Page 158 of Between Never and Forever
He sighs, but he doesn’t open his eyes, and his body doesn’t loosen. Anger and something else are still surging through him, rolling off him in waves.
“No. No, this isn’t your fault. I was an equal participant. I could have stopped it.”
“I’ll figure out how to fix it. I’ll keep your name out of it, Levi, I swear.”
“You shouldn’t have to keep my name out of it. If anyone is going to be in a leaked sex tape with you, it should be me. Not Torren King. Notanybody. It should fucking be me, but—”
“But it can’t.”
He shakes his head in response.It can’t be him.
“So, what does this mean, then? You can’t be with me and avoid the media attention, Levi. Me and the press, we’re unfortunately a packaged deal. Match made in hell. There’s no escaping them. Especially not when...well...”
“You’re going back to the band.”
His statement is resigned and tired. Not sad, but hollow, and it guts me. He already knew, but he was hoping against all reason that he was wrong. I swallow hard and nod.
“I have to,” I whisper, my voice shaking as I fight back tears. “I have to, Levi.”
“I know.”
He crosses the floor and pulls me into a hug.
“You belong on that stage, Sav. You do.”
I feel him kiss my hair, tightening his hold around me.
“I know.”
But I belong to him, too...
36
We’ll lie low.
We’ll “lie low.”
Keep our distance, avoid each other, until she jets off to fucking Portofino at the end of the week. She doesn’t even want Brynn coming for guitar lessons anymore. And I fucking hate it, but she’s right.
I’m trying to protect you, she’d said.I’ll figure it out.
It shouldn’t be her protecting me. It should be me protecting her, or at the very fucking least, me protecting myself. Me protecting Brynn. But it’s only been two fucking days, and I’m already about ready to storm her trailer. I’m even staying at Sharon’s on her fucking couch because I don’t trust myself not to interrupt another scene.
“This is dumb,” Brynn says from where she’s sitting in the office.
She has a book on the table and her tablet on the seat next to her, but she’s staring at the floor.
“I should be learning Blackbird right now.”
“She gave you her guitar to practice,” Sharon says. “You could be learning it right now and surprise her when she comes back.”
“She’s not coming back, Ms. Sharon.”
Brynn plops down dramatically across the couch and sighs.
“After this week, she goes to Italy, and after Italy, they go to New York, and after New York, she’s going to go back to L.A.”
Sharon flicks her eyes to me, but I’ve got nothing to say.
