Page 99 of Heartbreaker
“You’d better be careful, Sav,” Viviana says. Her gaze flickers to Brooks. “Or someone might think you still have feelings for him.”
“That’s enough!” Noah steps through the curtain. “C’mon, break it up, you guys.” He shuffles his way into the middle of our little powwow and glances around at each of us. “I mean it. Now go. All of you. Save it for the ring on Sunday.”
“If I didn’t know any better,” Jo Valence says. My friend glances over her shoulder briefly before she turns back around, looking up at me with big brown eyes and a smile. “I’d think you were falling for him again.” Her grip tightens on my arm when I try to pull away from her and stop in my tracks to tell her she’s wrong, but she urges me forward down the hallway.
“What are you talking about?” I ask, trying to keep my volume down, because the “he” in question walks only about ten paces behind us.
“Have youseenthe way you look at him?” Jo laughs, and her short brown hair brushes the tops of her shoulders with each step. “And don’t even get me started on that show you put on last night. If that doesn’t scream that you still love each other, I don’t know what does.”
“That was just—”
“Just business, I know.” My friend rolls her eyes and unwinds her arm from mine when we reach the end of the hallway. There are two options from here: go through the door that leads back out to the signing hall or take a left and go further into the depths of the convention center. We just finished a joint panel where Jo moderated the conversation between me, Brooks, and the fans. Now it’s time to say goodbye to my buffer and hello to two hours of alone time with Brooks for a joint photo session. “Well, this is where we say goodbye.” Jo waits for him to arrive at my side before she turns to him to say, “Brooks, take care of my girl.”
He salutes her, but doesn’t say anything, still maintaining a small distance between us.
“Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,” Jo whispers, winking at me before she struts down the hallway.
When I glance back over my shoulder, Brooks leans back against the concrete wall with his arms crossed. He doesn’t exactly look open to conversation, so I do the same on the opposite side of the hallway, and we wait in silence for the volunteer meant to guide us to the session. Our conversation with Jo was fine—dare I say, fun—but the good time ended as soon as the panel did. He shut down, almost as quickly as he did last night, but today he couldn’t turn and run the other way. He couldn’t put the distance between us. I think that almost made it harder to deal with because it was like poking the sleeping bear.
The wait time for the volunteer feels like a lifetime in the silence of the hallway, when in reality it’s only about five minutes before she appears and asks us to follow her. At first, our walk is shrouded in silence, until I hear the simplest word ever said. “Hi.”
I glance up at him, confused. “Hi. Hi, me?”
Brooks laughs. “Who else?”
“Well, you’ve barely spoken two words to me since you shoved me in a cab after dinner and told me to keep my distance.”
“Yeah,” he says, scratching at the back of his neck. “Sorry about that.”
We walk in silence for another moment before he takes hold of my hand, stopping our stride. The young volunteer we’re meant to be following keeps walking, unaware that we’ve stopped, and when she finally notices, Brooks motions for her to give us a second. She taps the face of her wristwatch, but he doesn’t seem to care, turning back to me.
“Sav, I—I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have put pressure on you or had any expectations. I know we’re both just trying to navigate this new territory, and I’m sorry for not making it any easier. It’s not fair to either one of us.”
He’s dancing around the real issue: his confession. He still loves me, or at least, he did four nights ago.
“Friends?”
Friends? Does he really think it’s still as easy as saying the word? Because I’m not sure we even knowhowto be friends. We’ll have to learn how to be if I’m going to sign a contract and stick around a little bit longer…and I only have three more days before I have to make that decision.
When I look up from the floor, he wears a hopeful smile, and with a sigh, I nod. Brooks motions for me to lead the way, but this time, his hand rests on my lower back, and it’s comforting. His touch grounds me as we walk through the open door, and a wave of noise infiltrates the air. A massive group of people crowds the stage we’re meant to stand on, and a long line snakes through the stanchions, out the end, and down the main hall. Seeing things like this always shocks me—humbles me—because who in their right mind would care about meeting me? Who would stand in a line this long just for a few seconds of my attention? It’s never made sense to me. It doesn’t help that I’m standing next to the man who—I decided on the walk to this exact spot—has just broken my heart all over again.
The wordfriendsricochets around my mind, slowly unraveling all of the work I’ve done these past two years and ripping it to shreds. I didn’t come back to EWE with any intentions of falling for him again. I returned intending to stay as far away from him as possible, but the longer I’m here, the more I’m around him…the more I realize that maybe I’ve never actually fallen out of love with him in the first place.
The next two hours go by quickly, and it’s fun being face-to-face with the fans again. The photographer stands at her post, waiting for the last group to leave before she gives a thumbs-up. “You guys are good to go!”
“Wait, I think we missed someone,” Brooks calls out when she starts to walk away. What is he talking about? The last person in line just walked out and—Holy shit.
Movement from the corner of the stage catches my attention, and my eyes well with tears: every member of the Williams family lines the side of the stage with a beaming smile. When I look back at Brooks, he lifts his shoulders in a shrug. A small smile sits in the corner of his lips. He did this, I know he did, but I don’t have the chance to thank him before I’m swept off my feet by the onslaught of hugs from my brothers.
“What are you guys doing here?” I ask when they set me back on my feet. “I thought you guys couldn’t make it.”
“We wanted to surprise you,” Nash says. “Did you really think we’d missthis?”
Papá wraps his arm around my shoulders, pulling me into a tight embrace and kissing the top of my head. “You should be thanking that man over there,” he whispers, tilting his head slightly toward Brooks. He stands off to the side, conversing with the photographer, but his eyes turn to meet mine, and he smiles again. “He called a few days ago, wanted to make sure we had what we needed to get here. I was supposed to stay home, but he’s very persuasive.”
“John, come here!” Mamá pulls him into the tightest hug I’ve ever seen and kisses his cheek. “It is so good to see you. I’ve missed our morning chats.”
“It’s good to see you, Mrs. Williams.”
