Chapter 47
Chapter Forty-Seven
“Can you look a little more forlorn?” Brady instructed from behind the camera.
It was golden hour at the beach, the kind of light that makes everything look like a movie. The water glittered and the whole scene felt magical. I was wearing a gorgeous dress Brady had forced on me.
And all he wanted was a video of me crying.
I’d pictured this ending a thousand times, especially after Danny showed up. I didn’t know how the show would end, but I’d never thought it would be me, alone, standing in the crashing waves, toes sinking into the sand.
I lifted my dead eyes to where he stared at me and raised my eyebrows in challenge. “Can you just get the shot?”
He let out a frustrated huff.
Apparently, standing up to my mother that morning had lit a fire under me. Being the easy one to work with was no longer my motto. Now it was ‘get the hell out of here as fast as possible and never let anyone coerce me into doing something I didn’t want to again.’
Man, it felt good.
“How do you feel, now that Danny left?” Brady asked, pointing to the camera so I’d speak into it.
“It’s a real bummer,” I said, pouting.
Brady squeezed his eyes shut and dragged his hand over his face. “Enough with the sarcastic, quippy responses!” he barked.
The cameraman next to him stifled a laugh, and it only poured gasoline on my rage. Brady would never pry the tangled mess of feelings I had about Danny out of me. Ever.
I still couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off. Brady was a little too eager about this breakup. Too ready. Then again, maybe that was just my wishful thinking steering my brain toward what I wanted it to believe. Maybe the truth was far more depressing.
Maybe he really had left me.
All I’d wanted to do was leave here with Danny.
But if he really had gotten spooked again, there wasn’t anything I could do about it.
I was brave. I’d put my heart out there, and if that scared him off, then so be it.
I was done letting his demons affect me.
If he was ‘the one that got away’ because he kept running, then I’d have to let him go.
Just because I thought he was the love of my life didn’t mean I could fall apart. I only had authority over one thing. Me. So why had I been letting everyone else control me all this time?
“Are you thinking about what it would be like if Danny were here right now? Enjoying this gorgeous view with you?” Brady asked.
I glared at him in response. Frustration seethed inside me that he wouldn’t let this go already.
It was like he was determined to do and say whatever he needed to in order to get a rise out of me.
Unfortunately, it was kind of working. Even though I felt strong enough to get over this and move on, it still hurt. It still didn’t feel real.
Danny had told me he still loved me last night, had said he wanted to try. But I’d heard all that from him before, and it hadn’t turned out much differently than right now.
Shit.
I blinked a few times, eyes hot from forced-back tears.
Cry on the plane home, I kept telling myself. But the disappointment had finally caught up to me. One tear slipped out, and I reached up to quickly wipe it away. I couldn’t even look at Brady. The joy on his face at finally cracking me would only make me more upset.
All this time, I’d been worried about how I’d be perceived if I went on reality TV again. Could I find love? Would I look stupid for letting my heart get broken again?
Now I couldn’t care less.
If I sobbed in the airport, knowing everyone had seen that viral picture of Danny and me, they’d make assumptions. Maybe snap a picture. Wonder what happened and why we weren’t together. I didn’t care. All I cared about was the gaping hole he’d left in my heart.
And it wasn’t because I wasn’t enough—at least I knew that. I knew without a shadow of a doubt that this wasn’t about me. But it still hurt that he couldn’t do it. I’d wanted it so badly for us. I thought we both had. But in the end, that hadn’t mattered.
After my lone tear dried up, I forced my expression into a bored-neutral one and looked out at the water.
Brady exhaled sharply, muttering something low under his breath.
“Please, Trace. Work with me. You need to give us something.”
“I did your interview. I’m standing here in the dress you picked out. I’m not sure what else you need.” My tone was clipped, cool, and sickeningly polite, which only seemed to piss him off further.
“I don’t know, maybe some actual fucking emotion.” He flung his hands in the air, almost knocking one right into the PA who lingered behind him. “You claimed to have loved the man, and now he’s ditched you. You’ve got nothing to say about that?”
Something stirred in my gut. My intuition flared up again. He was too excited about this.
“Where’s Emma?” I asked. I hadn’t seen her since last night. Normally she’d be the one doing my interviews and trying to coax me into the shot.
Brady flicked his wrist. “Who knows? Apparently, this job doesn’t mean that much to her.”
That was strange. While Emma absolutely hated this job, why would she bail at the last minute? She was doing this for the experience and for Brady’s recommendation. She wouldn’t risk pissing him off at the very end.
“How much longer is this going to take?” I asked.
I ached to change. My bags were already packed, except for the ginormous t-shirt and cotton shorts I’d set out to wear for travel. All I wanted to do was don my biggest sunglasses, curl up in my window seat, and pass out.
I’d decided to walk away from my label, something I still hadn’t fully processed.
I had no idea what came next. I was scared, but more than that, I was free.
That’s how freedom worked, sometimes. It was like I’d been trapped in a pressure cooker about to explode, and now that it was all gone, the relief was almost physical.
I only wished someone else was here to revel in it with me. To be my rock while I picked up the pieces and figured out what was next.
Instead of answering me, Brady started snapping, as if I was a show dog that would obey his every command. “Alright, and we’re still rolling. Look desolate. Shed a tear. Go.”
I half-thought about smiling to bother him, but the corners of my lips were too heavy to lift.
Where was Danny? What was he doing right now? Had something agitated him so badly in the past day that he’d really left without me?
A commotion by the hotel’s entrance to the beach drew my attention. A few of the crew had been blocking it off from guests while we were filming, but now they had their hands up, as if shielding us from someone who was trying to get through.
There was a loud crash, and then someone had pushed through, stalking toward us in the sand.
It was him. Wearing all black and a dark, determined look.
“What’s going on?” Brady glanced behind him. As soon as he registered what was happening, he couldn’t conceal his shock.
“Danny?” I breathed. Now the tears I’d been holding in all morning flowed freely.
Brady frantically waved at a PA. “Go. Stop him. We’re still filming.”
The PA gulped and shook his head, taking a step back as Danny stormed toward us, kicking up sand with each step.
Twenty feet away.
Ten.
His frazzled blue eyes landed straight on me.
I took a step toward him. My heart pounded in my chest. He was here. He hadn’t left.
He ran to me, lifting me off the ground and crushing me to his chest. A bubble of laughter floated to the surface as I wrapped my arms around his shoulders and buried my face in his neck, holding on tight.
“You didn’t leave,” I whispered into his warm skin.
He pulled back a little so that he could see me. “Hey,” he breathed, eyes searching my face in a panic. “Are you okay?”
“You’re here,” I repeated, joy blooming through me. Then he tipped his head and kissed me—slow and deliberate, even with the audience and the frenzy going on around us.
He set me down and swiped at my cheeks. “You’re crying.” His eyebrows drew together, eyes narrowing before he fixed his glare on Brady.
“Only out of relief,” I said smiling. “They told me you left.”
“Fuckface over there told me that you left.”
Brady held up his hands, looking more than slightly concerned. “Now, now. Let’s stick to the show. No talking about production.”
“Fuck production!” Danny yelled. “You manipulated me and lied to me. You said she left. You showed me her empty room.”
My thoughts flew around trying to connect the dots, but the gist of it was that Danny hadn’t let me down. Brady had lied. That made a lot more sense than Brady’s explanation.
“They moved me to the hotel,” I explained.
“Yeah, Emma filled me in. She stopped me at the airport in the midst of me trying to panic-buy a last-minute flight to Nashville.” He pressed his forehead to mine.
My grin widened. “Good to know that if I had left, you would have followed me.”
“Always.”
I sighed, fading into him. “I-I didn’t want to believe them, but I was a teeny tiny bit worried that you’d panicked and ditched me.”
“Fuck me.” He dragged a hand along his face. “Never.”
He grabbed both my hands with one of his before he started wiping at my tears again with his other. “When I said I’m never leaving, I meant it. I meant every word I said to you.”
I gave him a shaky smile. “I thought you might have gotten scared again.”
“The only thing I’m fucking terrified of is losing you. Please believe me, they lied.”
“Oh, I definitely believe you. Brady looks nervous as heck,” I said, glancing to the side.
“You know what,” Danny said, stepping away from me. “Just give me one second.”
He stalked off toward Brady, who didn’t have a chance to move. “Danny? What are you doing? Let’s not act irrationally—”
His words were cut off as Danny leaned down and, nearly effortlessly, hauled Brady over his shoulder.
“What are you doing! Stop it!” He banged at Danny’s back as Danny turned around and stalked back toward the water.
“No violence!” Brady yelled.
“Then stop hitting me,” Danny said, taking a few steps into the water.
“I can’t swim!”
“It’s three feet deep.” Danny stopped when the water reached his knees. He grabbed Brady’s waist with both his hands and launched him into the ocean.
Brady let out a deafening screech as he hit with a splash.
I laughed. Really laughed. “You’re crazy!” I yelled.
Danny shot me a huge smile. “He had that one coming.”
“Oh my God, I’m so glad I ran here for that!” Emma exclaimed. She had joined us on the beach, panting, slightly out of breath.
“Shut up and help me!” Brady yelped as he stood up. A wave came crashing and he stumbled, further soaking himself. He started to crawl to shore as Danny walked back onto the beach.
“You could have killed me!” Brady cried.
“Yeah?” Danny said casually, arching an eyebrow and tossing an arm around me.
Brady finally struggled out of the water and pointed a finger at Emma. “You. You told him?”
She shrugged.
Brady clapped once. “Consider yourself fired.”
Emma held up her hands. “Fine by me.”
My gut twisted a little for her. I hoped she’d be alright. But when I met her eyes, she winked at me. Maybe she was tired of letting other people control her, too.
I smiled and mouthed, “Thank you.”
“And just so you know,” Emma said to me. “You’ve fulfilled your contractual obligations. You’re free to go, despite whatever Brady might have told you. This isn’t a hostage situation.”
He glared at her as he made a futile attempt to wring out his soaked shirt.
“Well, bye then,” I said, waving to the crew who nodded back. Most of them were barely holding it together watching Brady, who was fumbling with his tablet, looking like a drowned rat.
“Let’s get the fuck out of here,” Danny whispered in my ear.
“Gladly.”
I gave Emma a hug as we walked by. “How screwed am I with the edit?” I asked, Brady still yelling in the background.
She smiled. “You’re lucky. That’s a different team entirely. Besides, if Brady wanted to give you a bad edit, he’d be in for a tough project. There wouldn’t be enough footage.”
We said our goodbyes with promises to visit each other.
Then, finally, Danny and I walked back up the beach, hand in hand.
I grabbed onto his arm and leaned into him.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” he asked, eyes searching mine, still slightly panicked.
“I’m fine. The whole thing seemed a little fishy. I didn’t really think you’d leave me again.”
The corner of his lip quirked up. “I didn’t think you’d leave me either.”
I smiled. “That’s why you freaked out and ran to the airport?”
He let out a low laugh. “Hey, I wasn’t taking any chances. Like I said, I’d follow you anywhere.”
“I think I’m finally starting to believe that.”
“I love you so fucking much,” he said.
“I love you, too,” I said, gazing up at him. “I’m glad you came. I really didn’t want to do this alone.”
His eyebrows furrowed. “The finale?”
“No. Life,” I said.
He dropped his head, leaning in to capture my lips with his.
“Good, because you’re stuck with me.” He sighed against my mouth. “Can you just make me one promise?”
“What’s that?” I asked.
“Can we never go on a TV show again?”
I smiled. “I promise.”