Page 56 of Where You Are

Chapter Thirty

Melanie

“I miss you,”I longingly tell Matt, as we lie facing each other on the white pillowy bed.

“Not as much as I miss you,” he retorts gently, grazing his fingertips up and down my arm.

“You’re okay though, you’ve moved on,” I gently argue, as he looks in my eyes like there’s nothing else in this world he’d rather look at.

“That’s what itlookslike, doesn’t it?” he replies, but with a sweet kind of compassion in his voice.

“Am I wrong?”

“You’ll have to come back to me if you want to find that out,” he teasingly smirks with a lifted eyebrow.

“I don’t know how,” I convey with a tremble in my voice, and he brings his hand up to my hair and soothingly strokes it down my head.

“You’ll find a way.” His voice is sweet and encouraging, coming out of him in a gentle hush, and I’d give anything for this to be real; to just lie with him and talk to him.

We lay in contented silence for a moment, exchanging loving vibes between our hearts, and words through our eyes, until I realize I feel like we’re floating.

“Are we floating?” I ask looking around, as Matt’s mouth pulls into a sneaky smile.

Wearefloating, on a bed, in the middle of the lake.

“Did you do this?” I look down at him with a knowing smile that he returns with a smug one of his own.

“Maybe,” he gives a playful shrug, inching closer to me. “Or maybe our happy place just stepped it up for us some.”

I let out a sound that feels like half laugh and half cry; smiling, yet with tears.

“But pretty soon, I won’t be meeting you here anymore,” he adds, his face turning serious, and I feel my lips press together, trying not to fall apart. He holds my face in his hands and levels his eyes with mine, “because you’re going to find a way to come back to me.”

It’s a proclamation; no question in his mind. He believes it and his eyes plead with me to believe it too. That we won’t have to meet in my dreams anymore, that we will get to see how the rest plays out in real life.

I let out a regretful sigh, as the light starts to brighten around us again.

“Will you hold me until I wake up?”

He reaches for me, pulling me into his chest, making it so we can’t possibly be any closer.

“I’ll hold you for the rest of our lives, Sunshine,” he promises, nuzzling his face into my hair. “You’ll see.”

MATT

Jack isn’t the one I usually have to corral or watch out for. When we were younger, there was some mentor/brotherly advice from time to time, but for the most part, we’ve grown to be co-equals and he’s always had his head on straight so I haven’t had to worry about him. Not the case tonight. Imagine my surprise to be up here on the rooftop garden of an upscale hotel in NYC, trying to calm him down while I clean up his mess. Literally. He made a mess in his hotel room. His outburst didn’t come unwarranted though.

In the last month and a half, we’ve found out that Eli, our agent who has done nothing but open doors and part velvet ropes for us, is a sleazy bastard who likes women a little too much and isn’t above going about any means to get them in his bed. We found this out because his current target is Mayzie.

What started with a couple of lingering looks and comments back in October escalated from there, and at one point he even locked her in a bathroom lounge with him and dropped hints that he might try to sabotage Turn it Up by keeping us out of appearances and withholding opportunities if she didn’t give in to him. We’ve been working with a detective, hoping to catch him at his game, and thus far, Jack and Mayzie have both been troupers, keeping their cool. But, I suppose at some point, one or both of them was going to reach their boiling point and have a meltdown. And in this case, it’s Jack.

Tonight, we returned from a radio show gig to find his suite empty and an invitation addressed to Mayzie, from Eli, to meet him alone in his penthouse tomorrow night. That was what it took to send Jack over the edge, and he took it out on the hotel suite furniture. Mayzie is the very thing his heart beats for, and while the one person I could feel something remotely close to that way for is nowhere to be seen… I still feel it. I feel that for her. And despite everything that’s happened between us, if it were her, the guy would be on the ground, spitting out blood about now.

Needless to say, I hauled Jack up to the roof to get some air, calm the fuck down, and go nuts where no one could see or hear him if he still felt the need, while I made calls to have the room straightened up. Fortunately, it doesn’t take long for him to level out, but he’s far from ready to go back down into the hotel and act like everything is peachy, especially since the detective is likely to suggest using this opportunity for a sting. He’s been trying to get Jack and Mayzie to set a trap by putting a wire on her while Eli tries to make his move on her.

Jack has been vehemently against it to say the least, not wanting Mayzie to have a thing more to do with the bastard, wanting to protect her from even having to lay eyes on him ever again. She, on the other hand, has been letting on that while she’s in no way looking forward to it, it may be the only way to bring him down. Otherwise, we may have to break our contract with him and let him make a pariah out of the band, which will be a detriment to finding new representation.

After a manly heart-to-heart he seems calmer, with more of an instilled confidence that this will work out; that it will end with Mayzie safe and our scumbag of an agent paying for his transgressions.

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