“I’ll call her now.” He gets up, already fiddling with his phone.
I look at Cannon and Fox.
“I fucked everything up. I’ve cost us our album, and with Hayes’s influence in the music industry our chance of landing someone else is slim to none.” I shove my fingers through my hair in frustration. “But,” I begin sadly, “I don’t take it back. I would do it all over again. She’s worth it.”
“Good answer,” Cannon says.
“I’ll get our flights booked back to L.A. for later this week,” I tell him.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa.” Cannon holds up his hands. “You’re leaving too?”
“I can’t stay,” I whisper, finally admitting out loud what I knew last night, why I didn’t want to look Mia in the eyes. She would’ve known. She would’ve seen my resolve and talked me out of it, and I would’ve gladly let her.
“Why the hell not?” Fox asks, leaning forward. His hands are clasped tightly together and his dark hair is a wild disarray. “Are you going to leave her?”
I nod, barely the jerk of my chin. I feel like I can’t breathe admitting my plans aloud. “I won’t come between her and Hayes. That’s what would happen if I stayed. She’d choose me. She chose me. I won’t have her regretting her actions because of me. Her dad is her dad and I’m … replaceable.”
“You know that’s not true,” Cannon says, looking at me sadly.
“She’ll move on,” I say, the words scratching at my throat like poisonous barbs. “And I will too.”
Lies.
35
Mia
I open the door for Hollis and imm
ediately start ranting. “I can’t believe him barging in here like a lunatic. I am an adult. I’m allowed to have sex. I can have a boyfriend—and you know what, most importantly, anything I do in my apartment is my business not his.”
Hollis stands in the doorway, rocking back on his heels.
“What? What is it?” I pause, walking slowly back toward him. “What’s wrong?”
He works his jaw back and forth, looking down at his boots. Finally, he raises his head. His golden eyes are shuttered, closed off, not at all like him. “I won’t come between you and your dad. I won’t become someone you resent some day for driving a wedge into your family.”
I feel like I’ve been shot. I press a hand to my heart expecting to find a tangible wound there, but there’s nothing.
“I would never resent you,” I whisper.
“You would,” he states. “Maybe not now, or even right away, but one day you would—I don’t want to ever see that day come.”
I go to him, grabbing his jacket in my hands. “How can you say that?”
“He’s your dad, he’s family. I’m … I’m nothing.” He ducks his head, refusing to meet my eyes.
“Nothing? You’re everything. How can you not see that?”
“Mia,” he pleads, his tone begging. “Let me go.”
My lip begins to tremble and I can’t catch my breath. “No.”
“We’re leaving. Going back home.”
“No, you’re not,” I spit out between my teeth. “You are not running away from this like some coward.”
“I’m not a coward!” He roars finally looking at me fully, letting me see the emotion in his eyes, the hurt, the pain, the fear, the love. “This is the hardest fucking thing I’ve ever had to do. The selfish thing to do is stay and for once I’m choosing the selfless road.”