12—Dallas （Back Lot）
Here’s a fun game:
What’s worse? Watching the woman you love pretend to gush to her family about marrying someone else or knowing there’s a direct threat against that woman that might require you to continue watching her pretend to gush about marrying someone else?
Oh wait, I know. It’s the third option: knowing there’s a direct threat that requires you to participate in the gushing.
I’m supposed to be helping Chad run the merch table right now. The concert is in full swing, and I already know from Oklahoma City that his questionable merch sorting system doesn’t work so great in practice. He’ll interrogate me later, but this is also my only chance to call in an ally (literally), and right now my mangled heart and mind need all the support they can get. As soon as I made it to the dark parking lot with our buses, I sent Paige and Nash a video chat request. Typically, this area is the last place for privacy, but everyone else is busy doing what they’re supposed to be doing.
I’ve opted to leave the personal shit out of this conversation and focus on the practical, since I’m not supposed to be feeling anything other than concern for Larinda as a friend and associate. I have no idea how to explain the personal stuff, anyway. I can’t talk about the pain of watching her make wedding plans with her family. How it feels to stay silent while the entire world celebrates a man who is straight-up horrible and borderline criminal. No one can ever know I’m cracking apart inside, because I can’t do anything that will risk exposing our relationship.
Nope, I get to bear this catastrophic gut punch all on my own.
My sister and her boyfriend are quiet as they study a laptop screen that must show the images I sent.
“This is so messed up,” Nash mumbles. “You said you found this notebook in Jarvis’ dressing room?”
“Yeah. Please don’t ask me why I was there. I don’t even fully understand why I was there.”
“We don’t want to know, trust me,” my sister says.
Her humor fades as she squints at the laptop. “So that asshole is setting her up again.”
“Looks like it,” I say.
“Did you tell her yet?” Nash asks.
I shake my head. “I need more information. It’s clear his proposal was fake and some kind of setup, but for what? What does ‘it’s better if she cheats’ mean?”
“Oh, see, cheating is when one person in a committed relationship engages in a romantic encounter with?—”
I fire a glare at my sister, and she returns a sardonic grin. She also still owes me a conversation about the other (parental) crisis in my life, so this is going to be a long video call for her. I recommend she ration her snark wisely.
“I’m aware of what cheating means. What I don’t know is what it means to Jarvisin this context. Why is it better if she cheats? And why propose in the first place if he wants her to dump him?”
“I don’t know,” Nash says. “But I’m guessing none of those answers are great.”
It’s better if she cheats, even had a smiley face beside it. Nothing good ever comes with a hand-drawn smiley face.
“I don’t like anything about this,” I say. “From the beginning this whole engagement thing felt off. Neither of them wants it, apparently, so why is it happening? It has to be more than the media games they play.”
“I agree,” Nash says. “Something’s up and it feels major. I bet this goes deeper than we think.”
“You think Lakebend might be involved?” I ask, my stomach tightening further.
“Jarvis is their biggest artist. They have to be, right?” Nash says.
“And Larinda has been at odds with them lately,” I say. “You don’t think…”
Shit.
Nash looks how I feel.
“Where’s your next stop?” he asks.
“Little Rock.”
“Arkansas?”
“Is there another one?”
“Probably,” Paige interjects, and I shoot her a look. Is Nash planning to meet up with the tour to help sort this out? He really cares about Larinda and was on the frontline of her last crisis with Jarvis. He’d be a crucial ally to have. Let’s hope he doesn’t bring my sister.
“Great. We’ll be there,” she says.
Crap.
Deep down, I’m relieved, though. This is huge, bigger than I thought, and who knows how far it goes? Having actual allies in play will be essential to pulling off a rescue.
“Okay. What do I tell Larinda?” I ask.
Nash furrows his brow. “Nothing. Let’s make our visit seem like a surprise, so she doesn’t suspect anything. Definitely keep Jarvis’ plan quiet for now. You were right not to jump the gun. We don’t want to trigger anything before we know what the hell we’re triggering.”
I take a deep breath.
“The most important thing is to make sure Larinda doesn’t call off the engagement,” Paige says.
“Definitely,” Nash agrees. “Do everything you can to keep them together until we can figure this out.”
Oh, is that all? Just convince the woman I love to stay engaged to a man I hate without explaining why?
My sister’s apologetic expression doesn’t make me feel any better. Worse, actually, because it means she suspects the feelings I don’t want anyone suspecting.
“We got you, little bro,” she says softly. “We’re going to figure this out.”
There’s that sad puppy look again. Yep, no question she knows I’m in love with Larinda. I have no energy to tackle the parent thing anymore, either. Paige is off the hook for that too.
“We’ll see you in Little Rock,” she says.