Chapter 2

Kin

Carter was gone for the weekend on business, but Caleb was home. My beast of a stepbrother took one look at my face and pulled me into a gentle hug.

Once I felt his arms around me, the tears flowed with a torrent of pain that felt as if it was going to drown me. I couldn’t hold back the sobs I’d been fighting the entire flight and drive home. Now that I was where I wanted to be, there was no holding back the heartbreak rotting away at my soul.

Caleb lifted me like I was nothing more than a pillow and carried me into the living room. Sitting me on the couch, he produced my favorite blanket and the remote to the huge flat screen mounted on the wall. Pushing what appeared to be a new box of tissues into my hands, he proceeded to pile the coffee table with enough junk food to feed a small army and Diet Coke.

When my tears slowed and the sobs ebbed then faded completely, he put a bowl of freshly popped, buttery popcorn in my hands and told me to turn on whatever “girly-ass movie” I needed to make me feel better. There were no questions. No demand for answers I wasn’t ready to give yet. I was certain his twin had already filled him in on why I was there, so he really didn’t need me to tell him what happened yet.

I shoved a handful of popcorn into my mouth, no doubt looking like a chipmunk. I didn’t care. There was no one I needed to impress. Only Caleb, who would never judge me.

A Twilight marathon was on, and I could hear him grinding his teeth together, but he didn’t voice a single complaint as I cuddled into his side and watched stupid Edward tear poor Bella’s heart out when he broke up with her in the woods. When she got lost running after him, I could relate.

I felt more than a little lost myself.

My stepbrother sat with me all night, and I finally passed out as the sun was coming up, my tears still fresh on my face. When I woke up late Friday afternoon, he had a fresh box of my favorite Chinese and a new marathon of chick flicks for us to binge together.

It was late when Caleb’s phone went off. He picked it up after kissing the top of my head. “I know nothing,” he spoke into the phone, and I immediately tensed up. Meeting my gaze, he mouthed, “Cash,” to let me know who was on the phone.

I relaxed, but only slightly. If Cash was calling, that meant there was a good possibility Jace was close by. I didn’t know the band’s full schedule, but they were all probably partying hard after the exhilaration of playing for the masses. I leaned in closer to Caleb, trying to hear what his best friend was saying.

“…she sent a cake, Caleb.”

I lifted my brows in confusion, unable to make sense of that sentence. What about a cake?

The brick wall that was actually a man beside me blew out a harsh breath. “That was probably Angie’s idea. Or Lucy. That totally sounds like one of them. Trust me, bro, if she finally decided she’s had enough and is ending things, she would have been too upset to do much of anything but cry. And that’s all she’s been doing for the last twenty-four hours.”

I didn’t hear the rest of their conversation, still too caught up in the whole cake thing. By the time Caleb hung up moments later, I was still unable to understand.

“What was that about a cake?”

He scrubbed a hand over his chin. “Don’t know if you let Jace know you were ending things with him or not, but he knows now. Apparently, Ang sent a breakup cake.”

“What is a breakup cake?” I asked stupidly, my brain too cloudy from crying for over a full day.

“I guess she sent a cake with a message telling him it was over between you guys, from you.” He shrugged. “I wouldn’t be surprised if Jace shows up here tonight. Pretty sure I slipped up and let Cash know you’re here.”

My heart shuddered in my chest, and I had to touch a hand to it, begging it to calm the fuck down. The idea of seeing Jace so soon after finding out the truth wasn’t appealing. The thought of seeing him at all, in fact, was just too much. I smelled, my face was swollen from all the crying, my throat was raw, and I was fairly sure there was food in my hair.

“Fuck!” Jumping to my feet, I nearly face-planted because my knees were weak from having sat in one place for too long. Cursing, I rushed up to my room and jumped in the shower.

There was no way in hell I was going to face Jace looking and smelling disgusting. He already broke my heart; he wasn’t going to find me so vulnerable on top of that.

The heat of the shower eased some of the tension in my shoulders, and I groaned as I let the powerful jets wash over my neck and back. I took my time, debating how I was going to handle seeing him. Screaming at him wasn’t something I favored. I was hurt and pissed, but I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of seeing how emotional I really was—or so I kept telling myself.

I would be calm, ask him why he’d cheated, got some chick pregnant, and then tell him I never wanted to see him again. It was over—no matter what he had to say. Three years was long enough for him to decide if I was his future, and if nothing else, this showed me that our futures were going in completely opposite directions.

As I got out of the shower, I heard my phone ringing from my bedroom. Ignoring it, I dried and walked into my closet. I pulled on a pair of sweats and a matching top, forgoing a bra. I didn’t have the energy to do anything with my hair, so I brushed out the wet tangles and left it to air-dry.

The shower hadn’t washed away my problems, but at least I no longer smelled like week-old trash and my hair was washed. A look in the full-length mirror hanging on the back of my closet door showed me that my eyes were still swollen from all the crying. There was no use in trying to hide that. Not when I could already feel the sting of fresh tears.

Blinking them back, I grabbed my phone, looking through the long list of texts that had blown it up while I was showering.

Jace had tried to call me no fewer than fifty times in the last thirty minutes, and there were just as many texts. Pleas for me to answer the phone, to tell him what was going on, why was I ending things.

That he seemed clueless only pissed me off more, and I welcomed the anger, gladly letting the emotion overtake me so my pain could take a back seat.

Mixed in with the long list of stupid messages from my ex were a few from Aunt Emmie, all of which asked me to call her as soon as possible. I loved my honorary aunt, had been thankful for her when she appeared in my life after I first became friends with Lucy. I was still thankful, and it wasn’t just because she had been responsible for so much of my success so far. She always let me know she had my back.

And while I would have loved to hear her voice in that moment—or better yet, have her hug me—I didn’t think I could make it through a phone call with her without breaking down all over again.

A tap on my door had me lifting my head to find Caleb standing in the doorway. “If they show up, you don’t have to face him. I won’t let him in the house if that’s what you want.”

I thought it over for a moment, but I shook my head. I might not want to face what Jace did, but it was better to just get it over with so I could move on with my life.

Right then, I wasn’t sure how that was possible, or even where my life was going now. For three years, my life coincided with Jace’s. We loved each other; we would always be together. The music world was ours for the taking. I would write him a number one hit song, and we would both get a Grammy for it one day. Or so I’d dreamed.

Now, I didn’t know where I stood in the world without him beside me. The idea of writing another song made me sick to my stomach. And I hated him for making me feel that way about the one thing I’d always had a passion for.

“No,” I told Caleb. “I need to talk to him. I want answers, and only he can give them to me.”

The doorbell rang an hour later, and my heart started pounding painfully. I stood, my chin lifted proudly, and went to answer the door myself.