Maybe he was naïve not to have seen something like this coming. Now he realized that Maggie wanted to keep his and Skyler’s relationship a secret even more than she’d originally let on. She’d made it all sound reasonable at first—with her wholekeep the focus on the band and your musicspiel—but he should have known the bigger the band got, the more the label wouldn’t want the world to know that two of the members were together. That wouldn’t exactly appeal to their female fan base, would it?
He sighed and set his phone on the nightstand, but he couldn’t let it go. “You didn’t tell me how it was.”
“Yes, I did,” Skyler said, coming to sit beside him, close enough to touch him but not touching. “We sat, we ate, we talked. It was awkward but fine. Do we really have to go over this again?”
“You didn’t give me the details.”
“Because it’s not important. It’s just something I had to do. It was work.”
“You didn’t…” Trevor didn’t want to say what he was about to say, but an annoyingly insecure part of his brain forced him to. “You didn’t kiss her, did you?”
Skyler reeled back as if Trevor had slapped him. “No! God, Trev.No.I wouldn’t do that. And don’t you think there would have been pictures of it if I had?”
“But what if next time they tell you to?”
Fuck, why couldn’t the insecure part of him just shut up?
Skyler reached for his hand, slowly, as if afraid Trevor wasn’t going to let him take it. His eyes were bright green and honest when he said, “Then I’ll tell them to fuck off.”
Despite his stomach being tied up in knots, Trevor had to laugh at that. The idea of this perfectly sweet and polite boy telling anyone to fuck off was hilarious.
Skyler looked relieved that the tension between them was somewhat broken. Trevor squeezed his hand in reassurance, though he still wasn’t entirely all right. How could anyone expect him to be okay with seeing his boyfriend parading around with someone else? The fact that he knew Skyler loved him—and, oh yeah,Skyler was gay—wasn’t doing much to calm his idiot brain right now.
He could still see the photos in his head, and he must have been scowling again, because Skyler let Trevor’s hand slip from his own, biting his lip.
“You don’t want—” Skyler cut himself off, then seemed to steel himself before he spoke again. “I mean, I know this isn’t how a normal relationshipgoes, having fake dates with other people. So if it’s too much for you… If you want to…”
“Wait, what?” Trevor shrieked. Yes, shrieked. “What the fuck? Do you think I want to break up with you or something?”
Skyler shook his head frantically. “I’m sorry, no. I don’t know. It’s just that it’s making you so upset, and god, I’m so sorry because this is all my fault. I should have refused to do it.”
“No, baby, no. It’s not your fault.”Fuck.He hated himself for making Skyler feel bad about this. “I’m so, so sorry. I’m the one who’s handling this all wrong. I know it’s dumb for me to be jealous.”
“It’s not dumb, but you have nothing to be jealous about,” Skyler said, taking his hand again. Andyes, this was good. They should always be holding hands. They should never let go. “Those pictures mean nothing. I’m all yours.”
“I know. And I don’t want you pissing off Maggie by trying to tell her no. Do whatever she asks, and we’ll be fine. I promise.”
He’d have to find a way to be fine with it.
“You’re sure?” Skyler asked.
He nodded. “Yeah. I’m not going anywhere.”
Skyler smiled and kissed him like he believed him, but Trevor should have said something more. BecauseI’m not going anywheredidn’t seem like enough. There was no way he could ever walk away from this boy, no matter what crazy shit this pain-in-the-ass industry threw at them. Skyler James wasitfor him.
Whatever they needed to do to keep their relationship safe, they’d do it.
Maybe this was what his mom had meant in the talk they’d had that day. When he’d told her he and Skyler were in love and she’d told him to protect it.
As long as they had each other, that was all that mattered.
Trevor had thought hecould handle this, but he just kept getting hit in the face with it. They hadn’t stopped with Daisy. After her, they set Skyler up with Scarlett Monahan, an actress who’d recently landed the lead role on a new CW show that was set to premiere this year and was filming in North Carolina at the same time the band was there. And then they flew in another girl. This timeTrevor tried not to even pay attention to her name, forced himself to stay far away from the internet so he wouldn’t accidentally come across the pictures.
He’d learned to stop asking Skyler for details. But still, it was fucking hard.
And then tonight…
“You’ve become quite the ladies’ man, haven’t you Skyler?” the interviewer had asked him. A man named Brett Cunningham, who’d worn a stuffy suit and looked like he should be marching around Wall Street, not hosting a talk show and digging for celebrity dirt. But man, had he dug.
