Finally Feel Good (Book 2)

Chapter 20 - Desert Place

" You are the light inside me
Feel the fire, the fire that's burning
You are the stars above me
Feel the night, the night that's turning. "

'Desert Place' - Imminence

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Emily was relaxing on the balcony in the hot tub, which had felt like heaven as she had been feeling pretty tired today. She had been very busy this whole week that Shannon had been staying with her, and although she hadn't said anything to Shannon, she was worried about him going off on tour for a month.

Would they still be able to speak regularly? Would he want to? What if he was always too busy to talk? What if he met someone else? There would be a ton of fans fawning over him. None of them would be bloated to the size of a whale.

They'd be younger, prettier. None would have the baggage that came along with them like she did.

He'd said he'd be there for her through all of it, but he really didn't have any obligation to. The baby wasn't his, although they hadn't and couldn't do a DNA test until after it was born.

She needed to try to get in touch with James again, but how? Every time she tried to call, Lacey would intercept. Maybe she could try Jess, but how? Did Emily even have an email address for her? Maybe there was one from the emails about her apartment that James had forwarded?

Shannon's voice floated over to her. He was inside, talking on the phone. He'd said he had a few business emails and calls to reply to, and then he would be back out to join her.

Emily really hoped that he'd be able to get his business venture off the ground. Shannon had mentioned it a couple of times and she could see now how much he sat in his brothers shadow, and to some extent, she knew Shannon didn't mind, but was insecure when it came to her because Jared was always sniffing around.

The brothers definitely had things that they both needed to work on separately, and together, but they would both have to learn to trust one another, and over time, she hoped they would.

Emily was also slightly worrying about the photos. Had she done the right thing after all? Or had she thrown herself from the frying pan into the fire? Only time would tell she guessed, and besides, it was too late now.

After they had uploaded the photos, she had resorted to turning off her phone as she hadn't wanted to face the reprocussions. No doubt people would be Googling and searching far and wide to try to find out who she was.

Luckily for her, her online presence was pretty much non-existent; she guessed she actually had Jason to thank for that. It was one of the only good things he had ever done.

She jumped when she suddenly felt a hand on her bare shoulder. She had been sitting in her black string bikini, gazing out at the scenery before her, lost in thought, and hadn't heard Shannon approach her from behind.

"How are you feeling? You looked a little tired during dinner?" He asked her.

Turning her head, she looked behind herself and upwards to the gorgeous, chestnut-haired, honey-eyed man who stood looking down at her.

"Erm... yeah, I am a little tired. I guess I've maybe been doing a little too much this past couple of days."

She watched as he moved to reach behind himself and pulled his t-shirt up and over his head, turning to toss it onto the bed behind him, before he turned back to her.

Emily took in his broad, toned chest and muscular physique. He was standing before her right now, looking like a Greek God.

He smiled his boyish smile at her, and she felt her insides do a complete 180⁰. How on earth did she get so lucky after wasting all those years with a psychotic, selfish asshole? And then she felt a tear set itself free and start to roll down her cheek.