She tipped her head back, looking up at me, her doe eyes beaming with excitement.
“We’re watching the sunset? From up here?” The excitement in her voice was contagious. It almost felt as though this was my first time seeing it—really seeing it.
I gestured my head over to the daybed that I had requested to be put out before our arrival, surrounded by white pillar candles and scattered with rose petals. I even had a local chocolatier prepare an assortment box just for her.
As I said… I pulled out all the stops for this one chance—a do-over, a fresh start…
Timepassedquicklyaswe spent the afternoon wrapped in each other’s embrace. I’m pretty sure I admired the woman in my arms far more than the skyline itself.
It felt good to finally have someone else to share the experience with, aside from my brother. Now that I had Tessa, I’d share this with her every chance I got—provided she stayed… didn’t run…
As we sat in comfortable silence and watched the sun set over The Strip, the sky turning various shades of pink, orange, and yellow, I asked her the single burning question that had been bothering me since the news of her disappearance broke.
“Why did you run?” I needed to know if there was something in her answer that I could keep an eye out for to prevent that from ever happening again.
Tessa continued to stare out into the sunset, her eyes glistening with held-back tears as she thought about what I’d just asked. She was hesitating to give an answer, and I was trying to be patient before asking again.
“Why did you run, princess?”
“I—” She paused, pushing herself up to sit upright on the daybed before turning to look me in the eyes, and all I could see was a war of emotions. A battle that she was still fighting, even now. “You wouldn’t understand.”
“Try me.”
“My life was—isso different from yours. How could you possibly comprehend—”
“Try. Me.” I cut her off, gripping her chin between my fingers. Holding her attention hostage, I stared into the eyes of a womanwho fought daily for validation—who was never given it unless it came attached to an award.
“I was tired of being fake.” Her voice cracked with the words. “Pretending to be someone I wasn’t to uphold a reputation that was never mine to begin with. In doing so, I discovered that having everything meant absolutely nothing when you’re alone and have no one to share it with. Every award, every trophy, all the money in this fucking world; and not a damn shred of it mattered to me anymore…”
“So you wanted freedom,” I added under my breath.Love.
“Ineededfreedom. I was numb. I no longer belonged there. Fitting in was becoming harder the older I got—the mold tighter, more restrictive. What you saw on the big screen, the tabloids, the magazines… That wasn’t me. The societal standards of Hollywood had painted me to be that woman, and to escape, I had to become someone else—if only with a fake name and hair. At leastshecould be the true version of who I was. Famous Tessa had to disappear for the real me to break free from her chains. The fans, the entourage; they all come and go. No one sticks around long enough to form a deep or meaningful relationship…” She started laughing. “And sometimes you just have to say ‘fuck the world’and take a chance on yourself. What good is a life filled with ‘fake it till you make it’if you’re spending every fucking day worrying about failure instead of living? This is so stupid, I don’t even know why I’m telling you all of this as if you’d even care…”
Letting go of her chin and rising to her level, I moved to wrap my hand around the back of her neck, pulling her face closer to mine, our noses barely touching.
“Idocare… So fucking much. Do you even know what it did to me? Knowing that you had run—twice, I might add, the hotel included—and I couldn’t do a single goddamn thing about it.” I felt my walls crumbling, heart on my fucking sleeve. “You don’t have to pretend anymore, princess, or search for an escape. I think I speak for Levi and myself when I tell you that we want you for who you are, not for who someone else said you were supposed to be. With the two of us, you’ll never have to feel alone—ever again.Wewill take care of you. Whatever version of Tessa you want to give us, we’ll take her. To haveandto hold.”
Tears started to fall from her dazzling eyes, and I released a breath, pressing my forehead against hers as I closed my own, letting myself have this moment of vulnerability and giving the rest of myself to her, whether she claimed it or not.
“Why does this feel so surreal?” She asked, her voice nothing more than a whisper.
“Because people don’t typically fall this fast, this hard… Especially with people they barely even know.”Look at me being the voice of fucking reason for once.
“Is this wrong?”
I grinned at her innocence, smiling so hard my cheeks started to hurt.
“Princess, if this is wrong, then I never want to be right. Not if it means that I’ll never get the chance to love you.”
Tessa choked on her tears as they streamed down the sides of her pretty face, the sky darkening as the sun finished setting over the horizon, and the stars emerged like sparkling diamonds.
I’ve never known love like this. I know what I said, and I meant every word.
