Jimmy stared at her for a long, uncomfortable beat.
"Everybody wants the fame," Jimmy said, like it was a punchline.
Mach didn’t move, didn’t touch her. She needed some reassurance from his touch and she hadn’t realized just how much until right that moment.
"We’ve had an excellent side quest together," Mach added. "But we knew from the get-go that it wasn’t a forever kind of thing."
The audience made a collectiveawwsound.
Then Jimmy and Mach bantered back and forth after that. Mach deftly took the baton from her as he promised he’d do.
Finally, thank God, finally, they took a commercial break. Darla barely stood before the chair behind her was pulled away by a stagehand and she was escorted off stage.
He frowned. “Frontline, huh? That’s new."
Darla swallowed hard. "It is. Brand new, actually. I’m still getting used to the idea."
"You know, it doesn’t have to be over with us," he said, pushing his toe into the ground.
"Mach—"
"I mean it. We can keep going. The little side quest doesn’t have to end."
"What would I do, just come with you on tour and be your personal groupie?" She meant it as a joke, but it hit a little too hard.
"I don’t think it has to be that—"
"We both knew what this was before we started," she said. And yeah, she cut him off, because they could try to drag this out, but it was a vacation that was ending. Part of the reason a vacation is so amazing is because it has a beginning and an end.
He ran his hand over his hair. "No, yeah, you’re right."
Funny, though, she didn’t feel like she was right.
"If this goes the way Courtney says, then I’ll be back at work in Denver in no time."
"That’s what you want?" He tucked his hands in his pockets.
What was she supposed to say? No, she wanted to follow him all over the world just so they could be together?
Even if she loved the life with him, he’d start to resent her because she wouldn’t be pulling any weight. That wasn’t a way to live.
"I guess it’s time to get back to living?" she asked.
"I kind of thought that’s what we were doing." Mach pulled his lips into a thin line.
"Life can’t be all fun and games, there’s a reality out there where we’re needed." As much as that stung, it was the truth.
Chapter Twenty-Four
MACH
He knewhow it would end before they even got started. So his heart shouldn’t have hurt so bad at the revelation that the time was up. There was no snooze button on their relationship. It was done, and that’s how Darla clearly wanted it.
They headed back to the apartment quietly, both understanding this was the end point. They’d known when they started there would be an ending, and this was it. But he’d let his heart take the lead, and that was the first mistake.
Darla didn’t talk, not even to rehash a little of what had happened on the show. She stared out the window of the limo as Los Angeles passed by outside, her hands folded in her lap and her face expressionless.
But he couldn’t do it. He couldn’t pretend like this wasn’t killing him, so the second they got back he took a shower. Took a breather to get himself back together.
