“Really?”
“Yes.”
“So, the fact that I texted him and told him to come here, and now he’s walking toward us doesn’t count?”
I gasp and swing around. Lucas smiles warily and pauses beside me. “May I sit?”
“Of course.” Jeff motions to the spot beside me in the booth.
Lucas sits and I shuffle away, unable to look at him. My heart hurts. I throw Jeff an I can’t believe you’d betray me like this look.
“Hailey?” Jeff raises an eyebrow, frowning at my stare of death. “Will you hear Lucas out?”
“Hailey.” Lucas gently takes my hand. “You need to hear my side of things. I get that you want to stay out of it, and that’s fine. I’m going to work through everything with Isaiah, because you’re right—it’s messed up.”
Hot tears fill my eyes as I say softly, “I’m just another girl in this game.”
“No, Hailey.” He brushes my hair back. “Maybe for him, but not for me.”
I scoff. “What about Rochelle then? The one who started everything? Or your girlfriend when you were a senior?”
“He told you about my old girlfriends? Why is that a big deal?”
“Because you always took the girls he wanted, which is why you came after me. You ignored me as much as you could until he showed an interest.”
He leans back, wide-eyed. “Whoa! What?”
I rub my eyes. “Great. I thought you really cared. I let myself…” I release a long breath and look at Jeff. “I want to go.”
His deep scowl twitches as his gaze darts from me to Lucas. “You lied to her?”
“No!” Lucas touches my back. “Hailey, I didn’t know Isaiah liked those girls. Both of them came after me, and they were cute so I let them. I didn’t know.”
I look him in the eyes. “What about me?”
He drops his gaze. “You were different. I knew you were taken, so I…but I never—”
“Jeff?”
Jeff meets my eyes.
“Take me back.”
“Hailey!” Lucas grasps my shoulders. “It’s not like that. I care about you, and not because Isaiah does too. Please, this sucks, I get that, but don’t cut me off.”
I look into his eyes again.
“Please.” He caresses my face. “You trust me, don’t you? I’ll tell you anything you want to know.”
I wipe my eyes. “Lucas, I don’t think I’m ready for this.”
“Don’t.” He kisses me softly. “I won’t push you. I know you’re still hurting, and that’s okay. I’ll just—”
“No.” I shove him back. “I don’t want to be the fuel for the fighting in your family. You all need a break from me.” I look to Jeff. “I go back home tomorrow, and I don’t want any of them to talk to me until the final.”
Jeff rests his chin on his hands. “That’s a very serious detachment.”
“I’m tired of fighting.” I push Lucas to let me out of the booth. “Excuse me.”
“You can’t be serious,” Lucas says, refusing to budge.
“I’m very serious.” I look into his eyes. “I can’t be with you and have Isaiah hovering and causing conflict. Deal with him and your family’s issues, and let me deal with my own.”
He stares into my eyes, then nods. “All right. You’re right. I guess I have rushed things.” He clasps my face and softly kisses me. “Take care, Hailey.”
He slides off the chair and walks away without looking back.
Jeff grabs the check. “We’ll pack the rest.”
“He didn’t even fight for me,” I whisper.
“You made it pretty clear not to.”
My chin quivers. “It’s over then?”
He sighs. “I doubt it. I think that boy is going to go back to the hotel and confront his family. Don’t worry about him. He’s not going anywhere. But you…” He waves his finger at me. “You need to recover from that douchebag Tom. Take some time off when you get back to just breathe and sort your head out. If you want, I’ll send someone to help you. I know a fantastic life coach.”
“A life coach?” I raise an eyebrow. “You celebrities have everything. How does everyone else in the world live?”
“Mind your tongue. I’ll have her go stay with you for the next two weeks. She’ll really straighten you out and you’ll feel like a new person, and I’ll foot the bill.”
I wave my hand. “Fine, whatever.”
“Good.” He rubs his hands together. “She’ll meet you at the airport.”
Chapter Twenty-One
As I climb out of the cab at the airport, someone calls my name. I glance inside the doors but can’t see anything. But, as I pass through, Emily appears out of the crowd, a wide grin across her face. “Hi.”
I look her over in her comfortable jeans and loose gray t-shirt. “You’re the life coach?”
Her smile falls. “Is that…I hope that doesn’t make you uncomfortable.”
I shake my head, breaking into a grin. “He could have said.”
She smiles again. “He loves surprises.”
“I can tell.”
“Come on.” She tilts her head. “If we check-in together, we can probably pick seats together.”
On the flight, she pulls out her tablet and starts building a schedule for me.
“Um, Emily?”
“Yes?” she responds, slotting in yoga on Thursday afternoon.
“Who’s with your boys?”
“We have a nanny.”
“Oh.” To be rich…
At the airport, we’re grabbing our bags when Mom calls out to me. I swing around, scanning the crowd. She bursts through and crushes me in a tight embrace. “I missed you, baby.”
“Mom!” I hug her back, more than happy to see her after our disagreement. “I didn’t know you’d be here.”
She clasps my face. “I thought I’d surprise you.”
“You’re not mad at me?”
She frowns. “No, baby girl. I love you no matter what.”
I hug her again. “I love you too, Mom.”
She squeezes me, then whispers, “There’s a woman staring at us.”
“Oh!” I pull back and motion to Emily. “Mom, this is Emily. She’s a life coach. Jeff sent her to help me get over my Tom issues.”
“Jeffrey Halloway?” Mom pulls at my elbow. “Sweetie, I don’t like that you’re getting so close to him. I don’t like that you have the same agent. I don’t like any of it.”
“Mom.” I hope Emily doesn’t take offense.
“Mrs. Gomez, isn’t it?” Emily offers her hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you. I know Hailey loves you dearly.”
“Iris,” Mom responds, shaking her hand.
“Mom,” I say softly. “She’s Emily Halloway.”
Mom pulls back sharply. “As in married to Jeffrey Halloway?”
Emily raises her hand. “Don’t let that bother you. We’re two totally different people.”
“Yes…well.” Mom forces a smile. It looks sincere, but I know by the slight tremble in her upper lip that she’s pissed. “Which hotel will you be staying at?”
“I’ll be staying with Hailey,” Emily answers, lifting her bag over her shoulder. “If you don’t mind?”
Mom turns to me, her brows lowered. “They’re taking over your life. I was afraid of this. Whose idea was this? Your new agent’s? Are they trying to change you into someone else? Hailey, you’re perfectly fine just the way you are. I’ll help you forget Tom.” She wraps her arm through mine, pulling me close.
“Mom.” I glance at Emily. “You’re acting weird.”
Mom gives me a hard stare. “I won’t let anyone take you away from me.”
“Mom!”
“Mrs. Gomez,” Emily says very politely. “No one intends on taking Hailey away from you. We want to help her move forward with her life, that’s all.”
Mom stares at her, her arm tightening around mine. “She’s my daughter.”
“She is, and that will never change.”
Mom’s chin quivers as she looks up at me. “I thought it would be nice to have you come see the boys. It’s been a while and they miss you.”
“Um…” I glance at Emily, not wanting to be rude, but she’s clearly not welcome to come along.
Emily smiles. “That’s a great idea. It will give me time to check out the neighborhood around your apartment and set up. I’ve done some research on the area already, so I’d like to get my bearings by borrowing your car, if that’s all right?”
“Yeah,” I answer, slightly stunned.
“Okay, let’s go then.”
***
Lauren sits munching away at a bowl of cereal as I struggle with the tai chi Emily makes me do.
“That’s hot,” Lauren says with a mouthful of food and points at me with her spoon.
“Shut up,” I say in a singsong voice.
“Seriously, it’s no wonder celebrities are so skinny. You seem to always be exercising. Mind you, if I had a butt load of money and plenty of spare time, I’d probably be paying to burn off my excess calories to make me a sexy hoochie mama.”
“Lauren!” I start laughing.
Emily stops the movements. “Tai chi helps clear the mind—”
“A good coma does that too,” Lauren mutters.
“Lauren!” I laugh harder.
“All right, I get it.” Emily flicks off the music. “We’ve been at this for a week, and I’ve seen dramatic improvements in your mood, so I think we should do something different today.”
“Oh!” Lauren grins. “Are you a personal shopper too?”
Emily scowls at me, with a glimmer of amusement in her eyes. “Your roommate is a real comedian.”
I shrug. “I like her. She keeps a gun in her top drawer. It helps me sleep at night.”
Emily flashes a wary glance at Lauren. Lauren grins in response. “Scares people better than any blackbelt.”
“I’m calling Jeff to check on the boys.” Emily slips out of the room.
Lauren chuckles. “I love her. We should keep her.”
“She’s great, huh?” I sink onto the chair beside Lauren and steal her bowl of cereal.
“Yeah, no wonder she married Jeffrey Halloway the womanizer. Only a tough cookie like that could convince him to settle.”
“You know, he’s actually not a womanizer at all,” I say, waving the spoon at her. “Complete misconception.”
She raises an eyebrow. “How much time have you spent with those people?”
“I guess a lot more than most.”
“Yeah.”
“But they’re cool. I like them.”
“I wish I could be BFFs with a rock star.” She leans forward, her eyes twinkling. “By the way, you need to update me on the Lucas situation.”
“Nope.” Emily wags her finger at Lauren as she moves swiftly and gracefully through the room, her phone propped on her shoulder. “No boys. Say hi to the boys, Hailey.”
“You realize that sounded completely contradictory,” Lauren says.
Emily raises an eyebrow. “Her roommate is very sassy,” she says into the phone. “All right. Hailey, it’s Collin.” She hands me the phone before I even respond.
While Collin talks, Lauren glances between me and Emily, tilting her head slightly. Emily turns toward the kitchen. “I’m going to make us a proper breakfast.”
Later, while Emily is at the grocery store, Mom drops by. She glances around as she enters. “Where is everyone?”
“Lauren’s probably in class,” I answer. “And Emily went to the store.”
“What are you doing?”
“Watching TV.” I sit back on the couch. “I get a day off.”
“Do you think you could spare a few minutes for your sad, old mother?”
“Mom.” I pout. “You are neither sad nor old.”
She smiles, but a hint of sadness does glimmer in her eyes. “We haven’t gone to the chocolate factory in a while. I’m really craving their mint fudge.”
I shoot to my feet. She used to take me there all the time as a treat. I think that was the only way she could afford something special for me—free samples. “I think a visit is in order. Let me change.”
At the chocolate factory, we stand by a window watching the huge barrels churn the chocolate when she says, “Hailey, your grandparents contacted me while you were in L.A.”
My stomach does a somersault. She hadn’t spoken to her parents in years. “What?”
She looks at her hands on the rail, slowly nodding. “They said they watched you on the show and couldn’t be prouder.”
“Is that why you’ve been touchy lately?” I ask, grasping her arm. “Mom, I’m not going to trade you in. You’ll always be my mom.”
She rests her hand over mine. “I’m afraid with all this exposure, people we’ve hidden from will find you and take advantage of you by not revealing who they really are. My parents found us, so who’s to say…”
My dad. The thought of him showing up sends a chill of fear through me. “Mom, maybe you should show me what Dad looks like.”
She flinches back. “Peter Johns died, Hailey.”
Everything inside me freezes. I don’t know how to react. My father died? “When? How?”
She looks up at me, tears gathering in her eyes. “Two years ago. He was drunk and wandered onto a train line where he passed out.”
“Oh my…” I cover my mouth, feeling sick.
“So you don’t need to worry about him.” She walks on to the next viewing area.
I hurry after her. “Mom, that’s serious! Why didn’t you tell me? Doesn’t he have any family?”
She shakes her head. “He never remarried and had no kids that I know of. His parents disowned him years ago, so they probably don’t care.”
“But why didn’t you tell me?”
She shrugs. “You never really knew him, and he was a dark stage of my life. I guess I just wanted to protect you.”
“Mom.” I grasp her hand, sighing. “I wouldn’t have gone looking for any of his relatives or him. I remember him hitting you and me.”
She winces. “You remember?”
“Not in great detail, but yes.”
“Oh, sweetie.” She throws her arms around me. “As soon as he laid a finger on you, I left. I only stayed because I thought I was doing what was best for you.”
“I know.”
“He had a job and helped pay the way. When my parents tried to take you from me, I thought it was my only way to keep you. Maybe I was selfish, but I’ve always loved you so much. I never wanted to let you go. But now…now I have to.”
“No,” I say softly, stroking her hair. “Mom, I’ll always be your little girl.”
She pulls back and clasps my face. “No. You’re a grown woman now. You’re smart, talented, and beautiful. You turned out just how I wanted, and I couldn’t be prouder.”
“Mom—”
“Your grandparents want to meet you.”
I draw a sharp breath. “They won’t expect me to—”
“They won’t expect anything of you. They know you’ll be twenty-one in a few months, so you’re an adult, and they respect that. They just want to know you. It turns out, they’ve been looking for us for a while.”
“Really?” I can’t help the smile. For so long I thought it was just Mom and me.
She nods. “They’ve made arrangements to meet you after you come back from the final episode, if you want to?”
“Yes!” I squeeze her arms. “Mom, are you…”
“It’s fine, baby girl. I should reconcile with them anyway.” She sighs. “I was just a kid when I left. I ran scared, but now I see they wanted to help me. Do you resent me for taking you away from people who could have given you so much love?”
Her words sting. She’s always loved me so much I’ve never considered needing more. How long had she suffered telling herself that? “No, Mom.”
She rests her hand over my heart. “You are the best thing that
ever happened to me. Even though your father broke my heart, I’m glad I didn’t get rid of you like he wanted. There were times when I’d just hold you and thank God I’d been given such a bright light during my dark times.” She gently strokes the ends of my hair. “I’d hate for anyone to put out that light. That’s why I’m afraid for you. I see Jeffrey and his agent moving in on you like vultures and it makes me crazy, and sending his wife with you stung. I feel like he’s trying to steal you from me.”
“Mom!” I shake my head. “He’s just a rock star. Just because he’s rich and famous and is giving me a hand to kick off a music career, doesn’t mean he could ever replace you. You’re my mom.”
She smiles, brushing her thumb across my cheek. “It’s good to hear it, sweetie. I love you so much.”
I wrap my arm through hers as we walk along. “And I’ll be careful. I promise. But I want you to know that Jeff is looking out for me. He won’t let anyone exploit me.”
“But what about him?” she asks softly.
I nod. “I trust him.”
“Why?”
“Why?” I ponder it carefully before I answer. “He believes in me when no one else does. He listens to me. Mom, don’t be upset, but…” I chew my lip. “Marco and I never got along, and Jeff has kind of stepped in as a father figure for me. I always wanted one, and you always loved his music.” I shrug.
“Yes, I probably played “Late Night Muse” to you too many times.”
I chuckle. “I thought of you when I sang it on the show, and I told him it’s your favorite too.”
“How sweet.” She pats my hand. “On the topic of the show, tell me the story with you and that sexy Lucas.”
“Mom!” I giggle, blushing.
“What? He’s gorgeous, and there’s been plenty of pictures flying around of you two kissing and having rather intimate moments.”
“I know.” I huff, my heart aching again. “We parted on less than cordial terms.”
“Has it got to do with Tom or his brother?”
I pause our walk, staring at her. “How do you do that?”
“Do what?”
“Know exactly what’s going on.”
“Well…” She pulls out her phone. “I figured out the Tom part on my own because I know you and know you are still hurt by that, but the brother part…” She flashes images up of Isaiah and me arguing outside my hotel room.
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