Page 262 of Just for the Cameras
Graydon:Uh…what are you talking about? I told you we broke up.
Gretchen:And I chose to ignore that.
Graydon:We’re not talking right now and I doubt she’ll be there.
Gretchen:She’s obligated to be there.
Graydon:She is?
Gretchen:Yes, and Welcott is expecting a spectacle tomorrow after the game for the start of the season, and I would suggest giving in because, well, you know, he chose our side, got rid of your dad, and is a few games away from firing Keenan.
Graydon:Gretchen, I don’t want to do that. I don’t want to expose her that way. Especially after everything that happened.
Gretchen:Not your decision to make. She’ll be waiting for you, so don’t let everyone down.
Graydon:Gretchen…pick up your phone.
Gretchen:Yeah, not answering phone calls right now. See you tomorrow.
What the fuck?
I stare down at the text—she’ll be waiting for me.
Waiting for me while wearing my jersey, probably looking so goddamn beautiful that it will break me. Not that her text yesterday didn’t break me.
Ding.
I check my phone, hoping it’s Gretchen telling me never mind, but then I see Maple’s name.
Fuck.
Maple:I know I said I would let you be, let you decide how you want to pursue this, but Gretchen just told me I’m required to be at the game. I won’t bother you too much. I’ll let them take their pictures and then I’ll let you have your peace.
I growl in frustration and toss my phone to the side, driving my hands into my hair before standing from the couch. I pace the length of my living room, warring with myself as I try to find a solution to all of this, where she isn’t hurt, I’m not craving her, and everything just…works out.
There isn’t such a solution.
Which means I have to decide what I want to do.
Do I want to sit here and deny myself what I really want because I’m trying to protect the woman I love? Or should I trust the fact that she can handle what comes her way and go after her?
Because she’s not pushing me. She’s not bothering me. If anything,she’s reminding me how much she’s changed my life these past few weeks…hell, months. She’s reminding me about the joy, the lightheartedness, the free feeling of having someone walk by my side, hand in hand, carrying my burdens right along with me.
I glance over at my phone, where I can see her picture on the screen, my jaw tensing, my body yearning.
Fuck…I have no idea what the hell I’m going to do.
CHAPTER 47
MAPLE
“Girl, we need to tieup that shirt,” Scarlett says as she takes me in.
Thankfully, I was able to get Scarlett’s information from Everly, and we’ve been talking all week. She’s been my insider as well as Gretchen, both of them giving me the confidence to keep pushing through and wearing Graydon down—that is, until I broke after the silence got too strong.
It hasn’t been easy. There have been nights when I’ve cried myself to sleep, desperate to hear from him, just a text, any kind of text, but he’s gone radio silent. And that silence has destroyed me. If it wasn’t for the contract that I signed and the obligation I have to fulfill, there is no way I would be here. I would prefer to be in my apartment, buried in my bed, possibly with Butterfinger Bites surrounding me.
But now, I have to make a spectacle in front of an entire stadium and a pit full of cameras ready to capture a moment between us. A moment that I know is not going to be real, despite how much I want it to be.
