like, really need to shower. I”m surprised you haven”t run away in disgust yet, but I”m all yours afterwards.”
Even at her worst, she smells better than sweaty hockey equipment and thirty disgusting men. Besides, he wants to have her in the shower as well as afterwards. ”You forget I play professional hockey. Baby, this is like a field of flowers compared to what I”m used to. But I don”t know if I can wait until after the shower to give yourself to me.”
Smiling, she wiggles her eyebrows. ”Oh, it never ceases to amaze me how easily you can find ways to get me naked. Not that I”m complaining, but it is a real skill you have, Kace Lyons.”
”You son of a bitch!” Nia screams from down the hall, her heels clicking and clacking as she runs towards them.
Bri turns in surprise. ”Easton”s already gone. Kace got rid of him by threatening bodily harm, Nia.”
”She sounds scary when she”s mad.”
”Kace Lyons intimidated by Nia?” she laughs and turns to the woman who barely seems out of breath. She must run daily in those weapons she calls heels. ”See? He”s gone.”
”No, he”s standing right in front of you.”
Kace looks down at Bri, who looks equally confused and points a finger to his chest. ”Are you talking about me?”
”You tell Neo he”s on my shit list, too. He said you could be trusted, and he”s as big of a liar as you are.” Nia lifts a walkie talkie device to her mouth and says, ”Bobby, I need you and the rest of the team at Bri”s dressing room right away.”
”Nia-”
She cuts Bri off by saying, ”Let go of my artist.”
The panic on Bri”s face knocks him off-balance. ”There has to be a mistake. Easton showed up, but we sent him away. Kace scared him away, actually. I have no idea why he came in the first place, though.”
”The baby isn”t his,” Kace says and wraps his arm around her shoulders. ”Brett sent me the article.”
”It”s not?”
”I said, let her go!” Nia screams.
He lifts his arm from Bri and holds his hands up in surrender as Bobby and five others in black suits grab Kace and yank him away from Bri. ”What the fuck, man?”
”I told you what would happen if you ever hurt Bri,” Bobby says. ”And I just knew you”d do it. It was only a matter of time before it happened.”
”What are you talking about?” he asks, trying to free himself, but the men have death grips on his arms.
Bri looks at Bobby. ”Let him go, Bobby. I don”t know what”s going on, but Kace hasn”t done anything.”
”I think you should watch this,” Nia says and holds out her phone.