I couldn’t get Charlotte or Hannah the whole drive to the airport. It had rung the first few times, but not now.
Straight to voicemail.
Every. Single. Time.
I’d stood on a stage, all alone, in front of more people than I could possibly imagine, but I’d never felt as nervous as I did during this two-hour plane ride. I would have taken the private jet, but we weren’t scheduled to leave until tomorrow and it wasn’t here, even with the wait time to board, flying commercial had still been our fastest option.
“She’s not like other girls, man, she’ll believe you,” J told me quietly from the seat next to mine.
I nodded my head in agreement. Charlotte wasn’t like the other girls that had passed through my life. She was so far from it.
That was why I was so scared.
She has to believe me.
Charlotte was the game changer for me. She was sweet, forgiving, loyal and she wasn’t easily fooled either.
That’s what I’m counting on.
She was also fierce, and she wasn’t going to take this shit lying down once she found out it was fake.
IF… if she finds out it’s fake…
I jiggled my knee up and down nervously. I just had to hope I got the chance to make her believe me.
“Shut that god damn phone off,” I snapped at Hannah. If it wasn’t her phone ringing, it was mine. If it wasn’t Jasper calling, it was Parker.
I just need a minute to think.
“Show me it again,” I demanded, holding my hand out for the laptop again.
“Lotte, don’t torture yourself, babe,” Hannah pleaded with me.
I rolled my eyes. “What happened to ‘it’s fake’?”
She shot me an apologetic glance. “That was before I found out that you recognised this bitch.”
“It’s Parker’s ex-girlfriend. I searched her on Google one time,” I explained. “So, I don’t think it’s fake, but…”
“Doesn’t mean it’s not old…” Han thought aloud.
“Exactly,” I agreed. “So, hand me that damn computer and let me look at the picture of my boyfriend with another fucking woman.”
Hannah grabbed it without further argument and loaded the image back up on the screen.
“I really hope he’s not a cheating bastard… he’s just so easy on the eye.” She sighed as she stared at the picture before handing it over to me. “It’d be a shame to have to get rid of him.”
I studied the photo hard and my stomach turned at the sight.
I’d never really been a jealous type, but I undoubtedly was now. Just one look at this girl touching my man made me want to scratch her eyes out.
“Do you think he’s cheated?” Hannah asked me quietly.
I thought hard before answering her. I thought about every moment I’d spent with Parker and how much he adored me, the way he looked at me…
I knew he loved me.
I loved him.
I trusted him.
I believed in him… I believed in us.
“No.” I shook my head. “Parker wouldn’t do that to me,” I answered with certainty.
Hannah let out a relieved breath. “So, what do we do now?”
“I’m not sure.” I shook my head. “There has to be something…”
I stared at the picture for what felt like forever, but got nowhere. He looked younger, but that wasn’t enough. I needed one hundred percent proof so I could make this right.
“My turn…” Hannah took the laptop from me again. “God, there is just something sexy about a man with tattoos.” She swooned as she ogled Parker.
The light bulb flickered to life above my head.
“Gimme,” I demanded as I snatched the computer back.
Hannah scowled at me.
There wasn’t much of Parker’s chest showing, but there was enough… enough to see that my tattoo was missing from his body.
I nearly cried tears of relief.
“Oh, thank god,” I breathed. “It’s old… I can prove that it’s old.”
Hannah was looking at me like I owed her an explanation.
“Let me show you something.” I reached for my phone and powered it back on.
I flicked through the camera roll until I found the photo I’d taken of Parker and I, only a few days ago. He was shirtless and I was tucked against the right side of his body, so his new ink was on full display. It was a cheesy photo, I was pointing at the tattoo of me and also at myself, a surprised look on my face. It was completely staged on my behalf, but I loved it. The look on Parker’s face was gorgeous, he was smiling at the camera, and I could tell he was looking at me via the image on the screen, his smile was wide and his sexy dimple was in full force.
I turned the screen around to show Han. I hadn’t gotten around to telling her what Parker had surprised me with.
“Is that...” She gaped. “Holy shit! He got a tattoo of you?”
I nodded shyly.
“Oh, score, baby.” She held her hand up for a high-five.
I laughed and smacked my hand against hers.
“He only got it on Tuesday,” I prompted her, hoping she’d be able to make the connection.
She studied my phone for a few beats before grabbing her laptop and looking at that picture again.
“Oh snap.” She grinned triumphantly. “That silly bitch! We’ve got the perfect way to prove this pic is old.”
I nodded in agreement. “And I’ve got a plan for the how,” I announced.
I wasn’t an overly patient man at the best of times, and even less so when I was under this kind of stress.
We’d sat on the tarmac for about fifteen minutes longer than we needed to, due to a ‘scheduling issue’ that was preventing us from getting off this damn plane.
Now, the baggage was taking forever and I was starting to lose my shit.
Maybe I should have waited for my plane after all.
I stalked over to the ‘help here’ sign and gave the chick behind the desk my best ‘I’m trying to be charming’ smile. “Hey there, is there any way we could speed this up? I kinda have some place I need to be.”
She blushed and fidgeted with a stack of papers on her desk. “I’m so sorry, Park-, err Mr. Sloan.” She blushed an even deeper shade of red. “There’s nothing I can do… but it really shouldn’t be long now.”
I grumbled under my breath, gave her a half-hearted smile and looked around for Jasper. He’d gone to the bathroom about ten minutes ago and I hadn’t seen him since.
Great timing to take a shit, man…
I put my head down and tried to avoid making eye contact with the other passengers as I walked across the room. I knew they all knew who I was, but not one of them had approached me. I was giving off a loud and clear ‘fuck off’ vibe, and I was happy to know it was being received accurately. I slunk down in a seat and reached into my pocket for my phone. I hadn’t even turned it back on yet.
Jasper appeared next to me, startling me. I didn’t know how the hell the guy did that, but for a reasonably tall guy, he was awfully stealthy.
“You bomb that toilet, man?” I asked absently.
I need to get the hell out of here.
I’d seriously considered just leaving my bag here and figuring that shit out later, but the present I’d bought for Charlotte yesterday was in there, and if I ever got the chance to talk to her again, I wanted to be able to give it to her.
J surprised me by laughing loudly, like something was the funniest thing he’d heard in a long while.
I glanced over at him and he was looking at something on his phone. “Park, man, I think I just might love that girl of yours.” He shook his head in disbelief… or amusement, I wasn’t sure.
What now?
“What the hell are you talking about?” I demanded, grabbing the phone from his hands.
A huge grin spread across my face as I took in the post on the screen in front of me.
Charlotte had updated her Facebook page.
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She’d posted the photo of the two of us that she’d taken right after we’d gotten home from the tattoo studio. She was being a complete goof and I loved it. Her red hair was wild and wavy, just like in the drawing over my heart and her eyes were bright and alive.
She looked like a woman in love.
God she’s beautiful.
She had captioned the photo. “Missing this guy right now, but at least I know he’s taking a piece of me with him wherever he goes. Shelley Corbett, let’s play a game of spot the difference shall we? (And I’m not talking about the blonde piece of ancient history) #Don’tLetTheTruthGetInTheWayOfAGoodStory #FreshInk #LookingForTrouble #NiceTry #PSI’mNotActuallyPregnant”
She’d tagged me in the photo, and even gone as far as to tag that pain in the ass Shelley in her caption too.
“It’s a shame she couldn’t tag Katie.” Jasper chuckled. “She’s got sass that girl, and hell… I like it.”
I didn’t know what to say. This thing was blowing up. I had no idea how many views the image of Katie and I had gotten, but I doubted it was more popular than the two million reactions this post had hit in the past two hours.
People were sharing it left, right and centre and the comments ranged from praise for Charlotte for standing up for her man, to people hating on Katie, to people telling me that they knew I wasn’t that kind of guy in the first place.
Charlotte was such a private person, and for her to put herself out there like this, was a massive deal. She hated the spotlight, but she’d jumped in, full force… for me.
No woman had ever defended me like this before.
“Well damn,” I stated, still smiling like a fool.
“Yeah, man,” J agreed. “That’s epic.”
I felt someone approach me and realised too late that I’d let my ‘do not approach’ barrier drop. I glanced up and saw it was a young guy hovering around, which was surprising; I was normally approached by women.
“Hey,” he said nervously. “I just wanted to check you’d seen it…” He gestured to the phone in my hand. “Your girl… she’s awesome, bro. I’ve just seen what she put online.”
I grinned up at him. “Fuck yeah she is.”
He laughed and held out his hand. “I’m Jacob, I’m a big fan.”
I looked at his hand and smiled as I remembered Charlotte lecturing me about introducing myself properly.
Just because you’re famous, doesn’t excuse you being a rude asshole…
“I’m Parker. It’s good to meet you.” I shook his hand firmly.
He gestured to my shirt-covered chest. “The Little Red Riding Hood reference, I like it.” He nodded in approval as he turned to walk away, obviously having made the connection of what the image represented for me. “I hope you two get a chance to live your lives without all this bullshit.”
I huffed out a laugh. “Me too, Jacob,” I called after him.
God, me too.
As I knew it would, talking to one fan made all the rest feel confident to come out of the woodwork. I spent the next thirty minutes talking and signing shit for half the airport. I actually regretted ditching Sammy back at the arena – not that I was planning on telling him that.
When our bags arrived, we made a run for it. I still hadn’t got around to turning my phone on, but I decided I wouldn’t bother. It’d be blowing up from all this drama, and the only person I really wanted to talk to was Charlotte anyway.
I know exactly where I’m heading.
“Why hasn’t he called me back?” I asked Han nervously as I chewed on my bottom lip.
I’d called Parker right after I uploaded the photo, but it had gone to voicemail, so then I’d text and apologised for ignoring his calls earlier and to tell him I loved and missed him. But I hadn’t heard back… not one single word.
I was beginning to get worried.
What if I did the wrong thing?
Parker probably had a team of people employed by him to handle this kind of stuff, and he may not have had a publicist right now, but I’m sure he had someone more qualified than I was to sort this mess out.
“He will call,” Hannah tried to soothe me.
“He might not, Han, what if he’s pissed I turned my phone off and didn’t talk about it with him before I took matters into my own hands?”
“The only person here that should be pissed off is you. His crazy ex is the one stirring up trouble. That’s not on you, girl. You just stood up for yourself and your man. I think Parker will be proud.”
“Then why won’t he call me?” I whined. I’d caved after about an hour of waiting and called him twice more, and Hannah had taken my phone away before I got the chance to hit redial again.
“For the love of god, woman, it’s late. He had a show tonight so my guess is he’s either at his appearances, or he’s called it a night. Maybe you should just go to bed and worry about it tomorrow.”
I laughed humourlessly. “You really think I’d be able to sleep right now?”
“A girl can dream,” she muttered. “I could certainly go for some sleep right about now; all this revenge posting has taken the life right out of me.” She yawned.
“Go to bed then,” I encouraged.
“And leave you out here to get all worked up? Uh, uh. I don’t think so.” She shook her head. “Not happening, Little Red.”
“Urgh,” I groaned. “Don’t you start calling me that too.”
She winked at me like a smart-ass. “You don’t like the new ink?” she questioned.
It was actually quite the opposite. Just the thought of him getting marked with a representation of me made me hot, not to mention the fact that it was beautifully done.
I shook my head. “I love the tattoo… it’s the nickname I could take or leave.”
She sighed. “God that’s hot. I wish I had a guy that’d get a shrine to me tattooed into his flesh.”
I snorted.
A shrine.
She’s so damn dramatic.
“Why don’t we watch a movie in bed? There’s no point in just sitting around waiting for a call that probably isn’t coming.”
She had a point. There was every chance that Parker and Jasper were busy and that we wouldn’t hear from them until tomorrow. If I was going to sit here all night, I may as well try to take my mind off him.
“Fine,” I begrudgingly agreed.
I forced myself to get up out of my seat and trudge towards the hallway. It was after one in the morning and I knew I needed to sleep, but I just couldn’t seem to turn my mind off.
Hannah grabbed a DVD from the cabinet and switched off the lights as she followed after me.
We both froze as we heard a key turning in a lock.
Our lock.
“Did you just hear—”
“Shhhh,” Hannah interrupted my whisper. “Grab a weapon,” she hissed.
“I don’t have a fucking weapon,” I hissed back. “I’m a makeup artist, not a ninja.”
“We’re both going to die,” she whispered.
“The bathroom,” I whispered back. “Get to the bathroom, right now!”
The sound of the door handle turning spurred us into action and we dashed for the hallway.
“They’ve got a key… we’re gonna die!” Hannah cried, in full hysteria mode now.
I tugged her into the bathroom and shut the door quietly behind us before securing the lock.
“Call someone,” she pleaded, pointing to the phone in my hand.
Who the hell do I call?
I knew who I wanted to call, but Parker hadn’t been answering. Even still, my thumb scrolled down to his name on its own accord and hit the green call button.
I heard a loud bang in the living room followed by a string of curse words.
I winced and Hannah looked like she was going to pass out.
“It’s ringing,” I whispered to her.
We both scrambled away from the door as a sliver of light came underneath it. Whoever was in our apartment had made th
eir way into our living room.
“Oh fuck,” I breathed. I squeezed my eyes shut tight.
That was when I heard it, ‘Life In The Fast Lane’ by the Eagles.
It was a great song, and it also happened to be Parker’s ringtone.
He’s here.
I exhaled a relieved breath and reached for the lock on the door.
“What the hell are you doing?” Hannah hissed, swatting my hand away.
“It’s Parker,” I hissed back.
“You are bat-shit crazy, woman, he’s not even in town… are you trying to get us killed?”
“It’s Parker for fuck’s sake,” I told her more loudly.
“Shhhhhh.”
“I bet you two grand that it’s Parker,” I told her, as I held her arm back and turned the lock with my free hand.
“I can’t use two grand if I’m dead,” she cried dramatically.
I shoved her to the side and swung the door open.
“Parker?” I called and crept into the hallway. I knew it was him, but my crazy best friend had me on edge.
Hannah slammed the bathroom door shut behind me and I heard the lock turn.
He appeared in the doorway and my god, was he a sight for sore eyes.
“Legs,” he choked out. “I didn’t mean to wake you.”
I heard a sobbing noise and it took me a moment to figure out it came from me.
I was crying. Big fat, ugly tears streamed down my face as all the pent-up emotions from the day, and the stress of thinking we had an intruder overflowed from within me.
“Charlotte,” Parker whispered as he jogged over to me. He scooped me up in his arms as my legs gave way beneath me.
“I… I… could… couldn’t... g… g…get you… on… on the phone,” I stuttered in between sobs.
“It’s okay, baby, I’m here, it’s okay.”
“I hear crying!” Hannah yelled from behind the bathroom door. “Are you being killed?”
I let out a laugh against Parker’s chest that came out sounding like a half sob, half hiccup.
“I told you it was Parker, you fool,” I snivelled.
“How’d he get a key?” Hannah demanded – still in hiding and refusing to believe I wasn’t being murdered.
That was a damn good question.
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