Sound Proof (Save Me #5) (20 page)

Payton looks toward me nervously, but smiles. “Morning,” she whispers and turns away. Her hair shifts and that’s when I realize that she can’t hear me.

Sage giggles, “Good morning, AJ.”

I drop a kiss on Sage’s cheek and squeeze Willow’s shoulder. “What do you guys want for breakfast?”

“Mom’s making pancakes,” Willow mumbles, barely looking at me.

“How do I tell her that I will cook the pancakes?”

I copy the hand movement’s Sage shows a few times before I tap on Payton’s shoulder and sign them to her. Payton’s eyes widen and she covers her mouth as she watches me sign.

“That was… I don’t…” Payton sniffles and turns to walk away. “The skillet is to the left of the stove.”

“What’s the sign for ‘what’s wrong’?”

Both girls show me at the same time and I head in the direction Payton took off in. I find her out on the porch wiping her eyes and stomp my foot against a deck board to get her attention.

“Shouldn’t you be pouring pancake batter on a hot skillet by now?” she asks, turning toward me.

“What’s wrong?” I ask, signing at the same time just in case I mess something up.

“Nothing at all, actually. I just don’t think I was prepared for that. I spent all that time bitching about you not learning to sign, and then all of a sudden I can hear and you know how to tell me that you want to make me pancakes.”

“Did I do it wrong? Is that why you walked out?”

Payton shakes her head, pulling me down so she can kiss me. “No, it was perfect, just unexpected. I didn’t know you were learning.”

“You have a persuasive little girl who decided to help starting a few weeks before I left. It’s still new, I’m slow and mess up all the time, but bear with me. Is it all right that I’m here still? I mean… I don’t wanna give the girls the wrong idea.”

“All I ever wanted was for you to try, AJ. I know how hard it is. And it’s fine, we talked about it before you came out. They’re fine with it. They know we’re together. They know I love you.” Leaning up on her toes she kisses me.

“Look at you telling people and shit already,” I joke. Payton slaps my chest playfully before pulling me back to the kitchen so we can make breakfast for the girls.

“You’re fidgeting,” AJ says. Flicking the blinker on, he turns into the parking lot and reaches over to squeeze my thigh.

He’s right, I am. Waking up next to AJ and knowing that I didn’t need to kick him out before the girls woke up was amazing. It’s something I doubt I’ll get tired of, but as soon as my feet hit the floor everything was different. I knew that today was the day that we stop hiding.

Today is the day that we lay it all out on the line for everyone.

The second I was no longer in bed with his arms wrapped around me, everything became real. Every thought I had running through my head had something to do with how people were going to react. I even burnt breakfast because my mind wasn’t where it should’ve been.

My door opens, startling me because I didn’t even realize that we had parked let alone that AJ had gotten out of the truck. He reaches in, holding his hand out until I grab it and step out. AJ presses me against the side of the truck.

“Are you ready?”

“Ye-yes,” I stutter and he laughs.

Pulling away, AJ laces his fingers through mine and tugs me against his side. “Let’s go give everyone something to talk about.”

I gawk up at him. “Why do you want people to talk about this?”

“Because,” he says, pressing his lips against the top of my head, trying hard not to laugh. “The sooner they start talking, the sooner they’ll get bored and leave us alone.”

I take a deep breath and blow it out. “I suppose you’re right,” I admit.

AJ takes a step to the side, opening the door for me. “Abby first?”

As AJ wraps his arm around my shoulder, he never lets go of my hand so it gets crossed over my chest. I stare at the floor about three feet in front of me but I can feel everyone staring at us. I hope that it’s all in my head, but when I look up, I’m wrong. Every person in the lobby has stopped what they’re doing and are currently staring at us. It’s like AJ doesn’t even notice as he presses me forward toward the elevator.

When we finally make it to Abby’s office the door is already open so we just walk in. Abby is sitting on the front of her desk with her feet propped up on Jameson’s knees. She tosses her head back and laughs. When she looks up and sees us standing in the doorway her smile gets even wider and she kicks at Jameson until he turns around and looks at us.

“Well holy shit, it’s about damn time!”

My eyes snap to Abby’s and she smirks. “You look scared, honey. What’s wrong?”

She kicks the chair next to Jameson away from the desk, telling me to sit down with just a look. AJ pushes me forward when I can’t seem to figure out how to make my legs work. I drop into the chair and AJ walks around me to slide back on the desk like Abby, letting his fingers drag across my skin as he does.

“You’re OK with this?” I ask, narrowing my eyes at Abby.

She shrugs. “Is there a reason I shouldn’t be?”

“I just…”

“Is this in any way going to jeopardize my business?”

I shake my head adamantly. “No!”

“Then why wouldn’t we be OK with it, Payton? You guys being happy is a good thing, babe.”

I breathe a bit easier knowing that Abby is fine with this. With her being one of the few clients I have right now, upsetting her would not be in my best interest. It doesn’t take away all the fear, but it helps a little.

“Just wasn’t sure how you were going to react to AJ being with me, that’s all.”

“Are you doubting your own awesomeness?” Jameson interjects. “Do you seriously think that anyone is going to look at him and then you and wonder why
he
is with
you
?”

My gaze drifts to AJ and he winks. “I keep tellin’ her it’s gonna be the other way around. People wonderin’ why this fuckin’ gorgeous woman is with me.”

“Should have kept your dreads,” Abby jokes, elbowing him in the ribs. “Would have kept the sex appeal up that everyone loved so much.”

“I don’t care what anyone thinks about my sex appeal except Payton.” The entire time he’s talking, his eyes never leave mine. Every word resonates deep inside of me and manages to take away any self-doubt I was feeling about being good enough to him.

The way he looks at me, the way he touches me and the things he says to me all make me feel like I’m on top of the world. That is, until I think about all the women he’s been photographed with. Now, though, with the fact that he just admitted that in front of two people he considers family, it’s sinking in a little more. Hopefully it will stay that way.

Finally. Motherfucking finally! I’ve been trying to get the way I feel for Payton, and the fact that I don’t want anyone but her, to sink into her head for a while. Nothing I did ever took the hesitant look out of her eyes. Nothing until now. If I had known that all it was going to take was telling her in front of someone, I would have broken the damn silence I agreed to a long fucking time ago.

“Gag me,” Jason says from the doorway. I flip him off but he doesn’t seem to care. Strolling in, he steps between Abby and Jameson and drops down on Jameson’s lap.

Jameson groans. “Fuckin’ asshole, you get heavier every day that you’re not on a God damn stage.

“Home cookin’, baby!” Jason replies. Looking at Payton, he tips his chin and grins. “How you doin’?”

“I will cut your cock off,” I growl, sliding forward. I know he’s only hitting on her as a joke and that he’d never step out on Vanessa, but loving Payton brings out the protective possessive side of me.

Payton reaches out, laying her hand on my thigh as he chuckles. I look down, watching the way her fingers gently massage my thigh in an effort to calm me back down. I grab her hand, pulling her up and wrapping my arms around her while staring at Jason.

Payton’s eyes soften. When she runs her hands up my arm I take a chance on her freaking out and kiss her. I grab the back of her neck to keep her close but she doesn’t fight me like I expect her to. Instead, she wraps her arms around my neck and kisses me back.

“Ahem.” Abby laughs, clearing her throat. When I pull away from Payton’s lips, I don’t let her move away from me. Out of the corner of my eye I see Abby’s phone in her hand and the grin on her face lets me know she’s up to no good. “So were you just coming to tell us or were you going public?”

“No more hiding,” Payton whispers, never taking her eyes off of me.

“Good, so you don’t mind if I upload this picture of you two making out on my desk to Twitter, right?”

I look for Payton’s approval and smile when she nods. “Rip the band-aid off quick, right?”

“I’m glad you agreed,” Abby says. “Because I just hit send and there’s no going back.”

“No going back,” I whisper in her ear.

She pulls back, a look of determination filling her eyes. “No going back.”

It doesn’t take long before our phones start blowing up and I can see the panic start growing in Payton every time she looks at the screen.

“So,” I say, grabbing her phone out of her hand. As I talk, I switch all her notifications off except for the girls, Liam, her parents and the office. “I’m going to court with Payton tomorrow for Willow. You still sure you can cover my studio time, right, Jason?”

“Yeah, no problem. That’s actually what I came up to check on.”

“What did you just do to my phone?” Payton asks when I hand it back. “It’s quiet. What did you do?”

“Don’t worry about it, I’ll fix it again in a few days.” In a few days when everything settles down. The last thing she needs on top of Willow’s court case against Max is for her phone to be blowing up constantly about us. Now she can focus on what’s really important.

“You sure you’re all right with hanging out with Willow while we’re in there until they’re ready for her? Liam’s boss said he’s been taking too much time off of work so he couldn’t be here until later, and my parents have Sage but I’m sure one of them could come down.”

I press my lips against Payton’s, lingering longer than I probably should since we’re standing in the middle of the courthouse hallway.

“I wouldn’t have volunteered if I wasn’t sure.”

“I hate that she even has to testify,” she whispers.

Both of us turn and look to where Willow’s sitting, waiting for me. Her head hangs, her feet tapping nervously against the tile. Every time she hears someone walking near her, her head snaps up to see who it is and you can see the panic in her eyes.

“It’ll probably be a while before they call for her, so if you want to take a walk or something I can text you when they do. Just stay close.”

I nod and kiss Payton one more time before she walks away. She takes a deep breath before pulling back the courtroom door and disappearing. I drop down, kneeling in front of Willow and hold my hand out for her.

“Wanna get out of here for a bit?” I ask.

“Yes, please.” Willow slips her hand into mine and lets me help her up. As soon as she’s up, she drops my hand and wraps her arms around herself.

“When did everything get so fucked up?”

I want to tell her not to swear, but let’s be honest here, everything is majorly fucked up. “I wish I could tell you.”

“I didn’t actually expect you to have an answer for that, but thanks,” she mutters, never lifting her eyes from the floor. “I just want this all to be over with. I want my life back. This guy was supposed to love us and now...”

I have no idea what to say so I stay silent as we walk across the grounds. I want to be able to make everything better, to take everything that happened to her away and give her back everything she’s missing. Unfortunately, there’s no way to do that.

Willow grabs my arm when she starts up a small flight of stairs and I watch the pain flash across her face. The second she sees me watching, she masks it and lets go.

“How’s your leg? Still icing after playing?”

“Mhm. I feel like I live on ice and pain meds. I hate always feeling loopy.”

Just when I finally have her talking openly about things, Max steps out from around the corner, stalking toward us. Out of the corner of my eye I watch Willow’s head drop, her hair falling over her face, blocking it from my view. Her entire body trembles harder with each step he takes and I swear by the sinister look on his face he must have snapped.