“My goodness, Roan,” Shannon exclaimed, her expression half flattered, half self-conscious. “I don’t know what to say.”
“It’s beautiful,” I murmured, standing next to her.
Her cheeks reddened as her gaze flicked my way, then returned to Roan. “Thank you.”
“It’s how I see you,” he said, then rather self-consciously he asked, “Do you like it?”
Shannon gave a soft chuckle. “I would rather you’d warned me I was going to be a subject of one the paintings you were showing, but yes, I do like it. No one’s ever …” she trailed off, her gaze once again catching on mine. My parents appeared then, saving her from finishing the sentence.
No one’s ever what? Captured her in a work of art? Well, I knew that was bullshit because I’d written countless songs about her. I had a feeling she hadn’t heard any of the newer ones because Zara had mentioned something about her mam never listening to my music anymore. Our biggest hit in recent years wasHer Heartbeat. Every single word in that song was about Shannon, and she likely hadn’t heard it, not even once. It cut me to the quick, but I’d come to understand her reasoning and even taken hope from it.
If my songs made her feel an emotion strong enough to avoid listening to them, then that meant our connection was still alive in some way. If she’d completely moved on, the music wouldn’t bother her anymore, surely?
My parents proceeded to greet Shannon before telling Roan what an amazing collection of work he’d put together. I left the group momentarily to find the gallery manager who was standing by a table in the back. I quickly slid my card to her, paying for the painting of Shannon and then returning to the group without anyone having noticed my absence.
My gaze found Shannon as she quietly joined in the discussion on Roan’s paintings when suddenly a gentle hand touched my elbow.
“I can’t believe you’re okay,” a voice gushed, and I turned to find a young woman with red, shoulder length hair gazing up at me. She looked about my age, but I’d never seen her before in my life.
Her blue eyes watered with tears, and a bad feeling took hold as I replied, “I’m sorry, what?”
“The car accident in Japan. I know your management wanted to keep it quiet from the press. Honestly, after how you described it, I thought you were going to be in much worse shape, but you look great.”
Her reference to an accident had a sick feeling taking over because I’d been in that wreck with Cai all those years ago, and it haunted me to this day. But there’d been no accident in Japan. “Car accident? I don’t—”
“Jace, it’s me,Alison.” She motioned to herself like the very notion of me not recognising her was preposterous. “I know you wanted to wait a little longer to meet in person, but I was so worried I just had to come find you, make sure you were all right.”
What in the ever loving hell was going on here? “My apologies, Alison, was it? But I have no idea who you are.”
Several emotions passed over her face in rapid succession: confusion, disbelief, more confusion. Then anger took hold. “We’ve been talking online for over a year. You said you were in love with me. I can’t … I can’t believe this. I took the bus all the way from Waterford to come here tonight. I even booked a hotel room I can barely afford, and now you’re pretending not to know me?”
Her outburst garnered the attention of those standing close by, and I was momentarily clueless as to how to deal with this.My eyes caught on Shannon, who was looking between me and the redhead in concern. Then my dad appeared, and I couldn’t have been more relieved.
“Hello, darlin’, is everything okay? Can we help you with something?”
His voice seemed to break through the angry tears she was shedding as she turned her attention to him. “Y-you’re Jay Fields.”
“That’s right, and you seem to be upset with my son.”
“He’s pretending not to know me.”
“That’s because Idon’tknow you,” I said firmly, making sure everyone heard. My band often attracted intense fans, but something about her mention of us talking online for over a year had an even sicker feeling filling my gut. I’d known of other musicians having people impersonate them on the internet, but up until now, I’d been lucky enough not to have it happen to me.
“How can you say that?” Alison shot back, visibly distraught.
My dad glanced at Roan. “Is there a back room where we can take her to sit down and talk?”
My cousin bobbed his head, looking worriedly at Alison like she might be some deranged stalker. But this woman didn’t seem dangerous, just very upset. My dad placed his hand on her elbow and began leading her away, my mother following suit. I tried to come, too, but my dad turned to me, stopping me with a hand. “Let me talk to her first. I’ll figure out what’s going on.”
“Okay,” I said, nodding as my heart hammered in my chest.
If anyone could get to the bottom of this, it was my father.
5.
Shannon
Jace looked distraught as I approached him and softly touched his upper arm. “Hey, do you need a glass of water or something?”
