Page 87 of Stone Promises

I roll my eyes at my uber-romantic girlfriend.

“It’s just a shame all of our friends are taken,” she says. “He’s so handsome and fit. And he’s very nice.”

I raise my eyebrows at her. “Am I losing my godlike status here?”

She laughs and squeezes my leg under the table. “I just want everyone to be as happy as we are, that’s all.”

I lean into her so only she can hear. “Not possible.”

My phone vibrates with a text. I think it might be Kendra or John, so I check it. It’s my lawyer.

Ron: Settled the McIntyre case this afternoon for 2M. Think we should have kept fighting this one, but I guess you have your reasons. I’ll send final paperwork for you to sign when you’re back.

I let out a deep, tension-relieving breath. That’s the last of it. The very last shit from my past that has followed me around all these years. After the whole Megan debacle during Mal’s spring break, I told Ron I wanted to clean house, get all my pending cases dealt with no matter what the cost. He was afraid I’d be seen as an easy target, a money train for anyone who files suit against me. I just wanted the shit done. I want to start my life with Mallory on a clean slate. This news couldn’t have come at a better time.

“What is it?” Mallory asks.

I’ll tell her later. I always do. I have no secrets from her anymore. She knows all about the fights I used to get into when I was using. The nights I spent in jail for breaking Lennie McIntyre’s arms. The fact that I don’t even remember it, but am willing to pay the guy an amount akin to him winning the state lottery.

I shake my head, telling her I don’t want to get into it here. She understands the message behind my eyes. She always has. “Nothing to worry about, babe. Nothing at all.”

When we leave the restaurant, we’re followed out by some teenage girls who were dining with their parents. They are giggling behind us, each trying to get the other to ask me for an autograph. I also notice the drunk girls from the bar sitting on a bench out front. The ones who called my lovely girlfriend an ugly bitch. I decide to teach them a bit of an etiquette lesson. One that says: don’t try to hit on a man when he’s obviously on a date with his girl.

I whisper my plan to Cole and he makes sure to plant himself between me and said drunk girls. I turn around and ask the shy ones, “Would you like to get some pictures? I could have my girlfriend take them, she’s really nice like that.”

The sisters squeal at each other. “Oh, my gosh, yes,” the younger one says. She turns to Mallory. “You would do that for us?”

“Of course,” Mal says, smiling. “Why don’t you get on either side of Thad and I’ll get you all in one picture and then we’ll get you each with him separately.”

“That’s so nice,” the older one says, handing Mallory her phone.

Mallory spends the next few minutes posing us in pictures that will surely make these girls the talk of their school. She’s laying it on thick for the drunk girls and I love that we’re on the same wavelength.

After our impromptu photo shoot is done and I sign one girl’s shirt and the other girl’s hat, they thank me profusely and politely walk away.

I can see the drunk girls bouncing around on the bench, getting out their phones. They think they’re next. I pull Mallory over in front of them. “Got your phones ready?” I ask them.

They nod with excitement and hold up their devices.

I dip Mallory back and plant a long, hard, wet kiss on her. I try to make it romantic but we both have a hard time not breaking into hysterics, so it doesn’t go quite as planned at first. But then as we taste each other, our kiss turns real, and everything around us becomes of no importance as we slip into our own little world. Like the cave. Like the igloo. Like every time the two of us are together.

When we finally pull our lips apart, I turn my head to the girls, still holding Mal’s languid body. “I hope you got that, because it’s the only picture you’ll be getting tonight.”

Then I take my thoroughly-kissed girlfriend and walk away.

Chapter Twenty-six

Mallory

As if this day weren’t bad enough already, Chad’s manager had to call him on the way to the set and tear into him for the kiss that went viral this week. Chad looks at me apologetically as I listen to his side of the conversation.

“I told you I wasn’t going to hide Mallory anymore, Paul.”

“Because I wanted her here.”

“No.Youlisten. That’syourshit, not mine. This is the way it’s going to be.”

“Nobody else fucking cares.”

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