resting now. Can you call back in a little while?"
"Yes, of course. How are you?"
The older woman sighed.
"He's getting worse. It's been a hard week."
"Alright, I'll call you later. In about an hour?
"Yes that will be good."
"Thank you Aunt Petra. Goodbye."
"Goodbye Sabrina."
Her aunt hadn't said a word about herself. That's what happens when you take care of someone you love. Someone who was dying.
That's something nobody understood who hadn't been through it. Both her parents had cancer while she was growing up. It had taken her mother a long time ago, when she was just a girl. But her father… she'd had to watch him suffer for years. Thank god for her Aunt Petra. Otherwise, Sabrina would never have even left home, let alone gone to college. Or business school. Never mind moving all the way to Los Angles on her own.
Her father had encouraged her, telling her to go. He'd been so proud of her accomplishments. But she still felt guilty for doing those things.
She felt guilty all the time.
Even though her salary was paying for her father's expensive at home hospice care. The paltry insurance he'd had from his job in construction had long since ran out. But he hadn't died quickly as they'd expected to.He'd just hung in there. For years.
If he could do it, then she could to. She had to.
It was the main reason she didn't date or socialize. Who could understand where she was coming from? The minute she opened her mouth to talk about any of it- it just sounded like a sob story. So she just didn't say anything at all.
Besides, if she have abandoned her father for her career, it was going to be worth it. She was going to be a success.
And now it was all for nothing.
Her phone rang again. It was Nick. She pressed a button, sending him straight to voicemail.
Damn it, if she didn't get out of here he would find her. She couldn't face him right now. His smug self assurance. His sense of his place in the world.
His bedroom eyes.
Right about now she couldn't decide if she hated him or wanted him to comfort her.
He'd looked guilty as hell when he'd come off stage. Not right away but all the same… He wasn't a complete monster. Then again, that could just be his charisma and the mixed signals he'd been sending her since they met.
She sighed and started the car.
What's done was done. Nothing she could do about it now. She'd run some damage control tomorrow. Maybe talk to the in house PR girl about placing some tidbits to debunk his story. It might help. A little bit anyway.
Either way, she'd forever be the girl who slept with Nick Falcon.
**********
"Hello Jerry!"
Nick winked at Marley who was sitting across the back of the limo looking nervous. Marley looked nervous a lot lately. Nick considered it part of his job to keep his cousin on his toes.
Maybe he'd take him on vacation after the tour. To a spa someplace exotic. Get him a massage. He'd earned it.
"Nick! Saw you on Conan- great job!"
"Thanks Jerry. It was all due to my new A&R girl. She's brilliant if you didn't know."
"Sabrina's great. I got to ask man- was that true what you