“I didn’t want to go with you at first, because I knew I couldn’t keep up. I didn’t have the stamina. But I’ve been running on the treadmill, and Felix said if I can run on it at an incline, then I could for sure keep up with you, and since I can now, we can run together,” he finished, sounding uncertain. “If that’d be okay.”
“Of course,” I replied, the urge to touch him, to hold him, nearly overwhelming. Instead, I took a step back.
Instantly he closed the space between us, his hand on my watch, smoothing his thumb across the crystal of the Rolex my mother gifted to me when she got her first book deal.
“Everything’s going to be so much better now, and…” His gaze lifted to mine, held for a second, and then returned to my watch. “Don’t leave me. Everybody leaves me.”
“Look at me.”
It took a moment, but our eyes locked.
“I was gonna go see my mom when this job was done, but I’m thinking now that maybe it would do us good to start over. Maybe we could do that next week and then come back refreshed and ready to hit the album thing. What do you think?”
He started to shake.
“Nick?”
His eyes narrowed and his face tightened up. “Yeah,” he whispered roughly, nodding quickly. “That sounds good, but instead of next week, let’s go now. Let’s go home and pack and just go, okay?”
“Are you sure?”
Quick nodding, and that was it, tears were rolling down his cheeks.
He’d been so angry with me, he’d fought with me every day, wrestled with his sobriety, was trying to find a spark of creativity in himself even as he worked to strengthen his body and mind, and suddenly it all came to a head and he was utterly overwhelmed, overwrought, and in desperate need of warmth and tenderness. I honestly didn’t know anyone more capable of delivering that than my mother. At the beginning of the night I would never have considered opening myself up to him, granting him access to the most important person in my life. I shared her with so few people, but now, for whatever reason, it felt like it was necessary for him, and for me too.
“Okay,” I soothed him, sliding my hand around the back of his neck and tucking him in against me. “Let’s go home, and I’ll get us some plane tickets.”
“No,” he countered, slipping away from me, headed for the car. “I’ll take care of making those arrangements while you drive. I’d rather not fly some economy bullshit to wherever we’re going.”
It was such a turnaround, and I was surprised, because for the first time, out of the blue, I was seeing Nick Madison in take-charge mode, and it was kind of hot. He was talking to someone on the phone, being charming even as he stood there at his car door, glaring at me. Why, I had no idea.
“You can get in,” I called over to him. “It’s not locked.”
But he only stepped back, waiting.
“Are you kidding? You can’t open it yourself?”
The haughty look I got in return had me choking on a laugh as I reached his door, opened it like I was serving the Queen of England, and stood there waiting for him to get in. At my own door seconds later, I got in and slid behind the wheel.
He turned to look at me. “Eduardo needs to know where we’re going and when we need to be there so he can file a flight plan.”
Of course he had his own pilot. Why wouldn’t he? “You know, when I fired everyone, how did I miss that you have a pilot on your payroll?”
“He’s a contractor,” Nick informed me, “so he’s only on my payroll when he’s needed.”
That made sense.
“And Rosalie would never let you do anything with my plane service, she considers it a necessary expense like paying the mortgage.”
“I see,” I said, smiling at him. Nick Madison and I definitely had different ideas about what constituted a necessity.
“Now, where are we going?”
After I told him we were going to Sedona, he explained to Eduardo that yes, we’d need a rental car while we were there as well.
“I know,” he said, laughing along with Eduardo on the other end. “He said he was going to get plane tickets. Can you imagine?”
I rolled my eyes and headed back to Santa Barbara. I was counting on him being more tired than he looked and hoping that he’d fall asleep on the way, but it hardly mattered. I was thinking about the guy who decided taking a jab at Nick Madison was a good idea, let alone something I would allow to go unpunished. One way or another, I would make it clear to him that it was not.
Seven
I called my mother and told her I was coming for my visit earlier than planned, and bringing a friend.