Page 29 of Veiled

He thinks on it for a while as I rub his feet that are still resting in my lap. “When I left home, I promised I’d prove everyone wrong. That I’d be successful. Powerful. That they were wrong about me.”

I stop rubbing his feet and gaze at him. “Fuck ’em.”

He laughs. “Yeah, it’s funny. Everything I did for the first few years after leaving, I realized I did to prove them all wrong. But that’s not what I wanted anymore. Finally, I realized I was still living for them, and I didn’t want to do that anymore. But I was already an intern at a management firm and went with it. Started to really love my job.”

“You’re good at it,” I say honestly.

He preens. “Thanks. But I suppose for that to be really true, I should get back to work.”

I chuckle at that as he withdraws his feet from my lap and grabs his phone. Researching places for my next gig because he truly is the best manager anyone could ask for.

I was stubborn and kind of an idiot to try to leave him behind.

Good thing he doesn’t give up easily.

Chapter Fifteen

WAYLON

“The parking lot looks pretty full,” Justin says, neither of us getting out of the car.

“It’s a Friday night in a small town. I don’t think there’s much else to do,” I reason, but it does look pretty full. I was careful when I set this up, but there’s been a lot of talk about where Justin will show up next. And it’s only been three weeks since his last performance.

People are still on high alert.

But I could feel how eager he was to perform again, and damn it, I want this for him. I really do. I want him to be able to play a small venue and not have to worry about it becoming a huge deal.

But I think we both know it won’t last too long.

“What do you want to do?” I ask because it’s up to him. He says play, he’ll play. He says leave, we’ll leave.

He takes a deep breath. “Let’s go.”

I nod and follow him out of the car. He grabs his guitar, and we walk inside. It’s packed, but no on looks our way when we walk through the door except for a nice woman behind the bar.

She greets us, and I introduce myself and Justin before she guides us to the spot for him to set up. It’s all extremely low-key and simple, and I settle in at the bar while Justin sets up.

I feel relieved when I hear the first strum of his guitar, his honey-soaked voice singing out into the crowd. Some are fascinated by him—it’s honestly impossible not to be—but a lot are just going on about their time.

I keep my eyes on everyone and my phone as I catch up with Jenny and Dalton, while listening to Justin’s sweet music in the background.

My phone rings, and I answer it when I see Jenny’s name pop up. “Hey, sweetie.”

“Hey, I see your boy is playing again.”

I look around and see a couple of cellphones out. “They have the location already?”

“Yup,” she says knowingly, but since I haven’t seen anyone come through the doors, I give Justin some time up there.

“It’s getting harder and harder to find a good place to go.”

“You know soon it’s not going to matter where you choose, right?” She doesn’t say it condescendingly, but I know she wants to say more. “Come home,” she settles on, and I grin.

“Aw, do you miss me?”

“Nope,” she says lightly, and I can hear her smiling. “Just want you to come get your little demon furball.”

I laugh. “Be nice. I’ll be home soon.”

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