“Lyric is arriving tomorrow morning and I willnotbe left alone with her.”
I rolled my eyes. “She’s our big sister, DiDi, not some monster.”
“She’s always trying to censor me,” she whined. “And control my freedom. If you don’t come back immediately, I’ll fire you.”
“Do it,” I challenged. “I haven’t had a vacation in five years, so fire me and I’ll slap a wrongful termination suit on you so fast, your head will spin.”
“You wouldn’t dare.”
“I’m no longer willing to put up with your manipulation, baby sister, so feel free to suck it, then after you’ve done that, why don’t you go ahead and fuck the fuck off?” I hung up and stepped out of the closet, stalling at the expression on Mia’s face.
She doubled over, bursting into uncontrollable laughter. “Oh, my god, I think you just became my new best friend.”
While Mia continued laughing like a loon, Jaxon frowned and mouthed,“You okay?”
I shook my head, biting back tears. God, I was tired.
“Mia, give us a minute, would you?”
Mia waved her hand, still laughing, and walked out of the room.
Jaxon closed the distance between us and pulled me against his body. “I’m so tired, Jaxon. Tired of her manipulation. Tired of not putting down roots. Tired of her nagging at me every second of every day.” I burrowed into his chest, wrapping my arms around his waist. “I just want to go home.”
He slid a hand into my hair and massaged my scalp. “How about you give me your phone and we ignore any phone calls for a while?”
“Okay.”
“Um, guys?” Mia called. “I think we’ve got a problem.”
“What?”
“I just got accosted by a reporter at the front door. I slammed it on her face, but there’s more in the way of news crews and paparazzi making their way up our driveway.”
“Fuck,” he snapped, and released me. “Stay put.”
I nodded, sitting on the edge of the bed and dropping my face into my hands.
What now?
I waited in the bedroom for close to ten minutes before Jaxon came back and knelt in front of me. “Someone tipped the paparazzi off that Melody Morgan was here.”
“My sister did that to get back at me.”
“Yes,” Jaxon said. “Brock said she confessed.”
“That bitch,” I hissed.
“We’re gonna need to find another place to lay low.”
I bit my lip. “The barn?”
“Yeah, if you’re okay with that.”
“For how long?” I asked, secretly hoping he’d say forever.
“Until they get bored and give up.”
I squeezed my eyes shut and nodded. “They’re vultures.”
