Page 19 of Every Now and Then
“What?” Tears flood Jane’s eyes as her detached mask slips, peering up at me in uncertainty. She shakes her head as she pleads, “No, you can’t do this. Hayes, you mean everything to me. How can you not feel how much I love you? Don’t do this! I can love you enough for both of us!”
“But you shouldn’t, Jane,” I murmur, looking down at my boots with a heavy sigh. “Jane, you’re wonderful and perfect, but… I’m not the guy for you.” I grab her hand, squeezing it tight between my fingers, hoping that she can feel how much I care for her and how much I hate hurting her. “One day, you’ll find the right guy, but it isn’t me.”
“I don’t understand, Hayes. I said I'll give you more time. As much time as you need! We can move forward more slowly."
She looks at me expectantly, as if her imploring words will sway me. While it’s worked in the past, it won’t work this time. We’re too far gone.
"We don't need more time, Jane. What we need is to move on. Separately."
"Move on? What changed, Hayes?” Yanking her hand from mine, she jumps out of her chair, pacing. “Is there someone else? Have you been cheating on me?”
I frown.Well, this is a bit of a gray area.The silence that stretches between us is awkward as I grapple with the right way to answer her question.
“Oh my God, there is someone else, isn’t there? How could I have been so ignorant? So naïve!” She whirls around to face me once again. With her hands on her hips, her cheeks flush. “You owe me the truth, Hayes.”
She deserves to hear the truth from me. Since Rowdy and Bailey already know about my one-night stand, it won’t be long before someone else finds out. Eventually, word will filter down to Charlotte, and she’ll tell her younger sister. “The night we broke up—”
“What are you talking about? We never broke up!” Jane seethes. “We had a fight!”
I maintain my composure, but only just, as I throw my hands in the air. “Well, I’m an idiot because I thought since I didn’t propose, and you stormed out… I assumed we broke up. So, I went to a bar, got hammered, and ended up in bed with another woman.”
Jane gasps and stumbles backward upon hearing my blunt admission before dropping onto a bench by the elevator. All the color has leached from her face, and when she meets my eyes, I witness her pain. I drop my head into my hands, remorse filling me.
I’ll never regret my night with Annabelle, but I regret causing Jane pain.
“What? How could you do that? How could you break us?”
The anguish in her voice guts me, but I force myself to keep going. “Jane, we were always broken. We got together for all the wrong reasons.” Truer words were never spoken. “You were trying to get over your ex, and I was grieving and lonely. We made a stupid mistake when we hooked up, but that should have been the end of it. We shouldn’t have stayed together for a fucking year trying to make it work.”
Jane pats her face with precision, drying the few tears that spilled over her cheeks without disturbing her mascara, and then she straightens her spine. “That’s it then. We’re done.” And just like that, her armor snaps back into place.
“I hope one day you can forgive me, and we can get back to being friends. I know you’ll need time to process and move forward, but I’ll always consider you part of my family, Jane.”
I mean it, too. After losing my mom to cancer two years ago, the band is the only family I have left.
But, as much as I hate hurting Jane, the relief I feel when I hear the elevator doors close is immense.
I feel free.
Free to locate and pursue Annabelle.
Now
One Year Later
Best-Selling Country Band Announces New Album
Outlaw has officially announced the release of their highly anticipated fifth studio album,Alcohol & Orgasms, which is slated to drop the first weekend of February.
The best-selling country band will debut the album’s lead single,Every Now and Then,at the Nashville Holiday Music Festival next month at the iconic Ryman Auditorium. Tickets for the event go on sale soon.
7
Annabelle
Now
“Claire! Grace! Come on, let’s get to school,” I yell up the stairs, hoping the girls have stopped bickering long enough to brush their teeth. “Minutes matter in the morning!” They’ve already been tardy three times this month alone, and the headmaster has been forthright about our family’sget out of jail freecard having expired.
