ALL THAT GLITTERS ISN’T GOLD.
“They said we’d burn,but you’re steady like the tide / Maybe this ain’t just better than fine.” Kate Riggs
Mamma is on her cruise, and for that I’m relieved. I know it just postpones fallout with her, it’s inevitable. And I know Finn did it to help me, which turns me inside out. He’s good to me. I don’t deserve him, but I’m grateful for every day with him.
And it brings to light the fact that everything with Finn feels better than fine.
Being with him feelseasy. Natural, even. It’s like we can talk without speaking.
I don’t know when it happened—maybe somewhere between the coffee he always has waiting for me in the mornings or the way he watches me like I’m a song he can’t get out of his head—but I’ve stopped pretending this is just a game.
I’m starting to believe in us. It’s not just because of the marriage contract or the toe-curling sex that keeps pulling me back under—butus.
He makes me feel safe and wanted. He sees me in a way that no oneever has before, not even back when I thought I was in love for the first time.
And that’s exactly when the past decides to come back swinging.
It starts with a text from Ray, my manager, while I’m halfway through writing a new song in Finn’s kitchen—his hoodie hanging off my shoulders, my coffee gone cold beside me.
Call me. Now.
My stomach tightens. Ray knows better than to text like that unless it’s bad. I call him, and I barely get two words out before he says it.
“Wade sold his story to the tabloids.”
I freeze. Wade. God. Ofcourseit’s Wade.
The high school quarterback turned small-town legend who thought I’d take him to the top with me. The same guy who cheated on me and told me it was my fault for “being too focused on my silly little songs.”
I dumped him the second I found out, but apparently, the sting of being left behind still sits like curdled milk for him.
“He’s claiming you used him for fame,” Ray says, his voice tight with disgust. “Says you left him the second you ‘made it out.’ He’s painting himself as the poor, heartbroken boy you trampled on your way to the big city.”
My ears are ringing so hard I can barely hear my own thoughts. I don’t even want to know what my blood pressure is, but my chest is heavy—the nerve of him.
“Goddamn liar,” I whisper.
“It gets worse,” Ray adds. “He’s saying you cheated on him. With Finn.”
I let out a choked laugh—sharp and humorless. “We didn’t evenknoweach other back then.”
“He’s twisting everything. Says Finn’s been around longer than anyone knew, that you were ‘overlapping’ relationships. He has old photos of you two from a local gig at the bowling center in town from last year. You know, the one before your deal?”
My stomach drops. Those pictures weren’t evenanything. Sure, wewere both there, but Finn was never in Pine Hollow, so I know it’s a fake picture..
But in a tabloid? They might run with it because it’s sensational and it will make news.
I feel sick.
“He wants his fifteen minutes,” Ray mutters. “He’s trying to cash in before your next album drops.”
Of course he is. I hang up without another word and sit there, gripping my phone like I want to strangle it. Suddenly, the walls seem smaller, and the room feels hotter. I can’t breathe.
Finn walks in, casual as ever, wiping his hands on a dish towel. He takes one look at me and comes to a halt.
“Kate?”
I can’t even answer. My throat’s tight, and my heart is pounding in a way that has nothing to do with him—but somehow everything to do with him.
