Release: A Ransom Novel

by Rachel Schurig

  I turn the deadbolt, and the handle, and Reed stumbles into the room. Apparently, he had been leaning on the door. But I catch him before he can fall to the ground, wrapping my arms around him and kissing him as hard as I can.

  I’m vaguely aware of the catcalls and cheers from the girls in the hallway, of Karen trying to push them away from the door so she can close it again. But I don’t care about any of that. All I care about it is the man in my arms, the man who came all this way to tell me how he feels, who wasn’t afraid to be honest with me even when a crowd of fans surrounded him and a locked door stood between us.

  “I love you,” he says against my mouth. “I should have said that back at the hotel, when you told me.”

  “It’s okay.”

  “It’s not. I hurt you and I did it for stupid reasons.” He pulls back enough to look down at me. “Your willingness to forgive is a great quality, but you don’t have to forgive me yet. I know how much I messed up. I expect to do a lot of groveling.”

  “You don’t have to grovel.” I’m laughing and crying at the same time. “Do you really love me?”

  “Of course, I do.”

  “Um, guys?” Karen says and we spring apart. I had almost forgotten she was there. While we were kissing she somehow managed to get all the girls back in the hallway and shut the door.

  “Sorry, Karen,” I say sheepishly. “Uh, do you think maybe...”

  She shakes her head. “I think I’ll go down to Mellie’s room for a little bit. Give you some privacy.” She gives me a very stern look. “You call me if you need anything.” It’s obvious, from the way she looks at him, that she still doesn’t trust Reed.

  “I will,” I assure her. She looks at me for a long minute before finally smiling. She shakes her head as she leaves, muttering something about unchartered territory. “Move, girls,” I hear her shouting, and I wonder how of them have gathered in our hallway.

  “This isn’t exactly the most private setting,” I tell Reed.

  “I don’t care.” His brown eyes are warm and untroubled—in fact, he seems amazingly free of stress. For once, his shoulders aren’t hunched under responsibility, his face not tight with worry.

  “You look different.”

  “I feel different.”

  I have a million questions for him; I barely know where to start. Mostly I just want to kiss him some more. I can’t believe he’s actually here.

  “Oh my God, Reed, what about the premiere?” I gasp.

  He shakes his head. “I’m ditching.”

  “You can’t ditch! You never ditch!”

  “I figured it was time to try new things.”

  “But what about…” I don’t want to say her name, don’t even want to think about her, but Reed seems to sense what I’m getting at.

  “I had a really nice talk with my brothers. They told me that I was getting things mixed up—worrying too much about work when what I really cared about was whether or not they were happy.”

  “Well, geez, Reed, I could have told you that.”

  He chuckles, kissing me again, quickly. “Yeah, well, somehow I never put two and two together. They told me something else.”

  “What’s that?”

  “They told me that the only thing I could do to make them happy is to try to be happy myself.”

  I feel a little weepy again. For all of their fighting and their swagger I don’t think I’ve ever met a family that loves each other as much as the Ransome boys.

  “So, I thought about the thing that would make me most happy in the whole world,” he whispers, leaning his head foreword to rest it against mine. “And then I immediately bought a ticket to Nashville.”

  “You’re going to make me cry.” I bury my head in his shirt and he laughs softly.

  “No more crying. I’m supposed to be working on making you happy, remember?”

  “I am happy,” I cry, a few tears slipping down my cheek anyhow. Reed brushes them away with his thumbs before kissing me again. His lips are gentle at first but grow more insistent as he pulls me closer to his chest.

  “I love you,” he whispers against my mouth. “I’m so sorry.”

  “I can’t believe you ditched work for me. You never ditch work.”

  He kisses my lips, my cheeks, my forehead, my eyelids; slowly, as if he’s trying to memorize every bit of me. “You’re worth it, Paige. You’re totally worth it.”

  Suddenly his kisses aren’t enough. I want to feel his skin, want his hands all over me. I’ve wanted him since Mexico, a slow, steady burn that I’ve buried so deep I almost convinced myself it didn’t exist. I slip his leather jacket from his shoulders, clutching at the t-shirt below. He’s exactly the way I remember—the smooth feel of his muscles, the scent of him. He hasn’t shaved today, and something about the scratchiness against my skin makes me even crazier.

  “Is this okay?” he asks, breaking the kiss long enough to look over his shoulder at the door.

  I reach behind him and lock it, grinning. “Karen won’t come back. We have a friend code. Boy plus locked door means get lost.”

  But now that we’ve broken apart, his eyes seem to focus on the room for the first time. He smiles, turning in a little circle. “So. This is Paige Brennen’s dorm room.”

  “It is.” I point at the bed. “And there’s Paige Brennen’s bed. Let’s check it out.”

  “Hang on,” he laughs, walking over to my desk. “It’s not every day I get the chance for this much insight into that head of yours.”

  I cross my arms. “The insight will still be there later, you know.”

  He smirks, circling the room, picking up throw pillows and candles, examining the little drawings hung up around my desk. “You did these?”

  “I did.”

  “I knew you were talented,” he mutters, leaning in for a closer look. “All those little doodles you draw on everything.”

  “I’m talented in other ways, too.” I waggle my eyebrows at him, patting the bed behind me. He laughs and moves to cross to me when something attracts his attention on Karen’s desk.

  “Project Get Over Reed?” he asks, picking up the white board. Shit.

  “Yeah, uh, Karen was helping me with that.”

  He looks up at me, his face a battle between guilt and what I can only assume is amusement at our color-coded schedule. “I think we can erase this now, right? ’Cause there’s not going to be any getting over Reed. Not ever.”

  “I’d like to get over Reed’s naked body if he’d just move it to the bed.”

  He throws his head back and laughs. “Oh, I missed you.”

  “Then come here already.”

  He finally acquiesces, crossing to me in two long strides and taking me in his

  arms. “Where were we?”

  I settle into his arms, smiling up at him. “Right here feels pretty good.”

  He moves quickly after that, thank God, pulling me back onto the bed. He reaches for the waistband of my pajama bottoms. I only manage to hold still by reminding myself it wouldn’t be very lady-like to push his hands away, even if I can undress faster. When his fingers still on my stomach, I look down, ready to throw lady-like to the wind if he doesn’t hurry up.

  But he’s frozen, staring at the wall behind me with a weird expression on his face.

  “What?” I ask, trying to turn under his weight so I can see what he’s looking at. In the position of honor over my headboard is a Ransom poster, the same one that’s graced my walls for the past three years.

  I can’t suppress the giggle that builds in my throat. Am I seriously about to have sex with Reed Ransome in my dorm room bed under a poster of his face?

  “That’s it,” he says, standing up and pulling me with him. “Phase two is going to have to begin earlier than planned.”

  I frown up at him, bewildered. “Phase two? What happened to the fun time on my bed? I liked that phase.”

  “I cannot have sex in front of that,” he says, pointing at the wall in disgust.<
br />
  “Why?” I snuggle up to him. “It’s kind of hot, actually. Like a fantasy come to life.”

  He places his hands on either side of my face. “I plan to fulfill every one of your fantasies, Paige. But my brothers are in that picture. There’s no way it’s happening. I’m not dropping trou in front of Cash, even if it is just a picture.”

  I snort. I hadn’t really thought of that. I’d only had eyes for Reed for so long now.

  “But it’s okay,” he assures me, kissing the tip of my nose. “Like I said, phase two will just have to start early.”

  “What’s phase two?”

  “I’m thinking camping,” he says thoughtfully. “Do you know I’ve never been camping? I definitely think that’s something we should rectify. You have camping in Tennessee, right?”

  “Hang on.” I had assumed we’d have a quickie and then head back to join the band on tour—how were we going camping?

  As if reading my mind, he touches his forehead to mine. “We have four days, Paige. Four whole days, just you and me. And I want to spend every minute of it on an adventure.”

  “How do you have four days?” The band is scheduled for shows in Los Angeles and San Diego in the next four days, not to mention the premiere Reed is about to miss.

  “I have four days because I’m taking four days,” he says, looking deep into my eyes. “We have plenty of musician friends in L.A. to fill in for me for a few shows. Cash is taking care of it—besides, I’m just the drummer.” He winks. “No one will even notice I’m gone.”

  “Wait—you’re missing shows?”

  He grins. “I’ve never missed a show. Never missed a rehearsal or an interview or a photo shoot or a meeting. Never took a sick day. Never played hooky, not ever. I think I’m due, don’t you?”

  “But…but…” I’m spluttering, completely shocked by this revelation. It’s about the most un-Reed thing I’ve ever heard. “What about your dad?”

  “He can deal with it.”

  I try to push down the thought that his dad will kill him. “What about your brothers?”

  He pauses, his face suddenly serious. “They’ll be fine. I know they will.”

  “Reed, you do not have to do this. You don’t have to, like, prove something to me. You don’t need to make amends by skipping your shows, okay? I’m fine, I promise.”

  He shakes his head, smiling. “It’s not to make amends, Paige. It’s to make me happy. I think I deserve to do something just because it makes me happy, don’t you?”

  Well, how on earth can I argue with that?

  He leans into me, whispering in my ear, making my skin erupt in the most fantastic goose bumps. “You know what makes me happy?”

  “What?” I whisper, captivated by the sound of his voice, the nearness of him.

  “You. You make me happy. Finding some ridiculous, unexpected adventure just for the hell of it makes me happy. I want that, Paige.”

  I swallow, completely overwhelmed, ready to burst into tears at any minute. “Phase two?”

  He laughs. “Phase two.”

  He releases me to walk to my closet, pulling my still packed duffle bag from the floor. “What do you need?” he asks. He sounds different—almost giddy. “Do you have any camping supplies? Or should we wing it?”

  “We could go shopping,” I say, my own enthusiasm building. I’ve always thought a shopping trip is the best way to start a trip. “There’s a twenty-four hour supermarket nearby.”

  His eyes gleam at me across the room. “Shopping sounds fun. Can I get goldfish crackers? I love goldfish crackers.”

  I feel like jumping up and down, like squealing and clapping my hands. “You can get whatever you want so long as I can. Karen never lets me get whatever I want.”

  He laughs, throwing the bag on the bed. “We’ll let’s get a move on, if we’re going to shop.”

  I hurry to pack my things, Reed helping me. “How close are we to Pigeon Ford?” he asks, shoving a sweatshirt into the bag.

  “Why?”

  “Apparently they have an Elvis Museum. I thought we might want to check it out.”

  For some reason, that’s the thing that pushes me over the edge. I burst into tears, throwing myself into his arms.

  “I love you,” I cry, and he laughs softly into my hair.

  “I love you, Paige. We’re going to have the best time.”

  I squeeze him tight, knowing that he’s right. I can see it stretched out before us—adventures and exploring and laughing and fun-just-for-the-hell-of-it. Trusting each other. Loving each other. Every single day.

  Karen would probably warn me against building up a fantasy so fast in my head, but I don’t care—because Reed Ransome is the real thing.

  And I have a feeling there’s not a single fantasy, no matter how outlandish, that we won’t make come true. Together.

  The End

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