Page 45 of Hero on the Road
She looked up at me, surprised, but then smiled softly. “I wish I could see what you see in me, Connor.”
I ran my finger along her lower lip, my body melting at the thought that she couldn’t see how amazing she was. This girl was brave and strong and talented and loved people more deeply than anyone I’d ever met. She was everything.
God, I didn’t want to lose her.
I threaded my fingers through her hair and brought her to me, ducking down and pressing my lips to hers. When I pulled back and opened my eyes, I said, “Don’t forget about me, Olivia. I’ll give you those sorts of compliments a million times a day. Every day.”
A breath escaped her lips and her eyes fluttered. “I know you would. And I might just hold you to that.”
“Promise?” I whispered.
Before she could answer, Danny was at my side, pulling my arm and talking a million miles a minute about all the things we had to do. And Olivia was dropping away and watching him pull at me, her eyes incredibly sad. When she looked at me again, I could see the connection already fading away, replaced by the cold aloofness she wore when she didn’t want anyone to see her feelings.
Before I could stop her, she turned and ran for Parker, her arms open in welcome.
I watched her go, my face turned to look over my shoulder as I waited for her to turn and look back at me. Everything in me was screaming that this was wrong. We should be leaving the airport together. We should be laughing and telling Parker and Danny about the tour, the two of us filling in each other’s silences and finishing sentences for the other.
We’d spent the last month learning how to complete each other.
I didn’t want to go forward without her.
But she wasn’t looking back at me. She was taking Parker’s hand and walking toward the exit, her bag already in Parker’s hand and her guitar case in her arms. And then she was walking through the sliding doors and disappearing behind them, nothing but a foggy outline of her remaining.
And I was walking in the other direction with Danny, knowing that I’d just walked away from the most important person I’d ever meet.
CHAPTER28
Connor
Ididn’t see Olivia again until two days later.
Let me be clear. It wasn’t for lack of trying. I got home from the airport, put my bag down, kicked Danny and all his words out—he’d been talking nonstop since I arrived—and called her immediately. I wanted to talk about everything I’d heard from Danny. The fact that Barry and his antics were all due to some stunt from her ex. The fact that Atomic hadn’t given us an immediate meeting but were making us wait for two days. I wanted her thoughts on what was going on. I wanted to hear what had actually happened between her and her ex that had made him so salty he went out of his way to try to undermine our first tour together.
Honestly, I just wanted to hear her voice. I felt like I had the worst hangover in the world. Or an addiction. Yeah, maybe that was more accurate. I needed to hear her voice like I needed oxygen in my air. I’d grown used to having her right next to me for a month, and now that she was gone I felt like I was only half here.
She must not have felt the same though because my call went straight to voicemail.
Every call after that did the same.
So when I walked into the Atomic office with Danny at my side, ready to negotiate a couple contracts, I did so with the fear that she’d already cut me back out of her life. Though I was more than willing to give her the benefit of the doubt. Maybe she’d been busy or Parker or Avery had needed her for something. Hell, maybe she’d gotten into her own bed and just slept for two days.
Given how much she’d missed real beds, it wasn’t beyond the realm of possibility.
The moment I saw her in the room, I realized that I was wrong about that, though. Her eyes were puffy and surrounded by dark circles, her skin pale under her freckles. Her mouth was tight and stressed.
She looked like she hadn’t slept since we got home.
I wanted to go to her, take her in my arms, and ask if she was okay. Tuck her into my pocket and keep her safe fro whatever was going on. Was it her ex? If he’d messed with us on the road, he might be messing with her now that she was home. I’d kill him. Kill him dead, with my own bare hands. And then bring him back to life and kill him again.
I glanced around the room, like he was going to somewhere be in there with us, and when I looked at her again, her eyes were on me.
Warm and gray/blue and looking as desperate for me as I was for her.
There she was.
“Hi,” I mouthed.
Her mouth curved into the ghost of a smile. “Hey,” she mouthed back. Then she slid her gaze over to the execs in the room and came back to me with her eyes even bigger. “Contract time.”
