Page 82 of Gabriel's Album

“Of course not,” I whisper into her hair. “You know I could never hate you.”

I hold her tighter to me and carefully stroke her head, not wanting to mess up her hairstyle, while I wonder how many times I’ll need to reassure her of this. It’s as though she constantly thinks that she’s going to do something to make me suddenly stop loving her. I’m disappointed that today isn’t the day she was ready to go public with me, but that doesn’t mean I hate her for it.

“I’m sorry to interrupt, Gabriel, but we have to go,” Hayden says awkwardly.

“Sure,” I reply.

I kiss Ariana on the top of her head. She looks so fragile and hurt. I want to keep her safe from everything, but I can’t protect her from her own thoughts.

“I love you so much,” I say quietly. I look into her eyes and tell her, “You don’t have to stay if you don’t want to.”

As much as I want her here tonight, I don’t want her to suffer. If she’d rather go back to the hotel and watch the awards on TV, I’ll be okay with that.

“No, I do want to. I want to be here for you,” she replies. “I’ll be fine once I get myself together.”

I search her face to make sure that she really believes that, and I think she does. It’s the paparazzi that sets her off, and we’re past that part of the evening.

“Okay. We’re not sitting far away from each other. I can always switch seats with Heather if you want me to,” I offer.

I hug her tightly again, closing my eyes for a second and allowing the peace I feel when I have her in my arms to wash over me. Heather stays with Ariana, and I head into the ceremony with the guys.

We’re directed to our seats, and Harrison enters the row of seats first, leaving two empty seats between him and the next attendees. Hayden sits next to him, and I drop into my seat next to Hayden. Sebastian sits next to me, and my eyebrows go up as Sebastian’s date sits in the last seat at the end of our row.

“Isn’t that Cooper’s seat?” I mutter to him.

“Yeah, it is,” Sebastian grins at me.

“So…” I trail off and wait for him to answer my unasked question.

“Stacey had a ticket for tonight, and Cooper graciously agreed to swap seats with her.”

I scoff involuntarily. “As if. How?”

“Okay, I told him I wouldn’t perform tonight if he didn’t.” Sebastian shrugs.

My eyebrows almost fly off my face. We have air-tight contracts; we’d all have been fucked if he didn’t perform tonight.

“You couldn’t not perform tonight,” I tell him.

“Of course not. I just didn’t want to sit next to that asshole for hours on end.”

“But Cooper knows you couldn’t skip it.” I shake my head.

Sebastian smirks at me. “Does he? I skipped the zoo, and since Sierra were fucking pissed about that, I just reminded him that I have no issue canceling on events.”

I feel heat rise in me, and I glare at him. “You’re going to get us a reputation for being unreliable if you do shit like that, Seb.”

“Please. It’s Cooper. It’s not like I posted online that I was thinking about not coming tonight. Besides, I didn’t seeyouvolunteering to sit next to him when we were organizing the seating arrangements.”

It’s true. I was glad when it worked out that Sebastian would have to sit next to Cooper tonight because I definitely didn’t want to do it. I look at the blonde woman, who’s staring at us and obviously listening in to our conversation.

“Fair enough,” I shrug and turn away from him to talk to Hayden instead.

A few minutes later, Ariana and Heather appear in the aisle. They have a short conversation with Travis Murphy, a country music star we know, before they continue on their way down to us.

Ariana enters our row first. As she passes me, I squeeze her leg and see a smile cross her lips when I do. She makes her way to the farthest empty seat so Harrison and Heather can sit together. I feel an intense pain in my chest as Heather gives Harrison a kiss when she sits down. I physically ache to be near Ariana, and I can’t help stealing glances at her when I think no one else is looking. I lose myself in thoughts of making love to her before we left the hotel, and my eyes dart to the skirt of her dress, very aware that she’s completely bare underneath it.

I spend most of my time talking to Hayden while we wait for the show to start. Partially because Sebastian is busy flirting with Stacey, but mostly because it allows me to look past him at Ariana. When the show begins, though, I have to look at the stage.

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