“Easton,” I breathe. “I’m sorry I didn’t answer. I thought you were getting ready to go on stage.” I swallow as fear threatens to steal my words. “If you saw that picture—”
“Are you with him?” The accusation in his voice rips through my chest. His simmering anger last night has now turned to fury. “Answer me!” he growls.
“No, Easton…no,” I whisper. “How could you possibly believe that?”
“Have you forgotten, jealousy is new for me, and me and the green guy are not fucking getting along well at all.”
“Please don’t believe it,” I rasp.
“Looks pretty fucking believable,” he fires off, voice loaded.
“You know better than to play into headlines. I’ll admit, it’s a damning picture—”
“He’s touching you, and you’re fucking smiling at him. Is that part not true?”
“Yes, but not in the way you think.” I hear the distinct swish of liquid in a bottle and pause. “Are you drunk?”
“Working on it,” he snaps.
“Well, it’s not going to help anything and will only add to your paranoia. I’m not with him, or anyone else for that matter. You know that. You’re just angry and have every right to be, but the only man I want is berating me on the phone right now. I miss you every minute of every day. I was upset and trying to gather my wits in the limo, and Jonathan spotted me hiding. He lured me out and cracked a joke to comfort me before escorting me in. That’s all that was.”
“You’re mine to comfort! Those are my goddamn lips, lips meant to smile for me in that way. That’s my body, a body not meant for anyone else to touch!”
“Stop it,” I defend. “I shouldn’t even have to say this, but Easton, he’s gay.”
“How convenient.”
“We promised we wouldn’t let this happen.”
“We promised a fucking lot, Natalie, but I seem to be the only one keeping them.”
“Easton, I know I haven’t been fair to you.” I manage to keep my voice even as I glance into the ballroom, thankful both my parents are distracted. “I was also tearful in that limo because Dad and I…we’re finally talking again. He apologized to me on the way here.”
Silence.
In the ballroom, Dad cracks a megawatt grin, Mom at his side as they chat with a crowd of people. It’s the first genuine smile I’ve glimpsed from him since before Sedona. With the sight of that, I see the possibility of renewed normalcy.
“There’s a plane touching down in twenty minutes. I want you on it.”
“What?”
“Come to me, Beauty. I’m asking you to come to me.”
“That sounded more like an order,” I fire.
“So, I guess we’re only taking them from Daddy, then?”
“Stop it. Stop it. You know I can’t come to you tonight. If I do, it will ruin every bit of progress we just made.”
He barks out a laugh full of sarcasm. “You can’t be fucking serious.”
“Easton, you know full well my future rests at the paper and in my relationship with my father. I thought you might be happy about the fact we’re talking, just a little, for my sake.”
“You altered your future when you took my ring and my fucking last name.”
“I know that. You think I don’t know that? Easton, I’m fucking exhausted. My life has been a literal circus since we’ve been apart because I’m trying so hard to get back to you. You might not see it, but that’s what I’m doing.”
“You’re exhausted because you’re living two lives. But while you’re fixing your place with him, we’re breaking. You’re breaking me. Come to me, right now.”
“I can’t.”
Another long damning silence.
“Then I know my place. Nowhere.”
“That’s not true. You promised me I wouldn’t have to—”
“Don’t act like it’s me who’s made it otherwise,” he retorts unforgivingly.
“It is right now,” I say. “I just told you. He’s coming around.”
“For you, Natalie, not me.”
“I know you’re upset, but it can’t be tonight. This night is monumental for him.”
“For him. For him. For him. Where is my fucking wife in all this?”
“I’m here, Easton.”
“Exactly. You’re there and playing right into his agenda and letting him win.”