Chapter 36
My eyes flutter closed at Anna’s direction. She’s been working on my makeup for the last thirty minutes while Fallon works on getting the perfect curl in my hair. I won’t lie; I’ve missed days with the glam team. It’s nice having someone else to do your hair and makeup two to three times a week.
There’s vibration on the underside of my left thigh, and I reach for my phone, cracking open one eye to see if it’s him, but it’s only a message from The Inner Circle—the Williams sibling group chat.
My brothers, minus Crew, have been extremely chatty today, and if they don’t shut up soon, I’m going to block them until after my match.
I’ve been waiting for any communication from John after he left the hotel this morning, but I haven’t seen or heard from him since.
I don’t know what roused me from sleep, but the sheets were cool beneath my fingertips as I reached out for him. The room was empty when I opened my eyes, and my first thought was: This cannot be happening. Had I made a fool of myself? Was this another fucking bet, and I had fallen for it, again?
The bathroom door cracked open before he walked out, fully dressed, his hair damp from a shower. When he saw me, he smiled and leaned down to kiss the top of my head. “Mornin’, Sweetheart. I didn’t wake you, did I?”
My heart hammered in my chest, and adrenaline coursed through my veins, my mind trying to catch up to what I was seeing. When I spoke, I tried to steady my voice, not to give away the panic I had felt moments prior. “Going somewhere?”
“I have a meeting this morning.” He stepped into a pair of his shoes that lined the hallway mirror.
“A meeting?” I glanced at the clock. “John, it’s seven in the morning. Who are you meeting this early? Is everything okay?”
“Everything is perfect,” John said, turning back to me. He leaned down and guided my mouth to his. It dispels all worries I had moments before. “Get some sleep. You have a little bit of time before the girls come looking for you to get breakfast.”
I groaned, pulling a pillow over my head when I fell back onto the bed. He laughed. “I’ll see you at the arena, okay?”
I couldn’t go back to sleep after he left, though.
I could barely focus on what Raelynn and Jo were talking about over breakfast, too preoccupied trying to figure out what was going on with my…
boyfriend? Is that what I’m supposed to call him now?
We didn’t exactly state that last night.
Sure, I think we made it obvious how we felt, but we didn’t slap a label on it, or was it supposed to be implied?
What meeting could he possibly have at seven in the morning, the day of Wrestlefest?
I know the Raffertys like to make last-minute changes, but if that’s the case, shouldn’t I have been part of the meeting?
Austin and Viv, too. We’re all part of this match.
Or maybe it wasn’t the Raffertys at all.
Maybe it was something else entirely. Why not just tell me? The whole thing seems strange.
“Close your eyes,” Anna demands. “That boy has waited two years; he can wait a few more minutes.” She chuckles when I glare up at her before I let my eyelids close again.
She applies the finishing touches before misting my face with the setting spray as Fallon adds a layer of hairspray.
“Alright, you’re free to go and find him. ”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I say, jumping down from the chair, earning an unconvinced chuckle from both women. If there is anyone around here who knows every bit of gossip, it’s the hair and makeup team. They hear and see everything.
I smile at my reflection in the mirror, admiring their work.
They’ve outdone themselves, per usual. Everything looks perfect from the curl of my hair to the amount of blush on my cheeks to the carefully selected red hue of the lipstick.
Anna found the shade years ago and deemed it “Savvy’s Scarlet,” because she said it was my perfect shade.
What’s the real name? I have no idea, but the first time she did my makeup upon my return, she told me she’d been keeping a new tube handy for the day I decided to come home.
It’s going to look great with the shirt I’ll be wearing tonight.
The merchandise team and I had partnered to create a custom Brooks Taylor shirt to commemorate tonight.
The design matches his current T-shirt with a white BT encased in a shield that spans the front.
However, instead of black, they’d found a teal blue fabric to match the color of John’s ring pants.
With a final thank you, I turn on my heel to search for my tag partner, only to run straight into the broad chest of a different man. The one I’ve been avoiding. “Oh, shit, Noah! Hi.”
“You have a second?” he asks, not looking at me, his eyes scanning the hallway.
“Sure.”
Noah guides me down a hallway perpendicular to the one we were just in, and the farther we get, the more nervous I become. I know what this is about, and I’m still not ready to make a decision. Amos wants an answer, and apparently, he doesn’t want to wait until tomorrow to get it.
We come to another turn, and Noah slows his pace, glancing around the corner before he stares down at me. “Have you given any more thought to what you’re going to do?”
I sigh, crossing my arms.
“I’m not trying to pressure you, Savannah. I’m just curious, and Creative wants to know where to go after tonight. There are different directions for what happens, and it all depends on you.”
“Like?”
“Well.” Noah clears his throat, straightening out his tie and rebuttoning his suit jacket. “I want to explore you and Brooks some more.”
I scoff. “You mean putting us in an official love storyline again?”
“Savannah, people were eating up that fucking promo the other night. You and Brooks feed off each other better than most—you know it, I know it, and so does everyone on the writing team. The fans live for that shit. They love watching you two together—it’s why we wanted you to come back as his partner in the first place. ”
“Noah—”
“I know that you guys aren’t on the best of terms, despite what I saw last night.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I look away from him. Now is not the time to confirm his suspicions, not when I need more answers.
“That’s because you didn’t see what I saw.” The smirk I know he’s plastered on his lips makes me roll my eyes without even looking at him. “If I asked you right here, right now, to sign that contract. What would you say?”
My face falls, and when I glance up at him, his raised brow begs me to answer. If I had to decide right now, I would say—
“Noah!” Chelsea’s voice bounces off the concrete walls.
We both turn to see his wife strutting toward us, and the echo of heels fills the silence that follows.
She only addresses me with a quick nod. Chelsea and I have never been close; I don’t think she’s close with anyone on the roster, maintaining that clear divide between talent and corporate.
But she doesn’t seem to mind that Noah and I have a mutual respect when it comes to the business.
He has been my rock during this entire return, helping me navigate through the waters of my return and keeping Amos off my back when it comes to signing a permanent contract.
“I’m sorry to interrupt, but they need you in gorilla.
Amos wants to go over a few things for tonight. ”
Noah straightens, placing a hand on her back to guide her down the hall, but he stops and looks over his shoulder. “Just think about what I said, huh?”
Only after I nod does he lead her back down the hallway.
When they disappear, I fall back against the wall. Was I really about to tell Noah that I would sign the contract?
Yes.
Had Chelsea not interrupted us, I would have.
The thought stirs awake the butterflies in my stomach, and their constant motion makes me nauseous.
I haven’t even talked about this with John.
I had planned on bringing it up this morning, but he ran off to whatever meeting he supposedly had. What fucking meeting was it anyway?
My phone vibrates in my hand, and I almost ignore it, because it’s probably just my brothers again, but just in case…
The latest message on The Inner Circle chat catches my eye before I close out my phone. Nash asks if anyone has seen Crew or Papá today.
What the hell? It’s four o’clock in the afternoon. They should all be getting ready to come to the arena. I swear, if they are late, I’m never—
“There you are,” John calls from the other end of the hall.
“And there you are,” I say, stuffing my phone into the pocket of my leggings, ignoring whatever problem my brothers have going on. One problem at a time.
John doesn’t hesitate to pull me into a kiss, and it melts some of my resolve to be upset with him.
No, not upset. Concerned is a better word.
In the past, we did our best to maintain a professional relationship backstage and at most events—we kept our hands to ourselves, never kissed (okay, almost never), and checked personal lives at the door (for the most part).
We slipped up a few times, but we agreed the respectable thing to do was to keep our relationship at work just that: work.
But now, his lack of hesitation to pull me straight into a kiss when anyone could walk around the corner and find us in a secluded part of backstage tells me this time, things aren’t going to be the same.
“Where have you been?” I ask when we part. He’s still dressed in his street clothes—jeans and a white button-up—which tells me he hasn’t been here long. “I haven’t seen or heard from you since you left this morning.”
“I had a meeting with…Halle.” His agent, whom he picked up years ago.
She has been trying to convince him to branch out of EWE for as long as I’ve known her.
She has always wanted him to do more than just a television guest spot here and there, but it was hard for John.
EWE is home, and he’d always had a hard time considering stepping away to do other things.
“Then I met up with Brody before I had to meet with Xander and Brian when I got here.”
“Xander and Brian?” Head of Talent Relations and Head of Creative.
“There is a very real possibility that you’re looking at the next Cade Jennings,” he says. I gasp, and a slow smile spreads across his lips.
Cade Jennings?
Cade Jennings is the beloved character of a cult classic show called Rock Ridge, about a small town in the Great Plains run by outlaws that keeps all criminal activities out…
minus their own. The show ended over twenty years ago, on a cliffhanger due to the studio being shut down before it could be renewed, and the end of the story is one people have been begging for ever since.
In the final moments of the show, Cade Jennings had just become the new leader of the group, one he had secretly devised to dismantle from within, given the chance.
“They’re rebooting the show?” I ask.
“A movie.” John smiles. “They approached me first, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want it.
” His smile is infectious as he tells me how the directors reached out to Halle once the script officially got picked up.
They knew they wanted him to come in and read for the role, but there hadn’t been much word since he left the office, until now.
John used to watch Rock Ridge at least once a year, and each time the unexpected finale would come back around, he’d shake his head and murmur that someone should finish it.
And now, he has a chance to be part of that… Who am I to stand in the way?
“So, what does this mean?”
“Well, Hal received the official offer last night. That’s why she wanted to meet today.
To tell me in person. The company is willing to make it work, keep me on televised shows only.
I won’t be doing any other events until I’m finished shooting.
” Which means if I sign a contract with EWE, I won’t see him much for the next year or longer.
“Have you decided what you’re going to do about your contract? ”
I take a step back and wrap my arms around my torso. “Had you asked me ten minutes ago, I would’ve told you that I was going to sign it, but now—”
“You still can, Sav.”
“And then, I’ll never see you.”
John sighs, untangling my arms from my midsection and pulling me to him again.
He drapes them over his shoulders, and my fingers intertwine at the base of his skull.
His hands rest on my hips, thumbs lazily tracing over my skin just above the waistband of my leggings.
“I just got you back, Savannah, and the last thing I want to do is push you away, but I know you want this,” he says, motioning to the world around us.
Tears prick my eyes, and my shoulders lift in a small shrug. I do want this, and I miss it, but I want him more. I didn’t come back looking for anything—not a contract, and certainly not him—but if I had to choose between the two, I’d pick him every time.
“I won’t sign the contract,” I say like it’s the easiest thing in the world. “It’s okay. I’ll come back next year. I’ll—”
“I don’t want you to do that,” he argues. “We can make this work, and I want to, or…” His smile falters ever so slightly, and he rolls his lips between his teeth.
“Or?”
“Or we wait. We’ve waited this long. We can go another year, right?”
“You mean take a break from being together. Wow, that comeback didn’t even last twenty-four hours. That must be a record of some kind.”
John chuckles and kisses my forehead. “I’ll do whatever you want, Sweetheart.
This isn’t…I’m not here to push you one way or another, because I don’t want to go another day without you in it, but I don’t want to hold you back, either.
” John pushes a few stray hairs from my eye, letting his fingers trail down the side of my face to lift my chin.
He kisses me, but his lips are gone too quickly for my liking, and I stick my bottom lip out in a pout.
“Anna will have my head if I mess up your makeup. She told me as much before I found you.” The image of the five-foot-two dirty blonde woman staring up at him as she threatens him makes me laugh.
“You don’t have to give me an answer right now.
Let’s get through this match and see how you feel then. Deal?”