Chapter 37 #2
“You make me better,” I say, taking her face in my hands and forcing her eyes to mine.
“It’s not the keeping of schedules or the Post-it notes or the meal prepping or the hours in the gym—it’s you.
You are the only thing that quiets my mind.
The only thing that makes anything make sense.
The piece of me I didn’t even know I was missing.
I don’t ever want to go back to who I was before you. ”
She looks at me and I brace myself. Waiting for silence, for hesitation, for anything other than what I’m desperate to hear.
But then she says, “I love you, too,” and my chest cracks open.
She throws her arms around me, and I sob at the relief I feel. I bury my face in her neck, exhaling the fear I’ve been carrying since Tyler handed me her phone.
“I’m sorry.” I say the words over and over and over, praying they’re enough as I hold onto her for dear life.
“It’s alright,” she says, ever the people pleaser.
“The fuck it is,” I say, pulling back and looking into her eyes. “None of this is alright.”
“Okay, you’re right. It’s not,” she concedes, and I smile. I’m so damn proud of her for admitting how she really feels that I kiss her senseless. She laughs against my lips when I refuse to let up, and someone clears their throat from behind me.
“Hold on, if it’s not a fling then why lie? Why hide it?” Dani asks.
“I didn’t want to lie,” Kate says, turning to face her best friend. “I just wanted something that was ours before it belonged to everyone else.”
“What about that woman you met at the charity thing in Cleveland?” Max asks. “The one you were all—” I cough on a laugh as I see the lightbulb turn on. “Oooh! Holy shit! It was Kate?”
“So, you’ve been lying to us since then?” Kevin asks.
“Technically, that wasn’t a lie,” I say. “Kate was at the event.” Kevin’s jaw drops as the realization hits.
“So, this is…” Dani says, brow quirked.
“Serious,” I say, confidently.
“You don’t do serious,” she says, narrowing her eyes at me.
“People can change,” Eric says, putting his arm around Tyler, who looks up at him and grins before he plants a quick kiss on her lips.
“Jesus Christ what was this, the hormones tour?” Dani asks, rolling her eyes and pressing her fingers to her temples.
“Well, I think it’s great,” Kevin says, trying to steer the mood away from Dani’s unexpected attitude and to something more positive.
He crosses the room and throws his arms around us with Eric, Tyler, and Max following shortly after.
Kate laughs as she wipes her eyes and looks through the group to where Dani is standing alone.
She wiggles free of my arms and everyone parts like the Red Sea as Kate approaches her.
“Please don’t be mad,” she says, taking Dani’s hand.
“I just can’t believe you didn’t tell me,” Dani says, pulling her into a hug. “I was the one who told you to sleep with him in the first place.”
Kate snorts a laugh into Dani’s shoulder before pulling back to look at her.
“What was the first thing you did when I told you Josh asked me to go to the gala with him?”
Dani’s focus shifts to Tyler.
“Okay but who would I have told?” Tyler asks.
Everyone’s attention goes to Eric.
“What?” Eric asks, sounding offended. “You act like I’m shit at keeping secrets. Do I need to remind you I just kept my feelings for this woman,” he thumbs at Tyler, “secret for a fucking year?”
“My guy,” Max scoffs. “That wasn’t even close to being a secret.”
Eric groans.
“So, what happens now?” Tyler asks, shifting the focus of the conversation. “With the paparazzi and the article and, well, all of it?”
“I’ll get my lawyer on the website,” I say. “There’s nothing we can do about the articles or the photos, but we can get her personal information taken down.”
“That was a dick move,” Dani growls. “The next time I see that asshole, he’s going to pay.”
“Get in line,” I say.
“Oh no,” Dani says, turning to face me fully and shoving a finger in my face. “You get in line. I’ve wanted to fuck that guy up since the moment I met him.”
I shift my focus back to Kate and can see her mood changing as reality comes rushing back in.
“All those people…they don’t know me,” she says, voice quiet.
“They’ll turn me into whoever they want me to be, and I won’t be able to stop it.
” She swallows hard as her breathing picks up.
“They’ll dig. They’ll find things. What if Anthony has already told them things?
They’ll twist everything I say, everything I’ve done.
They’re already calling me a—” She cuts herself off and shakes her head.
“I clawed my way out of one cage just to get shoved into another.”
“Kate,” I say, stepping toward her. She holds up a hand, her eyes glassy, and I stop. Watch as she closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. Then another. And then, she straightens her spine and looks at Dani.
“So, what do I do?” she asks, her voice steadier than it was moments before.
“You decide,” Dani says gently. “They may have taken control by outing you, but you get to take it back and decide how you want to handle it. We can get you out a back exit. We can lie. We can spin. Or you can walk out there holding his hand and your head high and show them exactly who the fuck you are.”
Kate turns to me, her eyes locking on mine. I see the fear and the doubt. But behind it, there’s fire, too. That stubborn will of hers. That buried, growing belief that maybe, just maybe, she’s stronger than she realizes.
She swallows hard. “I never wanted this,” she says quietly.
“I know.”
“But I do want you.”
Relief floods my chest at the sound of those words.
“So, I think,” she says, stepping closer, her hands sliding up my chest and around my shoulders. “It’s time I stop hiding.”
“There’s my girl,” I say, grinning and dipping my head to kiss her, my hands settling on her waist as she kisses me back.
When we finally part, I rest my forehead against hers, and for a moment, there’s just breath and quiet and the feeling of her fingers curling into my hair like she’s afraid to let go.
“You’re sure?” I whisper, nuzzling her nose with mine.
“About suddenly being thrust into the spotlight? No,” she says on an exhale. “About you?” She smiles and presses her lips to mine. “Always.”
I grin and brush my thumb over her cheek. “Then let’s do it.”
She nods, and the confidence and determination in her eyes makes me so fucking proud.
She may be standing in the eye of another, very different storm, but this time, she’s not alone.