“Where are you?” There was louder rustling as he scurried out of bed. “Warbler? I’m coming over.”
The agent side of me stepped in and took control. “No. We’re not discussing this while I’m at work.”
His tone was gruff. “See you in twenty minutes.”
The call disconnected before I could protest. I dropped my phone onto my desktop, clenched my fists, and paced my office. The image of him leaving Stella’s house this morning was burned into my brain, but if I needed to reference it again, the notification from TMZ was right there on my lock screen.
I had no choice but to read the article, and then critically examine both his and Stella’s posts on social media to glean all the facts I could. I needed to know in case he planned to feed me more lies.
As soon as I heard heavy footsteps marching up the front porch and the main door push open, I put on a stern expression and came out of my office.
Troy looked . . . disheveled. His t-shirt had wrinkles like he’d scooped it up off his bedroom floor and pulled it on, along with the khaki shorts he wore. His hair was wild—flattened on one side and sticking up in other places. Dark circles hung beneath his tired eyes.
Despite it, he still looked so damn good to me. This rumpled styling was caused by an urgent need to see me, and it was hard not to respond to it. But the business side of me had a very different reaction.
Charlotte lifted her head and blinked in surprise. “Oh, hey, Troy.”
He didn’t acknowledge her at all. His gaze swept the room, found me, and locked on.
I flung a finger at the door he’d just come through. “Outside with me.”
It was overcast today, and there was electricity in the air. Rain would be coming at any second, and it gave me a good excuse to get him back in his car and out of sight.
“Erika—”
My voice was clipped and professional. “We’ll talk in your Jeep.”
Frustration etched his face, but he agreed to it by leading me down the sidewalk to where he’d parked. I said nothing when he held open the passenger door for me, I just climbed in. He closed the door with a loud thump, then rounded the backend of the SUV and got seated behind the wheel.
The moment his door was shut, speckles of rain dotted his windshield, like the storm had politely held off for us.
“I’m not your agent or manager anymore,” I said, “but you cannot ever go out in public again looking like this, you understand? The tabloids will be all over you now because of this story. The last guy Stella dated—”
“Stop.” He turned in his seat as much as he could to face me. “When the bar closed last night, the party was still going, so Stella invited us back to her place. That’s all this was. We hung out in her studio, playing music and talking about the industry.” His brow furrowed. “It got so late, she said it was cool if I wanted to crash in one of her guest rooms.”
I had no idea what expression I was making, but the concern in his blue eyes deepened.
“I’ll prove it. Her guest room has these huge fucking silver curtains and the bed’s one of those memory foam ones where it’s hard as a rock until you sink down in.”
I blinked slowly, considering his story, but was skeptical. He’d said Stella had invited us and not me. The only photo published of someone leaving her house this morning was him, but that didn’t necessarily mean it was the case. “Who else stayed over?”
When his eyes shifted away, the pain in my chest was back.
“Just me,” he said quietly, “but seriously—nothing happened. You have to know that.” The rain pattered against the windows and hurt welled in his voice. “How could you think I’d do that to you?”
Was he kidding?
“Oh, I don’t know,” bitterness filled my mouth, “maybe how I spent a year of my life fucking oblivious the man I loved was having an affair?” I lifted my gaze to the ceiling to stave off my emotions. “Christ, I can’t believe I made the same mistake with you so fast.”
I’d said it without thinking, and the meaning in my words filled every breathable inch of space inside his Jeep.
Troy went wooden. “Love?”
He’d latched onto that word, and I needed to put distance between it and us as quickly as possible. I couldn’t love him. It wasn’t possible for me to fall in love this quickly. This feeling of drowning in him was just the newness of our relationship.
“If nothing happened,” I said, “then why lie about it?”
He was still dazed and struggled to pull himself back together. “I’m sorry I did that.”
“I appreciate the apology, but that’s not an explanation, Troy.”
He frowned. “Okay, this is going to sound bad . . . but I did it because it made sense not to tell you. Because of your ex, I—”
“What the fuck?” My eyes widened. “You meant easier. It was easier not telling me.”
“So, we could avoid this?” He gestured between us. “You jumping to conclusions? Yeah. What your ex did to you was beyond shitty, but I am not him. I don’t cheat. I’ve made it crystal fucking clear what I want, and it’s not someone else, not Stella, and definitely not some other dude. I don’t want anyone but you.”
The rain was heavier now, pummeling the Jeep and the roar of it filled the silence between us. As it dragged on, I grew more upset.
And worried about what this meant for our future.
“It would be easier to believe you,” I said, “if you hadn’t just lied to me.”
His expression was a mix of remorse and frustration. “I’m sorry. It was stupid and I wasn’t completely awake when you—”
I lifted a hand, cutting him off. “I’ve been in the business a while. I know better than to take every story or picture at face value, because clicks matter more than the truth to a lot of people. There has to be trust between us, so I can believe you when you say nothing happened.” I swallowed painfully. “But now that trust is gone.”
“I know I fucked up.” Worry etched his handsome face. “I’d take it back if I could, but I can’t. All I can say is I promise it won’t happen again.” He hesitantly reached over and trailed his fingertips over my cheek, pushing my hair back behind my ear, and I wanted to soften at his touch. His voice fell to a whisper. “Can you at least believe that?”
The storm overhead beat down on the car in slashes of rain, and I was grateful for the cover. Not just with how it prevented Charlotte from seeing us—because I was sure she was watching through the front window—but how secluded it felt.
For a brief time, it had created a bubble where my negative thoughts had a harder time penetrating my mind. But my devil’s advocate spun up and told me all the reasons why he’d lie and leave me for someone else.
That what we had might not last.
And it would be better to cut my losses now.
Save myself from more pain down the road.
He searched my face, trying to figure out why I hadn’t said anything, and his eyes widened in concern. “You’re looking at me like you think we’re doomed.”
I didn’t want to put it out in the universe, but the words came from me anyway. “Are we?” I whispered. “It’s only going to get harder when you blow up.”