Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 95107 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 476(@200wpm)___ 380(@250wpm)___ 317(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 95107 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 476(@200wpm)___ 380(@250wpm)___ 317(@300wpm)
He glances door, frantically bewildered at the dozens of buttons and faders, until Gumby sidles up and points to it for him.
“Thank you,” I tell Gumby.
The big man leans down to the mic. “I got you, girl. You know this guy?”
“He’s my boyfriend.” I scowl at the window. “And he’s supposed to be at home.”
A sheepish Garrett takes over the mic. He’s wearing faded jeans, a black Under Armour T-shirt, and a Bruins cap, looking every inch the athlete and standing out among the hip-hop entourage behind him. “I came to say I’m sorry.”
Nice questions me with a look. My face gets warm as a result. This is beyond unprofessional, given that it’s his dime paying for the studio time. Well, his record label. But whatever.
I swallow my embarrassment and glance back at Garrett. “Can we do this at home? I was just on my way out, anyway—”
“Don’t leave.”
I blink again. “The studio?”
Rather than clarify, he keeps barreling forward. “I’m sorry I didn’t react better to the news. I know I was asshole. But we can work this out.” His husky voice cracks a little. “Give me another chance, Wellsy.”
“Ain’t you got flowers or nothing?” Gumby chides him in the background, shaking his head. “You gotta at least bring flowers. I got a flower guy if you need the hookup.”
Nice straightens to his full height, keeping a firm grip on my elbow. “This guy doing you wrong, Hannah?”
My cheeks are scorching now. “It’s fine. Don’t worry.” I address Garrett in an insistent tone. “We’ll talk about it later, Garrett. Please.” I’m growing uncomfortable with airing all of this at work.
Nice directs his suspicious eyes at Garrett. “What’d you do, man?” he demands, affecting a tough-guy voice that sounds much older than the kid standing next to me.
“I made probably the biggest mistake of my life,” Garrett says, now with the full attention of Nice’s entourage. “Hannah, please. Let me try. Don’t move out.”
“Move out?” The conversation takes a hard left turn and leaves me behind. “What are you talking about?”
The misery on his face is unmistakable. “I saw the number you wrote down from the call earlier. It was for a realtor.”
I release a sigh when the riddle starts to make sense. Then I narrow my eyes as indignation sparks. “Wait a minute, you thought I was moving out? You seriously have that little faith in me? I was calling the realtor for my parents, you dumbass!”
Nice snickers.
“I wanted to see about paying off their mortgage, so they could sell their house and get out of that town,” I finish in a huff. “I thought maybe we could use my royalty check to make it happen.”
Relief floods his expression. “You’re not leaving me?”
“Of course not,” I growl. Despite myself, I start to laugh. “Is that why you came all the way over here?”
“What the hell else was I gonna do? Let you walk away without saying a word?”
I bite back a smile. It’s sort of sweet, Garrett rushing over here to stop me from leaving. Seeing the panic in his eyes when he thought he was losing me. My heart clenches tight when I realize he was still prepared to fight for us, even with the bombshell I dropped in his lap.
“This guy cheat on you?” Nice asks.
“No.” The smile surfaces. “I’m having his baby.”
“Oh shit!” Gumby shouts from the control room. He throws an arm over Garrett’s shoulder and hugs him. “Congrats, bro.”
“Are we?” Garrett asks, entirely focused on me. “Having this baby?”
I shrug, playing it off cool. “I mean, if you’re into it.”
“Yes,” he says, without hesitation. “Babe, I spent all night staring at that sonogram and sometime around three in the morning, it dawned on me—I can’t imagine not raising this kid with you. I know the season and traveling will make things more difficult, but we’ll get you whatever help you need. Hell, we’ll move your parents out here and buy them the house across the street if that’s what you want. Anything.”
“Yo, that’s decent right there,” Nice says, nodding his approval at Garrett. “Mad respect.”
My smile is so wide, it’s liable to crack my face in half. He is decent. The best, actually. And I realize that if I’d found a way to tell him sooner, it wouldn’t have come as such a shock to the system. Suddenly, seeing that he understands my concerns, makes the whole thing feel less daunting, like whatever challenges confront us, we can figure them out together.
Heart overflowing with emotion, I walk out of the booth and into the control room, where Garrett greets me with a tight hug.
“I am so fucking sorry,” he mumbles, burying his face in my hair. “I said some pretty awful shit last night.”
“You did,” I agree.
He pulls back, gazing down at me with pure remorse. “I need you to know—you’re nothing like my father. I think the only reason I said that was because I’d just come from the interview and he was still on my mind. I snapped at you because I was angry with him and you were right there. But I should have never, ever said that. I’m sorry.”