“That’s great. I look forward to working with her.” Her voice rose to a forced cheery pitch, and he frowned.
“I’d stay longer, but the band needs me. I’ve been away longer than I’d planned.”
“You have a job to do. You must be eager to get back on stage.” She bounded off the chair, but before she took two steps, Nate held her by the wrist, pulling her back down.
“I hate the thought of leaving you.” His eyes bore into hers.
Then don’t leave, she wanted to yell.
“This next leg of the tour goes for two months. Then I have another break, and I’ll come back. This doesn’t have to end here.”
“How long is your break, and what happens after that?” she asked.
“We have a six-week break. Then a few shows for charity to put on in Italy, Spain, and England.”
“How long will you be away doing these events?” Jade asked, forcing the tremor from her voice.
“A month. Maybe longer.”
She’d heard this all before. When she was a little girl and she would sit with her father before he left to go on flights around the world, she’d ask him similar questions. At first, he’d be gone two days, then two weeks, then a month. Until eventually he never came home.
She couldn’t go through that again. Nate might think they could make it work, but she knew better. Eventually he’d never come back. Only moments ago, he’d said some guy would be lucky to have her. He wasn’t thinking long-term. He was only thinking until his next break, and then he’d move on.
“Don’t make plans you’re not sure you can keep. A long-distance relationship is hard work.”
“We could try.”
Struggling with the thoughts in her head and the emotions in her heart, her head told her to put distance between them. Show him the door and tell him to have a nice life. Her heart wanted to hold on to him for every last second; she’d deal with the broken pieces when he left.
She wouldn’t get many moments like this with him again, so why deny herself as much time as possible with him?
“No. It would never work.” And the curse would only end it anyway. “You’re here now, let’s make the most of the time we have left,” she said and slid her hand along his chest.
Nate didn’t argue the case, because deep down he must know she was right. Instead, his eyes heated as she trailed her palm down the length of his torso. He sucked in a sharp breath when her fingertips slid into the waistband of his jeans.
Lowering his mouth to hers, he paused before claiming her lips. She looked into his eyes, desire beaming from them. And for a second, just before he kissed her, she thought she saw something more. A need for her that went beyond lust. Her heart stopped. No, it couldn’t be more. Her mind must be playing tricks on her. And as his hands skimmed her with feather-light strokes along her body, turning her into a quivering mess, all intelligent thoughts left the building.
After, as they lay sated and panting on the couch—arms and legs tangled—she breathed in his woodsy, soapy scent, wanting to take every part of him in. And it was then her chest seized and lungs tightened. She’d been wrong. She’d never be able to pick up the pieces of her broken heart when he left because it had already shattered.
Chapter 25
A suitcase lay open on Nate’s unmade bed. He piled his clothes inside, flipped it closed, and wheeled it into the living room, his guitar propped on the wall in its case ready to go. That’s all he had. The furniture in the house was part of the rental.
Dorito laid curled up in a ball in a sunny spot of the room, fast asleep. The little fur ball had grown on him. He’d miss him.
The cat wasn’t the only thing he would miss. He loved being back in his hometown with his grandmother and Toby. Sure, he was close with his band mates, but nothing felt better than being surrounded by the people who truly knew you. His band mostly saw him as Nathan Harvey, not Nate Miller. They didn’t know the real person.
And then Jade had burst into his life like a ball of fiery light, not giving a shit about his stage persona. And because he didn’t have to hide that part of himself, it made him feel more normal than he ever had in his life. Too bad he couldn’t stay longer to see where they could take their relationship. But with her believing in curses, and with the amount of travel he did, could they have made it work?
He’d meant it when he suggested they could try, but the more time he had to think, the more he realized Jade was right. He shouldn’t make plans he wasn’t sure he could keep when he was on the road most of the time. It was selfish to ask Jade to wait for him when he happened to have a month off once in a while. A clean break would be best for both. A sharp pain sliced through his chest, and he leaned against the wall. God, leaving her was going to kill him.
These last few days Jade had been different, not her usual bubbly self. He put it down to the stress of not working and the turmoil he’d thrown into her life. He hated that he’d caused her so much trouble and couldn’t fix it. Even though she kept telling him she was fine, she’d lost the happy spark in her eyes.
They’d spent a lot of their limited time together wrapped in each other’s arms. Their lovemaking started out fast and frantic, like they couldn’t wait a second to get their hands on each other. Then continued on to something slower, like they didn’t want it to end. Each day it got harder and harder to drag himself away from her. Today would be the hardest. He’d drop off Dorito and say goodbye. Shoving his fingers through his hair, he pushed away from the wall and swore.
Finally, he had found someone he could picture spending his life with, only for it to be impossible. He couldn’t give her what she needed. Or give himself the life he wanted. The obligation to his father was what his life was about. He’d promised him he’d never let his music die.
He walked into the kitchen. Dorito must have known he was about to get food because he followed him, stretching as he peered into his bowl.
