14
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
LUKE
“Luke?” Syndi approaches me cautiously in the hotel restaurant. “I have some disturbing news to tell you.”
“Let’s have it,” I say, knowing that she’s been hitting the promotion circuits heavily.
“You asked me to tell you if the hype between Travis and Andi turned to reality. My sources tell me it has. I’m really sorry to be the one to show you this,” she says, handing me a manila envelope.
“What’s this?” I ask, my anger immediately surfacing. I already have an idea of what it is.
When I slide the pictures out of the envelope, it’s all I can do not to rip them into a million pieces. Then fly across the country and also rip Travis Malone into a million pieces. Andi and Travis are obviously enjoying each other’s company lately. Not only are they singing duets about love and what they want to do to each other, but they’re acting it out on the dance floor with their dirty dancing moves. Andi explained all they did was line dance, but the pictures I’m looking at don’t look like line dancing at all.
This picture is of Travis and Andi on the dance floor together and very much into their dry humping and grinding. They’re definitely putting on a good show for the others. As I flip through the pictures, each one gets worse and worse. His hands are all over her body, her head is thrown back in pleasure, and his mouth is on her neck.
Another picture shows them sitting on a merry-go-round on a kid’s playground. Andi looks like the initiator in this one since she’s leaned over toward him, cupping his face, and kissing him. Still more pictures follow that one, showing them boarding the tour bus together when she told me she has her own bus with another woman.
“I’m really sorry, Luke. It started out as a publicity stunt to pull more music lovers in. Apparently, the more time they spend together, the closer they get. My friend told me they’ve realized they’ve fallen for each other.
“Andi has been trying to figure out how to tell you, but she doesn’t know how to break it to you. She doesn’t know these pictures were sent to us. My friend said she’s really having a hard time with knowing how much she’ll hurt you. She also said that Andi has been talking about doing her own tour and maybe even going on aworldtour with Sound Bar,” Syndi says apologetically.
“Don’t take up for her. Don’t even try to justify what she’s doing. I’d never do that to her, and I never thought she’d do that to me. I knew Travis had a thing for her, but she’s never acted like anything more than a fan would normally act about him.
“This is completely different. This is cold, calculated, and disrespectful to what we had. We’resupposedto be engaged. Hell, we were supposed to be married right now, but she delayed it until this summer. I even wanted to get married before we left Atlanta, but she balked at it. Now don’t I look like the fool?
“Well, I’ll gladly fucking help her out of her predicament. These pictures tell me everything I need to know. She’s moved on with him, she has more in common with him, and she’s made her choice clear to me. If she’s staying out on tour all the time, it won’t work anyway. I’m not one to carry her guitar for her and wait backstage while she makes fuck-me eyes at Travis.”
I rise quickly and my chair crashes to the ground, but I keep moving. Once I’m finally inside my hotel room, I grab my phone and pace back and forth for several minutes before I call Andi. I’ve rehearsed what I’m going to say to her over and over, but I can barely get the words out. The pain is too much to bear when all I want is to hold her, love her, and tell her how much she means to me.
The distance between us has been growing and we’ve both felt it. I just didn’t know that it was because of Travis. One fucking thing is for sure—he better not ever step into my line of sight. I won’t be able to stop myself from beating the brakes off of him. Whatever consequences I’d have to face afterward would completely be worth it, too.
After I’ve made the call to Andi, which didn’t go well at all, I’m sitting alone in my room replaying every word she said. She reminded me of how I treated her another time there were pictures that turned out to have a different story than what I saw in them. Am I wrong again this time?
She was different last time, though. She cried, begged, and pleaded with me to listen to her, to believe her. This time, she was much stronger but also just as adamant that she hadn’t done anything wrong. On one hand, it’s hard as hell to believe her when I have pictures as proof against her. On the other hand, it’s hard as hell tonotbelieve her when I have proof in the history with someone I love more than anyone in the world.
Is she telling the truth? Are these pictures not what I think they are?
A knock on my door pulls me out of my thoughts. Opening the door, I find Syndi waiting on the other side. “Luke, I was worried about you. I know how upsetting this is for you and thought maybe you could use a friend right now. Do you mind if I come in for a little while?”
Taking a step back to open the door wider for her to enter, I’m instantly grateful to have her company. Losing Andi is bad enough, but I don’t even have Brandon or Shane here to talk through everything with. Either of them would tell me if I’m royally fucking up or if I’m making the right decision.
It’s usually that I’m fucking up, but it’d be nice to know what others would do in the same circumstances. They’re both my brothers and I trust their judgment. They both know Andi and me so well—better than anyone else does. They’d tell me exactly what I should focus on when the love of my life has been on tour with the world’s most desired man. He has obviously wanted her for quite a while and has worked his way into her heart.
“Come on in,” I say. “You didn’t have to come check on me. I’ll be okay.”
I’m a fucking liar. I’m dying inside, and it’s taking every ounce of willpower not to call and beg her back. My heart tells me to call her, tell her I’ll follow her around the world if that’s what she really wants to do. I’d walk away from boxing, my family, Mack, Joe, Shane—everything—for her. If that’s what would make things right between us, that’s what I’d do.
My mind says to fuck it all. She’s made her choice, and I have the pictures to prove it. She’s been going behind my back, cheating on me while talking to me most every day, and openly mocking me with her lies. She obviously wants him, and I won’t chase after her like a little lost puppy.
“Luke, it can’t be easy on you. Have you talked to her?” Syndi asks.
“Yeah, I talked to her. She denied it, but I told her I have the pictures as proof. It’s over,” I say, the finality of it all hitting me in the chest like a sledgehammer.
“I’m really very sorry.”
“Yeah, so am I,” I reply. “Have a seat.”
