Chapter 56

CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX

TAM

31 bobas left until we both die …

My mom is waiting in the kitchen for me. I’m up early to go for a run and here she is, my smoothie already made and sitting on the table. I give her a boyish smile in thanks. I’m twenty-seven years old. I’m busy. My mom is busy. When we do get the time to see each other, we almost exclusively talk about business.

This? Doing something mom-like for me? I love it.

“Thank you, Mama,” I tell her, giving her a kiss on the cheek as I pick up the glass and throw it back. No straw today. I set the glass down on the table, remember belatedly that I’m not wearing my shirt and snag it from around my neck. I yank it over my head as quickly as I can, and then smooth my bedhead with my fingers. It’s a rare morning when I go without getting my hair fixed by a stylist. You better bet that a couple of sweeps with a brush is the most I’ll do on my time off.

“You’re very welcome.” She gives me a begrudging look. “I’m sorry I’ve been so on you about your diet. How did your physical go the other day?”

I was going to skip that, but the doctor was already waiting in the kitchen with Jacob when we woke up. Didn’t take long, all of a half hour.

“I gained a pound,” I tell her, leaning back against the table and crossing my arms. “Of muscle.”

“Oh?” She’s surprised, but she shouldn’t be. I haven’t stopped working out, but I’ve been eating a bit more. Exercise and extra calories plus protein equals muscles. “That’s nice.”

It gets a little awkward, like maybe we’ve forgotten how to talk to each other.

“How’s Christian?” I ask, wishing she’d marry her boyfriend. I know she wants to. I see all of his social media posts, and he is very much into my mom. He looks at her the way I know I’m looking at Lakelynn. “Did you accept his invitation to spend the holidays with his family?”

My mom purses her lips and then looks away, out the window toward the sun as it edges up over the mountains. She thinks for a minute, and then she turns back to me.

“You want to spend the holidays with your new girlfriend’s family?”

I nod. She figured it out. If we’re still alive by then. I’m a little freaked out. Now that I believe in the curse, the danger’s become real. If we hit August twenty-fourth and Lakelynn doesn’t love me, we’re both going to die. And in the meantime, I’m going to spend my possible last days with her family. Not with my mom. I have to address whatever needs to be addressed between us right now. I should tell her that I love her.

“Oh, and I want you to add something to my will.” Maybe that’s a weird request to make on an early morning during a rare, unexpected visit like this. I know why she’s here: to talk about Lake. She isn’t happy about what I put her through. She’s the one who handles my contracts, and she had to go head-to-head with the CEO over me. But Lake was right: I’m Tam fucking Eyre. I can keep making music, label be damned. My fate is out of their hands. They caved and gave me what I want, and the only thing I really want right now is … Lakelynn. “Just in case a stalker gets me or something.”

“You’re saying that because people are angry about your relationship with Lakelynn?” Mom asks, but I just shrug. People aren’t that angry, and they’ll get over it. I haven’t lost significant followers on any social media platform.

“I want to make sure that if something happens to me, that her family gets money from my estate.”

Elena has no idea what to do with that information, putting a hand up to her chest and fiddling with the edges of her navy-blue blouse. It’s a smart look, with the white pants and the silver heels.

“You just started dating her and now … she wants you to give her family money in your will? Tam, sweetheart. Thomas. Listen to me.” My mom comes over to me, taking my hands in hers. “I don’t trust her. I don’t have a good feeling about this. Something is screaming at me that I should get you away from her.”

“Please make the changes to my will,” I tell her with a smile, rearranging our hands so that mine are on top. I appreciate what she’s saying, but this wasn’t Lake’s idea. It’s just mine. I’m not even going to tell her about it. Despite the precautions I’m taking, I do believe in me and Lake. I think we’ll break the curse, and we’ll get married one day. Frankly, if it wouldn’t make me look crazy, I’d have already asked her to marry me.

“I’ll think about it,” Elena says with a frown, drawing back from me and dropping her hands to her sides.

“No, Mom. I’m telling you: make the change, please. Send it over to me, so I can sign it.”

We just stare at each other.

“You’re serious about this girl?” she asks, and I nod.

“I’m serious.”

She purses her lips again.

“She’s not on-brand.”

“Not everything needs to be on-brand.”

Elena sighs and reaches up to fiddle with her earring.

“I know. You’re an adult. I trust you. It’s just … I don’t like her.”

“Give it some time.” Until after August twenty-fourth. “And you will.”

I feel like there’s some part of my mom that recognizes how dangerous my connection to Lake really is. Or maybe she can sense that her son is in love with a girl who isn’t in love with him?

Thirty-one bobas until we both die. Damn.

“I’ll make the changes and have that to you by the end of the day, Mr. Eyre,” she teases, and then I know for sure that we’re okay. I give her a wry smile.

“Don’t you start talking to me like I’m a duke as well. Might just start believing it.”

“Today is the first day you’ve ever spoken to me like … I’m you’re employee.” Mom chuckles, as if there’s something funny about that. She must know how much I love her then, huh? She knows that her being my mom is more important than my career.

That’s why I know I love Lakelynn, too—because I’ll sacrifice the world for her. The entire world. The whole fucking world.

“Oh dear.” My mom shakes her head at me. “That look on your face. Son, you have it bad. This will thing was your idea, wasn’t it?”

“Lake’s practical. She’d tell me that it was a good idea, that I was thinking ahead. But she wouldn’t revel in it or covet it. That’s not how she is. I’ve never met someone who lives happily in the little everyday moments like she does.”

My mother smiles at me and then walks over to give me a kiss on the cheek.

“I love you, Thomas,” she tells me, and this time, it’s she who hugs me. I like that, too.

“I love you, too,” I reply, and then I hold on tight.

Just in case.

Just in case.

Lake is so sleepy and cute. I could sit here and stare at her for hours, but … that’s probably creepy. I smile and reach out to run my finger down the length of her nose. She slaps me and rolls over, grumbling and nuzzling into a pillow.

I love that, too.

I like watching her, playing around with her. She does the funniest things, like challenge me randomly to rock-paper-scissors to make some random, arbitrary decision like what LaCroix flavor to drink. She turns the volume on her phone down low, so that she can listen to that song, “NIGHT DANCER”, while she’s in the shower. She thinks I don’t know she’s doing it.

“Time to wake up. Concert day,” I whisper in her ear, and I get this straight fucking thrill at having my girlfriend here with me. I can tell Lake the truth about everything; she keeps secrets. She keeps better secrets than I do. She’s so tenderly respectful of our privacy, same way that I am. And the sex? I’m glad I waited for her to come into my life. We fuck each other like we were born to do it. “Our last concert.”

Lake rolls back over to look up at me, blinking her way out of sleep.

“How many concerts were there in total? Ten-thousand?” she mumbles, and I grin.

“Fifty million, but you missed some.”

“Hmm.” Lake rolls back over, but I climb under the blanket and press my body nice and tight against the back of hers. She shivers. “That’s extremely unfair, Tam Eyre.”

“I don’t play fair. How do you think I got famous?” I bite her ear, and she shudders, arching back into me on instinct. See what I mean? Born to do this.

“Hey,” Lake says, panting a little. Her voice is firm enough that I know she wants to talk about something important. I go still, body wrapped around hers. “Thank you for fighting to modify your contract. I never expected to be your girlfriend publicly. I assumed that I’d be … well, a secret or something.”

My heart aches, and I know I’m going to be writing some pretty amazing songs because of this woman.

“Would you ever want to be with a man who would keep someone as incredible as you a secret? Oh, Lake. That wasn’t an option. Not for one single second. I planned on finding my way out of the contract the moment I sent you running out of that house in Oregon.”

She turns in my arms, her head under my chin. I like her this way, too. I like her every which way. I can barely keep my hands to myself. I find myself staring at her a lot, thinking about how pretty she is, wondering what she’s going to say next.

Yep. I am thoroughly captivated. Maybe I knew she would do this to me from the start, and that’s what I was afraid of?

“I … wow. Okay.” Lake leans back so that she can brush her soft fingertips against my cheek, look into my eyes. “Still, thank you. Just say you’re welcome.”

“You’re welcome,” I tell her honestly. “And thank you. You were the one who gave me the confidence to do that. Remember? I’m Tam fucking Eyre. I could start my own record label. I could … what was it? Change the resale ticket industry? Kick some scalpers’ asses?”

“Damn straight,” Lake says with a nod, smiling up at me. The way she’s looking back at me, it feels like she loves me. Is it possible for the curse to malfunction? To hiccup? To get stalled? Do we need to be looking for another way to break it? Or is it just my wishful thinking, the sudden desperation I feel for her to love me back.

I’ve never experienced such an intense strength of longing in all of my life.

Some of my songs—just words until right now—make a whole hell of a lot more sense. This is why people listen to my music.

“When I fell on my knees for you, and you turned away, I was less than dust. I was nothing.”

From one of my B-side tracks, but still pretty damn popular. Ninety-seven million streams and climbing, or something like that. I understand it now. I get it. Love is dramatic.

“So, what’s the schedule for today?” Lake asks me, and I can feel my face go a little dark. She senses it and wets her lips in response. We blink at each other. We are this close to sex right now.

“Are you up?” It’s Jacob, opening my bedroom door.

I’m going to actually kill him this time.

“Get out of my room—and don’t ever come in again without knocking.”

Jake retreats and slams the door, but I can hear him yelling at me in the hallway.

“Fine! Stay in bed with your new girlfriend all day and miss the concert. Treat your fans like they mean nothing to you. Go on, I won’t stop you, Your Majesty.”

“Finally, he got my title right,” I breathe, and Lake starts laughing.

“You are so scary when you’re grumpy,” she says, but she’s still laughing.

I smirk at her and lean in, licking the curve of her lower lip.

She stops laughing.

“If I can’t have you right now, then I’ll have you in my dressing room. Prepare yourself: I’m going to fuck the shit out of you between “Green Apple” and “The Guilt Between Us”.”

“Get away from me.” Lake slips out of bed and locks herself in the bathroom.

But she knows.

We both do.