Chapter 22
Caren felt like a balloon that someone had let all the air out of.
Shrivelled, wrinkled, with no bounce left.
“Time for you to sit down and have a break,” Travis announced.
“Huh? What?” she asked as he put a hand on the small of her back and led her over to a quiet corner of the room where a couple of chairs were half-hidden by a large potted plant.
“Sit.”
“I can’t sit. I’m supposed to be working the room.”
“Working the room?” Travis asked. “Who said that?”
“Oliver,” she told him.
Travis made a scoffing noise. “Let him keep working the room. He loves the attention.”
He did. And Oliver was much better at talking to people than she was. Even though he’d say that they all wanted to speak to her.
“You don’t have to stay if you’d rather not be here,” she told Travis, noticing how he was frowning at everyone.
“Are you staying?” he asked as he gently pushed her into the chair.
She didn’t put up any more of a protest because her feet were killing her by this stage. It had been a stupid idea to wear high shoes tonight. However, she’d thought Oliver would kill her if she wore her favorite orange sneakers with this outfit.
“Yes,” she told him with a grimace. She kind of had to stay.
“Then so am I. I need to find Jace. You need a drink and some food.”
“Oh, I couldn’t eat right now. But a drink of water would be good. I can get it, though.” She attempted to stand and he shot her a look. Okay, then. She sat back. “Or someone else can.”
Jace appeared with Rory and Travis waved them over.
“Hey, everything okay?” Jace asked, shooting her a concerned look.
She didn’t know Jace that well. Even when they were younger, all of her attention had been on Travis. So his concern was surprising but not unwelcome.
“Caren is exhausted. She needs a drink. Can you grab her some water and food?”
“My stomach is in knots,” she said. “I’ll throw up if I eat. Uh, sorry, that was probably too much information.”
“Don’t worry, I get like that too when I’m stressed.” Rory sat in the chair next to her as Jace headed off on his mission. That was after he’d shot Rory a look and told her to stay. “Also, I am not a dog.”
Her lips twitched. “These Andrews guys like barking out orders.”
“Barking out orders?” Travis asked with amusement.
“Yep. Woof-woof.”
He let out a chuckle and she was aware of Rory staring at them both. Then a buzzing noise came from Travis’s pants.
“Shit,” Travis said as he drew his phone from his pocket. “I have to take this. I’m going to stand at the end of this corridor where I can see you both. Do not move.”
“See?” Rory said. “Sit. Stay.”
“They’re intense, aren’t they?” she mused as he moved away. He did fill out a pair of pants very nicely, though.
“Yeah. So is this exhibition. I didn’t expect so many people. And they all want to talk to you, Ms. Popular.” Rory lightly bumped her shoulder against Caren’s.
Caren let out a small laugh. “Believe me, I’ve never been popular.” She had been anything but at school. “They just all think they want to talk to me so they can claim to know me. But I think they’re all secretly disappointed when they find out I’m boring as heck.”
“Well, so are they. Except that guy. He’s a hoot.
” Rory gestured toward the guy with the tiara.
Whose name was Bob. Yep, actually Bob. He was awesome.
Hilarious. And super rich so even though everyone here was giving him strange looks, no one dared say anything about the sparkling jewels in his glorious hair.
“He sure is.” She decided she’d had enough of talking about herself, though. So she turned to Rory. “How are you doing?”
“Ahh, Travis told you about my arrival in New York? And how I had everyone searching for me for two days?” Shame filled the younger woman’s face.
“Um, he didn’t mention that part.”
Rory winced. “I can’t believe Mom. I told her where I was going in the note I left. Plus, I’d talked about coming here with her. But when I left she decided to create this drama. Gray and Lacey were actually going to return from their honeymoon early because they were so worried. I feel terrible.”
“Hey, it’s not your fault. Sounds like your mother is to blame.”
“I know she’s trying her best to look out for me.
She’s worried about something happening to me again.
All she wants is to keep me safe, but the constant watching me, asking me where I am and what I’m doing, the stories of everything bad that is happening in the world.
It’s just too much. It was sucking me down into a dark place.
I don’t want to go back there. I fought my way out of there.
I can’t go back.” There was panic in Rory’s voice.
Caren placed her hand over the younger woman’s. “I get that. It’s difficult to drag yourself out of a dark place. You need help to do it. I think it would be near impossible on your own.”
“I’m talking to a therapist and she’s helping me a lot.” Rory studied her with knowing eyes “You sound like you’re talking from experience.”
Caren sighed. “I didn’t have the best childhood and it took me a long time to work through all of that with some help from an amazing therapist. I would blame myself.
I called myself stupid and worthless. And I had coping mechanisms that weren’t all together healthy.
But I got help and I had an amazing grandma who supported me.
Things got really good for me. I felt so in control of my life.
Turns out, the universe just wanted to mess me around as eight months ago something happened that threatened to throw me back into that dark place.
And I’ve just realized I probably shouldn’t have said any of that.
I was trying to help and that wasn’t helpful. ”
What was she thinking? She didn’t want Rory to start imagining all the ways things could go wrong. That she could feel like her life was together only for something else to happen.
Shit.
Lacey was going to kill her.
“No, no. Don’t feel bad for telling me that.
I know that bad things can happen and that I’ve got to learn better coping mechanisms. It just felt like with Mom around .
. . well, in the beginning it was good because I could fall apart and she just took care of everything.
But when I was ready to start moving forward, she was holding me back.
And I know it's a horrible thing to think about your mother, however I just needed some space.”
“It’s not horrible. And if you explain it to her, well, she should want to help you however she can.”
Rory gave her a small smile. “You don’t know my mom. I don’t know if she can accept that I need a different sort of help than what she can give me. That’s why I’ve moved across the country.”
“This is where you feel you have to be?”
“I know it seems crazy since this is where my nightmare started. But yeah, it feels like coming back here is therapeutic in a way.”
“Okay, but you’re still talking to a therapist about all of this, right?”
“Yep. I’m still seeing my old therapist, but over video.”
“That’s good. I just want you to know that if you need anything, I’m here. Okay? I mean, I know we don’t know each other well, but . . . I don’t have any friends here so if you ever want one . . . bollocks, I sound like a lonely old lady, don’t I?”
“I’d like another friend,” Rory told her. “I lost most of mine after ghosting them for so long. And I don’t know anyone here but Travis and his brothers. Well, and now the people who work at Raptor Inc, but the only other woman there is terrifying. Terrifying,” she repeated.
“Yay. That’s awesome. Well not the terrifying part, that’s scary. Travis told me that you’re working for him now.”
“Yeah, I think he felt like he had to give me the job, but I’ll be a great employee. I’m just trying to convince him and Jace to let me go to the club. Oh, do you know about the club?”
“I do,” she said, deciding not to ask if there was something between her and Jace. He seemed protective but maybe they were just friends. “I was thinking of joining it but I’m slightly nervous.”
Not exactly nervous.
Well, maybe if Travis was going to be there . . . watching her.
“Do you want to go with me?” she asked.
Relief filled Rory’s face. “I’d like that. I feel like I have to go back and relive that night with a different ending, you know?”
“I think I do. Just so long as you realize it won’t actually rewrite history in your head. Unfortunately, what happened won’t ever go away. You just have to learn to live with it . . . but eventually things will get better.”
“I sure hope so,” Rory said. “What about you? Do you have someone to talk to? Looking out for you when you need it?”
“I’ve been seeing a therapist again, but I took a break when I moved here, and I think that was a mistake.”
Rory nodded. “Mom tried to tell me that I didn’t need therapy anymore, however Gray was footing the bill, so I kept going.”
“Good. I’m glad. Gray is a good brother.”
“He’s the best.”
Jace strode over, eyeing them both. “You two okay?”
“Yeah, Caren is going to come with me to the club,” Rory told him before turning back to her. “Do you want to go tomorrow night?”
Tomorrow night?
Right now, she didn’t feel like she had the energy to make a cup of tea let alone go to a club. But that wasn’t going to stop her.
“That would be great.”
“You two won’t be going without me,” Jace told them firmly.
“Or me,” Travis said, walking up to them. “We’ll all go tomorrow night.”
“You’re there every weekend anyway,” Jace told Travis before turning to the girls. “He has no life.”
“I have a life,” Travis protested.
“Yeah. Name one thing you do that isn’t work or going to the club,” Jace said as he handed Rory a small plate of food filled with different things. He must have chased down every waiter in the place and gathered up a bit of everything.
That was really kind of sweet.
Then he undid one of the bottles of water he held and gave it to her. She took it, giving him a grateful smile. “Thanks, Jace.”
He simply nodded and did the same with the other bottle, handing it to Rory.
“Thank you,” Rory replied quietly as she settled the plate of food on her lap.
“I do lots of other shit,” Travis said.
“What? Like work-out? That doesn’t count,” Jace replied.
“How doesn’t that count?” Travis demanded, reaching for some of the food.
Jace slapped his hand away.
“Hey!” Travis protested.
“The food is for the girls. You can get your own.”
“Asshole. I’m always doing shit for you and you can’t feed me?” Travis complained.
“No. You don’t need it. You’re getting chunky.”
Caren stared at them both in shock. That seemed a bit mean.
“Chunky? This is all muscle!” Travis retorted.
It sure was.
Rory let out a giggle as Jace snorted. “Yeah, right.”
“It is!” she told him. “Travis isn’t chunky at all. I can attest to that. And it seems a bit mean to say that to him.”
The three of them gaped at her, before Rory patted her hand. “It’s all right, Jace is just teasing Travis. Anyone can see that he’s pure muscle.”
“Why are you noticing his muscles?” Jace grumbled at her.
Rory rolled her eyes at him.
“Oh, uh, sorry,” Caren said, flushing red. It had been a while since she’d been around the guys. She remembered now that they did like to tease each other.
She hadn’t understood it then. Seemed she still struggled to recognize when someone was teasing versus when they were being mean.
What an idiot.
“I think I should go?” She attempted to stand but Travis stepped forward, blocking her.
“Stay. You still look pale and you’ve eaten nothing.”
“Yes, eat, while you tell us how you can attest that Travis isn’t all fat,” Jace said.
She could feel herself growing bright red.
“Stop teasing her,” Travis told his brother while kneeling in front of her. “You good, Goldie?”
“I think I need the bathroom.”
“Jace,” Rory hissed at him.
“Ahh, shit,” Jace said. “Hey, Caren, I was just teasing. Sorry, hon. Didn’t mean to embarrass you.”
“It’s fine.”
“It’s really not. I’m used to teasing my brothers, but I forget that not everyone is used to us.”
“Caren, there you are,” Oliver said, coming up to them, a tight smile on his face. “Can you please stop hiding and come talk to your fans?”
Fans?
Right. Like she was a rock star or something. Most of these people didn’t even seem that interested in the photos. She’d been explaining how she’d managed to get a certain image and one lady had yawned.
But she guessed she’d better get back out there. A tired sigh escaped her.
“She’s not hiding,” Travis told Oliver firmly, surprising her.
“She’s resting. She’s clearly exhausted and she hasn’t had a chance to sit down and rest and drink some damn water because you keep dragging her around to talk to people who don’t really deserve her time.
So, no, she isn’t coming back out until she’s ready. ”
Seriously.
He was fast becoming her hero.
Caren actually found herself blinking back tears. Obviously she was more tired than she’d realized.
“I . . . I . . . who exactly are you?” Oliver demanded.
“Caren’s boyfriend,” Travis stated. “I thought I already made that clear.”
Lord. She wished he would stop calling himself her boyfriend. Because she liked the way it sounded far too much.
“Boyfriend? Caren, you never mentioned having a boyfriend to me before,” Oliver said.
“Well, we don’t always talk about our private lives,” she said, not wanting to out-and-out lie to him. But also not wanting to expose Travis for making all of this up. “And this is relatively new.”
“Well, in a way,” Jace said without missing a beat. “It’s like a second-chance romance. They knew each other years ago, then met up again, and you know . . . just clicked.”
A second-chance romance?
She gaped at Jace in shock.
“Who the fuck are you?” Travis demanded. “Second-chance romance?”
Jace shrugged, not looking in the slightest bit embarrassed. “I read lots of stuff. No shame in romance books.”
She glanced at Rory who was staring at Jace with a look of complete hero worship on her face.
Hmm.
This could be good. Jace could be just what Rory needed. As long as he was prepared to go slow.
Whether Gray would see it that way, though . . .
“I’ll be back out in five,” she promised Oliver.
“After she eats something.” Travis gave her a firm look.
Right. Fun.
Not.