I turned to look at Tatum, but he was too busy shooting daggers at Brina through narrowed eyes. Reaching out my hand, I placed it on his bicep, but he shrugged it off. Swallowing the hurt that followed, I searched for the right words, desperately wanting to help.
“Cut it out, Brina. I’m sorry, you guys. She’s drun
k, don’t listen to her.” Celeste maneuvered around her best friend and tried to pull her away.
“I might be drunk, but that doesn’t mean what I’m saying isn’t true. Tatum, you think you could ever keep someone like her? What a joke,” she spat out, venom dripping from every word. “You couldn’t even keep me.”
“Thank God for that.” The words tumbled out under his breath and I gasped.
Brina narrowed her eyes at him and crossed her arms over her chest. “What did you say?”
“Last time I checked, no one was beating down your door to take you out, so why don’t you leave me the hell alone?”
“You were supposed to get me out of this town, Tatum! You promised we’d leave it behind and have a real life. But you’re still here and I’m still here and neither one of us is ever getting out and it’s all your fault!” She started to cry and I couldn’t believe the scene that unfolded around me. Talk about a made-for-TV drama.
“Celeste,” Tatum growled. “Get her out of here. Now.”
“No! You can’t make me leave,” Brina shrieked as she fought against Celeste’s hands trying to tug her away.
I sucked in a deep breath before speaking, my tone firm. “Brina. Go home. You’ve said enough.”
She lowered her head at my words. “You don’t really like him, do you? You can’t possibly.” She stopped talking as Celeste wrapped an arm around her and led her away. “There’s no way Paige really likes Tatum, is there, Celeste? That would never happen. Not in a million years. Not even in one of her movies. Right?” Her voice faded as Celeste pulled her out of earshot.
“Well, that was fun,” I said, trying to lighten the mood, but Tatum was fuming. His chest heaved in and out and he breathed heavily through his nose. I hated that he was hurting. I felt protective of Tatum in what I assumed was the same way he seemed to feel protective of me.
“Tatum?” I said softly. “Tatum, please. Look at me.” When he slowly turned his head to face me, his gaze low as I placed my hand on his thigh, I said, “It doesn’t matter what she says. It doesn’t matter what she thinks. You can do whatever you want and be whoever you want. If you want to leave this town, then do it. But don’t let her words bring you down. Don’t let her define you.”
“You don’t even know what you’re talking about,” he said in a low, hurt voice, “so how ’bout you just don’t talk.”
I drew in a deep breath, then said calmly, “Don’t do that to me. Don’t be a jerk when all I’m trying to do is help you.”
“I don’t want your help, Paige. I didn’t ask for your help. I don’t need your help. I’m not a charity case,” he growled, his voice still low.
“I never said you were. You’re impossible, you know that?”
“Well, thank God you won’t have to deal with me for very long. Once you leave here you can go back to Hollywood and forget you ever met me. Your life can go back to normal and you can forget I exist.”
I brought my free hand in front of my face and squeezed back the tears that formed in my eyes. “You don’t actually believe that, do you? You think for one second that I’d just forget you?”
“It doesn’t matter.” He looked away as he pulled off his cap and ran a hand through his hair.
“It matters to me.” I squeezed his leg, half-surprised he allowed my hand to stay there.
Tatum pulled his cap low over his forehead, then shot me a glance and said, “Get in the truck, we’re going home.”
I didn’t move, and he couldn’t make me.
Ex-Girlfriends
Tatum
Brina’s words had struck a chord, picking at a wound that had been festering inside me for the last three years. I had promised to take her out of our tiny town and build a life in a bigger one. I’d made myself that promise, as well. What I hadn’t planned on was my dad dying and how my life changed so drastically in the moments after he took his last breath. How Brina could ever blame me for that, I’d never know. And honestly, I couldn’t give a shit, but the things she said about me and Paige were exactly why I couldn’t allow myself to get close to Paige.
It had been so easy to start lowering my walls with Paige tonight. She had made it so effortless. At least, until Brina came around and gave me the harsh reminder that I had so clearly needed. Paige Lockwood would never hook up with a small-town guy like me, and any thoughts I conjured up in my head to the contrary were a crazy man’s way of thinking.
Why would Paige choose me when she could have her pick of any guy she wanted in the whole damn world? Who in their right mind would ever choose someone like me when they had options like that? No one, that’s who.
When I’d admitted to Paige earlier that she had been one of the only actresses whose head I didn’t want to rip off, I hadn’t been completely honest. Truthfully, she had been the only actress whose head I didn’t want to rip off. All the others annoyed the living shit out of me. Matter of fact, the whole idea of Hollywood irritated me, and I was getting pissed off just thinking about it.