Page 16 of Between Now and Always

I’ve lived my life by the coda of low expectations.

I’m not demanding.

Pleasing people is a defensive stance for me.

Who could I be if I really let myself fly free?

I can’t wait to find out.

They call my flight and I dump my phone, the one that my Wolfe Industries pays for, into a trashcan. Then, I skip down the jetway and step onto a plane for the very first time in my life.

I don’t look back once.

Freedom

CARTER

THREE MONTHS LATER

“Hey, C, you’ve got a visitor,” Dane sticks his head into the Live Room. I’ve been holed up writing since last night.

I glance at my watch, see the 6am time and frown.

Our first single debuts on national radio today and we’re supposed to meet here this afternoon to listen. It’s the first time we’ve seen each other since we wrapped up all the pre-recorded promotional material last week.

It was supposed to be down time before we head off on our three month long promotional tour.

I’ve been in the studio by myself all week, focusing on writing new music. It’s the only thing keeping me sane and sober. I’m not expecting anyone, my bandmates included, for at least another hour.

“Why are you here so early? And what visitor?”

“This visitor, you fucking asshole,” Jack’s voice reaches me before he appears in the doorway.

“Jack?” I ask, confused and alarmed to see him. I stand up in surprise.

He strides into the room and slams the door in Dane’s face without a word.

“What are you doing here?” I ask, alarmed by the barely restrained anger pouring off him.

Instead of answering me, he drops wearily onto the couch in the corner and sweeps his gaze around the room. His expression is distinctly unimpressed as it lands on me.

“Is everything okay at home?” I prod when he doesn’t answer.

He inspects his fingernails with exaggerated nonchalance. “I’m surprised you remember you have a home. Seeing how you forgot that you have afamily.I thought maybe, you’d forgotten everything.”

“What are you talking about? I talk to at least one of you every single day.” I ask, annoyed now, too.

“Oh, I know. And you’ve told usallabout LA, and your music, and your little band, and allthatshit. You forgot to tell us that you went to Texas to find your biological brother. The one that your biological mother, who youalsofound, gave birth to tens years after she gave birth to you.”

My heart drops like a stone in water to my toes.

“Jack, I can explain.” Are the only words I can muster.

In the span of the second it takes him to surge to his feet, he is transformed. His nostrils flare, his lip curls and he’s vibrating with unadulterated, unbridled, anger.

I tense, instinctively braced for him to launch himself at me.

He stops an inch away from us being toe to toe and roams my face, inspecting it like he’s looking for something.

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