Page 54 of Stay A Little Longer
“Uh… I just wanted some time alone and Lemon invited me to visit.”
“Trent, did you…” Another reporter started to ask but the blonde woman simply spoke over the man.
“So you didn’t come to Fate for a man?”
Trent’s brows furrowed slightly and he shook his head, “No. When I came to Fate, I only knew Lemon. Like I said, I just needed to get away for a little while and…”
“But you’ve been seeing someone since coming to Fate? Haven’t you?” This time the pushy blonde spoke over even Trent and Lance felt the air catch in his lungs.
The blonde. That suit. It was the woman he’d threatened. The one that had been so curious about him saying this was his property. Damn it.
“Um…” Trent’s eyes found him in the crowd again and Lance swallowed hard at the knot of emotion in his throat when Lance looked away quickly and shook his head, “Not that it’s any of your business but no. I’m not dating anyone. I only came to Fate to hide out and since you’ve all found me, I won’t be staying much longer. I’ll be heading back to Nashville soon.”
Lance felt the words like silver in his veins. Not dating anyone. Not staying much longer. He felt a panic attack coming on and forced himself to breathe through it. Trent was leaving. He hadn’t said a word about Lance or about what had happened, about how they felt about each other. He’d protected him by lying again, something he’d said he didn’t want to do. He’d let Lance keep his secret… as a parting gift.
A gift he didn’t want. A secret he didn’t want to keep. Not if it meant losing the man he loved.
“Would you stay?” He spoke, his voice scratchy with emotion, so much so that only a few heads turned to look at him until he cleared his throat and tried again, “Trent, would you stay? If you had a reason to? If someone gave you a reason to stay?”
Every head in the crowd turned to face him now but he didn’t care. Couldn’t care. Because he only had eyes for the blue-eyed boy on the steps of that trailer, the one that was staring at him with shock sure, but also with hope. It was that look, the love and acceptance it held, that had him taking a step forward to pose his real question in front of God and everybody.
“If I told you I loved you, would you stay a little longer?”
