“Would you have pursued me if you’d known I was famous?”
Would he have? He wanted to be honest with her. “I would have fought my attraction to you because what happened out there is everything I don’t want. I like my privacy. I like being invisible.”
She laughed. Not the laugh that comes from a joke, but the laugh spurred on by disbelief. “Dalton, you’re lying to yourself if you think you’ve ever been invisible.”
“Well, it looks like we’ve both been lying to ourselves and to each other.” He risked inching forward. If he saw any apprehension or fear in her body language, he’d move back, but he saw none.
“I lie to myself all the time.” Her voice became whisper soft. “I tell myself that I love what I do. I tell myself that I can make it another year. I tell myself that I’ll be fine.” She burst into tears. “I’m not fine.”
He couldn’t stand the distance any longer. He moved closer and pulled her into his lap.
She curled into him. Maybe her grief was greater than her fear, but he loved how she clung to his body.
“Tell me more.” He figured if he could get her talking, then maybe when she was finished, she’d be willing to listen.
“I love it here. For the first time in my life, I felt like I fit.”
“Sweetheart, you fit.” He pressed a kiss to the top of her head.
“It seems like I’ve been on the road for a decade. I’m tired, Dalton. I’m tired of being Indigo.”
“Indigo isn’t here; Samantha is, and she has a heart of gold. She’s kind and forgiving. Last night, she let a stalker go free because she said everyone deserves a second chance.” He lifted her chin so she had to look at him. “I’m part of everyone.” He pulled her tight against his chest. “Give me a second chance.”
She cried until his shirt was wet. “I’m sorry. You’re right. Tell me your story.”
He lifted her up and carried her to the couch. “I’ll make some tea. Stay put.” She nodded and tucked her tiny body into the corner. He pulled the soft throw she had folded over the arm and covered her.
While he was in the kitchen, he pulled his phone from his pocket and dialed the sheriff. “We’ve got a situation at Samantha’s. We need to circle the wagons.”
With two cups of tea ready, he returned. It crushed him to see her eyes red and swollen. He promised himself he’d stop at nothing to put a smile back on her face.
They sat in silence for minutes while he built up the courage to talk about a time he wished he could forget.
“Six years ago, I was in Denver at a bar called The Empty Keg. It’s a dive bar, but it was close to school. On Fridays and Saturdays, the alcohol was cheap. I was playing pool with my buddies when I saw some guy grab a woman by the arm and drag her outside. They had been arguing off and on all night. He had been harassing her for attention. She ignored him. He didn’t like the word no.”
Dalton closed his eyes and relived the moment that changed his life.
“No one did anything. Everyone saw what was going on. It was obvious they weren’t a couple. He’d been trying to pick her up all night, without luck.” He opened his eyes and looked at Samantha, whose face was unreadable. “She fought him all the way out the door. She begged and pleaded for him to let her go. It was like listening to my mother when my father pulled her by her hair across the yard. I couldn’t stand by and watch. I rushed out to help. By the time I got to her, he’d already punched her once. Told her she asked for it.” He shook his head. “No woman asks for it.” He set his tea down and tucked his fists under his legs. The replay always upset him. No matter how hard he tried, he could never come up with a different ending. “As the asshole wound up for another hit, I stepped in. He turned around and swung at me, connecting with my stomach. I hit him once. He never got back up.”
When he looked at Samantha, fresh tears were running down her cheeks. Through a shaky voice, she asked, “You only hit him once?”
“That’s all it took. Those six seconds got me six years in prison.”
She set her cup down and pulled him close. It was time for her to comfort him. He was grateful for the gesture. She tugged and pulled at him until his head was in her lap.
“It sounds like self-defense.” She ran her hand through his hair.
“That’s what my lawyer pled, but a man was dead. There were lots of witnesses saying I hit him. No one saw him hit me.”
“What about the girl?”
“She testified. It’s probably why I got the minimum sentence.” He remembered the judge’s words verbatim. “A ‘heat-of-passion’ crime provoked by something that caused an ordinary person to become angry and act irrationally by killing someone.” He let out a shaky breath and rubbed his head into her lap like a puppy craving attention.
“You gave me hints.” She stroked his cheek with affection. “I’m so sorry I didn’t listen.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you right away. I thought about it, but everyone told me I shouldn’t come out of the gate with ‘I’m an ex-felon.’”
Despite the sorrow, she giggled. “That was probably wise counsel.”
“We’re both guilty of wanting someone to see us for who we are, and not who society has made us out to be.”
“Where do we go from here?” she asked.
To bed, Dalton’s inner voice screamed. If only they could go back an hour, he’d make love to her again and ignore the knock at the door. Despite the turn of events, he was relieved that the truth was finally out. Brutal as it was, he was still here with her. She wasn’t shaking with fear but touching him with compassion.
This next part was going to kill him, but he knew it needed to be done. She came to Aspen Cove for clarity. She’d never get it if he was around. Their relationship was anything but clear. All he knew was that he wanted her, but he wouldn’t keep her if it wasn’t in her best interests.
She had a reputation to uphold. Last night when he’d looked up her music, he read more than once that she was America’s sweetheart. The reporter’s voice echoed in his head. “Indigo! How do you think your fans will respond to your relationship with Dalton Black, a convicted killer?” Samantha might be willing to forgive, but the press would never forget. He didn’t want that for her. He didn’t want it for himself.
He rolled to a sitting position. His body glued to her side. “You came here to get your thoughts straight. You wanted to find yourself. You won’t be able to do that with all this noise around you.” Her look of defeat told him he was right.
“I called the sheriff. He should get rid of the crowd.”
“Thank you.” She leaned her head on his chest and sighed.
“I’m going to leave you.”
Her hands gripped his shirt like he was a lifeline. “I don’t want to be alone.”
“I don’t want to leave you alone, but I know if I’m here, my presence won’t give you the space you need to think and make sound decisions.”
Her voice cracked with emotion. “I know you’re right, but I hate it.”
“I know I’m right, and for what it’s worth, I hate it too. But I’ll do it because I … care.”
He saw the words he wanted to say on her lips, She had fallen in love with him too, but he couldn’t say them, or let her say them. If he heard the words or said them and couldn’t have her, it would crush him. Instead, he pressed his lips softly to hers before he rose from the couch and went into the bedroom for his shoes.
When he came back, she was still sitting in the corner of the couch, staring into space.
“You’re really leaving me?” Her wavering voice tugged at his heart.
“Not for good. Just for now.” He pulled a smile from deep inside himself. “I’m free-birding you, baby.”
She cocked her head. “You’re what?”
“I’m letting you go. If you come back, I know it was meant to be.” He pulled on his boots and put on his coat. “I texted the girls and told them you needed support.”
She nodded. When he
opened the front door, he saw that the press had been pushed back to the street. Sheriff Cooper walked toward him.
“You okay?”
“Not really.” Dalton looked beyond him to where the reporters pulled long lenses from their bags.
“I can keep them off her property, not off the street. I’ll send Mark over to keep an eye on things until it all settles down.” He adjusted his hat and looked at the ground. “I looked her up. She’s a big deal.”
“She’s everything.”
Chapter Twenty
The buzzing of her phone was relentless. Since only her mother and Deanna had the number, she had to look. She padded barefoot back to her room and sank onto her bed. Dalton’s pillow cradled her head. It smelled like pine trees and pure man, like him.
She looked at the lit screen to see a dozen messages from Deanna all with the subject: Trouble.
Understatement. She pulled up her assistant’s number and pressed call to connect. Deanna answered immediately.
“Oh. My. God. It’s all over the news. Are you okay? Did they arrest him? Sweetie, it’s not your fault.”
“What?”
“The news said you were harboring a criminal.” She heard the tap tap of a keyboard in the background. “Holy smokes. He’s hot.”
“They put his picture up?” She wanted to die right then. Not only had her career ruined her chance at a normal life, it had taken Dalton’s peaceful existence away.
“Are you safe?”
“I was never in danger.” Her stomach twisted from the guilt of cowering from him. The look on his face when she crawled into the corner of the room would slice her to pieces each time she remembered it. “It’s not what it seems.”
Those were his exact words, and she didn’t listen to him. Why would anyone listen to her?
“We’ve got a lot of PR work to do. This is a huge mess. Dave Belton has called at least ten times in the last hour. I’m supposed to tell you you’re in breach of contract. Something about protecting your image.”
“Dave Belton can screw himself. He’s all talk and no action.”
Deanna let out a groan. “He’s acting. He told me for each day you don’t return, he’s firing a member of your team.”
Samantha shook her head to clear it. “How is that supposed to help? Let’s say I come back next week. What do I come back to if my team is gone? Has he fired anyone else but you?”
Her silence was the answer. “Cohen got the ax thirty minutes ago.”
“What?” Cohen was the best sound technician out there. “Hire him and give him a raise.”
Deanna laughed. “Okay, but he doesn’t get as much as me. He only gets ten percent.”
“Fine.” Her life was falling apart. She didn’t need the extra bullshit Dave Belton was dishing out. She knew what his next game would be. He’d tell her how her career image was ruined, but if she stayed with him, he’d turn it all around.
“Are you coming back?”
The smart answer would have been yes, but the honest answer was no. “I can’t. I’m not done here yet.”
“You’re in love with him, aren’t you?”
Saying it out loud made it real. “Yes. He’s not the man they say he is.”
“I’m sorry I jumped to conclusions. The press rarely gets it right. You want me to put out a statement?”
“Not yet.”
“Poor guy probably only has a parking ticket.”
It wasn’t funny, but Samantha couldn’t stop the laughter bubbling inside her. “No, he killed someone.”
“Okay, so you’re in shock. A statement isn’t probably wise. Have you distanced yourself?”
Samantha stood up and peeked between the cracks of the blinds of her bedroom window. Across the street, the paparazzi lay in wait. Unless she stayed a prisoner in her cabin, she would never get the peace and quiet she craved.
“He free-birded me.”
“What? What does that mean?”
She walked through the house, pulling all the curtains and blinds closed. “Oh you know, that crap about loving someone and setting them free.”
“I’m confused. He’s a killer, but you love him anyway. He loves you, but because you’re a rich, sexy pop star, he let you go?”
“Something like that.” Samantha gave Deanna a shortened version of Dalton’s story.
“Oh …” Deanna’s said with a dreamy voice. “I may be in love with him too.”
“Find your own felon. He’s mine.” She’d come to Aspen Cove to find something. She thought it was clarity, but the only thing she was clear about was how much she loved Dalton Black.
A soft knock sounded at the door.
“I have to go.”
“Wait, is there anything else I can do?”
“Make sure my band and crew know they have jobs. Other than that, keep an eye out about what people are posting. I refuse to let my fame ruin a good man.”
“Got it, Boss.”
On the next round of knocks, Samantha peeked out the peephole to see Sage, Katie, and baby Sahara on her doorstep.
She opened it a crack and disappeared behind the door so the press wouldn’t snap her photo while her friends entered.
“Thanks for coming. I hope I didn’t take you away from anything.”
“You saved me. Doc can deal with that case of hemorrhoids by himself. No one should see that before lunch.” Sage opened her purse and took out candy bar after candy bar. She picked up the peanut butter cups and handed them to Samantha. “These are particularly helpful in a time of crisis.”
Samantha took the candy gratefully. She’d been shaking for the last half an hour. It could have been nerves or low blood sugar. “What about you?” She looked at Katie. “Shouldn’t you be at the bakery?”
Katie walked over to the chair by the couch and sat down. Her diaper bag fell on the floor. She reached inside and took out a box of muffins. “That’s the beauty of owning something. No one can tell you what, when, or how to do anything. Besides, Ben was happy to take over.”
Sage and Samantha took positions on opposite ends of the couch.
Sage leaned in and looked at Samantha closely. “Yep, you’re her. I didn’t recognize you without the blue hair.”
Katie pulled a bottle from her bag to feed Sahara. “I knew right away. Why do you think I saddled her with that song on karaoke night?”
“Which, by the way, you killed,” Sage added. “Every man in that room envied Dalton.”
“Is anyone looking after Dalton?” Samantha knew he was trying to protect her, but who was protecting him?
“He took off on his bike,” Katie said. “He’s a private person. He needed to get away.”
“From me.” That blade of guilt cut deeper, making her hemorrhage inside.
“He’d never leave you unless he thought it was what was best for you.” Katie lifted the baby to her shoulder and patted her back until she released a belch twice as big as she was. “She burps like her daddy.”
“Why does everyone think they know what’s best for me? When do I get to choose for myself?” That fire of fury burned inside her. All her life her choices were taken away. First by an abusive father that kept her mother and her on the run for years. Next it was her manager, who thought he could strong-arm her into submission. Now it was Dalton, who walked out of her life because he thought it best.
“Choose now and choose us.” Sage took the peanut butter cups from Samantha. “If you’re not going to eat these, I will.” She tore open the wrapper and hummed at the first bite.
Samantha threw her hands into the air. “Will life ever be easy?”
Katie passed Sahara to Sage and stood in front of Samantha, where she pulled her T-shirt up to reveal a scar that ran the length of her chest. “Not easy, but worth it.” She flopped back into her seat and told Samantha her story. She covered everything from her illness to her donor heart to Bowie, and then Sahara. “If you want it, you have to fight for it. Sometimes you have to take scary steps to get what
you want.”
Samantha wanted to crawl under the couch with the dust bunnies—she felt as useless as one. “I asked him to leave before he explained. He wouldn’t leave. He fought for me.”
“Will you fight for him?” Katie asked.
Would she? “Without a doubt—but then what happens to us? We have such different lives.”
Sage bounced the chubby baby on her knee. “You think Cannon and I were anything alike? Opposites attract, and if you don’t kill each other falling in love, it’s a beautiful thing.”
“I’m such an idiot.”
“Only if you let someone amazing slip away,” Sage said.
“You guys have to go.”
They both looked at her in surprise.
“You want us to leave?” Katie asked.
“I’m texting Dalton. If you want to be here when I ask him to forgive me and take me to bed, then you can stay. If not you should go, but before you do, I want to tell you both how much I value your friendship and advice.” Samantha rolled to her feet and hugged both of them before she herded them toward the door.
The paparazzi snapped pictures right away. This time, Samantha didn’t hide behind the door or her friends. It was time to fight. She stepped out with Sage and Katie, who looked at each other and laughed before they gave the press the bird.
She leaned over the rail and pointed to the only reporter she recognized and told him to come forward. He looked at her with skepticism. Sitting to the side of her house was the deputy sheriff.
She walked to the cruiser and told him she needed to see one particular reporter. He exited his SUV and escorted the man to her.
“What’s up, Indigo?”
“Ray, you’ve always been fair to me. If I give you an exclusive interview, will you continue to be fair to me? Most importantly, you need to be fair to Dalton.”
“You’re going to give me an exclusive?”
“Yes.”
“Do you know how famous that will make me?”
“Be careful, fame isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.”
“Can I quote you?”
“Yes.” Wasn’t it time to be honest with herself and everyone around her? Her statement would anger many people. Most would trade their lives for hers. She’d trade everything she had for another night with Dalton. “I’ll call you when I’m ready to talk.”
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