Page 59 of Dedicated
“Um,” I said smartly, but Evan was on it.
“We’ll talk about it when we get back.”
“You don’t want to tell him?” I asked when Byron hung up.
Evan made a face and shrugged. “I don’t really know how to say it.”
“How to say you’re crazy for my cock-o-puffs?” I grinned.
He rolled his eyes and poked me hard in the chest when I reached for his towel. “Your contribution was an ‘um,’ wordsmith. Let’s go get lunch. I’m starving.”
We ateat Dora’s Kountry Kitchen, and I forgave her for theKbecause Dora was a sweet old gal who loved to tease me, and who also always gave me an extra-large serving of hash brown casserole. Evan and I had discovered the place the first time we stayed at the cabin, and though Evan turned his nose up at the grease-slatheredeverything, I ate there at least twice a week when we were in town.
Afterward, we strolled slowly back toward the public parking lot down the street, Evan grumbling about how full he was.
“You’re never satisfied. You were hungry, I bring you a feast, and then you complain about being full.”
“Bring me.” He chuckled. “Like you cooked and served it to me yourself. Right.”
“I could do it. You truly havenoidea what lengths I’ll go to to get your pants around your ankles.”
He hummed a light noise, mouth quirking up in a close-lipped smile as he nudged his shoulder against mine. I knocked his back with a little more force, and his smile broke into a grin.
“Kinda wish we could stay a little longer,” I said. For a Saturday midafternoon, downtown was pretty quiet. Dora had said Dollywood was having some big-deal family day, and there was also some kind of camping or whitewater convention going on. It was nice, though, just walking beside Evan with no place to be. Not that Nashville was bad. It was a hipster city in many respects, and unless you were down on the strip where most of the tourists hung out, people left you alone, I thought because they figured they were cooler than you anyway. Everyone was a musician about to break. Everyone was on their way somewhere. But the thing was, there were parts of it that felt incestuous. Everyone knew everyone else, and also their business. The gossip trade was an industry of its own, and cutthroat. I guessed it was like that in other big cities, but I had no idea. I just knew it felt stifling sometimes when I’d hang out with someone and they’d mention so-and-so saw me at Fido earlier in the day drinking coffee with Jesse Rutgers and was Ireallytalking to that hack musician? Were we going to work together? Etc., etc. So yeah, being apart from that was nice, and I’d just started nurturing a crazy spark of an idea about me and Evan investing in some sort of compound outside of the city when my faraway gaze came back into sharp focus on the figure waving excitedly at us as she came down the sidewalk.
“Oh for fuck’s sake,” Evan said, which was exactly what I was thinking.Ella.
I lifted my hand and gave her a tight smile, hoping she’d just pass on by. Definitely too much to hope for.
Her cheeks were flushed as she stopped in front of us, forcing us to stop, too. She brushed a honey-gold strand of hair from her forehead. “God, I forget how cute you guys are in the flesh.”
“You’re a sweetheart,” I said, pulling her in for a quick hug. Evan just stared at her with his hands shoved in his pockets.
Time to make this short and sweet and get the fuck out. “We’re actually on our way—”
“Oh yeah, sure, no worries.” She detached from me and peered at the both of us. “Wow,” she breathed, looking at Evan, “you’re really throwing some hardcore death stare my way.” She turned to me next. “And you didn’t answer my last text. Did I piss you off somehow?”
Evan chortled and shook his head. I shot him a glare.
“Nah, it’s all good. Just been caught up in a bit of a media circus.”
“Yeah…” She winced. “I didn’t realize it’d get so out of hand.”
“Yeah, so thanks for that,” Evan said, still glowering.
Her jaw slackened with the confusion behind her eyes, and she glanced at me again, as if I were the key to interpreting Evan’s animosity.
“It’s not her fault, dude—” I started, which was true, but I didn’t get to finish because Ella interrupted with the words that blew my world up.
“I thought you said it was okay?” Her gaze slid uncertainly toward me.
“Um.” That was all I managed. Words were not my friend that day, and the rest of my brainpower was devoted to trying to manifest the powers of telekinesis and open up a hole in the sidewalk to swallow her up. Hell, maybe the both of us. I cringed preemptively.
“What did you say was okay?” Evan’s gaze darted over to me and pinned me like a rivet through leather as Ella looked between us, her eyes widening as he spoke.
“He said that I could—”
Fucking hell.“I told her it was okay if she did a tell-all with that tabloid. But I didn’t sayanythingabout us being together.”