Page 69 of Undone By The Mountain Daddies

Knox, seated at the table, faces me as I enter the living room with Eli. He tears off a piece of bread, pops it into his mouth and chews. The thought of eating makes me want to throw up.

And the flames roaring in the fireplace aren’t helping. I break out in a sweat as I watch Cash feed wood to the fire. All of a sudden, I feel faint and my knees begin to buckle.

“Here.” Eli steadies me and guides me over to the couch. “Sit down.”

Cash turns around to face me. I have to be dreaming. Is that pity I’m seeing on his face?

Eli fetches two slices of toast for me, slathered with butter. He knows how obsessed I am with his butter.

“I can’t.” I scrunch my nose up at him. “I don’t think I can keep it down.”

“You have to eat something, Sienna.”

“My career is over.” I feel tears come to my eyes.

“You don’t know that…”

“Eli,” I growl his name in hopes of making him understand. “What part of my ass all over social media aren’t you understanding? I’m more likely to revive a corpse than I am to revive my career at this point.” I bite into a piece of toast in frustration, forcing it into my mouth.

Just as expected, I feel like hurling.

I swallow the bread and set the rest aside.

Eli places a glass of water in my hand. “You at least need to drink something then.”

I’m only able to stomach small sips.

I find Knox staring at me, a pensive look on his face. His knuckles have seen better days, though it probably doesn’t even bother him. He seems like a guy who’s been in his fair share of fights.

I press two fingers to my temples, sighing. “How did he even get up here with all the snow?”

“Take a look outside.” Cash gestures to the window, and I feel even more deflated than before. The snow is only in certain patches now. I can see the ground again, which means I’m good to return home.

Except LA doesn’t feel like home. Not anymore.

“Where do I even go from here?” I say, rubbing the back of my neck.

Knox continues looking at me pensively. “You can stay here.”

“Yes,” adds Cash. “Until you figure it out, at least.”

There’s nothing to figure out. I’ll die if I ever set foot back into civilization again.

I wish it were still my acting they were tearing apart. At least that was salvageable. I could come back from that. Start again. I was caught red-assed last night, and the humiliation will last for the rest of my life.

That dark corner of my mind can’t help but wonder what people are saying. My stomach churns, and the anxiety starts clawing at my chest again. But I have to know. It’s part of my job to know what people are saying about me.

I take one look at Eli and Cash standing on either side of me and jump off the couch, through the hallway, into my room for my phone.

“Sienna.” Footsteps pound on the wooden floorboards behind me, but it’s too late.

I’m already unlocking my phone with shaky hands and experiencing multiple heart palpitations as I read through messages and emails. New notifications are coming through each second.

“Sienna, we need to talk.”

“Sienna, we need to do damage control.”

“Sienna!” Eli has my attention, but only for a moment. “You can’t do this.”