Chapter 16
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
The next day, Brinton expected to meet Jamie in a darkened sports bar’s corner booth.
The kind of place with sawdust heaped on the floor, local beers on tap, and wall-to-wall TVs, each playing a different full-contact sport.
She didn’t expect to be riding shotgun inside a Polaris, idling at the bottom of a steep, rocky hill.
Off-roading was a package deal featuring three more of her anxiety triggers: heights, confined spaces, and, generally speaking, falling off a fucking cliff. Brinton still needed to survive another week-and-a-half in Iris.
Jamie convinced her that this was the perfect cover to speak candidly without intrusion from jilted ex-girlfriends or domineering fathers. Plus, it was great scene-setting for the article.
A fantastic idea until she was strapped inside a glorified Mario Kart.
Gleefully, Jamie revved the engine.
They were two hours outside of Nashville, in an area known as Turkey Bay. It was prized as an off-roader’s paradise, offering some one-hundred miles of scenic trails and verdant brush. Jamie gripped the steering wheel with the ease of a man who could do this in his sleep.
“It looks way worse than it is,” he assured. “Besides, Sammi will kill me if anything happens to you.” Jamie revved the engine again. “You’ll love it, you’ll see.”
She nodded, even though she could barely hear him through their helmets. She looked straight ahead, heart pounding like a war drum. Slowly accelerating, Jamie crept up the jagged, dusty path.
They traversed a slight dip in the terrain. The vehicle lurched and swayed, spitting up thick clouds of dust. Rocks crunched beneath the heavy tread as Brinton dug her fingers into her padded protective jacket.
Suddenly, she couldn’t breathe. Was her jacket too tight, or was the helmet suffocating her? They hadn’t even started the actual climb yet.
She gripped her knees with both hands.
Brinton tried visualizing herself floating on a cottony cumulus cloud, the sun warming her face. Sometimes, this worked to ease yapping panic, but she kept getting distracted by wayward branches whipping against her door.
As if he instinctively knew, Jamie squeezed one gloved hand over hers. “I promise, I’m gonna take care of you.” The tension in her shoulders melted, his touch a panacea. It should have surprised her, but it didn’t.
Why didn’t it?
“You trust me?” he asked.
She wanted to trust Jamie, obviously for her safety, but maybe with something else she couldn’t quite articulate yet. But trust always felt so confusingly intimate. Harrowing. One misread cue and her foundation crumbled.
It’d happened all the time with Eli. She’d feel him disengage, sighing at her from across the dinner table, turning away each time her veneer cracked and her undesirable core shone through. She feared she’d never deserve better.
But what if she could start down a new, albeit rocky, path with Jamie?
That frightened her too, but when he looked at her, all steeped in assurance, it felt different…Real. And maybe a little intoxicating. She could almost taste it, whatever was brewing between them.
Her heavy breaths fogged the helmet’s visor. “Yeah, I do. Trust you.”
“Good, because I wanna show you things you ain’t seen before. But only when you’re ready, okay?”
She nodded. Jamie initiated the climb.
Brinton allowed this newfound trust to steady her as the vehicle jerked forward.
Eventually, she laughed through the bumps and marveled at the dense canopy of cypress and sumacs blanketing the path.
Thirty minutes later, they reached the top, a vast clearing with sweeping views of the trees below. Out of the woods, they were in the clear. She shook with exhilaration.
Climbing out the vehicle, Brinton popped off her helmet. “That was awesome!”
“You did so good, Bee,” Jamie cheered, flaxen waves wild and megawatt grin gleaming.
He wrapped his arms around her waist and lifted her a few feet off the ground. When his fingertips grazed the top edge of her jeans, teasing her exposed skin, a thrill reverberated through her entire body.
Jamie leaned close, filling the sacred air with his damn delicious honeyed whiskey scent. She briefly fantasized about sinking into his warmth, even as she knew she shouldn’t. Jamie was still her interview subject. She was supposed to remain objective. Keep some distance.
Eyes stretched wide, his face was jolted with surprise as he lowered her to the ground. “Shit—I’m sorry. I should’ve asked to hug you.”
“It’s fine,” she said earnestly, suddenly a little dizzy. “I guess I’m a hugger now.” Despite the treacherous terrain, she felt safer in his arms than she had in years. “Oh my God, this view…”
Grinning sheepishly, he pulled the gloves from his hands and gestured at the picturesque expanse surrounding them. “They don’t got hills like this in New York City, huh?”
“Definitely not.”
“I love being out here. It’s so freeing, surrendering to the elements. Probably the closest high to performing on stage.”
Brinton pulled her notebook from her crossbody bag and jotted down his quote. Then, she caught a glimpse of the lake behind him. Given the elevation, it looked like glazed marble.
“I guess we should talk about that now…Your songs?” she asked, eyes dipping to her dusty combat boots.
She’d prepared all morning for this moment, and now it was slipping from her fingers as she struggled to grasp the words. “Jamie, about the article—”
“I shouldn’t have put you in that position,” he interjected. “This is my problem to solve, not yours.”
“Jamie—”
“It was selfish of me,” he continued. His eyes were glassy, likely from the dust. Or was it something else?
“I just—I want you to know that I understand that now,” he stammered.
Brinton grabbed his shoulders. She gulped hard at the pronounced ridges of muscle and bone. Unadulterated beauty.
Finally, she found the words.
“No, I want to do it your way,” she said. “Together, we can do this.”
He stepped back and raked his hands through his hair. “Seriously?”
She nodded, smiling shyly. “I want to help you. I know for a fact that no one at Landmark will. I can’t let those assholes ruin your life.
I wouldn’t even have this opportunity if it weren’t for you.
That Grammys interview was my lowest moment, but ultimately, we went through it together.
And…you have so much to offer. Now that I know you—the real you—the world needs to know you too. ”
He shook his head in disbelief. “Brinton—I don’t know what to say.”
“Say you’ll tell me the truth. I can’t write this story if you leave anything off the table. You asked me to trust you, and now, I need you to trust me.”
“Absolutely,” he rasped. “You got more heart than anybody I know.”
She laughed bitterly, remembering the footnotes of every past mistake and missed opportunity. “Well, my track record begs to differ.”
He rested his hands on hers, which still gripped his shoulders. His warmth spiraled down her spine. She didn’t want him to let go, even while touching him like this tugged at any objectivity she was supposed to maintain.
“I’m in awe of you,” he whispered, sapphire eyes glowing. “Since the first time I saw you on that red carpet.”
Gratitude scorched her cheeks with his admission, the weight of their secret alliance.
“Thank you,” Brinton said. “But…I also need to know that you understand what you’re asking.
Your record deal, your fans…could all go away if I write this story.
You’re effectively asking me to blow up your life as you know it. Do you want that?”
The sharpened line in his jaw ticked. “I have to. I know it won’t be easy. I know some people won’t accept it—or me. But I’d rather stand in the sun than cower in the shadows.”
She dropped her hands from his shoulders. “What about your father?”
“I’m doing this for me,” he said, fortified with a resolve that made his eyes dance like a lit fuse. “You won’t regret the next week and a half, I swear.”
She knew she wouldn’t.
Brinton exhaled, then clicked on the recorder. “All right then, from the beginning. Tell me everything.”