Beneath the Stars (Falling Stars #4) - A.L. Jackson Page 0,7

hair.

A rush of his anxiety slammed me. Palpable. As if it were a part of my consciousness.

I guessed that was the hardest part about being me.

It always seemed as if I felt too much, and the moods of people could be overwhelming.

The feel of it was wonderful and horrible, and everything in between.

“And just what aren’t you sure about?” his wife Emily questioned, voice wry and filled with a shot of southern amusement.

She sat on the opposite side of him, their sweet newborn Amelia nestled in her car seat in between.

“Dragging Maggie all the way out here.” He didn’t hesitate to say what was on his mind.

I frowned. “Is that your subtle way of saying you’re sick of your baby sister tagging along everywhere you go?”

From over his shoulder, Royce trained his dark gaze on me, the smile that graced his face close to a sneer. “Nah. It’s my way of sayin’ I hate that I’m always exposing you to douchebags.”

There was no missing the guilt that flashed in his eyes.

My head barely shook. “That’s untrue, Royce.”

A grunt escaped his throat. “Untrue? Seems to me every time I turn around, you’re getting hurt by someone I introduced you to.”

Suffice it to say Royce had been pissed over the whole Rhys debacle.

He’d been terrified when I’d called him in the middle of the night, drunk and crying and asking him to pick me up.

Finding the bassist of Carolina George cuffed and being dragged to a cruiser had only made it worse.

Royce had been irate.

Demanding to know what the hell I’d been doing with him. Hardly willing to believe we were only friends. “I wasn’t in any danger.”

“Bullshit,” he refuted.

Emily sent him a warning glare.

He cringed. “Fuck…I just hate that every time I turn around, seems like there’s something I can’t stop or control when it comes to you.”

“That’s because it’s not your job,” I told him, my tone going soft. Laden with the affection that I felt for him.

My brother might look bad, made of stone and printed in mayhem, but I’d learned long ago that it was what was on the inside that mattered.

Royce had been my savior. My hope. My liberator when I hadn’t been strong enough to stand or speak for myself. Now that I could? Now that I’d found my freedom and my strength?

He was having a hard time letting go.

The fact I seemed to be a magnet for disaster didn’t help things.

“And then your goddamned condo caught fire…” he gruffed out.

You know, like that.

“I wasn’t even home, and I’m completely fine,” I finished for him.

I beat back the guilt for leaving out the rest.

The sense I’d gotten that it hadn’t been an accident when I’d gotten back to my complex and had found a fleet of firetrucks and ambulances in front of my building.

The fact I’d thought someone might have been in my car earlier, searching for something I made sure no one could find.

But that was the problem when you’d lived most of your life in fear. Paranoia took hold, and you no longer could discern when that danger was real or conjured in the darkest places of your mind.

So, I shoved it all back down into that bottomless pit where it belonged. Refused to remain a prisoner to it.

I would no longer be chained by my past.

Emily touched Royce’s arm. “And since we’re lookin’ at the bright side…let’s remember that means Maggie is spending the summer with us and we have someone we can fully trust to take care of Amelia. Love her the way we do.”

She glanced back at me, her blonde braid swishing over her shoulder, her sweet face filled with the adoration she had for me.

Love pulsed.

I couldn’t be more grateful that after what I’d cost Royce earlier in his life that he’d found this…

The greatest joy.

A wife filled with grace and strength and loyalty.

A new baby girl.

He was also reconnecting and establishing a relationship with his older daughter who he’d lost years ago.

Not to mention the fact he’d reunited with his band.

“I couldn’t imagine a better way to spend my summer than with all of you…watching Amelia…spending time with the rest of the band and their families. They’ve all become that to me…family,” I told them.

The original plan had been that I would spend the summer in LA at my own place. Continue working. Continue figuring out what I wanted to do with my life.

But the fire had displaced me, so I’d asked to come along. Offered to watch Amelia