Page 64 of Rock On

“No, but we’ll save those for when he’s older.”

“Carter left him letters,” I said. “One each for his tenth, thirteenth, eighteenth, and twenty-first birthdays. There are a few others for high school graduation, his wedding day, and one he’ll get when he turns thirty and gets access to the full money that’s in trust for him.”

“Why thirteen?” Tommy asked curiously.

“I don’t know. Puberty? The potential discovery of girls? Who knows. Carter planned this so carefully it’s a little scary.”

“Did you read them? The letters for River?”

“No, they’re sealed and in his lawyer’s possession. I plan to read the ones when he’s underage before I give them to him, because he’ll still be a kid and I want to make sure there’s nothing in there that will traumatize him, but I doubt Carter would do something like that. He loved River more than anything.”

“Did you ever consider that you might remarry, maybe have a man willing to step up and become River’s dad?”

I met his gaze as I slowly shook my head. “You were the only man I was ever going to marry.”

TWENTY-FIVE

Tommy

“Harley! Tommy!”

Before I could respond to Harley’s mind-blowing statement, Quinn came jogging out onto the sand.

“What are you guys doing?” he asked.

“It’s visitors’ day,” Harley said. “That’s my son, River.”

“Oh, wow, he’s a good-looking kid! You ever think about putting him in commercials or show business?”

Harley shook her head. “Not really. My own career in Hollywood never went anywhere, so I figured I’d save him the heartache. At least, until he’s old enough to make a decision like that on his own.”

“You were an actress?” he asked slowly, narrowing his eyes.

“Aspiring. I did a couple of photo shoots for catalogs, and had a few walk-on roles in TV shows, but then Onyx Knight took off and I went on tour with them. My career fell by the wayside.”

“You were also in our first two videos,” I reminded her.

“Oh. That’s right.” She chuckled. “I guess I haven’t thought about those in a long time.”

“That was you?” Quinn was staring at her. “I seem to remember a gorgeous blond on the back of a motorcycle. Is that right?”

I nodded. “Yup. That’s the one. The second one was the band and a group of models, rollerblading on the beach.”

“Well, if you’re ever interested in testing the waters again, give me a call,” Quinn told her. “I’m tired of the same old faces in every project. I’d love to work with new people, of all ages and experience levels. My wife made me promise not to feed into the misogyny of Hollywood anymore, and I’m going to try to keep that promise. Harriett and I are talking about a project, I’m writing a screen play about my experience with grief and loss, and I have quite a few irons in the fire. I’ll let you guys know if anything gets green-lit.”

“I don’t know what my availability will be like,” Harley said. “I’m busy with River, but if there’s an opportunity, I’d love to hear more.”

“Mommy, I’m hungry!” River came up to us with his hands on his hips.

“Well, then, let’s go get Auntie Wynter and have lunch.”

The two of them walked back toward the building as Quinn and I followed more slowly.

“You tell her how you feel yet?” he asked.

“It’s been, like, a week,” I protested. “I think we’re going to need a lot more time than that to admit those kinds of feelings.”

“Time isn’t your friend,” he said after a slight hesitation. “I know my wife having cancer is different, but it’s also part of life. It could happen to any of us at any time. Do you really want to wait until it’s too late? Haven’t you wasted enough time?”

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