Dropping The Ball: A New Year’s Billionaire Romance

by Weston Parker

  He got it on camera. Fuck. My. Life.

  Chapter 30

  RYLEE

  “It’s looking great, Ry!” Jules cheered from the first row. It was just the two of us in the performing arts center this afternoon. He had insisted on running through everything by ourselves before I went back to rehearsing with the rest of the cast.

  “Thanks.” I beamed at him. “Feels great, too.”

  Having this opportunity to practice by myself, to literally stretch my legs without having an audience, meant the world to me. I’d been telling him so all afternoon.

  “Should we go through it one more time?” I asked, using my hand to shield my eyes against the few lights that had been left on for us.

  My heart leaped when I realized it was no longer just the two of us. There were two other figures sitting a few rows behind Jules, silently watching me with their arms crossed protectively over their chests.

  What the hell are Carter and my brother doing here? I waved at them, moving toward the side of the stage, but Jules interrupted me. “Where do you think you’re going? I thought we were doing it again.”

  I hesitated. I wanted to talk to Carter more than anything, to throw myself into his arms and apologize for freaking out on him. I was completely in love with him and it felt like everyone knew it but him by now. It was way past time for me to be honest about how I felt—and about everything else.

  While I had been honest with him about it before, I hadn’t quite opened up about the extent of my fears or how they might affect him in the long run. We needed to have that conversation.

  After I apologize.

  On the other hand, getting the center to myself like this didn’t happen often. Jules had pulled some serious strings to close the place down for us for the afternoon, and he’d gone through the effort of compiling a recording of everyone else’s parts in the show.

  I couldn’t just put a stop to it now, especially not because I felt my confidence returning with every line I sang. There were no tingles in my legs when I danced, and everything was coming more and more naturally.

  When I met Carter’s gaze, even across the distance and even though I had to squint to get a proper look at him, I saw the nod he gave me. Billy shot me a thumbs-up by his side.

  Inhaling deeply, I brought the microphone back to my mouth. “Don’t you dare move before I’m done.”

  Jules spun around, finally realizing we weren’t alone anymore. He laughed before turning back to me. “Show off a little, will ya? Billy hears people singing for a living and Carter will be bursting at the seams by the time you’re done.”

  My brother made a gagging sound, but Jules just laughed again and gave them a shrug. “What? It’s true. You didn’t see him in my office that day, and this is a thousand times more impressive. Let’s go, sunshine. I ain’t got all day.”

  I heard Carter’s deep, smooth voice rumbling through the space between us. “I’m not going anywhere.”

  Instead of shielding my eyes again so I could look at him and pour my heart out right from this stage, I gave them the performance they all wanted to see. It was their way of showing me that they supported me, that they were checking in on me and were here for me, and I wanted to show them that I still deserved that support. I still had this in me, even if I was still a little scared of falling flat on my face again.

  When I got to “I’m Not That Girl,” I remembered singing it to Carter in bed that night. I remembered how I’d felt and how worried I’d been. I also remembered thinking that sometimes, no one would really mourn the wicked.

  Maybe it was selfish of me—wicked even—but now I couldn’t help wondering if perhaps I was that girl. If what Billy had been saying was true—and I had no reason to doubt him—Carter had been mourning for me and for us just as much as I had been.

  If I was really lucky, maybe I could be that girl for him. Just for him. Forever.

  “Hands touch, eyes meet.” I started the iconic song, my eyes on the spot where I’d seen him just a minute before. The lights were in my eyes again, but I knew he would still be there. “Sudden silence, sudden heat. Hearts leap in a giddy whirl. He could be that boy. But I’m not that girl.”

  “Don’t dream too far,” I went on, a pang in my heart when I thought back to how firmly I’d believed these words when I’d sung them to him the first time. “Don’t dream too far. Don’t lose sight of who you are. Don’t remember that rush of joy. He could be that boy. I’m not that girl.”

  I didn’t think I’d ever be able to forget the rush of joy when he’d first kissed me back, though. When he’d first looked at me like I was the only person he could see.

  A montage of memories of us, from now and from then, played through my mind while I finished the song. By the time I sang the last note, my eyes were wet but my heart was happy.

  Carter and I could survive this, and we would. If not even a decade apart could keep us from being nothing to each other, this wouldn’t do it either.

  When I got to the last song of the first act, “Defying Gravity,” I was all in. My doubts, worries, and fears weren’t forgotten, but I wouldn’t let them hold me back anymore.

  I sang the words straight at him, even though I still couldn’t see him. “Something has changed within me. Something is not the same. I’m through with playing by the rules of someone else’s game. Too late for second-guessing. Too late to go back to sleep. It’s time to trust my instincts. Close my eyes and leap!”

  “It’s time to try defying gravity. I think I’ll try defying gravity.”

  That’s enough. I needed to sort this thing between us out now. No more waiting. I thought back to the promise we’d made one another so many nights ago.

  After setting the microphone back in its stand at the end of the song, I made a run for the stairs at the side of the stage. I’d hardly reached them when strong arms enveloped me.

  My eyes were still blinded by the lights but I didn’t need to see him to know it was Carter. My body knew his so well I could pick him while blindfolded, drunk, and even if a hundred others were wearing his cologne.

  I wrapped myself around him, twining my fingers into his hair and almost cheering when he lifted me up, holding me like I was the most precious thing in the world to him. My breath caught before I could say anything, and I decided to bury my face in the crook of his neck for just a little while longer.

  Billy and Jules cheered so loudly that I doubted he’d have been able to hear me anyway. When their hollers and whoops died down, I heard Billy’s voice carrying up to us. “Well, at least they’re not kissing. I don’t think I’m ready to see that.”

  “You might want to leave soon then,” Jules replied. “I have a feeling there’s about to be a lot of kissing in just a minute. Maybe more. I think I’ll stay and see. I wouldn’t mind seeing Carter without his shirt on.”

  There was a soft thump, which I assumed was Billy punching Jules’s arm, followed by my friend’s rich laughter. Then the door swung shut several seconds later. As if the spell between us had been broken by the exchange, Carter pulled back and slowly set me down on my feet.

  I opened my mouth to unleash the mother of all apologies until I saw the thunderous expression on his face. All the hope in my heart disappeared with a poof worthy of the famous Elphaba. “What happened?”

  “The Times strikes again. That’s what.” Reaching into his pocket, he handed over his phone and took a step away from me. “I’m so sorry, Ry. I never should’ve let it go that far. It only happened a couple of hours ago. I have no idea how he printed it so quickly.”

  I glanced down at the screen and tasted bile on the back of my tongue when I read what Nathan had written this time. Ha. Biles causes bile should be his catch phrase.

  Front and center, there was a picture of Carter mid-punch with Nathan at the receiving end of it. His eyes were wide and his mouth was open. The headline screamed about how I was involved with an abusive man.

  “I know I fucked up again,” Carter
said. “Nathan came into the bar where Billy and I were. He said some stuff about you and I just lashed out.”

  I frowned so hard I hoped my mother hadn’t been right about one’s face staying that way, and thrust the phone back at him without reading another word. “No, you didn’t fuck up.”

  Closing the distance he’d put between us, I reached up and captured his gorgeous yet significantly more bearded than usual face between my hands. “It looks like a setup if you ask me. Even if it wasn’t, good for punching that asshole. I hate that guy. I don’t know what he said about me, but I’m sure it must’ve been vile for you to react like that.”

  “It was.” He wrapped his arms around my waist, tugging me right up against him as his deep brown eyes looked into mine. “You’re not pissed off at me?”

  “Not even a little.” Pushing up on my toes, I planted my hands at the nape of his neck and pulled his face down to mine. I was met with no resistance when I claimed his mouth with my own and kissed him with everything I had.

  He gathered me back up in his arms just like we had been before, carrying me until my back hit the wall next to the stairs leading off the stage. His fingers plowed into my loose hair, his mouth hungry and wild on mine.

  A loud wolf-whistle made us break apart, our chests rising and falling heavily before I erupted into a fit of giggles at Jules’s next words. “I’m still here, guys. Before you ask, I can’t leave. I have to lock up behind us. Now get those horny asses of yours to a public place and talk before you maul each other like that.”

  Chapter 31

  CARTER

  Rylee fidgeted nervously with the zipper on her jacket when we walked out of the performing arts center side by side. She glanced up at me with a mixture of fear and joy in those bright blue eyes I loved so much, putting a hand on my bicep before we hit the sidewalk.

  We stood underneath a small awning outside. People were rushing by us on the street, but I hardly noticed any of them. As soon as she looked at me, there was just her. Just Rylee in this bubble that belonged only to us even in a city filled with millions of others.

  “I’m sorry for yelling at you,” she said, walking around to stand in front of me. She jutted her chin out, determination in the set of her jaw despite that hint of fear still in her brow. “I thought I was doing the right thing.”

  “You don’t need to—” I started, but her eyes rounded and she placed both hands softly on my chest. My heart jumped beneath her palms, but the move shut me the hell up. “Sorry. Continue.”

  “I do need to apologize, though. I acted like a child. I was freaking out, and instead of letting you in about it, I pushed you out. I can’t say it was a mistake because at the time, I really thought it was the right thing to do.”

  She dragged in a long, slow breath but her eyes on mine told me she wasn’t done yet. “I’m still trying to come to grips with the long-term implications of this disease myself. I thought I was getting there, but then you happened. It started occurring to me how much I hadn’t discussed with my doctor, and when I tried to, he was out of the country.”

  She wet her lips nervously. “I told myself that I’d been honest with you, but mentioning being worried about something isn’t the same as being totally honest about it, so here goes.”

  I closed my hands over hers on my chest, wrapping my fingers firmly around her thinner ones. I wasn’t going anywhere, and this was the only way I could show her that without interrupting her.

  “Being diagnosed with any chronic illness sucks, but especially one like this. No one knows for sure if it will last for a few years or if it will be lifelong. There’s no cure and no definitive cause. There’s no telling how it will progress in any one individual, or if it will cause seriously disability, or if you’ll be one of a lucky few patients for whom it will always be mild.”

  Tears glistened in her eyes, but she didn’t let them fall, and she didn’t stop talking. She simply inhaled another breath and pushed through it.

  “The symptoms, severity, and duration all vary from person to person. I’ve been one of the lucky ones so far, but that doesn’t mean it will always be like that.” Her breathing was shallow, her eyes earnest when she tapped her fingers on my chest. “When I look at you, I see this amazing, funny, playful, gorgeous, cocky guy who’s got life by the balls. You worked to get to where you wanted to be, and you’ll carry on doing just that. I don’t want to be the ball and chain holding you down.”

  She lowered her gaze as if she needed a moment before bringing it back to mine. “My thoughts had been snowballing for a while before that night. They got away from me completely until even the thought of a future with you seemed impossible. I lashed out at you because I needed you to be the one to walk away. I know it’s not fair, and I know I hurt you. I’m truly, deeply sorry. Do you think you can ever forgive me?”

  “There’s nothing to forgive, Ry.” I let go of her hands to press my body to hers and wind my arms around her neck, bending my knees to look right into her eyes. “You got scared and freaked out. You didn’t do anything wrong and you weren’t the only one worrying about the future. I don’t want to be the security thug holding you down when you could be with movie stars or pretty much any man in the world.”

  “I don’t want to be with any man in the world,” she whispered. “I just want to be with you.”

  “That’s how I feel about you. I don’t give a fuck about being held back because you will never be holding me back. You lift me up, Ry. Being with you makes me feel like the man I’ve always wanted to be, and nothing is ever going to change that.”

  She opened her mouth, but I gave my head a small shake. “You’ve had your say. Now let me have mine. I don’t want to be pushed away anymore. Period. MS or not, you’re being ridiculous.”

  Leaning forward, I pressed a soft kiss to her forehead and pointed my thumb at my bike parked at the curb. “Ride life until you can’t ride anymore. Then get on my fucking bike and I’ll drive.”

  Her brow quirked, a small smile on her lips even as her eyes grew misty. “You never say what I expect you to.”

  “You never do what I expect you to.” I held her closer. “I mean it, Ry. Whatever happens in the future is going to happen, and I want to be right there next to you when it does. Do you still like reading?”

  “Yeah?” Her voice went up a little at the end of the word, her head tilting to one side. “Why?”

  “When you read a book, you don’t skip right to the end, do you? You read the whole thing to see how the characters get to the end. It’s the story that matters.”

  “I see where you’re going with this.” Her eyes were pinned to mine. “You’re saying that you want to be a part of my story, no matter how it ends.”

  “Exactly.” I bowed my head to run my nose along hers. “Well, almost. I don’t want it to be only your story anymore. I want it to be ours.”

  “What if I freak out on you again?” she asked, concern knitting her brows together. “I didn’t plan to do it. I can’t guarantee that it won’t happen again.”

  “If it does, we deal with it.” I linked our hands together. “No one’s perfect, Ry. No relationship is either. I’ve fucked up too, and it’s going to happen again. I’ll always be waiting for you on the other side if you freak out again.”

  “I’ll always be willing to listen. I won’t cut you off when you say you have something important to tell me, and I won’t assume to know what you’re going to say.”

  A soft chuckle rumbled through me as I rested my forehead against hers. “It sounds like we’re reciting our vows to each other.”

  “We kind of are.” She drew her head away from mine to look up at me. “Is that really it? Is it possible that we’ve sorted out things that have had both of us heartbroken for days in a matter of minutes?”

  “The wonders of proper communication,” I murmured, sliding my hands into her hair to angle her face before bringing my mouth to hers in a kiss that was wildly inappropriate for being out in public,
but I didn’t give a damn.

  We only came up for air once our kiss slowed to a natural end, both of us smiling against each other’s lips before we parted. She nuzzled the underside of my jaw, her mouth against my skin when she spoke.

  “We were communicating before. We just didn’t say everything we should have. Can we agree to never hold back again?”

  I nodded, resting my chin on top of her head for just a moment and squeezing her hips before I let her go. “How about we get off the street? My place isn’t too far away from here, and you haven’t even seen it yet. I’ll make you dinner.”

  Her eyes sparkled like sapphires in the sun when she looked into mine. “I remember what happened to your pasta the last time you tried to microwave it. How about I cook dinner and you drive us to your place?”

  “You’ve got yourself a date.”

  Our fingers brushed before mine wrapped around hers. I wasn’t a tingles kind of guy, but I sure as fuck felt them when we walked over to my bike with our hands joined.

  After getting my spare helmet fitted on her head, we took off. There was an underlying nervousness in my stomach about showing her my place. She might’ve said she didn’t care, but she also hadn’t seen where and how I lived.

  Stop it. She said she doesn’t care, so she doesn’t.

  I swept those thoughts aside and let her arms around my waist and the warmth of her against my back take precedence over my worries. I was done with the being-insecure bullshit. She’d literally just told me in so many words that I was the only she wanted. I didn’t know how she could make it clearer than that.

  When we arrived at my apartment, she climbed off the bike, removed the helmet, and shook her hair out once it was off. My tongue got stuck to the roof of my mouth. I can’t believe this stunning woman is really mine.

  She caught me looking, frowning before she pointed at her mouth. “Why are you looking at me like that? Have I got something in my teeth or a rat’s nest in my hair?”