“I just have, okay? Not all of us crave the spotlight.” Or the fall into destructive despair when the spotlight lures away your girlfriend.
“You’re saying that if given the chance, you wouldn’t be happy in front of a crowd shouting your name, begging to hear more of your music?”
He tried to picture it as he stepped over a root that was sticking out in the path. Singing his songs on stage, seeing how his words and music could touch people…Nothing was better than that. But he’d already flown too close to the sun once and gotten burned. He wasn’t going to make that mistake again.
Fox turned to face her again, ignoring the vibrating quality the air seemed to take on when they were so close. “One day, you’ll have that spotlight on you, and hopefully you’re made of stronger stuff than I was. Hopefully you can keep your head when you’re being pulled in eight-hundred different directions, and everyone wants a piece of you. I know you think it’s everything you want, and I hope it’s everything you want it to be when it happens. But it’s just not the life for me.”
Two lines appeared between her eyebrows. “Is that why you work on boats? Some sort of penance for whatever you did when you were a kid?”
“I wasn’t a kid, I was—”
“You were my age.” Sienna stuck out her chin. “And believe me when I say guys my age are way more immature than the girls. So, you were basically a kid.”
Fox closed his eyes again and took a deep breath. She didn’t understand, she couldn’t. It wasn’t just what Becky did to Fox, but what Fox had done afterward. He had been so out of control—and had ruined so many lives—there was no way he could ever go back.
He didn't deserve to get another chance, no matter how much he missed it.
“Why is this so important to you?” he asked, opening his eyes to see her staring at him with a rosy cheeked perfection from the hike. “Why do you care?”
Her cheeks turned an even darker pink, and she looked at the ground. “I just think there’s more to you than grumpy Grandpa Fox.”
A corner of his mouth tipped up against his will.
“It’s why I came out here today,” she said. “It’s why I stopped on the trail when I heard you singing. It’s a shame you feel like you can’t do something you’re so good at and clearly love so much.”
“I do love it,” he said softly, staring off into the trees. “More than anything. But sometimes it’s the things we love the most that can destroy us.”
“Or make us stronger.”
Somehow, during their conversation, they’d inched closer and closer to one another. And with Sienna’s words hanging in the air, Fox looked at her. Really looked at her.
Her bright blue eyes stared up at him, as the rest of her face was way more relaxed than when there were other people—and cameras—around.
She was gorgeous, and when Fox realized why, he could have smacked himself.
She wasn't putting on a show anymore.
And suddenly, he wanted to tell her everything.
He hadn’t even told Eli everything. His best friend had been happy just to see Fox alive and hadn’t asked too many questions. But here, alone in the woods, he wanted to open up about Becky, the self-destructive path he’d gone down after she’d left him, and the hole in his chest that had opened up and never seemed to get any less painful when he stopped playing music.
“I—” He stopped at the sound of footsteps and muffled voices and turned his head.
The cameras.
The contract stated they could film anywhere that wasn’t considered a “safe space.” It didn’t matter if he was in the inn or the woods, alone or with Sienna, they could pop in at any time. And somehow, they’d noticed the two of them were up here.
He quickly stepped back from Sienna, hoping to put some distance between the two of them before the cameras captured anything.
Was it too late?
He looked back at her and the real, caring girl was gone, hidden behind a perfect facade that the world would see as beautiful, but Fox only saw as fake. Everything from her posture to her expression was manufactured with the audience in mind.
When Jason Castle came walking up behind them, Fox wanted to find the nearest hole and bury himself inside.
But Sienna had her game face on.
“What do we have here?” Jason said as he got closer. “A secret battle between team leaders? Or is this a case of flirting with the enemy?”
