CHAPTER 2 KAYLEE
“Are you sure?” he asks.
I nod in the dark, and my head aches as I move. I should go to sleep. The doctor said it’s okay for me to sleep, and I need it after tonight’s exhausting events—especially since I’ll be getting up early to go to work.
But I need to see the interview to assess the damage before tomorrow. I need to know what I’m walking into when my seventh graders enter my room ready to come at me since they will all have seen it.
Of all people, Ben should know how important it is to be prepared for any scenario.
He grabs his phone off the nightstand and pulls up the latest from that asshole Billy Peters.
And it’s worse than I thought.
Dane sits in a chair in some studio, and it’s all very Barbara Walters-esque as Billy sits across from him grilling him with questions. Clearly Billy is clamoring to make the move from celebrity gossip reporter to a real journalist. Yeah, I said what I said. What he does isn’t journalism.
What he does is instigate.
He tosses out ideas and questions and hopes his minions will dig up the dirt that will give him the fodder to keep airing his videos.
“You used to date Kaylee Dalton, sister of Jack and Luke Dalton,” Billy begins.
“That’s right,” Dane says. “We dated for a few months before we ended things but stayed friends. When her father passed away, she leaned on me and we sort of fell back into those roles we’d been in before.”
“Why did things end?” Billy asks.
Dane looks at Billy as he talks, and it’s clear he’s been coached.
He’s stilted and stiff, but I think maybe only I pick up on that because I know him the way I do.
Or the way I did, anyway. “We were young—just juniors in college. It turns out we wanted different things for our future. She wanted four or five kids, and at the time, I didn’t. ”
“You do now?”
Dane nods. “If it’s with her, yes.”
“Tell me what happened when the two of you got back together,” Billy says.
“I was just trying to be there for her as she went through a difficult time. She was devastated, obviously. The whole family was. She didn’t ask me to be at the funeral, but I drove up from school and sat in the back row.
I left her alone, but I wanted her to know I was present for whatever she needed. ”
I remember feeling surprised when I saw him there that day. He gave me a quick hug, and he told me to call him if I needed anything. He stayed in the background as I mourned with my family, and when I returned back to school a few days later, he was waiting outside my apartment for me.
I cried into his chest for days. He held me in his arms every night. Nothing romantic happened between us until about a month later.
“And that led to more?” Billy asks.
Dane nods. “About a month later, we got back together. And it was great for a long time. We were closer than ever, and I could see her in my future. But I was young and dumb, and I still didn’t want kids or marriage. Ultimately that’s what broke us apart.”
“You say you were young and dumb, but that was only a year ago. Have you grown up and gotten smarter over the last year?” Billy asks, and I nearly laugh out loud at his question.
“Yes,” Dane answers simply. “Sometimes life gives us what we need at the exact right time.”
The interview cuts to Ben with his no commitment, no marriage, no kids quote again before it flashes back to Dane.
“Tell everybody watching why you’re here today,” Billy says.
“We’ve all seen the footage of Kaylee’s current boyfriend telling the world what he wants out of life. I’m just trying to protect the woman I love from making a terrible mistake.”
“You changed your stance on marriage and kids. Isn’t it possible The Big O did, too?” Billy asks, and it’s maybe the first time I’ve seen him at least trying to present both sides of the story.
Dane lifts a shoulder. “I mean…anything’s possible.
And Kaylee’s certainly the kind of woman who could easily get a man to change his mind.
But it’s not like that video is one of a kind.
We’ve all seen the viral video of Ben on a stage with a stripper only a few weeks ago.
Does anyone really believe he’s suddenly committed to one woman at the same time two different scandals came out involving him? ”
The video cuts to Billy’s coverage of each scandal: first the kid in Iowa who smashed a can on his head and then Ben getting a lap dance.
Dane presses his lips together. “Does that look like the kind of person who’s ready to settle down with one woman and be a role model for kids? My intuition doesn’t steer me wrong, and it’s telling me this is all some ploy.”
“Thank you for your time today, Dane,” Billy says. His face fills the screen. “And thank you for joining us. Here at Celebrity Snaps, we’re committed to bringing you the truth.”
The video ends with that bullshit, and I blow out a breath.
I don’t even know what to say.
Why was it worse than I anticipated?
Because our truths are out there. Our dirty laundry is aired. Dane told the world about how I coped with my dad dying. He used things that were private between us to try to get attention, and if he really thought this was the way to win me back, he was dead wrong.
But it isn’t just that that makes it feel so hurtful.
The worst part of all is that it’s a huge reminder of the things Ben doesn’t want that I do want.
While we’ve both talked around giving this a real try, neither of us can deny that there’s an end in sight. Because Dane and Billy are right. He doesn’t want a lifelong commitment to one person, so no matter how much I fall for him or he falls for me…there will be a time when this is over.
And that thought tears my heart to shreds. It makes the throbbing in my head pound a little harder and it pulses an ache through my chest.
Because now that I’ve had a taste of life with Ben…I don’t want to give it up. I don’t want it to end.
“Nice of them to bring up the Iowa kid and the lap dance, but I don’t know that I’d call either of those things scandals,” Ben says quietly.
“Yeah,” I mutter as I move down under the covers. I don’t know what else to say, so I simply say, “Good night.”