Page 29 of When It Reins
She levels me with a look, and I shrug.
Another moment of silence passes before she speaks. “I don’t know what happened just now.” Her words are soft, and I stay quiet to let her get it all out. “I just…froze. I was scared he’d figure me out and didn’t want to have some weird, bad breakup or anything. I also thought if I stayed with him, he’d slow the movement on the property.”
I keep my head bent toward her, and she lets out a sigh, the weight on her shoulders big.
“I don’t know why I thought that.” She shakes her head. “Obviously he’s going to do whatever his job is, and I’m not a factor in that, or he wouldn’t have done it in the first place.”
“You don’t know that he wasn’t serious about you.” I say the words, even though they make me sick to even think them. I don’t want or need Juniper feeling like this because of that asshole.
“I don’t know anything right now.” She sighs again, just as the door to the house opens.
“Hey.” Annmarie and Shelly come over, stepping down the steps. “We’re heading out. Thought you could use a ride.”
“I can take her,” I answer quickly, not wanting to show my hand but on the verge of just saying fuck it.
“That’s okay, Mitch,” Juniper says, smiling softly at me. At least I know she’s not pissed. Fuck. I am already whipped, and I don’t even give a shit.
She reaches over, placing a sweet hand on my cheek and kissing my other one. “Thank you. So much.”
I stand with her, walking her down the steps. Shelly takes over, hooking her arm through Juniper’s, and Annmarie gives me a peculiar look.
“What?” I ask, my voice gruff before I find myself looking at Juniper again.
“Nothing.” Annmarie shrugs and smiles. “Just, you know, wondering when you’re finally going to take action.”
With that, she turns, and I watch the three of them walk down the gravel drive until they reach the car and load in. I stand there for long minutes until the brake lights fully fade and think about Annmarie’s comment.
Maybe she is right.
Maybe the time for action when it comes to Juniper is here, because watching her walk away feels like watching a piece of my heart walk away.
I just hope I can put my own shit aside long enough to make it happen.
15
juniper
The ride downto the studio is quiet, and for that, I am grateful. Felicity is getting herself in the zone in the seat next to me. She has her headphones in and says she’s meditating.
After the last couple of days, I was starting to think maybe I would benefit from the same thing.
Since Sunday when Mitch punched David, he’s called me no less than a hundred times. I don’t know why, because he seemed to be pretty done with me at the ranch. After the way I felt when I saw Mitch punch him, and my instincts told me to curl myself into Mitch, I decided to follow that feeling and stay away from David.
He hasn’t called today. Thankfully.
I smile as Ezra, Felicity’s bodyguard, curses under his breath after someone cuts him off in traffic, and for a moment, I realize how surreal my life has become.
When Felicity Vogel, international superstar, moved back to town a couple of years ago, I never imagined that she and I would become good friends.
She has taken me under her wing when it comes to music and a career in it, and I am grateful for that. I have no idea where this path will take me, whether it will lead to something more or be a blip on my radar, but I promised myself years ago that I would just follow the signs and have fun.
Life is too short to take it too seriously.
I think back to Mitch, about him defending me, and I sigh at my reaction. He seemed to be fine with the way I clung to him, but I know the truth was he was just being a good friend.
A great friend. My best.
I don’t know if he knows that. If he realizes that, secretly, I’ve told him more about myself than anyone else in my life. My sisters and even Felicity know a lot about me, but Mitch knows the most.
