“It’s him,” I insist.
Knox studies it longer. His easy expression fading. “Huh?”
Huh.
That’s all he has to say on the matter, like this isn’t a tectonic shift under my feet, about to destroy my whole damn world.
“Did you know?” I ask, hating how thin my voice sounds.
“About him playing music? Yeah.”
“Not that.” I gesture helplessly at the poster. “This.”
“No.” He shakes his head slowly.
I don’t understand…
“Teag,” Knox says carefully. “Maybe there’s an explanation.”
I laugh humorously. “For what? For the fact that the guy I’m fall”—the word catches in my throat—“seeingused to headline arenas and just forgot to mention it?”
A vendor behind the table looks up. “You interested in that one? Hard to find.”
I buy the poster before I can talk myself out of it, my hands shaking as I pass over the cash.
“He was something else live,” the vendor reminisces, rolling it loosely, slipping a rubber band around it. “I’m really hoping the rumors about his comeback are true.”
The drive home is quiet, except for the occasional buzz of my phone. I don’t bother answering it, because I know who it is. Easton is calling to congratulate me. But I have no idea what to say to him.
Knox glances at me a few times but doesn’t push. The buckle sits heavy in my lap. The rolled-up poster rests beside it, like a secret I never asked for.
I replay every conversation we’ve had about his past. The way he’d deflect gently. The way his eyes would shutter for just a second before he changed the subject. All this time, I thought it was pain—maybe it was—but I didn’t realize it was lies, too.
Something inside my chest fractures, the kind of break that makes every breath feel like I’m sucking in glass. It’s not just the lie. Or the omission. It’s the trust I gave him without hesitation, and every moment I believed I knew him completely. I want to be angry, but the anger won’t hold. It keeps collapsing into something heavier.Grief.Not from losing him entirely, but from realizing I may have never had all of him to begin with. I’ve always known I was sharing him with Rosie; I just didn’t realize I was sharing him with this, too.
I stare out the window as the sky darkens, my reflection subtle against the glass. The girl looking back at me looks smaller and quieter as tears silently trickle down her face. She looks like she gave someone her whole heart, only to discover there were parts of his that he never handed her at all.
By the time we pull into the ranch, the stars are out, and the house is glowing warm against the dark. Easton’s truck is parked near the bunkhouse, a faint light glowing through the window.
Knox pulls to a stop and kills the engine before climbing out. I grab the buckle and the poster and reach for the door handle. My fingers brush over it, and I freeze, because I still don’t know what I’m going to do.
Teagan and Knox should be arriving soon. I know the circuit runs long when there are so many entries. Awards drag on. I can only imagine that Knox lingers anywhere there’s an audience. Factor in that and the drive, a stop for food they’ll pretend they didn’t make, and it should be any minute.
I’ve been useless since sundown.
Deacon keeps glancing at me like I’m a skittish colt he’s debating whether to calm or let run. “She’ll be fine,” he mutters, stacking invoices at the kitchen table.
“I know.”
“You’ve checked your phone six times in the last five minutes.” He chuckles.
I slide it back into my pocket. “Did not.”
He arches a brow.
I exhale. “She texted.”
“And?”
