Page 35 of To Bring You Back
“No photographers since last night?”
“For which I am eternally grateful, since tonight I sanded my house to prep for paint.” Despite the belt sander she’d rented, the work had gone slowly. She’d made herself persevere until she’d completed the bottom third of the side she was working on. She’d have at least two more days of sanding to finish the wall. “I would’ve made quite a picture, covered in dust.”
John laughed weakly.
“You don’t think anyone would’ve taken one.” When she’d removed her safety glasses afterward, she’d had clear patches around her eyes while light powder coated the rest of her. She’d showered and then, dressed in her pajamas, had taken her dirty clothes to the back stoop to shake off the dust before loading them in the wash.
John still hadn’t replied, and his silence fed her fears.
She didn’t know which would’ve been worse—a picture before or after her shower. “Why take pictures of me? I was working on my house. What does that have to do with anything?”
“Gannon’s love life is a tabloid favorite.”
“His love life?” She stepped back from the window. “That’s Harper English, not me.”
“You think so?”
“Yes.” The photos that supposedly proved Harper had more than a casual relationship with Gannon didn’t make a strong case. Still, Adeline knew him capable of compromise and cover-ups.
“You should talk to him, Addie.”
“Why? There’s nothing going on between me and him, and I don’t know why they’d think otherwise, especially since Drew and not Gannon was helping me with my house when the guy photographed us.”
“Drew?”
“My pastor. A friend.”
“Huh.”
“What?”
“You need to talk to Gannon.”
“Why? This probably has just as much to do with me being seen with you.”
“I don’t rate paparazzi.”
“Then I don’t understand. There’s nothing between me and Gannon.”
“They don’t know that.”
“Could Gannon tell them?”
“You’d have to ask him.”
She resisted the urge to growl in frustration. “Aren’t you and I friends? You must know why he’s here. And this Harper stuff. Does she really spend the night?”
“Harper’s in his blind spot, not his bed.”
“Oh.” She pressed the back of her hand to her cheek, embarrassed at the blunt wording. “What do you mean about a blind spot?”
John was quiet for a moment. “These questions are the real reason you called tonight. The photographers were just an excuse.”
“I …” She groaned. “It’s all of it. I don’t understand him, and I don’t like the attention.”
“If you want to understand him, go to the source. Besides, record companies ignored us for years. Guess who was undeterred.”
Gannon. He’d always dreamed bigger for the band than any of the rest of them. And he’d pushed until he’d made those dreams a reality. Now he’d turned his persistence on Adeline.
