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Chapter Thirty
Miami, Florida
The next day was by far the craziest of any on the tour so far. Ashley had never been to Miami before--her mother had always come to California to visit her rather than the other way around--but as soon as they got off the bus that morning and stepped out onto the beach, she could see exactly how well the sun-and-energy-filled city fit her mother.
Camila had been born and raised in Miami, but when her parents passed away and she'd met Ashley's father in her early twenties, she'd left her tropical home behind and settled in Palo Alto with him. Ashley knew her mother had always craved the hottest days and constantly wanted to take day trips to the ocean. Only, it turned out that the cool and cliffy northern California coastline was nothing like Miami's endless stretches of hot white sand and blue water.
What's more, the crowds of Drew's fans were not only bigger and louder here--they were extremely passionate, too. More than one group of girls started to cry when they caught glimpses of him as the TV cameras moved around him and his interviewers on the beach.
Ashley hadn't inherited her mother's dark skin or hair--her father's pale genes had won, hands down--and when she felt as though she was both overheating and burning, she told James, "I'm going to see if the owners of that slushie stand will let me hide out in their building for a while."
James nodded, but he didn't take his eyes off Drew or the fans who were pushing really hard against the barriers that the local police had set up a short while ago to deal with the rapidly growing crowd.
She'd nearly reached the small building when she suddenly heard something crash and break. Turning, she watched as hundreds of girls and women began to stampede toward Drew and the cameras. While the local security crew and police moved as quickly as possible to block their progress, James sprinted toward Drew, doing something that looked like sign language. Drew started running, but still couldn't escape a few overzealous fans who grabbed him and nearly tackled him to the sand before the security guards could pull them away.
She was still standing frozen on the sand when Drew ran up to her. "James wants us to wait it out in here." He pulled her inside the pink building filled with slushie machines. All of the employees were out front by then to see what the commotion was on the beach, so no one saw them slip into the back storeroom.
"Are you okay?" she said, stunned by how fast things had fallen apart.
"I'm fine. I just hope everyone else is all right. I wouldn't have agreed to do the interviews on the beach if I'd known this was going to happen."
"Is Miami always like this?"
"The fans are always excited, but this is the sort of thing we've only ever had to watch out for in New York and Chicago."
"You're more popular than ever. I wonder if it's going to be like this everywhere soon?"
Of course she was thrilled that Drew had so many ardent fans, but at the same time, she could see how easily things could spin even more out of control than they already were, considering it was already difficult for him to walk down the street without being mobbed.
But she wasn't sure he was listening anymore, not with the way he was pressing his cheek to hers while he ran his hands down her arms. When he reached her hands, he pulled them around his waist.
"I don't like you being out here in this, Ash. I can't stand the thought of anything happening to you. If you had been in the middle of that crowd..."
"Don't you think I feel exactly the same way?" That was when she saw the cuts on his arms from where his fans' nails had cut into his skin. Her stomach hurt as she gently brushed her fingertips over the marks. "Don't you think I'm scared for you when everyone is being so crazy?"
"I can handle it," he told her, just as he'd said after his fans had ambushed them at the airport that first night.
She knew that he really was strong enough and resilient enough to handle anything that came his way. She only wished she could say the same about herself. But the truth was that she didn't know if she actually could handle it. Not just her fears that something might happen to him one day because of his fame and popularity around the world...but all of it.
Everything that came with being his.
Ashley hadn't realized she was going to come on this tour and fall in love. But she'd ended up falling for Drew so fast that her head, and her heart, were both still spinning from the whirlwind of it all. And ever since he'd told her that he loved her--and that he wanted her father and the rest of the world to know how he felt about her--she'd been outright panicking.
He'd momentarily soothed her with words and caresses that aroused her past the point where she could think at all, but she'd still woken up with that seed of panic in her stomach growing bigger by the second.
It was just all so much. So fast. A half-dozen worries spiraled around and around inside her head at once.
I don't know how to stop worrying about everything. That we're too different. That what we have now could never last outside of this fairy tale. That all I'm doing is repeating my parents' mistakes and that one day you'll resent me the way my mother resented my father, for clipping your wings with all my spreadsheets and business plans.
Drew had been so open and honest with her, and Ashley had tried to be just as honest with him...at least until last night, when she hadn't confessed her love for him. She hated the feeling that she'd not only lied to his family about them, but that she was also now lying to Drew by not telling him exactly how she felt about him.
Somehow, she needed to get up the nerve to tell him everything--all her fears, all her worries. Right here, right now, in the slushie shack on the beach. But Drew's phone dinged before she could stop spinning and panicking long enough to speak.
"It's got to be James." Drew pulled out his phone and looked at the message. "He needs us to come to the front of the building right away. He's got a car waiting to get us out of here safely." He took her hand, and thirty seconds later, they were in the backseat of a black town car with James.
"Sorry about that, boss," James said, looking none too pleased with the situation. "I should have been more on top of things before it all went to hell. The area wasn't nearly secure enough from the start."
"We all should have been better prepared, and we'll make sure we are next time," Drew said. "Everyone okay out there?"
"Everyone's fine, thank God."
"We need to move the rest of the interview inside," Drew said.
"Already on it," James confirmed.
Drew was still holding her hand, but James didn't make a big deal out of it, didn't stare at them or raise his eyebrows. She knew it had to be because their relationship wasn't a surprise to him in any way. Drew had said his family had guessed last night, as well. Which meant that she was the only one fooling herself about keeping things "private." Pretty soon, the entire world was bound to know.
Was she ready for that?
"After your interviews," James said, "you've got lunch with the mayor in support of the Music for Miami foundation, and then your recording session will take you through to your show tonight."
"Sounds good. Thanks, James." Drew turned to her. "You look like you got a little too much sun. Your skin is flushed."
"It doesn't take much for me to burn," she said, but that wasn't the entire reas
on she was so flushed. It was all the conflicted questions burning inside of her, too. Questions she desperately wished she could already have figured out the answers to.
They pulled up outside a high-rise, and when James got out to open the door, Drew pressed a kiss to her lips and whispered, "I love you," before slowly letting go of her hand and heading out of the car to do his very demanding job.
He'd said I love you again and again last night, but hearing the three little words in the light of a new day was at once the most beautiful thing Ashley had ever heard...and the most terrifying.
She wasn't at all afraid about her physical safety while on tour, not when Drew and his team went out of their way to make sure no harm came to her. She wasn't sure her heart would survive the tour. Because she loved him so much she actually felt like it was going to burst all the way out of her chest.
She'd always gone to her dad for help when she was confused about something at school. But this wasn't a math problem. Wasn't an English paper she needed help outlining. This was love and sex--the two things she was absolutely certain her father couldn't handle talking about. Especially with Drew Morrison associated with both of them.
But she would burst if she didn't talk to someone soon. Not just anyone, but someone who knew her really well. And someone who understood exactly what it was like to be in a relationship with someone so different from them.
So when Drew headed into the studio to record for a few hours before his show, Ashley told James she was going to run some errands. Though she hated to miss hearing Drew work on his new songs, there was something she needed to do--and someone she needed to see--before she lost it completely.
Her mom.
Chapter Thirty-One
"Mom."
Ashley was taken completely by surprise by the tears that began to fall when she got out of the taxi and ran into her mother's arms. Tears she couldn't keep from falling. Partly because she was so confused about her relationship with Drew...and partly because it had been so long since her mother had held her like this.
