Chapter Thirty #2
The names tattooed on his heart. Charlie’s eyes widened, confusion swirling a cocktail in her mind and refusing to compute, when she closed her eyes, shame washing over her in a tidal wave.
The tears wouldn’t stop, despite her blinking them away and trying to shield her eyes from Daisy because her crying always distressed the girl who’d seen her momma in tears too many times.
He leaned into her ear, whispering, “Who’d you think she was?”
“Boy, leave her alone.” Faith smacked his arm.
He ducked out of the way of the smack, then wrestled his oldest sister still several inches shorter than him backward with a hand over her mouth.
Faith laughed, twisting out of his hold as he chuckled, but Charlie smiled contritely at the sibling affection-slash-warfare, the crushing weight lifting off her chest.
*
But despite Faith’s playful attempt to play off the moment, T.R. turned back to Charlie, pulling her away from the others, staring hard at her, cupping her cheek, absorbing her worry in each caress of his thumb.
“I handled all this wrong,” he admitted, brushing away the remains of her tears as she slipped her sunglasses back on to hide her eyes.
“She brought something I wanted to surprise y’all with and got here early, so when she called, I couldn’t talk about it out loud ’cause I didn’t want to give it away in front of y’all. Forgive me?”
“I’m the one who’s sorry. I jumped to conclusions,” she admitted, which eased the pinch in his chest that had knotted there the moment he’d seen her crestfallen tears and known exactly what the moment looked like.
But her face was still creased with worry. She’d come early. Why? God, he’d known he’d made her suspicious, his untrusting wallflower.
“What’s wrong?”
She swallowed. Shook her head.
“Don’t lie to me, darlin’.”
Something was tying her tongue.
“Why’d you come early?”
“Why’d you not want me to meet your sister?” she countered. A deflection.
He shook his head. He really didn’t want to spoil the reason why. “Don’t change the subject, baby. There’s something else wrong, I can sense it.”
She exhaled hard, chewed her lip. Her tell. He just needed to nudge a little harder.
“Somethin’ happen?” His eyes dipped to a letter in her hand, crunched in her grip.
Her mail?
“I just, I don’t know that I’m going to do your band any favors.”
What?
He chuckled uncomfortably but held onto the cradle of her face. “You’re a perfect fit. Jack and Bo love you. You’re just what we need for Friday’s gig, for the award—”
“I mean, I just think, my past, any bad press…”
His brow furrowed. Where was this coming from?
“What are you talking about? My fans are wild to know more about you. If anything, the mystery of who my Flower Girl was has boosted our visibility online. Everyone wants to find out who you really are.”
“Seems like they got their wish.”
He shook his head, confused. She opened her phone. Tapped on a social media notification. And McClintock’s Alumni … faceless chicks, some he’d probably banged over the years … opened up.
He grimaced and paced a step, then another, then returned to her and gripped her nape, looking her dead in the eyes. “Get the fuck off that page, Charlie, it ain’t gonna do you any favors. I hate that it even exists,” he spat, jaw pumping. He had no control over it.
“Hard to ignore when I’m tagged in it,” she said flatly.
He paused. Searched her eyes. Then snatched her phone and … scrolled. His stomach dropped.
“Found the Flower Girl, she’s the one digging for gold.”
An anvil of … something pitted in his gut.
“It’s not true,” he croaked, reading the comments, looking at that old photo of Charlie, so innocent and ready to take on the world. He looked at her now. Battered down by life.
“I know Jason did it,” she added. “But that’s the thing. He’s always going to do this. I just … don’t know if I can go through this again. The public shaming. His manipulations—”
“Don’t you dare let him win,” T.R. growled. “Tyler’s helping you now.”
“Tyler can’t stop the damage from this. I’m a detriment to you and your guys, and it seems your biggest fan base isn’t a fan of me.”
“They ain’t my fans. Just some obsessed people. This ain’t fair, baby—”
“It’s never been about fair with him, but—”
“Don’t you dare chicken out.”
“Thaddeus, he’s not just impacting me anymore. He’s dragging you into this, which is what I wanted to avoid all along, and as much as I hate that page…” She shook her head, staring into the distance over the escarpment. “You don’t deserve this.”
He clenched his teeth. Her white knight comparisons, that he was so good, as they stared at evidence that he wasn’t.
“Give Ty time, baby. Don’t pull out on us. It’s only been a day since you hired him. And these people?” He waved dismissively at her phone, dropping it back in her hand. “Just some fringe group on the internet. My real fans show up at the shows. They’re the ones who were cheering for you.”
She shook her head—
“Baby, please.” Fuck, he was begging and grabbed her hands, bringing them to his mouth. but an ache lodged that wouldn’t abate. “This award … it means so much … a record deal, and it’s my first shot in so long—”
He cut himself off. He sounded like a selfish prick considering the way she’d just been smeared.
“I said I’d screw up,” he croaked, pressing a kiss to her hands. “I don’t know how to do this. I can’t erase my past. But I’m trying, Charlie. Because I was chasing something all these years I couldn’t find until this wallflower took me home and let me into her life.”
She stared at him, taking in his desperation as he clenched her hands, and finally whispered, “Okay.”
A knot eased in him, and yet, guilt assailed as he bundled her in his arms. Held her hard even if she remained rigid, to have her affirm she wouldn’t pull out on the band.
But he could still sense something lurking.
Something hurting in her and, God, he wanted to protect her, wanted so badly to go back in time and erase his mistakes, living fast and carefree, filling voids left by parents who hadn’t ever tried to understand him, now being flung in his girlfriend’s face.
He didn’t want this poisoning her, but she was primed to absorb that poison, by a past that had left her heart vulnerable to a guy like he’d once been. Yeah, his past was biting him in the ass, and it felt like shit.
“And you must be Daisy,” Faith was saying, squatting an inch and resting her hands on her knees to come down to Daisy’s level. “Love your boots. A regular cowgirl like me…”
Daisy … that sweet girl. Would she grow up seeing this sort of thing dragged out online? His mistakes constantly leveraged against her mother, wearing her mother down? Should he … let Charlie go? Protect her from him, as she’d been trying to do all along?
“Boy, my brother’s about to make your day,” Faith said, earning a giggle from Daisy, and hell no, it was too late for letting go.
He couldn’t turn his back on this little girl, like her daddy had done. He couldn’t break Charlie’s trust, either.