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“He’s not,” Reed said, coming into the room. He sat close to us and tapped Casper’s temple. “Stop listening to what’s going on in here and hear what we’re saying.”
“If Slay stays pissed, it could mess up the band.”
“Fuck the band. If he wants to get paid, he’ll still write and play, but I’d drop it all if it meant you see what I do when you look in the mirror. The music is a passion, but the band is a job. As much as it feels like it at times, it’s not our lives. This, here, this is our life. This is what we have to focus on. The other shit can wait.”
Casper let out a long sigh. “We owe the label a new album.”
“And we’ll deliver it. If we need additional time, I’ll contact our lawyer to negotiate it, along with Flynn. Now stop looking for excuses and focus on us. You have Elic on your lap.” Reed smiled. “I’ve never had the privilege of you being on mine, El, but Cas has twice now.”
I couldn’t help but smile back. “All you had to do was ask.” As I was about to move, Casper’s arms tightened around my waist.
“Not yet,” he mumbled and pulled me so I pressed against his chest with my arms around him. His lips met the hollow of my throat before he buried his nose against my skin.
We stayed like that for a while. I dragged Reed closer so we could share the moment together. Casper had an easier time being affectionate with me than he did toward Reed. It was understandable, given the guilt and hatred for himself Casper still carried. I was a clean slate. Hopefully, Casper could figure out how to bring the best parts of what he had with Reed into the future, into a relationship between the three of us.
“We’ll figure it out,” Reed said. “I’m not willing to let either of you go. Slater will regret what he said. We’ll show him we’re meant to be together.”
“For us,” I added. “Not for him or anyone else.”
“For us,” Reed stated. His head rested on Casper’s shoulder, but his eyes held mine. “Every time I see you, I can’t believe how lucky we were to drive down the street that day. I’m not saying what was happening to you was lucky, just us meeting like we did.” I knew what he meant. It was sweet he wanted to clarify, to make certain I didn’t misunderstand. “I also think we’ve been cooped up inside too long. It’s supposed to be a great week weather-wise. Cas, what do you say we do an impromptu pop-up at the restaurant? We can take Elic to dinner and perform. For him and anyone else who will listen.”
“You want to tell everyone we’re together?” Casper asked. It was a lot and part of it scared me. I wouldn’t be tucked into the background any longer. I’d be thrust into the spotlight. “Elic, are you okay?”
“What if… what if they don’t like me?”
“Who?” Reed asked. “If you’re talking about our fans, we stopped caring what they thought of our personal lives a long-ass time ago.”
“Not just them,” I said. “Your family too. I doubt they’d care about you two being together. From everything I’ve seen, they’ll support you no matter what. But me? You picked me up off a sidewalk. What if they think I’m after your money?” My whole body trembled as sweat began to coat my palms. “They’re going to judge me. The media will dig into my past, see I used to be on the streets and had sex for money. Oh god, I didn’t want your parents to know that. They’ll hate me.”
“Hey,” Casper whispered, cupping my cheeks so I’d focus on him. “One, no one in our family will care. They love you. It doesn’t matter what you used to do. My mom did things she’s not proud of. She was with men who had hurt her. That’s the past, just like yours is. Two, if you don’t want them to find out like that, you could tell them first, so you control what they hear and believe. Three, if you don’t want to go public with us, you don’t have to. Reed and I won’t force you.”
“He’s right.” Reed nodded.
“But that means hiding who we are. I don’t want to do that.”
Casper stroked his thumb over my cheek. “Being with us will change things, but only out there. In here, or anywhere the three of us are together, we’ll still be the same, okay?”
I nodded.
“Your call, El,” Reed said. “We don’t do anything unless we all agree to it.”
18
CASPER
“Fuck,” I muttered as we walked into the main house. This morning I’d tried to work out my frustration with the shitty exercise equipment Reed had. It didn’t do much and Reed seriously needed an upgrade.
“We’ve got this,” Reed said, slapping me on the back and walking around me with a grin in place. He was so confident no one would care we were dating. And while I didn’t want to give a shit what they thought, they were still my family. It would be hard to deal with the blow if they didn’t support what was going on. No, we weren’t related by blood, and we were grown adults. But he was still my stepbrother. We shared a last name.
Elic’s worry was different. He thought they were going to hate him for what he used to do so he could survive. I’d explained to him how my mom and I had been homeless before. If anyone understood, it was us, but he was still worried.
Going to the main house for dinner and telling them was the first step Elic wanted to take. I thought it was the right move. We didn’t want them to find out abruptly, caught completely off guard. If the reporters got ahead of us and asked my family before we’d told them, that wouldn’t be good. They’d be angrier we kept it from them.
My mom was in the kitchen finishing getting dinner ready when we arrived. “Oh, Elic. I’m glad you’re here. Want to put a salad together for me? I got distracted by an overly muddy dog.” The now un-muddy dog was lounging at Mom’s feet with her little tongue hanging out. Hen was a corgi, who was also my mom’s best friend. He was always underfoot, to the point they were seamless when they walked together.
I started bringing covered dishes to the table where Cadence was setting plates down. Her eyes narrowed when she saw me. I swore she had a sixth sense with people hiding things from her. She was older than me by seven years. While we had our sibling fights growing up, there was no better person to have on my side than her.
“You have a secret,” she said, pointing at me. Her brown hair was pulled up in a high ponytail. It swung with every move she made.
