“Whatever.”
He laughed, then reached for me, careful of my crutches but less careful with the hug than he normally was. It made me feel a little better when he lifted me slightly off the ground and then let me fall back on my feet.
“Let me make it up to you.”
I lifted a brow. “Paying for my hotel bill?”
“Dude, you will have more money than me even if you never write another song again. Fuck off with that.”
I laughed and made a go-ahead gesture.
“Let me call a Realtor and get some places lined up for you to look at. Somewhere with enough miles between us I can’t just walk around the corner and let myself in.”
I burst into laughter. “Not a continent. Not even a state, but yeah. That could be helpful.”
He softened. “I do believe in you. I always have. But our parents…you know. They weren’t the most attentive. How many times did they see you while you were in rehab after the accident?”
“Mom twice,” I said. “Dad once.”
It was more than I’d expected. They didn’t want to deal with the reality of my condition. They were better now, of course, that I was back on my feet. But if I brought out the crutches, my mom swore she got hives, so she didn’t visit much.
“Sometimes it felt a little like we were all we had. Like if shit went sideways,” he said quietly, “I’d only have you. You know that the first time they met Sadie, she was ten months old.”
“What?” Tollin had always been the golden child.
“You were on tour, and you saw her three times before they bothered to book a flight to meet their only granddaughter.” He rubbed the back of his neck and shrugged. “So sue me if I get a little weird when it comes to what feels like my only real family.”
I reached for him this time, and he sagged into the second hug. “I’m not going anywhere, you know. I just want to figure out what my life is meant to look like after all this.”
“I get it. And I’m sorry. I’ll be better,” Tollin swore.
“Just have fun, okay? Go make best friends with Gracie and Hasan so if Ryan and I do figure this out, it won’t be weird at family gatherings.”
He laughed. “I think I can manage that.”
That’s a little bit of what I was afraid of, but there were worse things. I stepped back and watched Tollin speed-walk toward where Tarik was waiting for him, and it was then that I caught Ryan hovering near the back doors that led out toward the beach.
My feet were still sluggish, but leaning heavily on my crutches, I made it to him quickly and let out a sigh when he curled fingers around the back of my neck and stole a quick kiss.
“Don’t want to get too public in case anyone recognizes you,” he murmured.
“Are you embarrassed to be seen with me?” I asked.
His eyes widened. “Embarra—Atlas, why would you think that?”
“You don’t seem to like kissing me in public.” I hated that it bothered me, but Raleigh had been the same way. If we were onstage, it was fair game, but the moment we weren’t performing, all affection fizzled into quiet resentment bordering on hatred. And if people caught us having PDA on camera, I always paid for it later.
Ryan gripped me by the back of the neck again, this time laying a deep, possessive kiss on me. “Nothing about you is embarrassing,” he murmured against my lips. “I just didn’t want someone to take a photo of you and make up a bunch of rumors.”
“Like what?” I asked, slightly breathless. “That I’m on a tropical island with a hot-as-fuck teacher, making out like we’re horny teens?”
He blinked, then burst into laughter. “I guess that’s fair.” The moment sobered quickly. “But I know you’ve been kind of…guarding your privacy since the accident.”
He wasn’t wrong. When the truth was told about me and how I was living my life, I wanted it to come from me.
But I also wasn’t afraid for someone to get a sneaky pic of me and Ryan. Let the world see that I was happy.
That Raleigh hadn’t ruined me.
