Troy Bennett is a man fighting the demons who tell him he is worthless every day of his life. Demons his mother conjured. He quiets them with alcohol and casual relationships, never allowing any woman to get close enough to him so he will never have to disappoint one. Then on the spur of the moment trip to Panama City Beach with his Ranger buddies, he sees the future he’s always been afraid to pursue exit a Jeep Wrangler at a local donut shop.
Just as Troy and Crystal are finding their footing, she gets the call she never thought she would earn: Crystal Davis is going to Hollywood to be a contestant on America’s Next Chart Topper. What started as a way to honor her murdered friend has now become her dream. Chasing her dream means leaving Troy behind for a bit, and she wonders if her absence will cause what they’ve built so far to come crashing down.
Chasing her dream also means she’s put herself in a place where she’s vulnerable to the side of Hollywood that no one wants to acknowledge. A place where people only care about her and Troy’s story for the audience while behind the scenes, evil, selfish people work to tear them apart.
He stood by his rental, waiting for her to come outside to say goodbye. She exited the screen door, coming down the steps in a yellow sundress looking beautiful, pure, and perfect.
His chest hurt again.
“Thanks for waiting for me to come to say goodbye to you,” Crystal said softly.
He gave her a hint of a smile. A full smile would break his face right now. Break his face and let all the emotions escape.
“Happy to do it,” was all Troy could get out.
“You, uh, you have my number, right?” Crystal asked, sounding hopeful. “You’ll let me know when you get back to Georgia, won’t you?”
“Yep,” he said. “Got your number. I will let you know when we’re home.”
“You can use it for more than checking in, you know,” she told him with a small smile. “I’d like to keep in touch with you, Troy.”
Her voice magically wove a snare to his soul. Tethering him as he frantically tried to escape her reach. Go back to security. A place where he would only have to answer to himself and his CO. A place where there was no one except himself to disappoint. God, he was a mess. One minute he wanted forever with Crystal, and the next, he was looking for an escape route.
“I, uh, I’ll do my best,” Troy responded, hearing the lie in his words.
He knew she had heard the lie, too, when he saw her smile fall. Sometimes, Troy hated himself. This was why he did not do relationships. He did not know how a successful one worked, and his lack of knowledge brought disappointment.
Even in her hurt, Crystal reached out to hug him. Troy allowed the affection and hugged her hard to draw from her goodness to sustain him for a while.
Troy felt guilty about using her this way and giving nothing in return. Not what a decent man would do at all.
Letting go took more effort than he expected, and Crystal was the one to pull away. She turned around quickly but not quickly enough to prevent him from seeing the beginning of her tears.
“Bye, Troy,” she called out with a little wave over her shoulderwhile walking back to her home.
Turn around one more time. Turn around one more time, Troy pleaded with her silently. She did not. She went right through that same screen door taking all the light with her.
“Bye, Crystal,” he whispered.
Troy got in the truck setting Google Maps to find Sarah’s house next. Ben was there, and Ben was who he needed right now. Troy wasn’t ready for Dean’s exuberance. Ben was more sedate. Calm. Troy drove away hoping physical distance would snap histether to Crystal.
The opposite occurred. The further Troy got from Crystal, the more his chest hurt, and the invisible rope tying him to her strengthened. He quit resisting his heart and told himself to get his act together if he dared hope for a future that included Crystal.
His heart was in it. No hookups this time. Troy wanted the real deal. He quit fighting what his gut told him the first time he saw Crystal. He had met ‘the one,’ and he was done.
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