Chapter 29 Devon
DEVON
My smile was back as a permanent fixture on my face. I could only assume Apollo had made at least a dozen memes of me following Lofton around the soundstage, trying to look intimidating, while cheesing it up like a goddamn clown.
Whatever.
I got the girl.
More than that, I’d finally allowed myself to accept that I actually, genuinely, irreversibly got the girl.
Not as the steady. Not as a solid in the storm she was still surviving.
But as the man she’d chosen with full knowledge of every ugly and embarrassing thing I’d ever done and a clear-eyed understanding of every ugly and embarrassing thing I was still capable of.
That kind of freedom was nothing short of magic.
“Can I have my charger?” Zoey said from the floor at my feet.
I swung her tiny rainbow backpack—er, I mean, purse—off my shoulder and lowered it toward her.
Because, yeah, apparently that was part of my job now.
Though technically, if Leo made good on his word, I didn’t have a job anymore.
In which case, I was just holding the kid’s purse so it didn’t get dirty on the floor for shits and giggles.
I was smiling about that too.
What I wasn’t smiling about?
“You can charge it in the car. We’re about to leave, baby,” Brooke said from beside me. “Assuming Lofton ever comes out.”
When Lofton had informed me that morning that we’d be picking up Zoey and Brooke to bring them to the soundstage with us, I’d thought it was a cruel and unusual punishment for not telling her about my past.
Turned out, she just wanted Zoey to see the space safari set—full-scale alien creatures built with animatronics, moving and breathing like something out of a nightmare zoo, handlers in black weaving between them while massive rigged lights mimicked a twin-sun sky.
No green screen. No shortcuts. Just pure, high-budget insanity brought to life.
It wasn’t that I hated Brooke. Brooke just hated me.
And Jesus, that woman was a ballbuster. I had no idea when Lofton could possibly have had the time to fill her best friend in on everything that had happened the night before.
But Brooke had managed to bring up Levee Williams at least twelve times throughout the day.
Always when Lofton was out of earshot and with a smile on her face, like she was just making conversation instead of slowly peeling my skin off in public.
Each and every time, I’d reminded myself that I had woken up that morning with Lofton, sated and naked, with the promise of forever still ringing in my ears.
And then I’d smile too.
“Sorry, kid,” I told Zoey, slinging her bag back over my shoulder.
Brooke came unstuck from the wall and knocked on the door to Lofton’s dressing room. “Girl, hurry up. Save the facelift for after we eat.” She came back to the wall, checking the time on her phone. “She’s been in there for forty-five minutes.”
“Forty-three,” I corrected.
She slid her eyes toward me. “Are you timing it?”
“I time everything.” That was a lie. I just had a clear line of sight to the clock on the corner of Zoey’s tablet. Basic subtraction and all.
She studied me for a minute. “That’s either very impressive or very unsettling.”
“Probably both.”
She looked back at her phone.
I looked back at the door.
That was easily the longest conversation Brooke and I had managed without one of us visibly preparing for battle.
Progress.
Zoey tapped my leg, drawing my attention down.
“Help,” she ordered more than asked while thrusting the screen upward, the tablet practically colliding with my knee.
I took it from her and dropped into a squat beside her. The screen was covered in bright little squares, scrambled into a picture that almost made sense if you squinted. This one appeared to be a cartoon hippo.
“Hm, this looks suspiciously familiar. Didn’t I already finish this level?”
She shook her head. “The other one was a giraffe.”
“Ah, completely different battlefield.”
She giggled, leaning into me as she peered over my shoulder.
In a few smooth slides, I shifted the pieces around until the picture clicked into place. The second it did, the screen exploded with stars and celebratory music.
Zoey snatched the tablet from my hands and shot to her feet like she’d been launched.
“I did it!” she shouted, spinning in a wild, uncoordinated circle, arms flailing as she danced her way down the hallway.
I chuckled, rising to my full height.
“Wow,” Brooke laughed. “That’s impressive.”
“Kid’s a natural.”
She hit me with a side eye. “Yeah. At handing it off to you. You know she’s not even trying anymore. You’re basically her personal puzzle assistant.”
“I’ve had worse jobs.”
“Like guarding Levee?”
Two days earlier, those words would have rotted in my gut.
Now?
I didn’t even flinch. “That one specifically.”
“Lofton does the same thing with you, you know.”
I nodded and kept watching Zoey, while pretending not to be absolutely fascinated by the gentle tone of her voice.
“She hands you the hard stuff and trusts you to figure it out.” Brooke shrugged one shoulder. “Doesn’t even question it half the time.”
I didn’t know what to say to that, so I chose to go with nothing.
“Honestly, I figured you would have fucked your way through half the town. The asshole bit really plays here.”
I slowly shifted my gaze to her. “Is that so?”
“You should have told her.”
My chest felt tight. “I absolutely should have told her.”
“She’s been through a lot. And not just with Sebastian. She doesn’t fit in in this world. She tries, and she almost pulls it off. But rubbing elbows and stoking egos is not her forte.”
I turned to face her. “I’m aware.”
She studied me for a long second, like she was trying to decide if that answer was enough. She cut her gaze back to Lofton’s door, and then added as if she couldn’t help herself. “I’ve tried to talk her out of being with you.”
I chuffed. “Appreciate the honesty.”
“But,” she continued, holding up a finger, “the one good thing I can say is I don’t think you’d ever hurt her on purpose.”
“A glowing review,” I deadpanned.
She smirked. “Don’t let it go to your head.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it.”
She crossed her arms over her chest and huffed, but there was no bite to it this time. “You do know the three of us are a package deal, right?”
I glanced down the hall where Zoey was still basking in the spoils of her victory. “I’m starting to get that impression.”
“You want her, you get all of us. And just so we’re clear—I’m not moving to Dollton. I’ve seen the dating pool there. It’s all cargo shorts and camo. That’s probably ninety-five percent of the reason she chose you.”
“Only ninety-five?”
“Don’t push it.”
We stood there for a second, the quiet settling again, but this time it felt almost comfortable.
Almost.
Thankfully, the dressing room door opened and Lofton came through it.
Simple dark jeans. A cream linen shirt, untucked. Hair down in thick waves.
My entire fucking life—freckles and all.
As if it had been pure instinct, her eyes found mine before she’d fully cleared the doorframe. A toothy, schoolgirl smile split her lips.
“Finally,” Brooke said, walking down the hall to get Zoey. “Let’s go, sweetie. Mommy is starving.”
Lofton came straight to me, not even glancing at her friend. Her hand found mine before she’d fully reached me, our fingers threading together.
With a sharp tug, I pulled her into me. Her chest collided with mine, only seconds before our lips followed suit. It wasn’t as deep as I would have liked. Then again, I wasn’t sure anything ever would be when it came to her. I’d die a happy man trying though.
“Hi,” she said quietly when we finally came up for air.
“Hey,” I said back.
She squeezed me once. “Nice backpack.”
I narrowed my eyes. “It’s a purse, thank you very much.”
“Even better.” She laughed. “Tell me there’s food happening.”
“There’s food happening.”
“Tell me I don’t have to make decisions about it.”
“Figured I still owe you sushi from last night.”
Her nose crinkled with disappointment. “I actually don’t like Nobu. It just seemed snobby enough to ask for it at the moment.”
I exaggerated a gasp, complete with slapping a hand over my mouth. “You lied to me?”
Blinking rapidly, she canted her head to the side. “Sir, just because I love you does not mean you are out of the doghouse yet.”
I swayed her from side to side. “Understood. Which is why I ordered Sushi Fever.”
The relief on her face was genuine and completely disproportionate to the situation, which meant she was more tired than she was letting on. Two days of reshoots after two nights of broken sleep and an emotional reckoning that would have leveled most people. It was a miracle she was still standing.
As much as I admired her strength and tenacity, it only made me more determined to give her a world where she could exist in stillness.
“God, I love you,” she whispered.
She’d said it countless times since the night before.
I’d heard it moaned while I moved inside her.
I’d heard it laughed when I’d tickled her after she’d made another addition to my ridiculous Game of Thrones nickname: Denier of the Snooze Button.
I’d heard it spoken, loud and proud, when she’d kissed me in front of the entire crew.
No matter how many times she said it, it always hit me deep and lodge a knot of emotion directly in my throat. Trust me, nothing in the world was more emasculating than your voice cracking like a pubescent boy while trying to say it back to her.
So, until the day came when I could man the fuck up, I’d been trying to stick with humor while in public.
I swallowed hard and then pecked her lips. “So you keep telling me.”
Rather than laugh, her lips pressed into a hesitant smile, like she was already preparing to argue her case.
“Any chance we stop and pick it up? Please, Devon. Delivery will take forever this time of night.” She fisted the front of my button-down and then leaned in close.
“I’m hungry, horny, and tired. I need the trifecta, baby. ”