“I can’t do this.”
“What? What can’t you do?”
“I can’t be with you.”
“You can’t be with me? With the one person who actually cares about you?” she shrieked in frustration. “I was ready to give you a chance no matter what you looked like. You get me. I didn’t know you were an actor. I didn’t want you to be famous. It complicates everything.”
“I’m sorry,” he said softly.
“Sorry for what? Being a famous hot guy?” she said, still hoping to lighten his mood a bit.
Unchanging, he said with a scowl, “No, for bringing all this down on you. I know what’s going to happen, and it’s tragic. It’s going to hurt you, and it’s going to hurt me.”
“I’m pretty tough, you know. The only thing that can hurt me right now is you leaving.” Sarah was desperate, and she needed him to understand what his leaving would do to her.
“The only way I can keep you safe is to take those a-holes back to LA with me. I don’t want you to end up like Jack.”
“I won’t,” she pleaded. She knew what was coming next.
“Sarah, I have to go. I booked a flight back at nine fifteen tomorrow. The airport will be busy enough, and I’ll find a way to get some press there. If they see me at the airport, if they see me leave for LA, they’ll stop hunting you. It’s the only way to keep you safe. I’m not going to risk your life. I never should have gotten involved with you. It was wrong.”
“I don’t understand. We’re wr-wrong?” she asked, the words catching in her throat.
“I was wrong to think it could work. I know that now.”
“Yeah, whatever,” she said hopelessly. Sarah thought the last two days had been the best days of her life, and she didn’t know how everything could have changed so quickly. It must have been a lie. Will must not have cared as much for her as he said, or he never would be able to leave.
Sarah began to shut down. She couldn’t deal with this. It was too painful. Her heart screamed at her, but she pushed it deep down to follow her head. If he didn’t care for her, she would have to let him go. There was nothing else she could do. It was better to end it now than prolong it. With an internal protection wall already building inside her, Sarah knew she needed to get away from this agony, to get away from here and distance herself. She calmly asked Jeff to drive Will back to his hotel. She knew she would never be able to drive with tears running down her cheeks, and she knew the tears would be coming soon. With a brave face, she hugged Will good-bye and headed upstairs.
Will didn’t want to bring this rabid animal into Sarah’s life. He knew what would happen if he pursued her, and yet he had done it anyway. He felt guilty and torn by his decision. This was not how he wanted things to end. He didn’t want it to end at all, but he knew she would be better off without him—safer. He’d thought he could handle the paparazzi hunting her, but in reality, he wasn’t ready to sacrifice Sarah. He thought she seemed to understand. She wasn’t even crying.
Will and Jeff headed to the hotel in Jeff’s Jeep.
“So what happened with you and Sarah? For someone who doesn’t want to hurt her, you’re doing a great job of hurting her,” said Jeff.
Earlier in the evening, when Will and Jeff had gone downstairs to get the guitar, Jeff confronted him. He warned him not to hurt his sister. And Will assured Jeff that she meant the world to him, that he would never hurt her, and that he loved Sarah.
“What? What do you mean? She seemed to be handling it pretty well—better than I thought she would, anyway,” said Will. He really thought Sarah understood why he was leaving. Maybe he was just too wrapped up in his own loss that he hadn’t recognized her true reaction.
“You don’t know Sarah, then. She doesn’t get all quiet like that without something really bothering her. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her that upset. So what’s going on?” Jeff asked.
“Well, Jeff, I’m leaving for LA tomorrow.”
“What? I thought you were going to be here all week. I thought she was the love of your life. I don’t understand.”
“She is the love of my life. That’s why I’m going.”
“I don’t get it.” Jeff shook his head.
“If I leave, the paparazzi will stop hunting her. It’s the only way to keep her safe.”
“So Jess and I are left to clean up after you leave? Thanks a lot! I told her not to trust anyone she met on the Internet, especially not a player like you,” Jeff said sharply.
Will looked down, covering his face with his hands in helpless frustration. “Jeff, I don’t want to leave her. I love her. I just don’t know what else to do.”
They sat in silence for the rest of the ride, until the Jeep pulled up in front of the hotel.
“Take care of her, Jeff,” Will said as he grabbed his workout bag and stepped onto the sidewalk.
“Yeah,” Jeff replied, shaking his head again.
Will headed to his suite, exhausted. He felt dead inside and didn’t know if he was doing the right thing by leaving. He didn’t want to hurt Sarah. He wanted to protect her. He was hurting her either way. In the long run, he knew she would be safe, and that was what mattered the most.
The next morning, Sarah was still in bed when she heard a tap on her bedroom door. She had been awake most the night thinking about Will. Her eyes were red and swollen from crying, and she didn’t want to see anyone. She didn’t know how she could trust her own feelings anymore. How could she have let this happen again?
She remembered back to the last time she had felt this awful. Vivid pictures still lingered in her head. It was a warm, sunny afternoon a couple of weeks after her high school graduation. She was supposed to spend the day with her boyfriend, but his dad was forcing him to clean out the garage, and he said it would most likely take all day. So Sarah met up with her girlfriends instead. It was rare for the four girls to have the same day off work, and Sarah was excited. They cruised to a pool party at a friend of Megan’s just outside the city of Stillwater. The gathering was packed with graduates from Megan’s high school, and Megan knew most of them.
After about thirty minutes of mingling in the house, the girls made their way to the backyard, where the music blared and the pool overflowed with barely clothed bodies refreshing themselves in the shimmering blue water. The weather was perfect for a pool party, and the atmosphere was energetic. Out on the wooden deck above the pool, the girls looked down at the chaos below. The slide at the deep end of the large pool was rigged with a garden hose duct-taped at the top, and a couple of guys at the bottom of the water slide were trying to convince a girl that it was safe to use.
Sarah and her friends helped themselves to some drinks from a huge white ice chest that creaked when they opened it. Then they descended down the deck stairs with drinks in hand, into the pandemonium of the poolside. That’s when Megan started to act a bit out of character.
“We should probably get going,” Megan said as she turned her back on the pool like she was hiding from someone.
The girls looked at her as if she were on crack. They were in their suits and eager to hit the water. Besides, Megan never wanted to leave a party, especially when she knew everyone there.
“Why? We just got here. Isn’t Becca supposed to be coming? I haven’t seen her in ages,” questioned Sarah.
“Just trust me, we should go,” Megan insisted as she tried to corral everyone back toward the house.
“What’s up with you? Is Chase here or something?” asked Jessica, and Sarah and Alli chuckled. Chase was Megan’s ex, who she fervently avoided.
As they scanned the pool for Chase, they all spotted what was making Megan act so strangely. Perched on the edge of the pool, near the shallow end, with his feet dangling in the water, sat Matt, Sarah’s boyfriend, and in between his knees stood a cute little brunette with her tongue halfway down his throat. Jessica’s eyes rose to Megan’s, and they both sighed in despair. The girls looked toward Sarah. Sarah just spun around and stormed int
o the house. She was so shocked she couldn’t say anything. She hadn’t expected this. There were no signs that he was unhappy in their relationship. None. She gave him all of her. He was her future, and he’d just thrown her away without warning, as if she meant nothing, as if she was totally expendable.
It was Megan who confronted Matt, and of course, he ran after Sarah. He tried to come up with an explanation, but Sarah refused to listen to his lies. It wasn’t the first time he’d lied to her, and she knew that, but it was the first time she’d caught him cheating. She knew she never would be able to trust him again. She’d thought they were in love, having been together for two years. She couldn’t understand how Matt could do what he had—just disregard their relationship so easily. Or was he so stupid that he’d really thought she would never find out? He can’t really love me like he says and treat me like this, she thought. She felt so betrayed, and she was convinced that she would never trust a guy ever again. Her heart sank deep into the pit of her stomach, weighing down her entire body. She was drained of all feeling, and all she wanted to do was run away from the hurt.
As Sarah lay in bed listening to the rapping on her bedroom door, she felt even worse somehow than she had that day at the pool, and she just wanted to hide. She began to wonder if men naturally possessed an innate ability to lie about their feelings. Will obviously had lied to her about his feelings. Sarah didn’t want to think about either of them anymore—Will or Matt—so she covered her head with a pillow and ignored the knocking.
“I know you’re in there. I can hear you moving around,” the familiar voice called.
“What?” she shrieked, irritated.
“I need to talk to you,” the man continued.
“Go away,” she roared, but she got up anyway and unlocked the door. “What do you want, Jeff?” She pulled the door open and glared at her brother.
“Sarah, I’m pretty sure he’s in love with you.”
She scowled at him murderously, thinking he was being sarcastic. “Get out of here!”
“Just hear me out. I’ve been thinking about it all night. There are only two reasons a guy would fly across the country for a girl. The first one is that he wants sex”—he raised his eyebrow and looked at his sister—“but you said you didn’t.” Jeff apologetically stuck out his hands, palms up, and continued. “If he’d come for sex, he would never leave if he thought that he still had a chance to get some. Besides, I’m pretty sure he could have any supermodel he wanted, so that’s not his motivation.”
“Thanks. You’re really making me feel better, Jeff,” she snarled sarcastically.
“The other reason is love. Sarah, he loves you. He told me last night in the car.”
“Well, he has a funny way of showing it, doesn’t he?” she questioned bitterly, but as she thought about it, she realized that Will wasn’t using her. He was the one who had wanted to take it slow. What would he be using me for? she thought.
“I think he’s just scared—scared you’re going to get killed like his brother. It sounds like Jack’s death really messed him up.”
“Jack. That would explain it. I can’t imagine how messed up I’d be if I thought I’d killed my brother.” She met Jeff’s eyes. “It would end me.” She paused as she considered his theory with all that had happened last night. “Did he really say he loves me?”
“Yeah. He had no reason to lie to me. He doesn’t want to leave you, Sarah. He just thinks it’s his only option to keep you safe.”
“I know his brother’s death must have screwed him up, but we always have options,” she said with a renewed sense of hope. “I’ll be downstairs in ten minutes. Would you drive me to the airport?” It would save time if she didn’t have to park.
“Anything you need, sis,” Jeff pledged.
Jeff drove Sarah to the airport, but he wasn’t willing to leave her there, so he dropped her off at the terminal and promised to keep driving around the loop until she called. She was going to find Will before his plane boarded.
Right away, she checked the departure boards, and luckily, there was only one flight to Los Angeles around nine fifteen—Flight 2921 at Gate G22. Sarah knew she had only two options. Since she couldn’t enter the concourse without a boarding pass, she could stand in line and buy a plane ticket. It would give her the most time to look for Will if she was able to get through the line quickly, but it would cost money, which she was short on. Besides, once he got to the concourse, he could easily disappear into the VIP waiting area. The other option would be to wait for him by the security checkpoint. He would have to go through it in order to get to his plane. This would be easier, but Sarah was afraid she might have already missed him. She didn’t know what to do, so she said a quick prayer and looked for a good place to plant herself.
She picked a bench that had a clear view of the security area and sat down to wait. As she waited, she thought. She thought about the last three months. She thought about what Will had said last night. She thought about how she felt when she was with him. She thought about how electric his touch was and how being next to him made her feel fearless. Sarah wasn’t sure what she was going to say to Will when she did find him, but she knew she couldn’t just let him leave.
It wasn’t long before she heard a loud commotion approaching the gate. The MSP airport was crowded for a Sunday morning, and at first, she couldn’t see what was causing the ruckus. Then as it got closer, she could see three guys with cameras yelling at someone who was doing his best to ignore them. There was a constant stream of flashes coming from all directions. In the middle of the commotion was Will, and he had Sam. He was carrying his guitar case and a small carry-on bag. The group advanced fast. As they approached, she could make out what was being said.
“Jonathan, do you think Mia will take you back after your weekend lovefest?”
“Who is this new girl, Jon? Just another conquest?”
“One in every city, huh, Jon?”
Sarah tried to get Will’s attention, but the paparazzi were too loud. Fans with cell phones raised huddled around the periphery, growing the mass, like a swarm of killer bees picking up energy as it moved down the corridor. Sarah couldn’t get close. As Will loaded his belongings into the tub on the conveyer belt and removed his shoes, Sarah became desperate.
“Will, don’t leave!” she shouted.
“Look! It’s the Birthday Girl!” someone with a camera called.
“What’s your name, sugar? How long have you known Jonathan?” asked the guy with a goatee wearing a Twins baseball cap.
“What’s he like in bed?” asked another.
Sarah was doing her best to ignore the comments being shouted at her. All she cared about was stopping Will. She knew she could get through anything if he stayed, but she wasn’t sure he would. She stretched up on tiptoe, hoping to see any sign of her prince, but he’d vanished. Her heart plummeted. He was gone.
Will felt relieved when he made it past the scanner and had finally escaped the paparazzi, but then he heard Sarah’s desperate cry. Will’s head snapped toward her voice. He glimpsed her frightened eyes just as the photographers engulfed her. He couldn’t see her anymore. Her small frame had been completely swallowed.
He swore under his breath as he turned to Sam.
“I have to go save her.” He grabbed his shoes and sprinted for the exit door. “Can you get my stuff?” he yelled over his shoulder to Sam as he pulled on his shoes.
As he broke through the circle of press, he wrapped his protective arms around her, and she dissolved into his chest. He couldn’t believe he had let this happen. Here she was, in the exact situation he had been trying to avoid.
Sarah looked up at him with innocence and urgency. “Please stay.”
“You are so brave,” he uttered in staccato, then kissed the top of her head. “But you don’t know what you’re getting yourself into being seen with me.”
“I don’t care. I couldn’t let you leave.”
He squeezed her in closer. “I g
uess it doesn’t make sense to leave at this point. They’re never going to leave you alone.” He pulled the brim of his cap down over his eyes and stared off in the direction of the security checkpoint.
“Jeff is waiting outside,” she whispered as she took out her phone.
“Great, let’s go,” Will said, spying Sam approaching.
When Sam joined them with the guitar case and the carry-on bags, Will filled him in on the change of plans. Sam held on to the bags and handed Will the pocket items he’d left in the bin. Will carefully fitted the dark sunglasses from Sam on Sarah’s face. He knew her picture had already been captured, but he didn’t want her any more exposed. They quietly discussed the logistics of the new plans as Sam maneuvered their way out to the curb. The paparazzi were still snapping pictures as they all climbed into Jeff’s SUV.
They were almost at the point where the airport loop met the freeway when Will announced, “Can we go back to the airport? Sam, I think you can still make the flight. I would hate for you to be stranded here without luggage. Besides, we’ll lay low, find somewhere to hide out that’s not Sarah’s house. It’s idiotic to have you sitting around a hotel room when you could be home with your wife and boys. The photographers wouldn’t have been at the airport if I hadn’t tipped them off, and I really just needed you for the concert. I’ll be careful.”
“Hmm. If you’re sure,” Sam said with reluctance.
Jeff pulled the SUV into the left lane to follow the road back around to the passenger loading area again. They dropped off Sam to catch his flight and then headed toward Sarah’s house in the suburbs.
“I made the loop six times before your call,” Jeff confessed. “So what now?”
“I think Will and I are going to spend a few days up at the lake to get away from the cities,” said Sarah.
“OK, but all I have in my carry-on is some T-shirts and a week’s worth of underwear,” Will said with a chuckle. “My underwear is always the first thing to disappear out of my checked bag, so I always carry it with me. Do you think I could borrow some things from you, Jeff?”
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