Chapter 32
Sloan
♪ Big Jet Plane | Angus & Julia Stone
Are you sure you don’t want to come with me? Saturday Night Live is kind of a once-in-a-lifetime deal,” Jason said. He talked against my lips as he kissed me goodbye on my porch. His guitar case sat next to us and his hands twined in the hair at the nape of my neck. His eyes practically smoldered.
He did this on purpose, of course, because he knew how defenseless I was when he sucked me into that vortex of his.
I had to be strong. I had too much to do.
“If you want me to be ready to leave my whole life behind in less than a week, I can’t give you three more days,” I said, nuzzling his nose with my eyes closed.
It was actually a good thing he was leaving for New York. The man was highly distracting. I couldn’t get anything done when he was home—well, nothing that required clothes, anyway.
“I’m going to miss you,” he breathed.
“I’m going to miss you too.” I kissed him, wrapping my arms around his neck. “But mostly I’m going to miss being the other woman for a few days.”
He snorted.
“I’m going to frame it,” I said. “Maybe Kristen will put it in the Christmas calendar.”
Yesterday a picture of me and Jason holding hands at Trader Joe’s ended up on the cover of the National Enquirer. JAXON WATERS CHEATS ON LOLA SIMONE! was plastered all over the front. I’d been wearing sunglasses and a baseball cap and my tattoos were covered, so only I recognized myself. But it was still really funny.
“They called me a mystery woman,” I said, smiling against his lips. “I’ve always wanted to be mysterious.”
He chuckled. “I’ve always wanted two women. This is working out for both of us.”
I hit him, and he laughed, tickling me by nibbling my neck.
It had been three days since we made up, and things between us were on a whole new level. There was no more end date. We weren’t breaking up, we were going on his tour and then moving in together. The future of our relationship was clearly laid.
And we were ridiculously in love with each other.
He’d told me everything. About Lola, the song. Why he didn’t ask me on tour earlier. Everything. And I’d listened and understood and when it was over, I felt like we were allies against the world.
Zane idled in my driveway, waiting for him. I could tell he didn’t want to leave me and it made my heart happy, but I had to be practical. “Go, you’re going to be late for your flight. Text me from the car.”
“Look at me.”
I gazed up and drowned in his blue eyes.
He put his thumb over my lips, pressing them shut. “I love you,” he said. Then he moved his thumb, kissed me swiftly, and jogged down the steps with his guitar before I could reply.
My heart could barely take it. I don’t think I could ever get used to him saying that. I leaned on the door frame, Tucker at my feet, and watched Jason get into the car, smiling. I blew him a kiss as they pulled out of the driveway and my cell phone pinged with a text message from him before Zane’s Tesla cleared the end of the block.
Jason: I miss you already.
Ping.
Jason: Sext me.
I laughed.
God, we were so adorable, even I could barely stand us.
I got to work. In the next seven days I had to contact the company I painted for and tell them I was quitting, and I had to put my Etsy store on vacation. Three paintings needed to be completed. I had to rent a storage container, put my house on the market, and start packing. Things needed to be pulled together for a quick yard sale.
And I still had the hardest thing of all to check off my list: telling Kristen I was leaving.
We’d never been apart for more than a few days before. Never, going as far back as the sixth grade. There was no telling how she would react. I half expected her to tell me not to go. She’d been a huge Jason fan so far, but agreeing to go on tour with him after only two weeks as his girlfriend sounded crazy, even to me. And then to explain I’d be selling my house and moving in with him too? On paper it was nuts, no matter how right it felt to me.
I’d made plans to meet her and the baby at the park, and I drove over with Tucker at noon. Kristen had Oliver in his jogging stroller and was already making a circuit around the running track when I got there. I walked the wrong way until I met up with her. When I fell in beside her, she didn’t waste any time calling me on my agenda.
“So what do you need to tell me?” She looked determinedly ahead, speed walking.
God, how does she do that every time? Knowing exactly what I’m up to within five seconds of seeing my face?
I didn’t bother drawing it out. “Jason’s asked me to go on tour with him.”
Kristen didn’t take her eyes off the running track. “And you said yes?”
“And I said yes. But there’s something else. I’m selling the house. And when we get back, we’re moving in together.”
Kristen stopped walking so fast I outpaced her by three steps before I noticed.
She panted and stared at me for a moment. “Let’s go sit,” she said carefully, giving me a look I couldn’t decipher.
Ugh. This wasn’t good. I so wanted her to support me in this. I was going to do it whether she wanted me to or not. But I really had hoped she was going to back me because the news hadn’t gone over well with my parents. At all.
My dad thought my running away on tour with my “rock star” boyfriend of two weeks was some kind of crisis I was working through. He’d given me a long speech about the perils of dating musicians and ended it by telling me he disagreed wholeheartedly with my decision. He’d even thrown around the word “disappointed.”
He’d loved Brandon. They were both ex-military and they’d played in the same poker league. Dad didn’t even want to meet Jason. He said he’d put money on it being over by Labor Day and if it wasn’t, maybe he’d meet him at Thanksgiving.
Maybe.
Mom tended to be more of a romantic, but after Jason’s minor tabloid scandal, she thought I was crazy to even consider staying with him, let alone going on his tour and selling my house to move in with him. She’d agreed to meet him, but was so unenthusiastic I opted out.
Jason’s family had embraced me so much I think it killed him to know how mine felt.
Not having anyone be as happy about this as I was sucked.
We found a bench in the shade, walking in a heavy silence until we got there. Kristen parked the stroller and handed Oliver his sippy cup before sitting to face me.
I dove in. “Before you even start, I know it’s only been a few weeks, and I know—”
“I’m glad you’re going.”
It took me a few moments to process what she’d said.
“You…you are?”
“Yes. And I’m glad you’re selling the house. You should have done that a long time ago.”
I blinked at her. “You’re not upset that I’ll be gone so long? You don’t think I’m crazy?”
“Sloan, there are some things I need to say to you.”
She pushed her hair behind her ear and licked her lips. It took her a while to begin. She seemed at a loss for words. Kristen was never at a loss for words.
“I know that you’ll be away for a long time. But I’ve gone longer without seeing you.” She paused for a long beat. “These last two years, the Sloan I grew up with has been missing. I was afraid she was buried at Forest Lawn with Brandon and I was never going to see her again. Then you decided to live, and you know what? My Sloan came back.” She shook her head. “I missed my friend. And if I thought that you were only okay because you have a man in your life again, I’d tell you not to go. But I think you have a man in your life because you’re okay. I don’t think this is some rebound thing. I think what you two have is real. And goddamn it, if he wants you to go on his tour, go. Because I haven’t seen you this fucking happy in a very long time.”
The tears were falling before I even knew they were coming. “Thank you,” I whispered.
“I’m glad he finally figured out how bad it would suck if he went without you. Honestly, Josh and I were worried about what might happen when he left, and we were wondering what was taking his ass so long to ask.”
“Seriously? You guys talked about it?”
“We’re your emergency response team. Of course we talked about it. Did drills and everything.”
I laughed out of relief and hugged her. This made it real. It gave it validation to have her support this—both of them, her and Josh. They saw it too, what I had with Jason.
“Sloan, it makes me so happy to see you make these choices. Go, have adventures, fall more in love, shake a tambourine, be a fucking groupie and say cliché shit like, ‘I’m with the band.’”
I snorted, wiping at my tears.
“I’ll be here when you get back. And so will you. Finally.”
* * *
Kristen and I walked for forty-five minutes, talking about the tour and Oliver. Then I had to get back to the house and get started on my to-do list. I hugged her goodbye and made my way up the stairs to the parking lot.
I was texting Jason. He’d just sung “Name” into my voicemail on the way to the airport. The song we had our first kiss to. I melted.
I was typing with my head down, telling him I loved him, so I didn’t notice my car until my feet were already crunching over glass. I looked up and froze with a hand to my mouth.
My windows were broken. All of my windows were broken.
My windshield was caved into the front seat like someone had stood directly on the hood to smash it in.
All four tires had been slashed. My side mirrors had been broken off and lay scattered in the parking lot like candy from a busted piñata.
And the words Jaxon’s Whore were spray painted over the door that didn’t match the rest of the car.