Page 111 of Rock On

“Aurora had something on her, and she took it out on me.” I made a face. “Because I haven’t been through enough. And I fell right into her trap. God, how did I not notice she was up to something?”

“You trusted your new friends,” she said gently. “Stop beating yourself up. Like she said, this is going to blow over. Yeah, it’s annoying to be associated with a politician whose values don’t align with yours, but that commercial won’t run for long, and the band will make some kind of statement, right?

“Yeah, they’re consulting with a crisis control publicist.”

“Perfect. And the election is in just over a week. She won’t need to run ads after that. Hopefully, she loses. And we both know the brand and entity that is Onyx Knight is going to be fine.”

“There was never any doubt about that, but what about me? Am I going to be fine? Are Tommy and I going to be fine? We just got back together, and you didn’t see how upset he was.”

“You guys are going to be okay. You’ll see. He’s upset, but he’ll get over it.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“Because if I get there on Thursday and there’s no wedding, I am going to kick his ass.” She playfully flexed the bicep of her right arm.

“Sis…you’re sweet for always having my back, but you can’t brow beat him into loving me.”

“He already loves you. Don’t be a dummy. That’s not the issue. The issue, I’m sure, is trust, and you’re going to have to find a way to explain how vulnerable you are right now. You’d just left a place where you felt able to open up and speak freely, and this caught you off-guard. It’s not a mistake you’ll make again.”

“That’s for sure.”

“Look, this was sort of your fault, but it was really Aurora’s fault. She found a vulnerability in Freya and used it to her advantage. How can anyone put that on you?”

“What happens if I get there, and he doesn’t want to see me?”

“He will.”

“I don’t know, Wynter. It was like he couldn’t wait to get away from me.”

“Trust me. He loves you. He just needed a few minutes to get his head on straight. You’ll see. I’m your big sister and I’m always right.”

I snorted. “Yeah. Okay.”

“Sometimes you have to have trust, but you also have to remind him that running away is not how you handle things in a relationship. You did it once, and he let you. This time, he’s doing the running, but you know firsthand what a mistake that was, so you’re not letting him do it. That’s all there is to it.”

Somehow, I had a hard time believing it would be that easy.

FORTY-THREE

Tommy

The house was empty when I got there, which was odd. Wynter liked to chill on Sundays, and she had to work tomorrow. It made sense that the three of them might have gone out for a little while, taking River to the park or something. Harley was most likely upset, so she would be doing something to take her mind off of what I’d done.

Shit.

I’d handled everything badly.

I hadn’t realized the situation would bring on a panic attack. I needed to talk to Allisha about that at some point, but for now, I decided to relax. I’d been in a tailspin all day so if I could spend an hour or so watching football while I waited for them to get home, I’d be in a better state of mind to have the conversation we needed to have. There might be some groveling on my part, and I impulsively dug out my laptop and went online.

Back in the day, sex had been our answer to all our problems.

Had an argument about how long it took her to get ready?

Fuck her against the wall.

Disagreed over whether or not to extend the tour another three months?

Tie her up and make her come until she forgot why she was upset.

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