I nod.
“Did she also mention that us being together would ruin your image? That it's better for you to appear single to the masses?”
“Do you have supersonic hearing?”
He chuckles, “My hearing is pretty lethal. I have to listen for threats, but no, I didn't hear your conversation with her.”
“Looking out for threats to whatever… this is?” I ask, sounding pathetic but also looking for a glimpse of hope that this isn’t the end of things for us.
I can’t handle this being the end.
I know it probably didn't make sense to start a relationship right now considering I’m in the middle of my tour, and, in the past, I'd never wanted to seriously date anyone. But I can’t bear to know that my career is putting an end to us when we’d just started.
“Paloma,you're it for me. You're the most incredible and beautiful woman I've ever met. The only one that I want to be near and around. But you have a light and a joy in this… gift you have. It’s something special. I’m afraid if I’m around you while you're on tour, I’ll dim that light. Take that fire out of you by expending your energy. You’re right, that there are two sides to you, and I love them both but I’m not going to stand in the way of your dreams. So, tell me what you want to do because for me, you're my girl. I’d like the world to know but I don’tneedthem to know. As long as you and I believe in what we have, who gives a fuck about what anyone else thinks?”
He loves both sides of me...
He wants this…
I nod, knowing that he’s right and feeling his support.
“This leg of the tour lasts for six more weeks, then I get a break, and I'll come back to Texas.”
He squeezes my hand. “And I’ll be waiting there, waiting for you, watching your concerts online every night.”
Chapter 27 – Dallas
Two weeks later…
"Seems like you actually managed not to fuck up something you planted all by yourself for once."
I look up from where I’m inspecting the cabbage and kale I’d planted in my garden a few months ago, two hearty, winter vegetables, to find Wylie walking toward me wearing a smirk.
“I've had a lot of extra time to make sure I got it right this time.”
“Extra focused now that your girl is gone, huh?” he says with a grin.
I shake my head as I continue to inspect their leaves.My girl.Paloma is definitely my girl, and I'd told her as much before leaving her behind in Los Angeles to continue on her west coast tour despite hating every minute of it. After saying goodbye, multiple times in her tour bus then back at her apartment in downtown LA, I boarded a plane back to San Angelo. When I got back to Golden Farm, it didn’t feel the same knowing she was no longer nearby. I guess I’d always felt a sense of home being here, imagining she was just down the road living at her parent’s ranch.
Now Iknewwhere she was. Hundreds of miles away, singing to acrowd that didn’t appreciate her the way I did.
“I think I might have a bunny.”
“Probably a whole family of them with the looks of those leaves.”
He stoops down next to me to examine one of the pieces of kale. “This doesn’t look good.”
I drop the bunches, pulling them out by the root and toss them in a pile next to me, “No shit.”
“So, how was your visit back to Los Angeles?”
“Almost killed a guy who hurt Paloma.”
Wylie snorts, “Stevie told me.”
“Figures you two can’t keep anything to yourselves. You ever wonder if you'd have killed Charles over Stevie if your brothers hadn't come in to stop you?”
He rubs the scruff of his jawline as he thinks, “Yea, I probably would have.”
