“For you. For us. Did I wait too long before coming here to apologize and tell you what a fool I was? And how sorry I am and that I don’t want to live without you?”
My body reacted favorably to his words, but my mind held out. I shifted on my feet, my internal parts at odds with one another.
I looked into his eyes. “I can’t trust you anymore. I want to, but I don’t.”
The hurt my words brought to his eyes pained me, but it did little to curb my sudden resolve. I had given Tatum my trust completely, and he’d tossed it right back at me. He hurt me when he discarded me like last night’s garbage.
His eyebrows pulled together as he clenched his jaw. “I know you don’t. But I’ll do whatever it takes to earn your trust back, Paige. I was an idiot. I didn’t mean any of it, you have to know that. I was so damned hurt, I couldn’t stop myself.”
“I know why you did it, but I don’t like that you did. This business I’m in,” I waved a hand at the throngs of press taking pictures from outside the windows, “it’s not easy, and I’m scared you’ll run when it gets ugly. And as you can see, it does get ugly.”
He took a step toward me, reaching out to grab my arms as he pulled me close. “I won’t run. I promise. I. Won’t. Run,” he gritted out, emphasizing each word.
“I don’t—” I pressed my lips together as I summoned more strength. “I don’t believe you.”
As the blood drained from his face and he loosened his grip on me, my stomach turned and rolled. It was hard to be this close to Tatum and not give in.
“I thought you might say that,” he said as he glanced down at the floor and swiped at his eyes.
It hurt to see him like this. My heart wanted to leap into his arms and tell him we’d work it all out and things would be fine, but my head refused to allow that. My mind continued to remind me that he pushed me away, told me to leave, handed me to Colin without a second glance.
Defense mechanism or not, that was something I didn’t need in my life. With all the inner strength I’d recently found, I needed the man in my life to be just as strong as me, if not stronger.
“Do you have any feelings for me at all?” he asked so softly, I almost didn’t hear him.
“This has nothing to do with how I feel about you.” I reached for his chin and tilted it up so he could look at me and recognize that I was hurting too. “Of course I have feelings for you. But you didn’t handle things well when Jayson and Colin showed up.”
He opened his mouth to interrupt, but I placed a finger on his lips to silence him. God, they were soft.
“I know why you did it. I know you didn’t mean the things you said. But dating me is hard, Tatum. It’s not easy being in the spotlight, or being with me, or around this lifestyle. There are things that happen constantly that I can’t control. I just don’t think it’s something you want to be involved in, but I don’t fault you for that. I just—” I stopped as the rest of my thoughts and words failed me.
“I screwed up, Paige. I know that. I knew the second you drove away that I’d never be the same again. I want to be with you.” He grabbed my hand, his thumb skating across my knuckles. “I know you don’t think I’m worth it, but I’ll show you that I am. I’ll prove it to you. I want you. I want this,” he said as he waved his other hand between us. “I want there to be an us, Paige. I get that you’re nervous, but I’m not going anywhere this time. I’m so in love with you.”
“What?” I coughed out.
He loves me? My heart jump-started inside my chest, battering against the cage I kept it in.
“You didn’t hear me the first time?” he said with a smirk. “I’m in love with you, Paige. I love you. I’ll never forgive myself if you don’t forgive me, but I know you need proof. Don’t give up on me.” His lips grazed the top of my hand as he let it go and turned to walk away.
“I thought you said you weren’t going anywhere?” I called out at his back, and he stopped.
“Oh, I’m not. Not permanently. But I have something to do first.” He moved toward the glass doors before turning back to me. “By the way, I really like your hair.”
I smiled as I absentmindedly reached for the short ends, pulling at them as Tatum walked outside, where the paparazzi all but attacked him. Watching him for a minute, I wondered how he would handle himself in all the chaos that surrounded him. I half expected him to lose his cool or do something rash, but he didn’t. Tatum was the picture of calm.
Which made me wonder how the heck he was doing it, and what the heck I was going to do about him.
Forget going to Quinn’s. I needed my mom.
Stand Up for My Girl
Tatum
I would have never imagined that Paige could look any hotter than when she was with me, but she did. Holy hell, she did. Her shoulder-length hair seemed to suit her way more than the long hair ever did. Maybe it was the new her? More self-assured, confident, and sexy as hell.
I ran outside, telling Paige that I had something to do. But what the hell I was trying to accomplish, even I didn’t know. My instincts had told me to confront the paparazzi, tell them everything they wanted to know, but now that I was outside and surrounded by them, it seemed like a completely foolish idea. There were too many of them, and I was convinced they’d twist my words.
“Why are you leaving, Tatum? Did Paige kick you out?”
“Did you two break up?”
“How long were you guys cheating before Colin found out? Does he know you’re in town?”
“How does it feel to be a home wrecker?”
“So Paige cheated first, huh? Never would have thought that America’s Sweetheart was really a dirty girl. Is that why you like her?”
“How’d you two meet?”
“How long has Paige been keeping you a secret, Tatum Montgomery?”
Holy hell. How Paige dealt with this kind of shit on a daily basis was beyond me. I wanted to pull my arm back and clock most of these assholes in the face for the things they were saying, the insinuations about her that they made, the lies they propagated.
Every one of these pricks knew who I was; they knew my first and last name. It was unnerving, to say the least. The whole scene made me feel like I was living in an alternate universe, but I was determined to stay cool, both for Paige’s sake and my own. She needed to know she could trust me to handle this kind of thing, and I needed to learn how to do exactly that.
My mom had warned me when I stepped off the airplane about the pictures in the press. I knew no one from Hanford meant to cause any harm, but it still happened. And now I needed to fix it. Sometimes I wish life came with a manual—I could sure as shit use one now.
Paige didn’t deserve to have her life in constant upheaval like this. She needed someone to defend her honor, and I wanted that someone to be me. I meant every word I said to her just then, and I wasn’t even pissed when she didn’t tell me she loved me back. I knew she did, even if she had herself convinced that she didn’t. I’d show her how wrong she was.
While Hollywood and this ridiculous scene might not be my most favorite thing in the world, I’d realized that Paige is. And she was worth all the bullshit I’d go through just to be with her. Unfortunately, I made her feel like she wasn’t worth it. My actions and words made her to feel like I didn’t think she was worth the trouble. But she was wrong, so very wrong, and I planned to prove just that.
With the paparazzi screaming in my ear, I watched as half of them ran to their cars when Paige slipped out the doors behind me and jumped into her car, sunglasses covering her eyes. Her head turned in my direction, and she gave me a little smile before making a quick right out of her complex. I stood there dumbfounded, feeling like a fish out of water as cars peeled out of the parking lot to follow her. My stomach churned at the sight, and I felt helpless as I realized she was being relentlessly chased.