“As I was telling Jason, I strongly discourage us from making any formal statement on this gossip. It sets a bad precedent. We don’t want to get in the habit of attempting to address every salacious piece of content that picks up steam on socials,” Anna explains smoothly as if my life isn’t a fucking dumpster fire.
Jason’s jaw muscles flex. “And as I already told Anna, I believe her approach isn’t aggressive enough. You have a brand-new album coming out in a few months, one entirely based on your relationship with Kate. This isn’t some run-of-the-mill nonsense we can ignore. It could have serious implications for album sales,” Jason responds defiantly, running his hands through his surprisingly unstyled hair. “I can only imagine howfucking pissed the label is going to be when they get a whiff of it. I’m surprised they haven’t been up my ass already.”
“I’m not suggesting we do nothing. Instead of putting out a blanket statement, I believe organizing a few public outings with Kate and Jake over the next few days and leaking photos is our best option,” she says in her thick Southern drawl. “If people see you and Kate are still in love, then it should calm the noise enough until someone else in the industry does something stupid and goes viral. It’s only a matter of days or a week before that happens.”
My phone continues to buzz nonstop, but none of the incoming messages are from Kate. Maybe she hasn’t seen them…
Fuck.
She’s left me on read.
I groan, banging my head against the table as Jason and Anna bicker about what we should do next.
“Why do you always insist on tearing down my plans? I’m the PR expert, not you,” Anna says loudly.
“Because you always?—”
“Can both of you shut the hell up?” I shout, raising my head and glaring at Jason. “I don’t give two shits about how you handle this situation. All I care about is that Kate is protected as much as possible and I can get the hell out of here on a plane to Chicago. Now.”
“That’s not happening.” Jason stares at me, clasping his hands together on top of the table. “You have to fly out in a few hours for the last Country Thunder concert.”
“I’m not fucking going,” I bark, gritting my teeth. No one is stopping me from getting to Kate. From fixing the mess I’ve created.
Anna sighs. “Jason’s right. You have to go to the concert.”
“Are you two not listening to me? Tell them I’m sick. Pay the goddamn cancellation fee in the contract. I don’t fucking care. I’m not going.”
“Can you think clearly for once, Jake? I’m not going to let you ruin your career over your feelings for a woman?—”
“Whoa. We’re going to stop right there. Everyone needs to take a breath,” Anna says calmly, trying to reduce the extremely high tensions on the bus while she’s back in Nashville. “Jake, as much as I know you want to get to Kate, youhaveto do this concert. Cancelling will feed oxygen to this fire, making it almost impossible to control. People will assume any deviations from your schedule are because the gossip is true. We need to pretend everything is normal.”
Fuck. I hate it when Anna’s right.
“I don’t like this one bit,” I reply tersely. “Someone better damn well make sure I can get on a plane to Chicago immediately after I step off the stage.”
Jason clears his throat. “You’re supposed to fly to Nashville with the band. One of the stipulations in the contract was providing you with a private plane to transport you to and from the concert.”
“Find me another plane.” Of course, this is the one weekend when Max didn’t travel with me because he was attending a wedding last night. If he were here, this shit would already be handled. I also probably wouldn’t be in this situation to begin with because he never would’ve let a woman get that close to me.
Confusion streaks across Jason’s face. “Why don’t we make other arrangements for the band, and you use the plane to go to Chicago?”
I glare at him. “Because I’m not a fucking asshole. The guys deserve to get home at the time we originally told them. I’m not going to make them spend another night on the road because I fucked up.”
“Max is on it,” Anna says softly.
“How are you able to get Max to respond that quickly?” Jason asks, annoyed.
“He’s sitting right next to me. I was his date to the wedding, and he stayed over,” she replies sweetly as if she didn’t insinuate that she’s hooking up with my assistant. Not going to deal with whatever that is today.
Jason glares at the phone, clenching his jaw even harder before he ends the call without any warning.
My phone dings with a notification from Max. He’s found me a private plane that can leave an hour after the concert ends, giving me enough time to take a quick shower and head to the airport once I’m off stage.
I’m going to make this right. Prove to Kate that nothing happened. That she can trust me.
I can’t lose her.
I won’t lose her. Not again.
