Page 37 of Kiss Marry Kill
“And boring,” she added. “You thought me too responsible and boring.”
Remembering all the ways she lit up every time she experienced something new or how she melted in his arms—boring would not be one of the words he’d use to describe her.
“Responsible, maybe. But boring? No, definitely not boring. And definitely beautiful. I remember that clearly. So fucking beautiful.”
She smiled wide, pulled the chair close to him, and sat down. “I think you’re just being sweet. I was a nervous wreck those four days, with all the things you made me do.”
“Not sweet, just honest. We packed a lot of shit into four days, didn’t we?”
She stood and walked to the kitchen, touching him lightly on the shoulder as she walked by. “Not everything, though. Left some things undone.”
They’d parted ways knowing that falling in love would have been too easy. Their plans were already set in motion and a clean break was the only way. They hadn’t even exchanged phone numbers. He didn’t know if she regretted that decision, but it was something he’d always wondered.
Returning a moment later with a mug of coffee, she sat down again.
“You were so scared of everything back then,” he continued.
“I wasn’t so much scared as sheltered. You made me see that things outside the walls of my parents’ house and their rules were possible.”
“And you put a little order in my life.”
“Well, there is such a thing as being too laid back,” she said with a smile.
“Not something anyone would accuse me of being now,” he said, busying himself picking up the papers scattered on the table and stacking them up into a neat pile.
He looked up at her when her phone dinged with an incoming text, her smile quickly fading as she checked the screen.
“What is it?” he asked, immediately alarmed by her reaction.
“Oh my god,” she mouthed, and with a trembling hand she showed him her phone.
See you in Atlanta, Meggy.
Attached to the text was a photo of her and her bandmates, the others’ faces rubbed out with a black marker.
“What the hell?” she cried.
“Atlanta?”
“That’s the first stop on our tour.”
He took the phone and tried to send out a reply text but it bounced back as undeliverable.
“Fuck,” he muttered under his breath. “Can you tell where this was taken?” Catching her tense shoulders and the way she swayed, he nudged her gently down into a chair.
She shook her head side to side, squinting closer at the screen. “We wear more or less the same thing every time we perform. It’s our stage clothes. It’s hard to say when that was taken. Oh my god, Jax. Is he going to hurt Nelly and Taylor? Oh God.”
“Deep breaths.” He slid his glass of water to her but she pushed it away and stood up.
“I’m cancelling the tour. I can’t risk this nut hurting them.” She began pacing around the room. “They’re my family. It’s one thing for him to come after me, but to come after them . . . no, I won’t allow them to get involved.”
Jax pulled her back down into the chair. “Calm down, Meg. He’s probably just pinpointing you, not saying he wants them out of the picture.” Though it did look rather damning, he didn’t want to add fuel to the fire when they didn’t know this psycho’s motives yet.
“You can’t know that. He literally took them out of the picture!”
Jax took out his phone and dialed Joey.
“Yo.”
