Page 23 of Edge of Forever

To figure out if things really are as good as I think they are.

I’m already frustrated at the lack of opportunity to spend the night together again, and I have to think about how to broach that subject with Sydney. Technically, I can do what I want. Not only am I eighteen, I have enough money to move out on my own.

But that’s not what this is about.

I owe her and Ford respect since I live in their home, and it would be ridiculous for me to move out a couple of months before I leave for college.

The thing is that I still have school for a couple of weeks, including finals, which I have to do well on. So she and I need to talk about me spending weekends with Sam, or sleepovers even on school nights since I drive myself back and forth to school. I’m not a little kid. I’m perfectly capable of getting up and getting myself to school even if I spend the night with my boyfriend.

I can’t just make unilateral decisions, though.

I have to find out if Sam even wants me to stay with him.

ThenI can talk to Sydney.

“Will you show me your guitars?” My nephew Owen asks Sam. “I like the blue one.”

Sam grins. “If it’s okay with your parents, you can come to the studio and see all of them.”

“How many do you have?”

“Four that I play on stage, including an acoustic, and a couple more that are back home in storage.”

“Can I play the blue one?” he asks, wide-eyed.

Nine-year-old Owen is the child Ford and Sydney had when she was seventeen. Our parents threatened Ford and then lied to Sydney about why he left. They didn’t find their way back to each other until a couple of years ago, but Owen has settled into going from Sydney being his big sister to being their son with no issue. It’s like he always knew Sydney was more his mother than our mother was.

Just like I did.

She’s still my sister, though. It’s different for me since I’m so much older than Owen, but I like seeing how our family has changed over the last few years.

Our youngest brother, Colby, wasn’t even a year old when our parents disappeared, so Sydney is the only mother he knows, and she and Ford legally adopted him this year. And now they have another baby, Poppy, who’s only two months old. She’s planning to take all the kids on tour until school starts for the older two because she doesn’t want to be away from Ford for that long, but I know it’s going to be hard on her when she has to come back. Not only being away from him, but also not having me around.

It was the two of us handling everything when our parents faked their deaths, so I worry about her doing it alone even though she’s not really alone. We all have money now, which we didn’t back then, and they plan to hire a nanny, but I still hate that I won’t be here for her.

“Kirsten?” Sydney is watching me, and I realize someone was talking to me.

“Sorry.” I smile. “I was thinking about finals. What did you say?”

“I asked what your plans are tonight. Are you and Sam going out or staying in?”

“Oh.” I glance at him. “We hadn’t talked about it because he didn’t know how late he would be at the studio.”

“I was thinking we’d go for a ride,” he says, meeting my gaze. “Unless you have studying to do. But either way, we’ll be back early. I know you have to get up for school.”

I nod. “Yeah, I can’t slack off before finals. Two more weeks.”

He grins. “Don’t worry about me. You do what you need to do.”

Since dinner is basically over, Sydney shoos us out of the kitchen despite my protests, and Sam and I wander into the living room.

“You want to get out of here for a little while?” he asks. “I wanted to talk to you about some things.”

Uh oh.

That sounds ominous.

“Okay, let me get my purse.” I run upstairs, my heart pounding.

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