first stepped onto that stage in front of me. My heart had raced and I couldn’t catch my breath, and that hadn’t changed.
Inundating my senses, Journey was an avalanche to my equilibrium. Even the wood beneath me seemed to bow to his command as he moved closer.
“I heard.” His intense gaze locked on mine, he stopped beside me.
“I imagine you weren’t the only one. We were loud. It got heated.” I narrowed my eyes. “What exactly did you hear?”
“Pretty much everything. I was on my way to talk to you myself when you two started arguing.”
“So you know there’s no chance of Saber and me getting back together.”
“Yeah.” Journey inched closer, and my legs trembled as his crisp, clean scent washed over me. “He never should have brought Cork into it. I told him it was a dick move.” He placed his hands on the wooden rail. “Saw you come out here. Figured upsetting him upset you.”
“I’m too nice,” I mumbled. Journey’s warmth nudged me. I craved his touch, wanted those strong arms of his around me. I needed him to hold me, but I wasn’t brave enough to ask.
“You’re you,” he said, and the appreciative look he gave me made me suddenly think that being a people pleaser wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. Maybe it was only bad depending on which people you tried to please. “For what it’s worth, I think Saber feels bad about how he handled things.”
“I don’t want him to feel bad. We were just all wrong for each other.”
“I have to agree.” Journey turned his face into the breeze like I’d done a moment before.
Did he find solace for his troubled thoughts looking at the water like I did? I shifted closer, watching the wind like invisible fingers combing through the thick waves of his hair like I longed to.
“I’m not unhappy you broke up,” he said, “but I can empathize with Saber. Having had, then lost you, that certainly stings.”
Did he mean he considered it a loss kicking me out after only having sex with me the one time?
I glanced at Journey. His profile, though handsome, didn’t tell me much.
Maybe he wanted to give it a go with me again. An additional one-night stand. After all, he’d invited me to his bed again. With Saber now out of the picture, I was free to take Journey up on the offer, but I feared the aftermath, knowing any visit to his bed would be temporary.
Journey turned his head, giving me a long, searching look. “Have I stunned you speechless?”
“A little, I guess.”
“You’re not the only one who can speak truths plainly.”
Had there been plain truth in his words? I tilted my head, replaying them in my mind, but I was still confused.
“So, Cork being in the band upsets you?” he asked.
“Oh yeah.” Sighing, I placed my hands on the rail beside Journey’s and returned my gaze to the ocean.
“Why?”
“The same reasons it was difficult for me to let him go with you today without me.”
“You’re worried about his judgment?”
“Yes.” My stomach churned. “I worry that he might make a choice without me supervising that could potentially put him in danger. But he’s so happy tonight. I can’t take that away from him. I know I have to let him have this chance to do something he loves on his own.”
“What good is life without hopes and dreams?” Journey said softly.
“Right.” I gave him a long look. “That’s it exactly. Well said.” Sadly, it wasn’t only my brother living a life without those things.
“That’s wise of you,” he said low. “And generous, given how you worry about him like you do.”
“I don’t feel wise.” My fingers on the railing curved into fists. “So many things can go wrong. I’m scared as hell for him.”
“That only makes it that much more generous and wiser, you supporting him.”
“Maybe.” I bit down on my lip.
“No maybe. Definitely.” Journey turned his head, and I could sense him looking at me, feel his gaze boring into me. “I told you that my parents weren’t supportive of my career choice.”
I turned my head toward him, a view that intrigued me as much as the sea. “And you’re estranged from them because of that?”
“We were estranged even when I was living in the same household with them.” Bitterness crept into his tone. “It put a wedge between us, an unbreachable one, them not even attempting to understand the things that were important to me.”