Chapter 34 #2
“Oh, Savannah!” Chelsea’s voice bounces off the walls. “I was just asking about you.”
“Chelsea,” I say, offering her a tight smile before doing the same to the man by her side. “Xander.”
What are they doing here?
“I was just telling Brooks that after that promo you guys gave with Austin and Viviana last night, Amos wants to shake things up a bit. We’re going to make the match a title match.”
“A title match?” I glance at Brooks, and his reaction tells me he already knows the outcome. I ask anyway. “And who’s coming out champion?”
Xander answers, “Austin.”
“You mean, we have to lose?” I scoff.
“Sav,” Brooks warns, but I ignore him. I don’t care. This is bullshit. This is not what I came back for.
“You brought me back to help boost this story, to help Brooks Taylor win, and now you want to change your mind and—”
I’m not sure what actually makes my words falter—Brooks’s firm squeeze on my shoulder or the height of Chelsea’s brow that only seems to get higher as I speak.
“Thank you,” Brooks says, looking between them, and maintains his grip on me. “We’ll speak with Austin and Vee to coordinate.”
“Be sure that you do,” Chelsea says. She only offers a tight smile to Brooks before her steely blue eyes glare down at me.
They turn to leave without another word, but Xander pauses mid-step. He looks over his shoulder to say, “Oh, and Savannah, Amos wanted me to remind you that he wants an answer by Monday.”
My only response is a glare.
“This is bullshit,” I say when they’re finally gone.
Brooks shrugs, letting it roll off his back, just like he always does. Just like I always did, too, before I left. “Name of the game, Sav. You know that.”
To make it in this business, you have to learn to roll with the punches and take the good with the bad, even when you get the short end of the stick.
“It’s still bullshit.”
“They want to draw out the feud, most likely. And what better way to do that than—”
“Discredit everything you’ve said thus far?” I ask.
He knows I’m right, which is why he doesn’t fight me. Instead, he breathes out and shakes his head, letting the corners of his lips turn up.
“What was he talking about? What’s Monday?” Brooks asks.
“I have to let Amos know if I’m going to sign a full-time contract,” I say, rubbing the bridge of my nose.
“And?”
“And,” I sigh. “I don’t know.”
“That’s in like…three days, Savannah.”
“A lot can happen in three days,” I say, and when I open my eyes, I jump, not realizing just how close he had gotten. He looks like he wants to say something, the words sitting on the tip of his tongue, and when I think he’s about to say it…
“Savannah!” Crew’s voice rings out down the hallway, breaking whatever trance we’re under. What is it with him and having the worst timing when it comes to our conversations?
At first, I don’t look away from Brooks.
It’s only when I hear the annoyed huff from my brother that Brooks motions down the hall with his eyes.
A smirk tugs on the corner of his lips when I finally turn to answer the call.
Crew wears a face of scrutiny as he looks between the two of us, measuring the distance with his eyes before he meets my stare.
“Nash and the twins are about to die if we don’t get a move on. ”
I roll my eyes, turning back to Brooks, and say, “I’d better go.” He nods. “You want to join us?”
“I can’t, Sweetheart. I’m sorry. I have a few things I have to do before Sunday.”
“Right. This is one of your busiest weeks,” I say, nodding along to the words. “Well, thank you…for making sure they got here.”
“They were coming anyway.”
“But you made sure they got here, and if this is my last Wrestlefest, I want them to be here.”
Brooks smiles. “Well, if you ask me, I don’t think EWE has had its last Heartbreak, yet.”
“So, tell us. How’s it been?” Nash sits across the fire pit outside our hotel.
The three of us—Nash, Crew, and I—are the last three standing in the family after Amara decided to go to bed about ten minutes ago.
It’s been a long day for everyone. I was finally released from rehearsal about two hours ago, and my older brothers, plus Amara, decided to wait until I got back before going to bed.
That somehow turned into an almost two-hour yap session, and now that it’s just the three of us, it seems they’re getting to the hard-hitting questions.
“It’s been great,” I say, letting my shoulders rise and fall to match my breath.
“Even with Brooks?”
“Yeah, what’s going on there?” Crew adds. When I glance at my oldest brother, I anticipate a look of disapproval, but instead, he just looks curious. “You guys looked pretty chummy today.”
“Did you see them in that picture?” Nash points toward our brother.
“Oh, I saw.” Crew smirks, chuckling. “Hard to believe something isn’t going on there. Or what was it, she said? They ‘grew apart.’”
“Hello! Sitting right here,” I say, looking between them.
“Yeah, we know,” Nash says, sipping his beer.
“Are you back together?” Crew asks, and my mouth falls open.
“No! We...We’re—”
My brothers share a chuckle before Nash says, “You want to be, though.”
“I didn’t say that!”
“You didn’t have to, SJ.”
Brooks and I may not be together, but my brothers are right about one thing…
I do want to be. However, I didn’t expect this kind of ambush from them—Bodhi and Blake, maybe, but not these two.
When I came home brokenhearted, they were the ones most upset, even refusing to watch when he would come across the television for the first few months, unless they knew he was about to get his ass kicked.
I never told my family the truth about our breakup.
As far as they knew—as far as anyone knew—we had simply grown apart.
“It just isn’t going to work out,” I said when I called Crew to help me pack up and move back to Celestia.
I didn’t give him details, no matter how many times he asked.
Brooks was supposed to be on a plane to Europe, so the chances of him showing up were slim to none.
But on the off chance he did show up, the last thing I wanted was for him to walk in with my oldest, most protective brother, pissed off about the truth.
I don’t know why I never told them. Maybe in some convoluted way, I hoped it wasn’t really over. But what does that say about me?
“You guys are delusional,” I say, rolling my eyes. “You’ve only seen what’s on TV, and that’s not real.”
“Wasn’t on TV today,” Nash says, and shares a look with our oldest brother. I turn just in time to see his own smirk before he hides it behind a sip of beer.
“Are you boys still bothering your sister?” Mamá asks, walking out the side door of the hotel to the second-story patio we’ve been occupying.
They both answer with a resounding No before she begins to shoo them away.
“Okay, mijos, c’mon. Your sister has had a long day, y de nuevo manana.
” And again tomorrow, my mother reminds them, motioning for my brothers to rise.
“She doesn’t need you poking and prodding her for information. ”
“You just want to do that yourself, Mamá,” Nash says, earning an eye roll from her, but she doesn’t deny it.
“She’s right, it’s been a long day for everyone, I’m beat,” Crew says, standing from his chair.
Nash mumbles something under his breath along the lines of suck up, before he follows suit, stretching his limbs and following our oldest brother to the door.
“How are you doing, mija?” my mother asks, sitting down beside me once she is sure they’re gone. She wraps a comforting arm around my shoulders, and I sigh. “That good, huh?”
“It’s fine, Mamá,” I say, snuggling a little deeper into her embrace.
“?Es John?”
“What makes you say that?”
“Well,” she draws out, and begins to play with the ends of my hair. “I think it’s pretty obvious from the way you two are with each other. Not to mention, you came here to partner with him when I’m pretty sure you haven’t settled whatever it was that happened years ago.”
“Ay, Mamà.”
“?Me equivoco?” No, she’s not wrong. But that doesn’t mean I want to hear it. I sigh again, letting my face fall into my hands. “What’s going on, Savannah?”
“He told me he loves me.”
My mother throws her head back in laughter, like I just told the funniest joke on the planet. “Well, yeah! A blind man could’ve told you that. You two seem to be the only ones who can’t see it, just like before. And what did you say?”
“Nothing.”
“Nothing?” She practically jumps from her seat. “Ay, Savannah, why did you say nothing?”
“Because…” Do I tell her? Do I finally tell her the truth about things? “Because we agreed to just be friends, Mamá. And saying that I love him isn’t exactly staying within the friend zone.”
“So, you both spoke and settled things from the past before you agreed to this, or did you just say ‘Let’s be friends?’”
I swear this woman has cameras everywhere with the way she knows things. Sure, we talked—kind of—but I wouldn’t call that conversation putting things to rest. There are still things that need to be said before Brooks and I can be friends again…if we can even be that.
Mamá sighs, pulling away to look me straight in the eye. “Savannah, I may not know what really happened, but I know that it hurt you. You were talking about marriage, he’d already asked your father’s permission—”
“What did you just say?” I interrupt. He had already asked for Papá’s permission?
A sad smile crosses my mother’s face. “That’s why I was so confused when you said you wanted to move back home. I thought things were going well.”
John had…
If he’d already asked for my parents’ blessing, how close was he to asking me? Yes, we’d talked about it. A lot. But I didn’t think…
“You didn’t just ‘grow apart,’ did you?” She asks.
I close my eyes, raking my bottom lip between my teeth as I try to hold back the emotions swirling in my chest. “No,” I say, tearfully.
“What really happened, mija?” My mother pushes the hair back from my face and wipes away a tear that escapes the corner of my eye.
I sigh and open my eyes to meet her concerned stare. “John…only dated me because of a bet.”
“?Qué?” What?
“It’s a long story, Mamá, but a group of the guys were saying some gross things, and—”
“About you?”
I nod. “He stepped in. And by doing so, they dared him to sleep with me before a certain day.”
“And he did this?”
“Not technically. We didn’t sleep together until after that. John says the only reason he agreed to it was to protect me.”
“Do you believe him?” she asks, calmer than I expected her to be.
“I want to,” I say, looking away from her. “But—”
“Savannah, I wish you had come to me about this sooner, so I could have been there for you. So you weren’t alone.
” She pats my hand before giving it a gentle squeeze.
“You had every right to be upset, but my love, I think it’s time that you let it go.
That man loves you. He’s always loved you, far longer than you two had ever been together.
I knew it from the first time I laid eyes on the two of you. ”
“The John I know—”
“The John you know would have done anything, anything, to protect you.”
“But agreeing to a bet—”
“Why did he agree to it?” Mamá asks. The tone in her voice tells me that I’m not going to win this. I can’t because I know where it’s going, and I know she’s right. “Exactamente,” she says when I don’t answer. Exactly.
“But his mom hates—”
“Has her own healing to do. Her issue was never with you, Savannah.” She cradles my cheek in her hand.
“Mija, it’s okay to want this. It’s okay to want him.
To admit that you were hurt and upset, and you made a decision based on those feelings.
It’s okay to admit you made a mistake; you both have made some mistakes.
The past two years that you’ve been home, we could all see you weren’t happy.
The light inside of you dimmed, and it wasn’t until you came back here that I saw it return…
When you walked on that stage three weeks ago, it was there, brighter than ever.
This is what you love, corazón. Not coaching. Not the ranch. This. And him.”
The warmth of tears burns my eyes. I look away, trying to regain my composure.
She gently grips my chin and pulls me back, wiping away the moisture collected in the corner of my eyes. “Even if you choose not to pursue a reconnection with John, I think you need to stay here…with EWE. Sign the contract, SJ. Do you what you love. What you’re meant to do.”
After a moment, my mother sighs before she leans forward to kiss my forehead and whisper that she loves me. Just before she walks through the door, she looks over her shoulder and, with a brow raised, she orders me to get some sleep.