Page 1 of Between Never and Forever
PROLOGUE
A high-pitched scream wakes me,and I shoot upright in my bed.
My heart is in my throat and my breath is straining my lungs when I hear it again. Another high-pitched scream.Brynn. My feet hit the floor just as a chanted stream ofoh my godbegins, and I sprint down the hall toward her room.
I have never known fear like this.
For these few seconds, terror turns my blood to ice, and the need to protect overpowers everything else. Logic, reason, self-preservation—they all disappear in the seconds it takes me to cross the house. Only the primal instinct to protect, to defend, remains.
I shove through the bedroom door at the end of the hall with my fists raised, ready to fight. Ready to kill, if necessary. When I find Brynn sitting cross-legged on her bed, alone, my eyes immediately dart around the room to find the threat.
The closet door is open, displaying clothes on hangers. The second-floor window is closed tight. Everything seems as it was hours earlier when I hugged her goodnight.
“What’s wrong?” I say, my voice urgent. I glance back at her and find her staring at her tablet with her hand covering her mouth. She doesn’t answer.
“Brynn?” I say again, rushing to her bed and dropping to my knees, reaching for her shoulders while scanning her body for injury.
She jumps with a gasp as her eyes shoot to mine.
“Dad!” she shouts. “Oh my gosh!” Her hand splays over her chest. “What the heck? You scared the crap out of me!” She takes off her headphones and lets out a laugh, her eyes wide. “Oh my gosh, Dad, you look like a ghost. What’s wrong? Are you okay?”
My jaw drops, and I suck in a breath. Possibly the first one since being jarred awake.
“You screamed,” I say. “I thought something was wrong! I thought you were...that something...”
I can’t stop my eyes from scanning her features, my sleep-fogged brain still not grasping that fact that Brynn is fine. She is not hurt. She’s not in danger. I don’t need to beat the life out of an intruder. She’s safe in her room.
I consciously unclench my fists.
“Oh,” she says sheepishly. “I’m sorry I scared you.”
“Brynn,” I breathe out, dropping my head to her mattress and trying to get my heart to calm down. “Jesus Christ, Brynnlee.”
“Sorry, Daddy.”
We sit in silence for a minute, and when my chest no longer aches with panic, I bring my eyes to hers and raise a stern brow.
“Why the hell are you screaming in the middle of the night? You know you’re supposed to be asleep, and you’re not allowed to be on your tablet after 7 p.m.”
“I know,” she says a smile stretching over her face. “I was asleep, I swear, but then Cameron messaged me and—”
“Cameron messaged you at—” I check my watch “—three in the morning?”
“Yes, because—”
“Why were you screaming?”
“Ohmigod, Dad, I’m trying to tell you,” she says with a roll of her eyes. “Cameron messaged me because Sav Loveless is coming here!”
My shoulders tense again, but Brynn doesn’t notice. Her voice rises in pitch with each word as she bounces on the bed, speaking quickly.
“She’s coming here, Dad! Here! Here to our dumb, boring town. Nothing good ever happens here, and she’s coming, like, right here. Maybe I can meet her? Maybe I can actually get her autograph? Can you take me to meet her? And get a photo or a hug or—”
“I thought that band broke up?” I say calmly, trying to ignore the pain in my hands as my fingers curl back into fists.
Iknowthat band broke up.
Brynn has been sobbing about it for two weeks, and I’ve felt terrible. I’d planned to let her go to one of their shows on the next tour, but now she won’t get the chance. They announced that their current tour will be their last, and there are only three shows left, all at the Garden in NYC. They’re sold out, and of course, now with the news, scalped prices have skyrocketed.
