Page 113 of Between Never and Forever

“I know, Dad. I know. Tell her I love her.”

“I always do.”

When I hung up, Dex kissed me softly and told me I was strong, that she’d be proud of me.

Maybe it was the fact that Dex knew her that made it so his words held enough weight that they crushed my soul and squeezed out my next words. “Would she honestly be proud of me though?”

“How could she not?” he said.

I didn’t answer him. I just let the question dance around in my head that day. And the next morning, Dex woke up with me again. He listened to me talk with my father again.

“Maybe if I acted like I was on tour but came home to see her—”

“We’ve tried that enough times.” Dad sighed. “She won’t recognize you, sweetie.”

“But you’ll tell me if things get worse?”

“Yes. Things are okay today. The private nurse you hired is great, I promise. She’s real good with your mom.”

“Okay,” I whispered.

And when I hung up, Dex saidokayto me too. Over and over. He held me close like he would do it every day if he had to, like it was already a part of his routine.

I felt my heart and mind giving into the idea too. I wanted to be part of his routine every single day.

For the next week, he was there with me through everything, like my own personal shadow. The man followed me to rehearsals. To the restaurants. To my bed.

My tall, beautiful, mouth-watering shadow. And I couldn’t complain because I enjoyed being with him every minute. I enjoyed how his eyes were always on me, how his hands were always wandering, how his mouth found mine more than once a day.

He made me breakfast, went to lunch with me, and cooked me dinner before eatingmefor dessert. And he filled that top drawer with lessons to teach me. I was wrapped in a bubble he’d created for me, and I avoided all other responsibilities.

I sang. I enjoyed Dimitri coming by with Olive and Pink. I fell into a routine that I shouldn’t have because I didn’t know if it would last past our contract.

There was no way it could.

And I saw the cracks in it before it all crumbled. His job wasn’t just finding my stalker. It was attending meetings about other resorts, other investment properties. It was running systems much bigger than a small show in Vegas.

Yet, he still wanted me within sight and protected, to stay put even when he had to leave. He didn’t want paps bothering me. He didn’t want media covering us after the date we’d had that had gone wrong.

“My PR team and yours are working together. Just stay here until I get back, and we can go out to dinner if you want,” he said for the fifth time that week. His sisters, Izzy and Lilah, had come to town to see me perform. We hadn’t been super close in high school, but they wanted to catch up over drinks and bum around Vegas.

“Dex, the girls and I are going out. They’re coming over now.”

Instead of leaving and agreeing to me going out, he stayed and gave us all a lecture when they got there. “Izzy, Lilah. Clara, Evie.” He gave his sisters and sisters-in-laws a look. “You all know the concerns. Don’t leave the building.”

“You’re acting like Dom,” Izzy grumbled at her older brother as Lilah looked away from them innocently. Both Izzy and Lilah had dark hair and were smaller female versions of their brothers. As twins who were a few years younger than me, I hadn’t seen them much in school growing up, but I knew of them now. Both had married men who most people believed were in the mafia, but I could tell they were extremely happy.

Lilah acted like she was much better behaved toward Dex now. “We won’t go anywhere. We understand.”

Evie, Declan’s wife, smiled big and nodded, her wavy brown hair swaying. “We got this under control.”

As soon as the door closed behind him, though, Izzy said, “We’re going to the pool on the rooftop and having drinks. They can’t stop us.”

Pink whooped like it was a great idea, and Lilah smiled like we’d found a loophole.

I was all for it. “It’s in the Black Diamond. They won’t be mad.”

But Jimmy was outside our hotel suite door when we left. He let us go but I was sure he reported our whereabouts. It didn’t matter because we were going to enjoy ourselves and let loose.