“So you don’t know.” Xan whipped back around to Peyton. “This smear article is about you, so you will be front and center with our campaign to hit back. Jonas will have reporters here within hours. You will say that she’s a crazy stalker groupie who has lost her mind and is making up lies.”
Peyton gestured to the magazine. “Xan, this is all true. I can’t say it’s lies, but I don’t believe Raji gave the interview or spilled these secrets about us, either.”
“You will do it,” Xan said. “It’s part of the publicity that you’ve skived off on for years. This time, you’ll sit down with the reporters.”
Peyton shook his head. His too-long blond hair swished around his jaw. “I won’t, Xan.”
“She’s trying to ruin this band!”
Peyton’s answer came from every cell in his body. “I believe in her. I trust her. She didn’t do this, and I won’t help you destroy her. I’ll quit the band first.”
“This is it,” Xan said, grabbing his chest. “This is our Yoko Ono. This is the person who is going to lie about us and tear us apart.”
“I don’t think she did this. No, I know she didn’t do this. You’re unjustly accusing her, and she’s innocent.” He didn’t dare look at Georgie, who was standing over by the door.
Xan demanded, “Peyton, are you going to stand with the band like we have stood behind you, or are you going to let her pull us apart?”
Peyton slapped the magazine on the dressing table and picked up his Santa hat. “I won’t do your interviews.”
Xan’s hands curled into fists. His left fingers didn’t close all the way. “She’s going down, Peyton. I won’t let her destroy this band.”
“I won’t help you smear her,” Peyton said, his own hands clenched and ready to fight, “and I’ll talk to anybody who will listen and say she is innocent and you’re hounding her for publicity reasons.”
“I will terminate your contract,” Xan said.
“Fuck you. I quit. I’m quitting right now, as of this very minute. I won’t let you destroy her.” He grabbed his backpack and started walking toward the dressing room door.
“If you walk out that door, don’t come back,” Xan said. “Your contract is broken. You’re done.”
“Then I’m done,” he said. “Raji is innocent. I won’t help you railroad her just to get through some bad publicity.”
Peyton walked out the door.Chapter FortyKindPeyton strode down the hallway of the theater, desperate to get a car and make it to Raji before Xan’s smear campaign hit.
Behind him, Georgie’s voice echoed from the concrete and plaster, “Peyton!”
Like a spear in his back.
Peyton stopped, even though every cell in his body wanted to sprint, both to Raji to keep her safe and to run away from Georgie. He knew what Georgie was going to say, and she had every right to say it.
He turned. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m sorry I didn’t stand up for you.” He braced himself to be slapped.
She hurried toward him, her high heels clicking on the cement floor. “Not what I was going to say.”
“You should say it. I should have stood up for you like that.”
Georgie reached him and threw her slim arms around his waist.
“I’m sorry,” he murmured, reaching around her. “I’m so sorry.”
“You’ve said that a thousand times, and today, I know you meant it.”
“I should have done that for you every time some jackass said something at school. I wish I had stood up for you, and then I wish you had found Xan. You two belong together. I’m glad you’re happy.”
“We were kids.” She jiggled her arms around his waist like she was trying to shake some sense into him. “Kids are cruel and shallow and don’t know what they’re doing, but now you’re the kindest man I know. If all that had to happen so that you could become this man, the guy who is kinder to the roadies and the other guys and waiters and band members than anyone else, the guy who jumps on a plane to save his ex-girlfriend from the Russian mafia and expects nothing afterward, the guy who quits a megastar band to go to the love of his life when she needs him, then it was worth it. Because you’re who you are now, there is more love and kindness in the world than before, and I’m glad.”
He held her for a moment, one last embrace of his first love, before he thanked her. They both wiped the tears out of each other’s eyes.
Peyton ran through the hallways, sprinting to get to the airport to book a flight and get to Raji before the media storm hit her.
Because Georgie was right: Raji was the love of Peyton’s life, and he would do anything to get to her because she was going to need him.