here because my father was an asshole. Or maybe we wouldn’t be in this mess if I hadn’t screwed it up for everyone.”
“Why would you say that?”
He shrugs. “Dad was caught when the paparazzi spotted him with me.”
“It’s not your fault, Beacon. He lived a double life,” I remind him. “Lies are temporary. It was a matter of time before he screwed up.”
He smiles. “Gramps once told me that maybe he screwed up on purpose. Have you ever wondered how your life would be if that moment where everything got fucked up never happened?”
His question is loaded because how do I even know which moment we’re talking about? There are millions and millions of possibilities with every second we live.
“You can’t change your past,” I say before I get lost in an endless loop where Carter doesn’t die, and I choose Leyla over work. I’d stop all those times when I disappointed my wife or made her cry.
“That doesn’t stop anyone from thinking about the past and how to learn from it, so you don’t fuck up your future,” he states. “The band is my family. They are my present and future. This tour is special to me. I can’t cancel. If you ever thought about gifting me something, give me this. I know you don’t care about my music, but it is everything to me.”
“I care about you,” I inform him.
“Right, you care so much that you were always there in the first row like you were when Mills would play in your hometown.” He sounds like a small child complaining about not getting a toy.
I pull out my phone and search for the email that has the tickets for his next concert. “Here, this is one of many. We’ve watched you play in other cities.”
He glances at the phone, then at me. Then he grins.
“As I said, I’m putting this up for voting. Everyone will decide what I request first. I’ll try my best to get what you need, but if I don’t, it’s not because I don’t give a shit about you.” I tap the phone a couple of times. “You matter to me, but even though I am a good fucking lawyer, the shit our father pulled was class A assholeness that might be hard to fix.”
He gives me a strange look and leaves.
Around noon I’m done with what I needed to do and head to the house. I find Leyla in the barn with Arden. She is showing him the chicken coop. The kid points at the horses, and Leyla says, “Poppy.”
She repeats, “Poppy.”
Arden laughs, and she joins him.
“You want to help me brush her?” she asks, and he laughs again.
He’s a happy kid. We haven’t been here for long, but he’s adapting fast, and Leyla is helping him with the transition. She’s so good with him. And fuck if I don’t want to be part of that moment, but I also feel like I’m interrupting them. Instead of staring at them, wishing I hadn’t fucked up, I head to the main house. I find Vance yelling at Bennett Crawford, the guy who brought him on Saturday and only came out of Vance’s room a few times for water or food for them.
“Go and fuck yourself, Aldridge,” Bennett grunts, rushing out of the house. “Just don’t call me again. You want out? It’s over!”
I stare at him and then at Vance. We Aldridges know how to fuck shit up, don’t we?
“Want me to catch up to him?” I ask Vance, who is leaning against the door frame sweating and flinching with what I can only guess is pain.
He shakes his head.
“Do you want to talk about it?”
“You wouldn’t understand,” he grunts.
“I’m in the middle of a divorce,” I remind him. “I might be able to get the hang of the ordeal.”
He stares at me for a couple of beats and says, “I’m sorry, but I won’t be able to get you the information you needed.”
“Why not?” I ask, not upset but confused. What changed from Friday to today? I understand why he’s redirecting the conversation. Bennett didn’t leave just because it was Monday and he’s running late for a meeting.
They had a fight, but Vance doesn’t want to acknowledge the problem.
He points at the gate. “I just quit and chose you, asshole.”
I’m confused by what I saw. That wasn’t you quit and I’m mad. It was more like a fine, we’re over, but don’t come begging back when you regret it moment. Instead of asking,