He folds his arms. “Annie, I went into the industry because an offer came and I was too young and desperate to turn it down.” He retrieves his bourbon from the desk. “You’ve seen the brightness of the music industry but never the dark. If you had any idea how many threats, how many lawsuits, how many people wanted to use me... I’m grateful my career brought me my family, my friends, the ability to make something that affects people—it’s not a question of that. But that kind of life has a cost, and I would never want that foryou.”
“Given how you grew up, I would’ve thought you’d want me to have the choice you didn’t. And I do have thatchoice.”
His gaze narrows. “I don’t want you to pay it without understanding what you’re signing upfor.”
Frustration flows through me. “But don’t you think I pay it anyway being your kid? I never got to choose thatpart.”
The words hang between us until he holds the paper out for me. “Tell Haley and the others I’ll be out in a few minutes. I need to return acall.”
I take the sheet from him, then he grabs me in a quick one-armed hug before turning back to hisdesk.
He doesn’t get it. He doesn’t see how it couldbe.
And tonight, there’s nothing I can do to change hismind.
I ball up the sheet of lyrics and toss it into the fire before heading for thedoor.
* * *
“Iknowyou spent the entire weekend lying to your family,” Elle whispers as we take our seats in our entertainment classMonday.
The pen I’m retrieving from my bag falls from my fingers and rolls toward her desk. “What?”
She picks it up, cocking her head. “You pretended to be present when you were really mentally jerking off to TylerAdams.”
Warmth floods me as I take the penback.
“You did have some hot chemistry before you walked away from him Friday morning,” she presses. “Stonecold.”
“Seventy-eight times I wrote toyou.”
In my mind, Tyler Adams had walked away and never looked back. If that wasn’ttrue…
I keep telling myself that changes nothing, but it means he cared. Even when he was going through whatever he was going through, he thought ofme.
When I walked away, I didn’t mean to be petty, but I wanted him to feel a tiny, momentary slice of the hell he’d put methrough.
“Whatever your plan was,” Elle continues, “the guy looked seriously bummed you were gone. He didn’t dance with another girl allnight.”
Her words leave my body tingling. Tyler still brings up a ton of emotions in me, and it’s not only about who he was. Judging from what I heard at Leo’s last week, he’s even more talented than he was a year ago. He’s more confident too, more grownup.
We bothare.
But just because he had a harder time leaving me than I thought doesn’t change anything for usnow.
Itcan’t.
My gaze pulls to the door when Rae enters, scanning for a seat. The only remaining one is next to us, and she drops intoit.
The instructor starts her lecture, and I try to tune into the discussion in class about how to set yourself apart while building abrand.
“So, this family weekend,” Elle says to me at the end of class. “It wasbig?”
“Ten people, plus my dad and stepmom and little sister. Food and booze and sugar comas.” I tuck my notebook away in mybag.
“My weekend was here, watching movies and living on noodles. Your life sounds likeheaven.”
The image of my dad reading my words and handing them back to me floods my mind—him tossing them into the fire, watching themdissolve.