Page 17 of Rush
‘Guess I’ll join you, then.’ He set the bag down and copied her.
‘I didn’t come here to stand on this rock all day, let’s swim.’
She trod carefully into the water, cautious of slipping like she had two years prior. Her old phone was still down there, somewhere. Surrendered to the fish.
‘Do you ever regret leaving Wyoming?’ Jesse caught up to her and ducked under the waterfall, reaching for her as he shook his soaking wet, dark hair out.
‘Never,’ she responded firmly, and she meant it.
‘Even with Wes?’ Jesse frowned.
‘What’s that supposed to mean?’
‘Don’t you ever wish you could be there to help him?’
‘I’m his sister. I’m not his caregiver. Us keeping our distance and me travelling has made our relationship stronger. He doesn’t need to be a witness to my sympathy. Besides, how else is he gonna afford the level of care he gets if I’m not earning the big bucks?’
‘That’s a fair point.’
‘Doyouregret leaving Wyoming?’ She studied hisfeatures for a moment, noting the frown lines that had formed. Jesse never used to be so serious, but now it was hard to get him to have any real fun. To let loose. He just seemed to use sex as an outlet.
‘Every damn day.’ He breathed out a sarcastic laugh.
‘Really? You have it all, Jess. Isn’t this exactly what you wanted?’
‘Do I? How can I have it all when I can’t go anywhere without a security team unless I want the whole world knowing about it? How can I have it all when I can’t show off the woman I love without people tearing her apart?’
‘I’m in the spotlight myself, Jess. If that was a change you wanted to make, I could handle it.’
‘They’ll dig, Sav. They’ll dig and dig, and they won’t stop until your secrets are spread like wildfire. Weston’s identity will be uncovered, his accident will be a hot topic again, you’ll be scrutinised. We’ve been through this. We are on totally different levels of fame, in two vastly different industries. You don’t understand what it’s like for me.’ He looked ready to cry, and she looped her arms around his neck, making him look at her instead of past her.
‘Okay, you’re right. I’m sorry. If this is too hard…’
‘No. That’s not what I mean. I’m just fucking tired, Savi.’
‘That’s why we’re here, right?’ She offered him a small smile, unsure of what she could possibly do to make this situation any better. The only thing she could do was not have the career she had or the family she had or the life she had. She had to not beher.
‘Yeah. I’m just sorry being with me feels like a secret military operation, sometimes.’
‘You’re worth it, Jesse.’
He planted a gentle kiss on her forehead and pulled her further into the water, where they proceeded to lose themselves in each other until hunger hit and they realised they were still an hour from food. That was something that sucked about being here; they couldn’t just drive to a restaurant and have a proper date. It was a home-cooked meal or nothing.
They were in the process of making quesadillas for lunch when there was a knock on the door. Savi opened it to reveal Jesse’s head of security.
‘Hi, ma’am.’ He was stone-faced as usual but even Savi could tell something was wrong.
‘Hi, Sloan. Need to come in?’ She opened the door wider, and he stepped past her, squeezing his arms in against himself like he was scared to touch her. He always tried so hard to be respectful that it just made her laugh.
‘Sir.’ He nodded at Jesse, and one look at his employee’s face was enough to make him drop the spatula on the counter. ‘We need to talk.’
‘Then talk.’ Jesse’s jaw tensed.
‘We just found a photographer hiding in the shed out back. Not sure how long he’s been there, but we chased him off. Well, we tried to catch him, and he ran. We haven’t seen any vehicles, so we have no idea where he came from.’
‘How the hell did he get past you?’ Jesse spat.
‘Jess…’ Savi tried to calm him down.
