Chapter Thirty
LILY
As I tap my phone’s screen to call Blue, I hope I don’t wake Mason as he’s most likely napping. As it rings, I think that maybe I shouldn’t be disturbing her at all. This isn’t her problem.
“Hey,” Blue says sounding more exhausted than usual.
Regretting the call, not wanting to ruin her day even more with my problems, I stand wordlessly outside the back entrance to the bar.
“Lily? You there?” She sounds concerned now.
“He lied to me, Blue.”
“What? Who—?” After a harsh huff in my ear, she says, “Are you at home?”
“I’m at the door. Behind the bar.”
The call ends.
A few seconds later, I hear heavy footsteps, then the door flies open in front of me.
The second I see my pudgy, post-pregnant sister, I lose it. Barely able to catch my breath as I sob uncontrollably.
Blue takes my hand and tugs me into the building. “Come on.”
My eyes, blurred by tears, I can barely see the steps as she leads me up to their apartment over the bar.
“Ollie went to talk to the realtor in the city this morning,” she says when we step inside the little partitioned space.
They need a bigger place but as Blake found before them, when he tried moving out of Luke’s house and ended up moving into Parker’s spare room over her coffee shop, there’s not a lot of turnover in this town.
Like Mr. Davis, people settle into their homes and stay there. They could always build but finding someone willing to sell off a corner of their farmland for a decent price is equally as difficult. Now, they’re exploring options outside Towering Pines. Which I know for a fact Oliver never wanted to do but he’ll do anything for Blue and his baby boy.
“I wanted to go with him but Mason had just fallen back asleep.” She gestures toward the bedroom area on the other side of the partition. “Last night was a rough one.”
“I’m sorry. I should go then. Let you get some sleep too.”
“Absolutely not,” She pulls me to the couch and forces me to sit. “I told Apollo if he hurt you, I’d kill him. Give me the info so I know just how violent his death needs to be.”
My breath shudders as I bury my face in my hands. Tears soak my palms.
“You said he lied to you?” Blue prompts.
I give a small indication I heard her but that’s about it.
“What about?” Blue follows up seeming a bit urgent now as she rubs her hand in comforting circles on my back.
It helps and slowly I find my voice again. “Did you know…?” I swallow the lump in my throat before finishing. “Apollo did porn?”
Blue’s hand stills. “No. How did you find this out?”
“This asshole reporter has been stalking me. He’s been onto me having some kind of connection to Apollo from the beginning. I just ran into him at Dickie’s and…”
“Everyone knows reporters will say things just to get a story.”
I nod thinking about what Apollo said about not getting into relationships because of this very problem. That the paparazzi say and do things to try and drum up drama between a couple to get a good story out of it.
Maybe that is it. But it would have to be based on some kind of truth, right? The best lies are based on truth.
