Page 75 of See Her
“Baby, this is killing me, not being able to hear your voice. I want to know what you’re thinking; if you’re okay. Please call me. I love you with all that I am.”
A lone tear escapes from my eye, rolls down my cheek and onto my pillow as I listen to the next one.
“Mayzie Krasinski! I’m about to leave this tour and come home to you if you don’t turn your phone on and let me know I still have a loving wife that’s waiting for me!”
“Oh, shit.” A soft giggle erupts out of me without permission as I blink back another tear.
“You hear me?” the message continues. “I will LEAVE. THIS. TOUR. I will abandon this whole thing and fly home to you and I won’t leave until we’re happy in love again!”
“Oh my God,” I breathe out to myself, feeling so much love and relief mixed with feelings of disappointment at my own stupidity and fear. What the hell is wrong with me? I love him and he loves me, and all this is so ridiculous. I switch over to the next message.
“Baby I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to raise my voice.”His voice has switched to that tender croon I love. “I just miss you and this tour is going crazy, and I can’t stand not knowing what’s going on. Please call me, baby. I love you.”
Another small laugh of relief bubbles out of me as I wipe the tear streaks from my face and shuffle to sit up in bed.
I need to call him.
I’m about to dial his number when the voicemail cues one more message, and I decide to listen to this last one before calling.
“Mayzie, it’s Josh…”
My poor, overworked heart comes jolting to another stop; startled by the voice and the name it just heard. It sits in shock, waiting for me to give it permission to start beating again. I swallow hard and hold onto my breath as I listen to what Josh has to say.
“Look… I know I was an asshole to you that day you left, and, um… well, I’m sorry. I don’t know if your phone is off because you saw what I think you did, but I’m just going to go ahead and assume so. I also know you have no reason to believe me, but I have to try and do the right thing here. I know I owe it both to Jack, and to you.”
I hear him pull a deep breath in and let it out.
“If you’ve seen the photo of Jack outside a blonde’s hotel room – that was a random drunk girl from the after party that was coming onto him. He completely shut her down. I know because I was there,” he explains, and I remember the two party pictures featuring both Jack and Josh, side by side. “She was three sheets to the wind and throwing herself at him. He wasn’t having it, and he saw her back to her room so that she wouldn’t be in any danger, and also to get the fuck away from her. He spent the rest of the night with a bottle of Johnnie and ignoring everyone around him, until Matt hauled him to his room.”
I let out a sigh of exponential relief. The anxiety floods out of me so hard and fast it almost hurts, and I draw in another sharp breath of air, trying to bring more good energy in.
Of all people… Josh Nolan offers up the answers I’ve needed on a platter without so much as me asking.
Could he just be covering for Jack?
I feel it down in my bones that he’s not.
“Anyway, I know I’m not your favorite person right now,” he continues, “but for what it’s worth, that’s the truth of what’s been going on. Jack’s done nothing but his job on stage and appearances, and then being a miserable fuck missing you,” he concludes, ever so charmingly. But I’ll give him the points. “And… I apologize for how I spoke to you that day. I know none of what I said was true,” he concludes in apology. I know there are some feelings towards Jack’s band mate I need to sort out later, but right now, I’m focused on us.
After he signs off, I hurriedly bring up Jack’s contact on my screen. My heart is almost whole. I just need to take care of one last thing, and I can’t waste another second.
Jack
I groanand roll over in the bunk as the distant trilling of my cell phone relentlessly pulls me from a restless and groggy sleep. In my disoriented state, I try to resist, until my brain makes the connection. When I remember Iwantmy phone to be ringing, I jolt and scramble, retrieving it from under my pillow. My bleary eyes can just barely make out an M on the screen, but I take a chance.
“Baby?” I mumble into the phone. My voice is thick with sleep, but I’m alert as can be.
“Jack…” She simply whispers my name on a breath.
“Fuck, baby, where’ve you been?” I ask, trying to control my voice. I’m not sure what time it is, but I don’t want to wake anyone else on the bus. More importantly, I don’t want them to hear our business.
“Baby, I’m sorry,” she responds, and I hear the tightness in her voice, like she’s trying not to cry.
“Hey, hey, don’t cry,” I try to soothe her. “What are you sorry for?”
I hear her suck in a breath like she’s trying to compose herself. “I saw a picture of you…”I fucking knew it. Fuck!“…with some girl, and it looked like you might be going into a hotel room with her,” she hurries the words out like they’re hurting her to say.
“I know exactly what picture you’re talking about, baby, and I swear to God, that’s not what was happening.”