With a scowl, he looked heavenward. “You’ll have to sign off that you left AMA — against medical advice.”
“I won’t sue you.”
“You still need to sign.”
“Done.”
He muttered a curse under his breath and started toward the door. “I’ll have someone check you out and give you the address along with your papers, remember no solid foods, only clear liquids.”
The doctor’s soft-soled shoes slapped heavily against the shiny tile floor as he stomped from the room.
A sense of relief settled over me.
Ninety percent.
That was better than ten.
“Sorry,” Fallon interrupted my thoughts. “I was just… angry he wouldn’t let me go, I mean clearly he doesn’t realize that I’m your assistant.”
She was teasing, trying to make light of our relationship, trying to make me feel better about her place in my life, just in case, but I already knew, I was done.
She owned me.
“Well, I could have just told him you were my prostitute, that would have gone over better.”
“Every man needs sex before surgery.” She nodded seriously.
“Yes! You get me!” I raised my hand for a high five.
She rolled her eyes then hit it. “I need to stop encouraging you.”
With a laugh, I brushed a kiss across her lips, “We should probably call Jay.”
Zane
An hour later, we had a rented stretch limo.
With two SUV’s following.
Alec, Demetri, and their wives plus the baby in one, and Jay’s crew in the other.
Dani and Lincoln decided to ride with Jay, but I knew they were probably regretting it by now. Jay drove like a maniac and still managed to forget to drive on the right side of the road. Often. It was his thing, well that and threatening Lincoln, who was still sleeping with his wife Pricilla’s sister, Dani.
Fallon read all of the instructions out loud while I tried to get her to underage drink so she wouldn’t stress out.
She said no to wine, champagne, beer — everything.
If you can’t have it — I don’t want it.
That was Fallon though.
She even handed me her chapstick for safekeeping. Ugh, I was so far gone if chapstick did it for me like a freaking promise ring or something.
Her parents weren’t thrilled that she was traveling with me to Portland. Then again, all she did was explain the situation. They were completely silent, both of their expressions blank, purposefully blank.
Like they were both afraid to stare at me with pity but at the same time, what could they do when their daughter left town with one of the biggest celebrities in the world, only to know, deep down, that she might not be the same person when she got back.
Because that would all depend on the celebrity.
And his ability to not turn into a vegetable.
Something I couldn’t really control, no matter how much I wanted to.
Her father’s stern expression wasn’t at all helpful when Fallon ran around the house and started packing a weekend bag.
“Son,” His lips thinned into a tight line. “These doctors, you trust them?”
What an odd question. “Sir, I don’t know them.”
His frown deepened. “Do you need me to come with you? Talk some sense into them? Maybe give them the run down on how important you are?” His grip tightened on the gun he was cleaning. I swallowed a laugh. “Because, I’d be more than happy to put my foot down.”
“And if it just so happens to land on the doctor’s foot?” I asked, smiling.
“Then at least the doc will know I mean business.” His face paled. “I don’t trust doctors.”
“She’s one of the best in the country, but I appreciate the gesture.” I held out my hand to shake his, it seemed like the right thing to do.
He stared at my hand then pulled me in for a gruff hug, slapping me three times on the back so hard that had I been choking he would have just saved my life — with every slap.
“You’re going to be just fine.” His voice was gruff. “A father knows these things.”
“I wouldn’t know.” It slipped out before I could stop it.
He pulled back and nodded. “Well, now you do.”
Quietly, he went back to cleaning his gun, stabbing something into the front of it.
“Yeah.” I said in a low voice. “Now I do.”
“Sit down.” He pulled out a chair. “Pacing makes a man nervous. Now, hand me the grease.”
We sat in silence.
No more words were exchanged on my end, but he felt the need to talk to me about gun safety for the next ten minutes. I think it was his way of getting me to relax.
Oddly enough, it worked, and by the time Fallon and I got into the waiting limo, I was a different person from the scared boy who had walked into that house.
All because another man had told me it was going to be okay.
I couldn’t wrap my head around it or even logically explain why his words calmed me down — but they did.
Maybe because he was logical, thoughtful, didn’t just throw meaningless words into the air because he wanted to be heard. People like Fallon’s dad spoke with purpose; they made you want to listen because it was rare that they spoke in the first place.
He was a real man, her father.
I liked him. Maybe in another life, I could have gotten to know him better.
But that choice was getting ripped from me, just like my grandmother, just like the family I’d always wanted but never had.
“Hey, it looks like they’re going to have to shave part of your head.” Fallon scrunched up her nose as she kept reading the discharge papers, “Just the right side though.”
“That’s going to look hot.” I laughed as the limo pulled onto the highway. “Watch it become a trend.”
She rolled her eyes. “It’s going to be a hashtag in a few hours.”
“Yeah.” I had to focus on the teasing, because if I thought about someone cutting into my skull it kind of made me want to puke.
The car fell silent.
I wanted to be that guy, the one that cheered her up, that made her laugh, that walked around naked and belted out shit about marshmallows, but my happy was gone, it was currently circling the drain and wondering if it was going to disappear altogether or suddenly get a life raft thrown at it.
We were ninety minutes away from Portland.
In ninety minutes, my life would change.
I’d called Will, and he was already in Portland picking up one of his clients for filming, so it worked out.
Yeah, let’s focus on that, how easy it was for everyone’s schedules.
I groaned. At least my headache was gone.
That had been caused by dehydration — the migraine was just what I needed to get my ass to the hospital though — both migraines I’d had in my life had shown symptoms of stroke. Lucky me.
“Tell me the craziest thing a fan has ever done.”
“Well, that came out of nowhere.” I chuckled, grateful for the distraction. As I turned to pull her into my lap, she straddled me, her dark hair kissing her chin and shoulders, taunting the living hell out of me. “Let’s see, the craziest thing was when a fan broke into my trailer and stole just my jeans and black boxers, nothing else.”
Fallon squinted behind her black-rimmed glasses, I was thankful she’d decided against contacts in favor of her trendy new frames. I liked her this way. The way I met her, the way she blinked up at me with thick black eyelashes, blind as a bat and cute as hell. “That’s not very crazy.”
“Story’s not over.” I tapped her chin with my fingers. “So, a week or so later pictures surface of this chick on Instagram, modeling my clothes, singing my songs, and writing in her own words about her undying love. At the end of each song, she would strip.” I laughed at the memory. “And light the clothes on fire then dance around it naked.”
“No!” Fallon g
asped with a smile, covering her face with her hands. “Was there a reason for the dancing?”
“Well, after they arrested her for petty theft, the police questioned her and she said she was convinced that our spirits were one, and that all she needed to do was conjure my animal spirit through her own little spell and I’d find my way to her house and apparently to my burning clothes.”
Fallon nodded a few times, pressing her lips together. “Wow, that’s… very special.”
“Yes. That’s what I thought, how special that this strange girl is chanting and setting my clothes on fire. Special. Totally special. My heart might just burst with all of the specialness of it.”
Fallon smacked me on the chest. “Don’t piss off your spirit animal.”
“Or hers.” I shuddered. “Anyway, she apologized and deleted her account, and I didn’t press charges. Had she stolen my marshmallows though—”
“—life sentence.” Fallon nodded seriously.
“Death row.”
“Absolutely.”
“I mean who would do that?”
“A madman.”
“You get me.” I dug my hands into her ass pulling her closer to my body as I stole a kiss. “I love that you get me.”
“I get your weird obsession.”
“It makes sense if you know me.”
“You use them as a comfort.”
I frowned. “Well, yeah, but also, they’re marshmallows.”
“I’m not following.”
“A basic food group.”
“They are not!”
“Aw, did you even pass your senior year?” I patted her head. “Humans need sugar to survive, don’t judge me for wanting to live.”
“Now who’s crazy?”
“Still the dancing chick.”
“Hey, Zane?”
“What?”
“Can you take off your pants so I can set them on fire?” She asked in a deadpan voice.
“Do you want my boxers too? Maybe my shirt?”
“All of them.” She pushed away from me and held out her hand while bracing herself against the floor of the limo.
With a jerk, I grabbed my shirt and tossed it at her face followed by my jeans and finally my boxers. I’d already taken off my shoes earlier.
With a naughty grin, she hit the privacy button while the window slowly went up, blanketing us in so much sexual tension my body felt heavy.
“Sex before surgery,” she whispered. “The only way to go.”
“Agreed.” Breathless. I tugged her into my arms.
She met me halfway, her mouth colliding with mine in a hungry kiss while my hands peeled away her thin white shirt and tossed it to the floor. Desperation filled every touch, every heartbeat as I deepened the kiss, losing myself in her, forgetting everything but the warmth of her skin and the way she moaned when our tongues slid against one another.
I rolled down her leggings as her arms snaked around my neck, lifting her ass off me so I could tug the remaining part of the leggings and kick them to the tan carpeting at our feet.
We were at our best when we were together.
My mind couldn’t comprehend what would happen — if we were apart.
“This is exactly the type of behavior I thought you engaged in before meeting you.” Fallon laughed against my chest, her fingers making little circles across my abs.
“Trust me, you’re the first girl I’ve ever gotten naked in a limo.”
Her eyes brightened, “Let’s keep it that way.”
“Agreed.” I kissed her mouth softly, then harder as reality crashed down around us.
We weren’t on our way to a concert.
We weren’t going on some crazy trip, jet-setting around the globe.
We were going to a hospital.
Where I’d get my skull cut into by a very sharp knife.
We were marching toward what could easily be the end of us together.
“Stop,” I whispered.
“What?” She pulled back, her eyes hazy, her glasses somewhat askew.
“I’m telling myself to stop thinking about it, to stop focusing on all of the bad. Before my grandma died, I would grab all the marshmallows I could, go into my closet, close the door, and listen to music.”
Fallon was silent, her eyes filled with tears.
“I made up stories about a life I never had, a life where I wasn’t starving, a life where my grandmother wasn’t sick, a life where I didn’t have to pretend to like being naked so grandma wouldn’t feel guilty about the holes in my shoes or the threadbare shirts I wore.” A tear slid down Fallon’s cheek. “Sometimes my anxiety got so bad, the anxiety that I was letting my family down, that it was like I couldn’t focus. So I’d say stop over and over again out loud to myself as I ate marshmallows and envisioned a better life.”
“And look at you now,” Fallon whispered.
“It’s not the money.” I kissed her forehead, “It’s not the new clothes, the houses I can afford to buy, the adoring fans, the Grammy’s—” My breath hitched. “Right now, in this moment, it’s you.”
“Me.” Her lower lip quivered. “You hardly know me.”
“And I was paying you,” I pointed out.
Her gentle laughter washed over me like a healing balm. “I’m nothing special, Zane. I wish I could sit here and tell you I have something more to offer than any other girl, but the truth is, I’m just the first one to both reject and fascinate you.”
“Wrong.” She really didn’t see it. “You defended me without knowing you could trust my word, you may be blind as a bat, Fallon, but I love that about you, because that’s how you walk through life, with this blind faith that people really are good, that life has something to offer us if we only try hard enough. You have more to offer than you could possibly imagine — because you’re one of the few people that still have hope that this life is good, that we can make something good out of the time we have. You’re good and I kind of love you for it.”
“You love me for my goodness.”
“Or maybe I just love you for seeing me.”
“You deserve to be seen.”
“And kept,” I finished.
“Yes.” She wiped at some tears. “Mine.” She swallowed the words from my tongue and all talking stopped.
The music of our bodies joining, our breaths mingling, was more powerful than words, and when the moment was gone.
When we slowly put our clothes back on.
When the limo pulled up to the hospital.
When it felt like my heart was going to stop beating out of fear.
She reached for my hand and didn’t let go.
When I stepped out of the limo, I wasn’t alone.
Demetri, Alec, their wives, Lincoln, Dani, Jay, Pris, all joined us and just when I thought I couldn’t be more surprised.
An old blue station wagon parked next to us.
And out stepped Fallon’s parents.
Her dad looked unsure, and then he shrugged. “Had to see for myself.”
I didn’t cry.
I was not a crier.
It was a waste. Most emotion always had been for me.
But something broke inside me, or maybe, for the first time since I lost my grandma, something started working again.
Tears welled in my eyes as he gave me a stern nod and then folded his arms and addressed the rest of the crew. “I brought my guns just in case.”
Lincoln burst out laughing while Jay looked one phone call away from making sure the police met us in the parking lot.
“He’s harmless.” Fallon smiled.
And together.
We all walked into the hospital.
A hodgepodge family of rockstars, actors, college students, new moms, newlyweds, a hunter, and a blind girl who used to stutter.
Fallon
“I refuse to be the one who ruins his hair. Isn’t it insured for like ten million dollars?” Alec wondered aloud while Demetri silenced everyone with a loud hush.
&nbs
p; After arguing for a few minutes, Demetri decided he was the most qualified to shave part of Zane’s head; he referenced one time when he’d cut Alec’s hair in his sleep and said it was practically the same thing, only without scissors.
Every time he got close to Zane, he backed up and tried a different angle.
“Just do it!” Zane clenched his teeth while Demetri paled.
“I’ll do it!” My dad offered.
“No!” Everyone said in unison while he shrugged, his only experience was skinning animals, I highly doubted that Zane wanted my dad’s hands anywhere near his person.
Demetri took a deep breath and then muttered a curse. “I can’t. His hair’s too silky.”
“Come again?” Lyss, Demetri’s wife, rolled her eyes. “Did you just call his hair silky?”
“Oh please, like you haven’t been thinking that this whole damn time!” Demetri fired back while Lyss shrugged.
“Well.” Zane nodded toward me. “You’re up slugger.”
“Yes, because shaving the side of your head is just like baseball.”
“She was the team manager!” My mom said cheerfully, as if that was going to make him have more faith in my ability.
“Thanks, Mom.” I grumbled.
“I bet you served a mean Gatorade.” Demetri winked.
My face flushed with embarrassment.
“Oh, she did!” Mom crossed her arms as if she was proud that I knew how to put liquid into a cup. “And she always brought the best snacks.”
“I want snacks,” Zane said under his breath in a voice that made me want to slam my mouth against his.
“I bet if you get past third base she’ll give you a snack.” Demetri said in a completely bored tone, his wink toward Zane was the only indication he meant a different type of snack than my mom was referencing, more of the sexual snack not the carrots and peanut butter variety she was currently sharing with the group.
“First base is always the hardest,” Jay piped up out of nowhere.
“Really?” Alec joined in. “I always thought it was more rounding second.”
“Hell, no.” Lincoln rolled his eyes. “It’s trying to slide into home.”
Jay growled in his direction while Dani blew her brother-in-law a kiss.
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