The Muse and the Fairy Tale (New Hampshire Bears #1) (13 page)

We’re in love. Don’t contact me anymore.

Chapter Nineteen

Meadow

We were at my house watching
The Blacklist
on
Netflix
and drinking wine when Harlow bellowed, “Are you fucking with me right now?” Her mouth dropped. “You? You’re in love?”

“I knew it when you two were at Central Ale,” Maxima piped in. she’d been much more talkative with me now than before.

“I am.” The smile on my face has been planted there since Kyson confessed his feelings to me. I just needed to say the official words to him.

“Damn. I’m beyond elated for you.” Harlow hugged me.

“You are? It didn’t sound like it a second ago.” I called her out.

“Well, give me a damn moment to figure out if this is a good thing or not,” she quipped back, making me laugh.

“So, now what?” Maxima glanced at me over her wine glass.

“What do you mean?”

“Are you going to move in together? Buy a house? Marriage? All that jazz?”

“Ha,” I scoffed. “I believe we’re going to enjoy the newly professed love and let all of it sink in.” I gulped my wine. I hoped it was what Kyson planned. Moving in and marriage, plus all that follows was something I couldn’t deal at this very second.

Thankfully, Harlow changed the subject, and the rest of the evening was spent figuring out Raymond Remington’s secrets until our wine was gone.

Once I said my goodbyes to the girls and saw them off, I headed off to my nightly routine of checking my notifications. My book release was coming up a lot faster than I was ready for it to be. Most of the comments on the teaser posts seem to be encouraging with a few unsure ones. I’ve never wrote a May-December romance and it was understandable for some of the readers to doubt it. I hoped I could win them over.

I answered several of my
Facebook
messages, but one stood out for me.

Are you dating Kyson Wick?

I’ve known people had seen us out and about in Manchester, but I’ve not confirmed anything.

I don’t comment about my personal life.

Well, you should know his other girlfriend is pregnant.

I read the message again. There had to be a mistake, or this was some prank.

His girlfriend Angela and him are having a baby. She told him when they were in Concord a few weeks back.

Time stopped, and I couldn’t blink, or move my eyes from the last message. I trusted him, and I know he wouldn’t lie to me. Especially if it involved Angela and a baby. This news was too big for him to hide from me.

I decided not to respond to the message. Actually, I ended up blocking her from my fan page. I didn’t need any more added stress with my book release right around the corner.

I distracted myself by working on teasers and trying not to think about it. It was hard not to though. I didn’t want to be the jealous girlfriend who doubted her boyfriend. A relationship couldn’t work without trust. It was the foundation of love.

I wanted to call him and make him tell me everything at the very moment. However, it wasn’t mature to do that type of conversation over the phone. I needed to play it cool until he came home tomorrow night.

The past two weeks had been good. We’d been talking and opening up to each other. I was the type to be the more closed off one in a relationship. I knew it was because I didn’t want to get hurt. I wasn’t stupid. I’d watched my mother wither away right in front of my eyes. It took years for the depression to finally kill her. I lived it with her. I hated seeing her ebb away, and I didn’t want it to happen to me. She’d had good days and I treasured those memories, but there hadn’t been many of those.

I’ve fought with myself to make sure I didn’t go down her path. It could be part of the reason why I’ve chosen to spend my life and career inside the world of writing. Fictional characters, in some ways, were easier. At the end of the book, they loved me.

Now, I had Kyson.

Having him could mean a lot of things, and breaking my heart was one of them. I told myself I would wait to talk to him. I needed to look into his eyes when he told me his side. I would know the truth then.

I tossed and turned all night, and I was exhausted this morning, as was Puckhead, because I’d kept him up too. I wasn’t the type of person who enjoyed confrontation. I happily lived in a drama-free zone. However, I needed to talk to Kyson about the message I’d received.

The two quick raps on the door came at the perfect time. Kyson’s plane landed early since the Bears’ game was this evening. When I opened the door, there stood Kyson, still dressed in his suit, looking as tired as I did.

“Good morning, baby.” He kissed me and my body melted into his. I couldn’t fault the guy for his lips or amazing tongue. “I’ve missed you.”

“Ditto.” I smirked. “But we need to talk.” I led him to my office, where I had screen shot of the conversation last night front and center. “Read.” I pointed and he sat down in my chair.

I strolled over to the other side of the room and leaned against the wall with my hands tucked behind my back. I studied his face as he read the messages. His brow furrowed and then he looked at me.

“Is it true?” My voice was as devoid of all emotion as I could make it.

“No,” he answered. He rushed over to my side. “It’s not true.”

“Kyson, please don’t lie to me.”

“I am not.” He cupped my face.

His green eyes were locked tight to mine. He had a serious tone, too. I had to give him the benefit of the doubt. He’d told me he had talked to her. He told me right away, and I didn’t think he would lie, especially about a baby.

“Meadow, you’re not saying anything.” The pads of his thumbs stroked my cheeks.

I removed my hands from behind my back and gripped his biceps. “I believe you. But, I had to be sure.”

“Thank you.” He kissed my lips. “This isn’t how I planned for our day to start.”

“Me either.”

“Listen.” He dropped his hands. “I need to clean up and go to practice, but after the game it’s you and me, okay?”

“Okay.” I smiled.

As a fan, nothing was worse than watching a hard fought game between the Portland Kings and the Bears and then your team losing because of a stupid penalty. Especially when it was your boyfriend skating to the penalty box.

Kyson’s face seemed to be as hard as stone, as he argued with the ref about the call. In fact, the whole bench was upset by the call, not to mention us fans.

When the final buzzer sounded, I shuffled out with the crowd, and made my way to Kyson’s truck. I had been excited when he picked me up before the game.

After he’d left for practice this morning, I took a well-needed nap and then worked on my promotional teasers. I even got an idea for my next book. I’d been struggling in which direction I wanted to go and today, BAM, it hit me. Before I forgot, I quickly wrote out the idea and even began to plot out my outline.

Now, I was snuggled inside Kyson’s truck with the heat on full blast. The cold wind made the temperature drop faster and it was supposed to snow more. I wanted to head home make a cup of hot chocolate and curl up with Kyson.

Wonder if he wants to do it too?

I was about to get the answer as he jumped into the truck. His expression clearly told me he didn’t want to talk at all. He was beyond mad.

“Are you hungry?” he finally spoke as we pulled out of the parking garage.

“Sure.”

He continued down the block and the silence was deafening, but I knew he was still fuming mad, and I didn’t want to push it.

“How about we just grab food through a drive-thru and go back to your house?”

I grinned at his suggestion. “Sounds perfect.”

“I’m not mad with you,” he rushed out.

“It’s because he took a dive.”

“The prick took a dive.” Kyson raised his voice in agreement. Suddenly, Kyson went into a rant of what happened all the way to Taco Bell. It continued as we sat in line, with a short pause to order our food, and then once we pulled away from the window, he was done.

“Pull over here to make sure we have everything.” I pointed to an empty spot. I’d hate to go all the way home and they forgot our Mild Sauce or my tacos.

As I shuffled through it all, I was happy to see all our items and sauces were in there. When I glanced up, I saw two men an aisle over.

“Hey, isn’t that Kian?”

Kyson looked up and searched until he saw them. “Yes, it is.”

“Who’s he with? Wait was Kian at the game tonight?”

“No, he said he had a meeting tonight.”

“With a sponsor?”

“I guess.”

“It must be a cheap sponsor to bring the meeting to a Taco Bell,” I mumbled.

Before Kyson could comment, I gasped and covered my mouth with my hand when Kian and the man began to kiss. Not a European peck on the cheek type. This was full out tongue action. I glanced at Kyson, and he was white as a ghost. I couldn’t read his reaction, but I knew he hadn’t known Kian was gay.

In a flash, Kyson was out of the truck and heading toward them. I scrambled as quickly as I could to get to him. I wasn’t sure what he was about to do or say. Not that there was a whole lot I could do to stop him anyway.

“Kian,” Kyson barked his name.

Kian jumped and turned to the sound of Kyson’s voice. He looked like a kid with his hand caught in the cookie jar.

“Ky…Kyson, what are you doing here?” Kian’s eyes were as big as dinner plates.

Kyson said nothing in return, but stared down Kian. Neither said anything. The other guy and I nervously glanced between them. Someone was going to have to talk first.

“Hi, I’m Meadow Hylton.” I reached my hand out to the man. He was nice looking. He was about Kian’s height with dark hair and brown eyes. He looked closer to my age than Kyson’s. “I’m Kyson’s girlfriend.”

“I’m Stanley Nance.” He shook my hand seeming as nervous as me.

“Nice to meet you.” I glanced up at Kyson who was still staring down Kian.

Had they blinked?

“Kyson,” I hissed, hoping to break their trance.

He took a deep breath, shook his head, and then spoke to Stanley. “I apologize for my rudeness. I’m Kyson, Kian’s brother.” They shook hands and everyone seemed to relax.

“We were just heading to my house to eat. You guys are more than welcome to join us.” I offered.

“I actually have an early flight in the morning. It’s why we were…” Stanley trailed off.

“Next time, then.” I was trying to remain upbeat because I still couldn’t read Kyson’s expression. “We’ll see you later then.” I tugged on Kyson’s arm.

“Right. Yeah. See ya.” Kyson seemed baffled as he began to walk to the truck with me.

Kyson didn’t say a single syllable on the way to my house. The radio wasn’t even on, and the only noise was the sound of the motor and heat blowing throughout the truck. I kept as quiet as Kyson during the drive, and when we reached my house, we walked in together.

“I need to go to talk to Kian.”

I sat the food on the coffee table and sighed. “Part of me wants to stomp my foot and whine how I’ve not seen you for two weeks.”