Full Circle (Rockin' Country #3) (17 page)

*     *     *

“Sorry I put you on the spot out there.” Garrett grinned up at her as they sat backstage. Having taken his shirt off, he was running a towel over his chest and neck, mopping up the sweat on his body. He grabbed a bottle of water and demolished it in a few gulps.

“It’s okay.” She grabbed another bottle of water and held it out to him.

He gratefully took that one from her and drank it just as quickly as he’d drunk the first one.

“I’m relieved, actually.” She shrugged. “I’m starting to get a bump, and it’s only going to be more visible the further I go. I wasn’t looking forward to the speculation that maybe I had gained weight again.”

Garrett also knew that was coming, and it pissed him off that she could be put in that situation. He hoped they could handle it; he hoped she could handle it. Even though she’d gained little weight so far—six total pounds at her last doctor’s appointment—she was small, and it was noticeable. “You’re always gonna be beautiful to me.” But lately, she was very bashful around her husband.

He ran a towel over his head one more time and then stood up, putting his shirt back on. “Are you ready?”

“Yeah, let’s go find the rest of the guys and Shell. It’s hot.” She wiped the sweat off her own forehead. “I wish we had time to sightsee.”

“I do too.” He grabbed her around the waist, pulling her close for a moment. “But we have to be on our way to France.”

One of the things she loved and hated about these European festivals was that they got to be overseas, but each was booked almost back to back, and she never got to enjoy the sights and sounds. “How long is the drive?” He was an old pro at this. Black Friday had been overseas a lot, her not so much.

“We’re looking at about eight hours, and then we have a few hours layover at the venue. We’re scheduled to go on late, around one or two in the morning. Not sure how that’s going to go.” He laughed.

The way these guys worked never ceased to amaze her. There were a lot of fans who talked a lot of crap, but after being on this tour with them, especially the last few weeks, she was in awe of their work ethic. It seemed Garrett hardly ever got tired, no matter if he was doing ten shows in ten days or not. He always gave 150%. She put her hand in his, letting him lead her out of the backstage area.

“Y’all ready?” he asked Chris and Brad, who stood at one of the vending tables, eating a snack.

“Yeah, it’s fucking hot.” Chris groaned, using a towel he had around his neck to mop up the sweat that still poured from his body.

She couldn’t even imagine the type of energy he expended behind the drum set on a day like today. “Where’s Jared and Shell?” she asked, looking around for her friend.

“They already went to the bus. Jared called first on the cold shower and wanted to make sure he got it before anyone else did.” Brad took a long drink from his water bottle before adding. “Fucker.”

She giggled. “I’m ready whenever y’all are.”

They stood around eating a little more before Rick walked by and gathered them all up, getting ready to walk with them to the bus. “I want to warn you all, the news of the pregnancy has hit, and international media is out there. Hannah, you stay close to the guys.”

She didn’t understand what he was saying. He seemed worried, but there were always media and they handled it. They took off towards the doors that would lead them outside and to the bus. Brad opened the door, ready to walk out, when she got a glimpse of what Rick was talking about. Here there were no barriers, just a huge crush of photographers and people.

Rick talked over the loud, excited voices as the crowd saw Garrett and Hannah. “They’re trying to get some security, but there’s no telling how long that will take.”

Hannah plastered a smile on her face. “We’ll be fine,” she told him, even though she didn’t believe those words at all.

*  *  *

A
s soon as they stepped out, she felt the crush. Garrett grabbed her waist and pulled her close; Chris walked in front of her and Brad behind her. Questions were thrown from all sides, and she did her best to keep her head down, trying to not let them know how much they affected her.

“Reaper was this baby a mistake? Are you happy about it?” One of the more annoying reporters shoved a tape recorder in his face.

She had to give it to the reporter, even with the look of death Garrett threw his way, he didn’t back down.

“Of course it was planned. We’ve been married for over a year; we’re just like any other couple who hoped to expand their family. We tried and succeeded. What the fuck kind of question is that?”

“Harmony, how are you going to handle gaining weight? Weren’t you in the hospital a few months ago? Many reports said that you were there because of your eating disorder.”

She hated this, absolutely hated it. “I was sick,” she said, not looking up. She could see her feet, and she focused on them as she tried to make her way through the crush.

“Because of the baby?” the same reporter asked.

“Yes.” She didn’t want offer anything, because the more she spoke, the harder they pushed in on them.

“Is something wrong with the baby?” he pressed.

Her breathing was starting to come more rapidly, and she felt a possible panic attack from the crush of bodies.

“No.” She shook her head. “Could you please move back?” He was all up in her personal space, and she didn’t like it one bit.

He either didn’t hear her or pretended not to. “You didn’t answer me. Is something wrong with the baby?”

Hannah opened her mouth but stopped as she felt Garrett come around her and stand between the two of them. She watched as her husband gripped the reporter’s shirt in his fist.

“I believe my wife asked you to move, to allow her some room to breathe, and if you won’t do that voluntarily, I’ll be more than glad to knock you on your ass so she can do that. And to answer your fucking question, our child is perfectly healthy. She had very bad morning sickness and had to be hospitalized because she got dehydrated.”

The crowd as a whole had stopped pushing when Garrett grabbed the guy by the shirt. They looked on in amazement, and Hannah watched, waiting for someone to say something else.

“Are we done here?” Garrett yelled to the group at large. “We’re having a baby; that baby is due sometime early next year. It wasn’t an accident, we very much want this child. As far as the hospital stay, she was sick and I was forced to make the decision to leave her in the hospital so I could go perform a concert. Does anyone else have any more fucking questions?”

There was an eerie silence over the crowd, and Hannah finally took a look around. The reporters were at least three deep around them. She understood that this was their livelihood, but she could not understand what possessed them to be so rude.

“I do,” someone said from the back.

As Hannah caught a glimpse of the person, her heart sank. This guy was an international reporter, but he spent quite a bit of time covering country artists in Nashville. He had broken the story of her eating disorder. She did not want to speak to this guy every again.

“Are you gonna love her even when she’s back in rehab trying to lose all the weight she’s gonna gain?”

It was a good thing Brad was behind Garrett. As soon as the words came out of the guy’s mouth, Garrett lunged for him. Brad put his arms around Garrett’s neck from behind and held him back.

“You’re a piece of shit. You know that, right?” Garrett fought to get away from the hold Brad had on him.

“Just asking a question. It wouldn’t be the first time an eating disorder put her in rehab.” He shrugged.

She was so mad she shook. This reporter was a grade-A jerk.

“Can you not speak for yourself anymore, Harmony? It used to be, before you married him, you at least had a voice. Is he discouraging that?”

There was not one part of her that wanted to give him anything he could run with. There was not one part of her that wanted to answer his stupid question, but she knew if she didn’t, it would only follow them. Someone else would ask it, it would turn into a huge thing, and they would never get any peace.

“No, I can speak,” she said clearly,—proud of herself for how clear it sounded. She managed to keep the emotion out of her voice. “I just choose not to answer stupid questions. I’m pregnant; of course I’m going to gain weight. It’s not like that’s some big secret. Every woman who has a baby gains weight. When I have the baby, after the doctor clears me, I’ll go back on the same workout plan I was on before. I’ll lose weight the healthy way, just like I learned to when—as you so kindly pointed out—I went to rehab.”

There was a momentary lull while people snapped photos of them, and the group worked hard to get through the crush, breathing a sigh of relief when extra security finally arrived. When Hannah got to the bus, she turned around and faced the crowd. “I hope we’ve given you enough that you’ll leave us alone and let us enjoy this pregnancy as a pair of new parents should be able to enjoy it.”

Garrett watched her, wondering why she’d turned around to give them anything else. It wasn’t like her, she didn’t normally bait the paparazzi.

“You wanna give us anything else?” the jerk-face asked, clearly upset with her being able to keep her cool.

There were a million things Hannah wanted to give him, but instead, she smiled a huge smile directly at him. “Nope.” She shook her head. “Just wanted to say bless your heart for thinkin’ of us and doin’ such a great job of gettin’ our names out there.” She laid it on thick before turning around and boarding the bus.

When she got on, she was met by a loud round of applause and a group of laughing men, along with Shell. Garrett sat at the booth they ate at, laughing so hard he was wiping tears from his eyes. “Poor dude, he doesn’t even realize that you just told him to fuck off and kiss your ass in your own way. God, I love you.”

To be honest, she felt semi-bad for doing that, but she was sick of being pushed around and having her private business blasted on every magazine in the world. They were allowed to have some privacy, and they were allowed to enjoy the blessings they had. “He deserved that.”

Shell agreed from where she sat. “He’s a dick. He paid off some of the people in the rehab center, not the doctors or nurses but some patients, to talk about Hannah. They told private things, and it was with a lot of damage control that we kept certain things out of the press. I hope that guy rots in hell.”

“I do too,” Hannah mumbled. “But right now, I just want to lie down.”

Nobody stopped her as she walked back to the room they had once again fashioned for she and Garrett on this particular tour bus. All she needed now was some time to decompress and maybe a good cry.

*  *  *

H
ours later, Hannah woke up groggy and looked around. It was dark on the bus, but it was no longer moving. She wasn’t sure where they were or what was going on. Rolling over, she saw Garrett sitting next to her, his back propped against the headboard, messing around on his iPad.

“What time is it?” Her eyes were swollen because she had cried herself to sleep, but the release of emotions had felt good. She’d been holding a lot of them in for a long time. To tell someone who had made her life such a dark place what she’d thought of them was one of the most freeing moments of her life.