Risking It All (Kingston Brothers #4) - Isabel Lucero Page 0,23
I wipe away the tears and clear my throat. “Uh, I have to go tell Ali.”
“He doesn’t know you’re leaving tomorrow?” he questions, aghast.
I shake my head. “I didn’t know how to tell him.”
Elijah frowns. “Waiting till the last minute probably wasn’t the best idea.”
“I know, but I didn’t want. . .” I don’t finish, because I can’t explain it to my brother without giving away what me and Ali are to each other. “I don’t know. I’ll be back, though. It’s not like I’m leaving forever.”
Elijah pins me with another look that says, you know better.
Ali opens the door and lets me in with a smile on his face. “Hey, I just got off the phone with Lexie, and she invited us to her birthday dinner next weekend. You’re free, right?”
He turns around and walks back into his living room, leaving me having to tell him my news right away.
“Um, well, no.”
Ali spins around. “No?”
I take a deep breath and blow it out. “I need to talk to you.”
His expression instantly morphs into one of apprehension. “What?”
After I sit on the couch, I wait for him to do the same. He slowly makes his way around, never taking his eyes off me.
“I’m leaving town tomorrow.”
Ali’s face doesn’t change for a few seconds, like the information hasn’t quite hit his brain yet. “What? For how long?”
I chew on my bottom lip. “I don’t know. Probably a few months.”
“A few months? What for?”
I pop my knuckles in a nervous gesture. “I didn’t know how to tell you, but me and the guys, we got a deal. We have to fly to New York to record an album.”
Ali’s eyes bulge. “What? How long have you known this?”
I scoot forward on the couch and reach for his hand. “When we came off the road last time, we had already left music with a label in New York. We had met up with someone there and talked a little, but nothing was set in stone. We just had to wait to see what happened.”
“Since you came home? That was months ago!”
“But I didn’t know what was going to happen. We’ve left music with other labels before and heard nothing back. It was just another shot in the dark.”
“When did you know for sure?”
“It’s been a few months, I guess,” I say, feeling like shit.
“Months.” He snatches his hand away and stands up. “You’ve known for months that there was a strong possibility you could be signed to a label, and then knew for sure that you were about to leave, and yet you decided to keep all of that to yourself. Am I hearing this right?”
“When I found out for sure, I didn’t want to ruin what we had going on. I wanted us to enjoy our time together without worrying about having an expiration date.”
He scoffs. “An expiration date? So, we’re done for sure? That’s what you’re saying? You going off to New York to record an album means the end of us?”
I stand up and go to him. “No, I just meant I didn’t want either of us to be so preoccupied with me leaving that we didn’t enjoy every second we had together. I’m coming back, Ali. Once this album is done, I’ll be back.”
Ali shakes his head. “And if you’re successful?”
“I’ll always come back to you.”
“You didn’t even tell me you got signed. I’m sure you celebrated that, and you left me out of it, Kingston. That hurts.”
“Ali, I don’t know what’s about to happen, but I do know that I’ll always want what we’ve always planned. I want us no matter what.”
He gently touches my cheek as he stares into my eyes. “You’re about to be one of the biggest celebrities in the world. I’ve heard you guys, and you’re all so talented. You’re about to be everywhere. There’s no way you’ll have the time to come back to little ol’ Gaspar, and you certainly won’t have time to have a gay lover.”
I circle his wrist with my fingers and pull him into me. “You’re so much more to me than a gay lover.”
Ali plants a soft kiss on my lips before stepping back. “Not anymore.”
17
Alejandro
Present Day
“Well, looks like the movie’s over,” I say, noticing people getting up.
“There was a movie?” Merrick jokes.
“You were too busy running your mouth.”
“Well, it’s been a long time. Just trying to catch up.”
Merrick gathers our trash and walks it over to the bin about twelve feet away. I’m just getting to my feet