Page 148 of Wingwoman
“I deserved to know the truth fromyou,” Hope added.
Which part of my truth though? How much had Nina told her?
“About?”
“Don’t play dumb.”
I sighed. “Can we at least talk about this on our way back to the ranch?” I gestured to my truck. “For reasons I’m sure you understand, it’s not exactly a conversation I wish to have out in public.”
She gave a single nod, then climbed into the passenger side of my truck.
Well, that was one battle won. Easier than I expected.
Easier than I deserved.
The drive back to the ranch was silent and I was grateful when we got there that Rob and my other ranch hands had finished for the day and were already gone.
Still not saying a word, Hope got out of the truck and, without looking at me, walked into my house.
Slowly I followed her. A notch formed at the base of my throat as she knelt down to say hi to Cash. Not a quick pat on the head… no. She nuzzled him. Hugging him and burying her face in his neck.
Like it was goodbye.
Then she stood and looked me square in the eyes. “Okay,” she said, “talk.”
“What do you want to know, Hope?” I managed the words through my clenched jaw and burning throat.
“Everything. Starting with the ‘lies’ you wrote about in that new song. What lies are you keeping from me?”
“Everyone has secrets,” I answered vaguely knowing it wouldn’t appease her. But at least it might buy me some time. Time for what exactly? I wasn’t sure. I knew how this was going to end. How it wasalwaysgoing to end. That was the whole plan after all.
So then why did I feel so sick to my stomach? Why did the thought of Hope leaving right now, two weeks early, send my mind into a spiral? Especially when it was always the plan to have her leave me.
Hope leveled me with a look, her honeyed eyes turning downright lethal. “You have five seconds to start talking.”
“Or?”
With a humorless laugh, she shook her head. “This is usually the point where I’d threaten to leave you. To walk out that door and never look back.”
That was the plan. Let her leave.
She took a step towards me. One single step. “But that’s exactly what you want, isn’t it? You want me to give up first? To walk out the door so you can lock yourself up and write the next hit album.”
How could she know that?
Tears filled her eyes and with a single blink, one rolled down her cheek. “Because you believe you’re toxic. And you think you need to be heartbroken to create the best art.”
Shocked, I slumped against the wall. How the hell did she interpret all of that from one single song?
“I went to visit Jenn today,” she said, the change in her voice notable.
I jerked my gaze back up to meet hers. “You what?”
But how—
Nina. Fucking Nina.
“You had no right to do that. Meeting you could spiral Jenn back into—”
