CHAPTER THIRTEEN
THIRTEEN
Were you there? When the cut first went deep, when the agony swept in, running salt into scars – were you there?
– from ‘The First Cut’, by These Exiles
IT WAS A RELIEF to land, after the frantic dash to the airport and the overnight flight – though, to be honest, it was seeing Wes’s face that truly made me smile.
‘You dick,’ I said as I hugged him in the hotel lobby. ‘What have you brought me out here for?’
‘Blame Derek,’ Wes said lightly, clapping me on the back and grabbing my rucksack from my shoulder. ‘Good flight?’
‘Yeah, fine.’ We were used to it now, the constant travel, though I had to admit I’d liked being in one place for more than two minutes. ‘What am I here for, again? Derek said something about an opportunity –’
‘A photo opportunity,’ interrupted my bandmate as he rolled his eyes and jerked his head to the lift. ‘Come on, you’re crashing in my suite. He seriously didn’t tell you it was a magazine spread?’
I groaned. ‘Of course he didn’t.’
Derek had to know that I wouldn’t have obediently trotted on to the plane if I’d realized.
He’d said something about Wes needing me at the UN project, and so I’d done what I was told – chastened, as usual, by the reminder that it had been my face plastered all over the papers after Ben had crashed the car that night – and now, here I was, hundreds of miles from Jessy, about to be trotted out like a show dog.
Same old, same old.
‘By the way, I’ve been following your whirlwind romance,’ Wes teased as he tapped his key card to the door and it clicked open. ‘You and Jessy? Is it serious?’
‘It’s complicated,’ I said as conversationally as I could, stepping into the room after my friend.
It was … well, not exactly luxurious, but I supposed I couldn’t expect much else when we’re supposed to be at a UN event. The room had two double beds, an ensuite, a large TV and a kettle.
‘If “complicated” means “fake”, then you’re a bloody good actor and you’ve missed your calling, bud,’ Wes called over to me, dropping my rucksack on to the only made bed and lifting an eyebrow as he dropped on to his own – seriously messy – one. ‘The way you look at her, seriously –’
I groaned. ‘Please don’t tell me you’ve been stalking me online.’
His grin was all I needed to know. ‘Pretty difficult not to – you’re trending everywhere.’
Great. I mean, that was the point, wasn’t it? Bury the DUI story. Create hype for Butterflies. That was why Jessy and I were doing this. Even if we were starting to be something more.
‘You like her, don’t you?’
When I looked up from pulling my phone charger out of my rucksack, it was to see Wes looking at me with that quiet, serious face that I’d known for years. The sort of face I couldn’t lie to, even if I wanted to.
‘We’re … having fun. She’s fun.’
And Wes … cackled. ‘Fun? What are you, fucking fourteen?’
‘Shut up,’ I muttered, throwing one of the pillows at him.
He caught it, still laughing.
‘Seriously, shut up!’ I said, trying not to grin as I plugged my phone in.
It immediately switched back on, and in flooded … oh shit.
‘You must be in trouble,’ Wes commented as my phone buzzed and lit up again and again, and again … with messages from Derek.
I swore under my breath and swiped open the phone. I was, apparently, in trouble.
Derek
Pick up the phone, Patrick.
Derek
You forgot to charge your phone, didn’t you? I swear, you need babysitting.
Derek
Call me.
‘I guess I better –’
But a video call was already incoming. Only, once I’d accepted the call and settled on the bed, the face that appeared on screen was not the one I expected.
‘Shit,’ I said, hurriedly sitting up.
‘Yes, I thought you’d say that.’ Anna glared down the barrel of the camera. ‘Hello, Patrick.’
‘Anna! Anna, move over –’
Oh God, there were two of them. Laura appeared in frame next to Anna, her face far more concerned than angry.
This didn’t bode well.
‘What the hell?’ I couldn’t help but say, concern flickering in my chest. ‘You – where’s Derek?’
‘Derek is currently being held hostage,’ Anna said. ‘We need to talk to –’
‘I’m here, Patrick.’ Derek’s voice came from what had to be the other side of his office. ‘Not actually being held hostage.’
That was little comfort. What on earth was he doing, letting Jessy’s sister and best friend call me from his phone?
Panic flared through my body. ‘Jessy – is she OK?’
‘She is not,’ Anna said smartly.
Laura looked shocked. ‘Anna! Don’t scare him –’
‘She’s not OK?’ That was the only statement I could focus on. It wasn’t panic rising within me now, it was something else. Something darker. ‘What’s wrong with her – do I need to get on a flight back?’
‘Hey, you can’t abandon me,’ Wes started saying. ‘We’ve got to –’
I waved a hand to get him to shut up. ‘Laura, what’s wrong with Jessy?’
‘Nothing,’ her sister said firmly, though the worry around her eyes suggested something else. She pushed her glasses up her nose with a thumb. ‘Nothing, it’s just –’
‘It’s just that she likes you,’ Anna said with a feral grin. ‘As in, like likes you.’
‘OK – yes … I’d kind of got that already,’ I stammered, unsure of how much Jessy had told her twin and best friend about our last conversations.
The kisses we’d shared.
How vulnerable I’d been.
‘She likes you,’ Laura said quietly. ‘But she has terrible taste in men.’
‘Hahaha, burn,’ was Wes’s super-helpful remark.
Well, that didn’t do much for the ego.
‘She’s been hurt before, and we will not allow that to happen again,’ Laura continued, staring down the camera lens as though she could reach through and throttle me. ‘Do you understand, Patrick?’
‘Because if you don’t, we’ll make you understand,’ interjected Anna, somehow managing to look far more threatening through a phone screen than anyone had ever done in person.
I swallowed.
I’d never been given shit about hurting a girl before. And certainly not from her friends.
‘I’m not going to – she knows what this is,’ I said hastily, before trying again. ‘When we signed the contract –’
‘This has gone well beyond a contract, and you know it,’ said Laura sharply. ‘Jessy is the most important person in my life, Patrick. I half-raised her – well, got her out of more scrapes than I can count and got her through uni – and if you hurt her –’
‘I’m not going to hurt her,’ I interrupted.
For a moment, the two women held my gaze, as though considering whether or not to let me live. Then Laura nodded. ‘Great. Well, that was it. Thanks for letting us borrow your phone, Derek.’
Relief flooded through me.
‘Anything for an up-and-coming tech mogul like yourself.’ Derek’s voice came from off screen. ‘So, should we have that chat about further investors now? There are a number of celebrities I manage who are looking for –’
The video call ended.
Wes snorted. ‘So … Jessy like likes you, huh? And I’m guessing you like like her back?’
I threw my phone at him and laughed as it conked him on the head, a fantastic distraction from the flurry of thoughts that were roaring through my mind.
I KNEW I SHOULD be concentrating. And I was – but first, I just had to jot this down. Almost unable to help it, I slid my phone out of my pocket and tapped out a line.
As you let me into your world, I realized it was you
Central sun, letting none into your orbit – until me
God, that sundress made her look incredible.
‘Patrick!’
‘Wh-What?’ When I looked up, my cheeks burning, there was a knowing smile on Jessy’s lips that was far too comfortable.
‘Eyes up here, bud.’
It was difficult to nod, difficult to agree, difficult not to take in her stunning form again.
From the moment she had stepped into the restaurant today, four days after my bizarre call with Laura and Anna, all sun-kissed glow and smiles, it had been all I could do to pay attention to what she was saying.
‘Hey!’
A noise – damn. My ringtone.
‘Sorry,’ I mumbled, shoving a hand in my pocket. ‘I’ll just check to see –’
A name flashed across the screen.
Incoming call: Unknown (Cassie Fletcher?)
I declined the call.
‘Important?’
‘Not at all.’ I put the phone back in my pocket, determined not to let my mother ruin my mood.
Besides, there was nothing she had to say that I wanted to hear. Now or ever again.
Before I could turn back, though, my phone buzzed again. I should have just put it on silent.
‘If you need to get that –’
‘I don’t.’
Incoming call: Unknown (Cassie Fletcher?)
One tap and then another put the thing on silent. When I looked back up at Jessy, curiosity was written on her face. But she didn’t ask the question she clearly wanted to.
‘I wish I’d known you back then,’ she said instead.
That got my attention, though my brain was still busy with wondering why the hell Cassie was ringing me again. ‘Then?’
Jessy nodded, pushing her plate forward slightly as her cheeks flushed. ‘Back before you were famous. When you were just Patrick, not the lead lyricist of These Exiles.’
That was an interesting thought.
‘You think we would have got on?’
‘I think I would have been far too intimated to talk to you.’ Man, I loved the way she blushed.
I leaned forward, the last of my spaghetti forgotten. ‘Why?’
‘Why do you think?’ She rolled her eyes before looking at me intensely.
I swallowed.
This woman – she did something to me no one else ever had. My whole body came alive when I was kissing her – not like I was taking possession of something, but like I’d been gifted something so incredibly special instead.
Now, just sitting opposite her, I could still taste her on my tongue.
And I wanted more.
‘I don’t know. Why?’
Jessy’s freckles only became starker as her blush deepened. ‘You have a mirror.’
‘So do you.’ My voice dipped low. Didn’t she know she was beautiful? Didn’t she know what she did to me?