Page 234 of When We Fall: Part One
Millions of dollars were being offered for my Sunshine, my girl. Her dreams were sitting in the palms of my hands. My pulse roared in my ears as I stared dumbly at the words on the paper.
She’s going to leave me.
She’s going to leave us.
This is happening. Fuck. It’s happening.
I closed the folder and looked at her. “Are you leaving us?”
“No.” She widened her eyes at me. “If I take this, then yes, but not forever. I’d be recording, doing concerts, and traveling, but we’re still together. Alex said I could wait until after the wedding if I wanted. We’d be married and everything.”
I nodded and stood. Her eyes followed me as I sat beside her on the bed.
I hated the following words out of my mouth, but they needed to be said.
“If this is what you want, then I support you.”
“Really?” She crinkled her brows at me.
“Yes, Sunshine. This is your dream. We’ll figure out how to live it together. I-I can be here working. You can be singing and traveling. We can make it work. I just… Fox will get drafted professionally, too. You’ll both be gone. It’ll just be…different, but we can do this. I know we can.”
She threw her arms around my neck and sobbed softly. I closed my eyes and held her back.
“I was so scared to tell you. I thought you’d be mad,” she choked out. “About everything. I’ve just been so lost lately. So scared.”
“I know, baby. I know. I’m sorry I haven’t been a better man for you,” I murmured as I held her in my arms. “We can do this. I know we can. When you’re ready, you can tell the guys.Whatever your decision is, I’ll be at your side. We all will be.” I kissed her soft lips. She fell into it immediately.
And that was all it took. I was done for. Everything else washed away as I put her on her back. Carefully, I took off her panties and dress before I pushed into her body, groaning softly against her lips as I made love to her. Not fucked her. Loved her. Like she deserved.
Because Rosalie Bishop was my girl, there wasn’t anything that would ever change that. Not even a fucking record contract or Matteo De Santis trying to weasel his way in.
Or even the monster down the hall I’d eventually deal with.
SEVENTY-THREE
ETHAN
We were alone. The kings left a week ago, and things were starting to get back to normal, or as normal as they could be, considering all the bullshit we were wading through. Enzo and Rosalie spent a lot of alone time together—more than before. Anson hadn’t stayed the night since he brought Rosalie home late. I thought we would have to tie Cole down to avoid going nuts when Rosalie’s phone was off.
Fox confirmed she was with Anson after a text, and all was well. Mostly. We had to distract Cole in the basement, with me citing that I needed help.
Now, I was sitting behind a stack of sugar in the basement. No one was home. Enzo and Cole were off meeting with Vander Veer, Fox was doing something for football, and Rosalie was at rehearsals with Anson.
Or at least I thought she was.
The door to my room in the basement creaked open, and she stepped in. I froze. She never came down to my room. I locked it so she couldn’t see inside, but I hadn’t done it today since I knew she wasn’t home.
“Hey,” I said, stumbling to my feet. “I didn’t know you were coming home early.”
She wandered over to me and kissed me gently on her tiptoes.
“I missed you. I knew you were the only one here,” she said. “I can go if you’re busy.”
“No,” I said quickly. “I-I just…” I looked around the room and winced. I had so many drugs in here. I breathed in, attempting to calm myself. I didn’t want her to freak out on me, think less of me, or be angry with me.
“What?” She looked around the room.
I froze as her green eyes skirted over all the drugs, bagged and sorted. She wandered over to some and ran her fingers along the baggies.
