Right Back to You

28. The Biggest Threat

"You did what?"

Macy's voice could have scared off bats. Kyle tried his darn hardest not to wince, but he wasn't sure he'd managed to pull it off. He was more than happy that it was just him and Jessie facing her this time. The others didn't need to see this.

"Come on, Macy, it's not that big of a deal," Jessie said with a shrug that was bordering on insane.

"Not a big deal? You announced your breakup in front of a crowd without consulting me first!"

"No one cares--"

"I'm selling of your engagement tour, not your breakup tour!"

"Macy--"

"Macy nothing! I let you kids have all your backstage drama, but this? Going behind my back like this?" The woman shook her head, her small body trembling with anger. "No, I'm done."

"Macy, come on," Kyle said, figuring it was about time he stepped in. "Jessie's right. No one cares."

"My campaign cares! My marketing contact cares! The audience who already canceled their tickets cares!"

Yeah, that didn't sound right. "It can be fixed."

"Of course. You can show up with your new boyfriend and girlfriend and everyone will love that!"

Kyle was pretty sure they would, but that was not what they meant. "If it's that big of a deal we can make a show of it. Pretend that we're upset. Then we can have a grand making up and get engaged again." He definitely didn't like the idea of that, but if they had to, they would.

"Kyle..." Jessie sounded drained and he hated it.

But then again, she hadn't even made her relationship with Jimmy an official thing and maybe putting him through all that was a bad idea. Some things were more important, real love being the most important.

"I'm just so sick of all this," Macy said, though she sounded less inclined to end them. "Just... I'm done. I have booked your next location in Dallas, but after that stretch of the tour is over, you're on your own."

Kyle opened his mouth to protest, to come up with other solutions, try some bribery, but Jessie clasped his forearm.

"We understand."

Macy nodded and let herself out. Once she did, Jessie heaved a giant sigh and curled back into the armchair in the room, like she always did when she was distressed.

"What's going on?" he asked, his tone wary. "Our engagement was a lie. We can lie about anything else to make this work."

"I know. And I appreciate your creativity. But I'm tired of lying. It's stressing me out so much."

He tilted his head. "Really?" It had been her idea in the first place so he'd never considered she hated it more than he did.

Maybe she didn't at first. Maybe Jimmy complicated everything in the best possible way.

"Yeah, really." A small smile lifted the corners of her lips. "I never thought play pretend would be so difficult. But we'll figure out what to do after we get to Dallas. We have other things in mind for now. Where's this famous cabin Joey mentioned?"

"About two hours away." Kyle hesitated. "Are you sure about this? We don't have to go if you don't want to."

"And miss this place of legend?" She let out a laugh. "No way. I want a few days of carefree fun. Let's not think about this, okay? We'll have enough time to panic over it later."

Kyle just nodded. He really wished it could be like that, that she could forget about her troubles for a few days. And he was going to do everything in his power to make it that way.