Nodding my head, I lift my eyes to meet his. “She has a funny way of showing it,” I mutter.
He shrugs a shoulder. “Give her a chance to explain herself.”
“It’s probably all bullshit,” I grunt.
He chuckles. “Isn’t it always?”
“Typically.”
We eat, not bringing up relationships or Stephanie’s running away the rest of the evening. Damion gets a full look into the past and what it was like to grow up in rural Texas. We’re all laughing and having a good time by the end of the evening.
Fender is put to bed and we all sit around Beaumont’s small gas fireplace outside, just talking. I stay away from Stephanie, too afraid to touch her, not because I think she’ll push me away, but because I’m too afraid that I won’t be able to stop.
Damion yawns when it’s about ten and Stephanie looks at her watch. “Damn, I have that interview in the morning,” she mutters. “You’ll be around tomorrow?” she asks, shifting her gaze to meet mine for the first time since I arrived.
“Came here to talk to you, so yeah, I’ll be available.”
“Jesus,” Damion hisses. “I want one.”
Stephanie laughs softly, her gaze never leaving mine. “I’ll come by as soon as my interview is finished. Shouldn’t take long,” she says quietly.
“I’ll be here, honey.”
She doesn’t say anything else to me. I watch as she and Damion say their goodbyes then leave. Once again, I’m stuck with my thumb up my ass while she walks away from me and I’ve never felt like a bigger pussy.
“I see good things,” Hutton whispers.
Snorting, I shift my attention toward her. “Yeah? How? She couldn’t even look at me.”
“Oh, she was looking, and in the kitchen, she was talking,” she says with a grin.
“Do tell.”
Hutton shakes her head. “Sorry, girl code. I will say, I think you can call off the wife hunting party, because I don’t think that Stephanie LaRue is going to let her man get away this time.”
“Wasn’t me doing the gettin’ away,” I mumble.
She hums. “I know, but have a heart, Ford. We all do stupid shit when we’re young.”
“Yeah,” I sigh. “I always knew what I had in her though. Just wish she felt the same way.”
Beaumont clears his throat. “I think she did, which is why she wanted you to have a girl who wanted all the things you did. She just didn’t realize that girl really was her deep down. Sometimes we have to sink a little to see what’s truly important, and a lot of times that’s right in front of us.”
I don’t respond to his words. I know that he’s right. This whole thing just feels like a complete clusterfuck. My entire life feels that way and I hate it.
I just feel really fucking unsettled, and there is something not quite right swirling around. I can’t put my finger on it, but it feels like shit is about to hit the goddamn fan any second.
Chapter Twenty-Two
STEPHANIE
“We’re here with Sterling LaRue for a personal, confessional, uninhibited, and raw interview,” Nicole Ashley says, her smile too bright, same with her teeth. I’m sitting across from her in full makeup and hair, while the cameras swirl around us.
I despise interviews and the last one I did a few weeks ago, I wasn’t genuine. It was scripted by my team, publicist and agent, two people that I have avoided since, two people that don’t even know I’m doing this one.
Damion is the only person on my team that knows I’m here. He’s sitting off to the side, his phone in one hand, his coffee in another as he watches me. His lips curve up into a small encouraging smile. He nods his head once as if to give me courage and permission to speak my truth, to say my side of things.
I know that I can’t tell everything. I can’t talk about Sebastian borrowing money at a ridiculous interest rate from the Russian mafia, but that doesn’t mean that I can’t say everything else that’s happened, that I can’t be honest and forthright about myself.
“It’s so wonderful to be here with you today, Nicole,” I say, smiling too bright and wide.
My face already hurts, but this is all for the camera and I’m going to put on a show, at least for now. In a few hours, I’ll be able to see Ford, to tell him everything. To explain to him why I ran, again, and to hopefully figure out some kind of way