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“Sorry,” she said, realizing she wasn’t making sense. “I’m just somad.”
Oh, she was going to text Gregor as soon as possible and send Shelby a basket full of dildos. Ugly ones.
Asa slid to the end of the piano bench and stood up. “I shouldn’t have said anything.” He paced across the room. “Can we not talk about it?”
Whoa. What just happened?
Zara turned her body so she could see him better. Clearly agitated, he took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes with the side of his hand.
“I don’t understand,” she confessed, her mind still a whirling mess of inexplicable outrage and details all trying to connect.
“Listen, I know…” He closed his eyes and tipped his head back. His Adam’s apple bobbed with a hard swallow. “I know itshouldn’t get to me and I know I should be able to move past it. I get it. I really do. I just don’t want to talk about it, okay?”
But he really should talk about it. And he should talk about it with her.
Because if anyone understood, it was her.
“Asa,” she said softly. His dark eyes cut to hers, wary and tired. “There’s not a statute of limitation on betrayal.”
His eyes narrowed and he put his glasses back on. He hadn’t left the room or cut her off. So far so good.
“Shelby sucks,” she said.
His lips twitched.
“No, really. I was just mentally making a list of all the horrible things I want Gregor to send her. I’m so…” She closed her eyes and clenched her hands into fists in her lap. “Enraged. I had thought Shelby was an ex or something—” His eyes widened in horror and she held up a hand. “But sister makes it so much worse. I’m so sorry that happened to you.”
No wonder he’d shut down and cut off contact with everyone.
She’d essentially done the same thing, hadn’t she? She’d shelved an album, canceled all appearances, and hidden away in a city where no one would look for her. The one big difference was that she had run to music for comfort and Asa hadn’t felt like he could do that.
It broke her heart.
“Is that why you never texted me back?” she asked.
His mouth pulled to the side.
She puffed a humorless laugh. “I thought it was because you had a girlfriend.”
Honestly, she would have preferred he had a girlfriend over the reality. Somehow this was so much worse.
“Shelby hurts people I care about,” he said, voice rough.
It felt like he was telling her something important. Something she really shouldn’t miss, but it was moving too fast and she couldn’t quite pin it down.
All she could think about was the injustice of it all. Asa had so much talent, and he felt he had to hide it to keep that pesky little cockroach from contaminating every area of his life.
Bet the holidays are awesome, she thought bitterly.
But she’d already gotten him to share more than he’d planned. Follow up questions would be held until later. Or pitched to Nikki.
“What if…” She flexed her hands, open and closed, changing tactics. “What if we just do this every once in a while.” She touched the piano keys. “Just mess around with music. It…it helps me.”
He eyed the piano suspiciously and his gaze drifted to the unmoved guitars sitting around like gravestones.
“I won’t tell anyone you touched an instrument,” she said, testing a small smile.
His gaze cut to hers, but there was a hint of good humor lurking in there that hadn’t been a moment before. His lips twitched, which she took as a good sign.
