A Love Song for Liars (Rivals #1) - Piper Lawson Page 0,57
a lot of people. I don’t know your dad, I don’t know what he did, and I don’t know what I told him.
“I won’t defend myself or him. All I can tell you is I was a kid with a seven-figure contract trying to deal with my own reality and I didn’t know how.”
Disbelief has me shaking my head. “So, why did you bring me here? If you didn’t feel as if you owed me, needed to make it up to me—”
“I told you. You were talented, and you fit in with my family. I saw something in you, and I trusted you.”
His words spin in my mind. It makes sense, and it doesn’t.
I thought I was here because he had a debt to repay, but it wasn’t his debt...
It was mine.
He gave me his trust, his help, his home, with nothing in return.
My brain hurts. I’m willing to believe there are good things in this world, but this is too much. Too far.
He continues, “You’re going to have a career in this industry. Your father couldn’t, but you can and you will.
“That doesn’t come easily when there are people in your life you care about. You’ll have to choose what’s right for you and right for her, and those things will not be the same. The first time you have to choose to tour or take a gig in another city, you’ll have to make that choice, and it will tear you apart.”
His words paint pictures in my mind, and I try to shove them out. “No. I can take care of her.”
“Tyler, protecting her in a sheltered world means nothing. You haven’t seen the start of it. A single person in my circle watched you play, and he was drooling on his two-thousand-dollar shoes.” There’s affection and scorn in equal measure. “You can’t stay for her. I won’t watch you give up your future. She won’t either.”
“She needs me.”
“She needs you because you’re here. When you’re gone, she’ll rely on herself.”
I want to argue, but so much of the shit she’s been through this year was made worse by my presence—her fights with her dad, with Carly.
But I’m not ready to give up.
“What about you and Haley?”
Jax barks out a laugh. “You think what you and my daughter have is the same as what me and Haley have? I would lay down my life for Haley, no questions asked. Walk through hell and back. I’d give up everything I am, my future, my world, for her. I have done it, and I’d do it again.” His face contorts in pain, and I wonder if he’s going to say something else but stops. “When I was your age, I was incapable of that kind of love. It would’ve destroyed me.”
“You were capable of having a child.” I think of the letter from Annie’s mom.
He nods. “At first when I learned about her existence, I denied it. Pushed her away. I was wrong to do it, but it was too much. I couldn’t deal with the demands of the life. When my manager showed me a picture of her, it all changed.
“It wasn’t how I planned it, but she was mine. She’ll always be mine.
“I know she didn’t have the perfect childhood. If I could have gone back and fixed it all, I would’ve.”
The words slice into me. I can’t stand the thought of being selfish like my dad, that I could be hurting not only myself but the girl I care about and the only man who ever looked out for me.
“If you don’t want to leave her,” Jax starts, “tell me you love her.”
My stomach drops. “What?”
“Tell me you love her like I love Haley.”
I’ve seen Jax and Haley together. Their bond. It’s something I’ve never let myself hope for, not to mention trust.
If I ever could love someone like that, it’d be Annie. I know it in my heart.
I lift my palm, search the lines a girl traced there once.
It took sixteen years for someone to tell me I’d have a bright future.
It wasn’t my dad. It wasn’t some producer.
It was Annie.
I open my mouth to respond, but Jax beats me to it. “It’s not enough. If there’s a moment’s hesitation, an ounce of reservation, it’s not enough.
“What were you thinking would happen when you started your career? When she left for school?”
Those words break me. I’ve always had a plan, always been two steps ahead or killed myself trying to be.
“I don’t want to hurt her.”