43. Nikolai
43
NIKOLAI
“ W hy are you icing your back?”
Jane groans as I stand over her lying on the couch. “Because my brother was punishing me.”
I stifle a laugh. “And how did he do that?”
“He made me go on a hike.”
This time I don’t bother to hide my amusement and Jane smacks my thigh. “So he punches me, and makes you go for a walk. I see who got the short end of the stick.”
“It wasn’t a walk! Do you know how steep some of those trails are?”
I sit at the other end of the couch and pull her feet into my lap. She moans as I dig my thumb into the arch of one of them and massage the muscles. “Did you forget I used to free climb mountains?”
Her eyes shoot open and glare at me. “You won’t be doing that anymore.”
“No?”
“Absolutely not. Your feet should be planted on solid ground at all times.” I smile at her protectiveness.
“Anything for you,” I acquiesce. “How’d it go? Besides the whole hiking thing.”
She adjusts the ice pack under her back and chews on her lip. “Not great, but not horribly, either. He tried to listen and I think he heard me when I told him that we really didn’t want to keep it from him. But he’s hurt and wants space.”
“I get that. I texted him this morning.”
Jane perks up. “What did you say?”
“Just that I’m sorry and that I hoped that he would hear you out. And that when he’s ready, I’d like to talk to him, just the two of us.”
“What did he say?”
“He didn’t respond.” I didn’t expect him to, but I wanted him to know that I want to make this right.
“And how did it go with Arun? Does he know who leaked the photos?”
“Exactly who you suspected.” Kerra .
Jane’s face darkens as she says, “I knew it.” She picks at her nails. “I’m sure Arun has ideas of how to handle things.”
“He does.”
She flicks her eyes to mine. “And do they include throwing me under the bus to try to save face?”
I’m not going to lie to her. “He was considering it.”
“Look, you need to do what’s best for your career and if that means?—”
“It’s not an option.”
She bites her lip. “Nikolai…”
“It’s not,” I say sternly.
“But then you did all of this for nothing. You need music. You need to sing.”
“I need you more.” She opens her mouth to interject, but I continue, “My career is going to be fine. We’re going to weather this storm, I’m going to publicly apologize to you and Kerra and the fans who are disappointed in my actions. We’re going to keep it lowkey for a few months, and we’ll re-debut when my album drops. It should give the public enough time to move on to something else and when we reemerge months from now, it’ll show that this is the real deal.” Plus, as Arun pointed out, it doesn’t hurt that Jane is Walker’s sister. Hardcore fans knew about her already and they’re already voicing their excitement that the two of us are together.
I push her feet off my lap and pull her into my arms. She snuggles in immediately, tucking her head into the crook of my shoulder.
“I can’t live with myself if I’m responsible for taking away your career,” she murmurs sadly.
“You won’t. People have survived much worse press than this.” Sadly, cheating scandals are a dime a dozen. “We’re going to be okay, LJ. We’ve made it through worse and we’ve found our way back to each other. Nothing is going to change that.”
She looks up at me with those big green eyes of hers and they shine with so much trust, so much love. “Promise?”
I kiss her softly. “I promise.”