Hunter’s shaky gaze lock onto mine and his thin lips are fused.
I knew he’d be angry.
I knew he wouldn’t shrug his shoulders and say, “Okay!” and send me on my way.
“I don’t expect you to understand,” I say, keeping an eye on his clenched fists and tight posture and the fact that he’s looking like he’s two seconds from clocking me—not that I couldn’t handle the pipsqueak.
“Are you … did you … do you love her? Is that what this is about?” His nose is wrinkled, the tone of his voice snarled. “You caught feelings for her and now all of a sudden you’ve grown a fucking conscience?”
Yes.
That’s exactly it.
“No,” I lie. It’s none of his fucking business how I feel about Love.
“Then what’s the problem?” Hunter slides off his desk and paces his expansive office, stopping to take in his million-dollar view. His silence concerns me, but it doesn’t scare me. I’ve already made the decision to sacrifice everything I’ve ever needed in my life so that Love doesn’t have to. “That hard part’s over. Why would you walk away when you’re so damn close?”
“She doesn’t want to get married again,” I lie again. “It’s a lost cause.”
“Bullshit.”
“I don’t want to waste her time. Or mine,” I say, “or yours.”
“Bull-fucking-shit.” He turns to me, brows pinched. “She’s the most malleable human being I’ve ever known.”
“Maybe she was when you were married to her,” I say, “but that’s not the impression I got.”
Hunter strides to his chair, collapsing into the seat and burying his head in his hands as he exhales. He mumbles into his palms, something I can’t discern, and when he finally glances up at me, he leans back and throws his hands in the air.
“Fine,” he says. “You don’t want to finish this? That’s on you. I can’t force you to do something you don’t want to do. But I just want to remind you that you signed an NDA. You can’t tell Love anything you and I have ever spoken about.”
“Well aware.”
“You’re going to have to break it off with her immediately,” he says.
“That’s the plan.”
“And I want you out of that apartment by the end of the week.”
“Not a problem.”
“You can never see her again,” he says. “Do you understand that?”
Releasing a hard, steady breath, my gaze snaps onto his. “Yep.”
Hunter rises, smoothing his tie against his flat chest. “And don’t you ever go looking for a record deal—here or anywhere else. You’re dead to this industry.”
It’s all the same because without Love, I’ll be dead inside too.
Thirty-Five
Love
* * *
“I cannot believe you dropped the L-bomb,” she says over the phone. “Like, you’re really taking this and running with it.”
I shrug, not that she can see me, and press the button for the seventh floor, watching the elevator doors close as Tierney prattles on in my ear.
“How’d he act when you said it?” she asks.
“I don’t know. Quiet? I was sort of half asleep,” I say, “but coherent enough to know what I was saying …”
“You’re so bad.” She laughs. The elevator doors open and I glance out, making sure he’s nowhere around before I continue this conversation. “Did he say it back?”
“Nope.”
“Huh. I’d have expected him to,” she says, “you know, to keep the ruse going.”
“Oh, well.” I dig into my purse for my keys, cradling my phone on my shoulder, and a moment later, I’m wrapped in the chilled air of my apartment, locking the door behind me and sliding out of my shoes.
“So what’s your next move?”
I grab a water from the fridge and uncap the bottle. “No idea, but I think I need to dial it down a notch. I get the feeling that the more I push, the more he pulls. Maybe I’m coming on too strong with this?”
“Do you think he knows that you know?”
“Doubt it. Marissa signed an NDA. She begged me not to tell anyone because she’d lose her job,” I say. “She’s not going to go from freaking out about that to running off to tell Jude she knows what he’s doing.”
“True.” Tierney sighs. “Hey … it’s supposed to be nice the next few days and one of my friends just got back from their house in the Hamptons so it’s empty … you want to go? Get away for a little bit? They say absence makes the heart grow fonder …”
I chuckle. “I’ve got him going in so many different directions right now. To go from telling him I love him to jetting off to the Hamptons for a few days is going to leave his head spinning faster than it already is.”
“Good. So that’s a yes?”
Taking another swig of frigid water, I mull it over, but only for a moment. “Yeah. I’m in.”
“Awesome. I’ll take care of our Jitney tickets and let my friend know we’re using his place,” she says. “I just need to clear it with my doctor and then we should be good to go. Let’s plan on leaving first thing in the morning.”
“Perfect.”
The second I hang up the phone, the shudder of a slamming door outside in the hall grabs my attention, and I hurry toward the peephole in time to see Jude locking up and all but sprinting toward the elevator bay.
“Jude,” I say, stepping out of my apartment.
He stops in his tracks, turning to face me and wearing an expression unlike any I’ve yet to see on his perfect face. His eyes are glassy, his smile missing, and the little indentation above his jaw pulses.
“What’s going on?” I ask, closing my door and going to him.
“My niece,” he says, “she was just taken by ambulance to Brooklyn Methodist. She’s in the PICU now and they’re trying to stabilize her.”
My hand lifts to my chest. “Oh, my God.”
“She had an asthma attack,” he says, glancing toward the elevator. “A bad one. I have to go, I’m sorry.”
“Wait,” I say without giving it a second thought. He’d mentioned in the past that his sister is a single mom, and I know she has two kids. “Who’s watching your other niece?”
His chest rises and falls and he’s looking toward me but not at me. I’ve never seen Jude so distraught.
“I don’t know,” he manages to say, “we’ll have to take turns or something.”
“Let me go with you. I can help out.” I don’t wait for his approval before running back inside, grabbing my phone and purse and shoes, and bolting out the door.
A moment later, we’re riding to the main level, dashing through the lobby, and hailing a cab outside the portico.
In this moment, I’m not worrying about what’s fake or what’s real. Nothing else when an innocent little girl is fighting for her life in a hospital across the city. I might be angry with him, but I’m not soulless.