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I give him my best mean face which just makes the smile grow further.
“One day I will break you,” I huff, and now J-Dawg is grinning as well. Great… Maybe there’s a course on being mean I can take.
“You’re welcome to try, Ms. Scott,” Travis says through a chuckle.
I return a playful grunt as they punch in the code to open the door.
Bubbles erupt in my stomach when I hear Val’s voice from inside the bus. My fingers tingle with the desire to touch him. I miss the hard warmth of his body, the sweet fire of his kisses. I miss feeling the opposite of how I’ve felt all day.
His gaze lands on me the second I appear, but it’s Nash who comes forward first.
“Hey! How’d it go tonight?” he asks, moving in for a hug.
I throw my arms around him and squeeze.
“It went fine,” I say, my voice muffled against his shoulder. “Still not sure about the transition into ‘Moonlight Musings.’ It’s too abrupt, in my opinion.”
I brought up this issue multiple times in rehearsals but they insisted the transition would work once we ironed out the timing. Four shows in and nothing has been ironed.
“Maybe see if they can adjust the tracks and lights to a hard stop to shave off a second or two,” Val says, his gaze locking on me.
My insides swirl around, my pulse racing. What is he thinking right now?
“It’s counterintuitive,” he continues, “but killing the energy completely instead of trying to bring it down might work better. Not ideal, but would probably be the easiest change to pull off on the fly.”
I swallow hard, nodding through the knot in my stomach.
“I’ll look into it. Thanks,” I say quietly.
He nods back and averts his gaze.
My heart pounds as I study him. The way he’s braced against the wall has my body straining to press into him. It’s become my default position, so not being close feels wrong. My fingers ball into a fist at my side.
“Hey, so we have to talk to you,” Nash says.
I force my attention to Nash, still burning beneath Val’s intense stare. Did he read the letter? Or is this just the tension from everything else that’s happened lately?
My stomach ached the entire time Jarvis forced him to watch us together. I never hated my ex. I’ve never hated anyone, but in that moment, the true ugliness of that man was on full display. The fact that he would bully someone he knew couldn’t fight back, almost made me call it off right then and there.
But Val did fight back. Somehow my brilliant, fearless boy managed to turn that entire situation around and steal it from Jarvis. Based on my ex’s sulking for the rest of the day, Val is going to pay dearly for that, but it was worth it to see Jarvis groveling for once. He was furious when he looked at his photos and saw the countless images of that same pole. I could barely hold in my laugh and was bursting with love for Val at that moment.
And now he won’t even look at me.
What if he read the letter and is even more wary of me?
“You might want to sit down,” Nash says.
My stomach drops at the strange suggestion, and I cast a quick glance at Val.
“It will be okay,” Val says gently. “We just want to fill you in on something we’ve learned.”
That wasn’t the tone of someone who hates me, at least.
With shaky legs, I lower myself on the couch beside Nash. Val is still leaning against the wall on my other side.
“There’s no point in sugarcoating this,” Nash says. “We don’t have time for that anyway. Val found this in Jarvis’ dressing room.” He hands me a tablet showing a photo of a piece of paper. I recognize Jarvis’ handwriting, but the rest doesn’t make sense.
“Get her to dump me. Better if she cheats? What does this mean?”
