She stood in his arms and searched for my hand. She found it and interlaced our fingers together. “I need some time.”
“Take it,” I said, squeezing her hand.
Kaz’s eyes were fixated on her. “While you’re thinking it over, I want you to remember yesterday.” He leaned into her. “Us, on set, putting on a show for dozens of people. It shouldn’t have been anything but clinical, and yet it felt so fucking right.”
Molly shuddered, her cheeks blooming with red. I took it for a good sign.
“Now imagine if it was the real deal,” my best friend said hoarsely.
She studied us for a long moment before extracting herself out of Kaz’s arms and letting go of my hand. “I’m going to go for a drive.”
We watched her disappear up the stairs before turning to each other.
“I hope we didn’t screw that up,” Kaz muttered, his jaw lined with tension.
We chose truth over lies. Courage over fear.
And now, all that was left was to wait.
23
MOLLY
“If you want something,you should just try asking for it.”
Kaz said that to me last Friday, but I’d nearly forgotten about it. It was the day I got attacked, and memories of Cory’s assault cast a shadow on everything else that had happened that day.
I was used to struggling. Intimately familiar with it actually. Butthis? Getting offered exactly what I wanted, no matter now impossible it seemed? I had no fricking clue how to handle it.
It seemed too easy. In my life, good things just didn’t fall into my lap. The one time I found a penny on the ground, it was turned the wrong side up.
My phone began to vibrate on the dashboard, Adeline’s name on the screen.
I pulled over. This wasn’t going to be the kind of conversation I could casually have while driving down a busy road.
“You’re alive!” she exclaimed as soon as I picked up. “I was this close to cutting the tour short to fly back and track you down, Mol. Where have you been?”
I sucked my bottom lip into my mouth. “Sorry for being MIA. Don’t worry, I’m good.”
“You don’t sound good. I can hear it in your tone.”
Damn it. My sister knew me too well. “I had to leave my apartment,” I confessed.
“What happened?”
“Don’t freak out, okay?”
“I’m already freaking out! Spill it.”
“One of my neighbors turned out to be a creep. We had an altercation, so I moved out.”
I could hear my sister’s breath catch. “Oh my God. What kind of an altercation? Were you hurt?”
“Not really.” My hand travelled to the right side of my neck where the fading bruises were covered beneath a layer of makeup. “He tried to break into my apartment, but he didn’t. It was scary, but I’m honestly okay.”
Something clattered on her end of the line. “Where are you staying now?”
“I’m at Mason’s. He and his bandmate have a house.”
