Page 73 of The Star

She jumps, and when she notices it’s me, she pushes me away. “Did you know?!”

I fall back on my ass. “Know what?!”

There’s mascara dripping down her cheeks, her face red and blotchy from crying. She sobs, her chest rising and falling a few times before she can speak again. I lean forward, wanting to comfort her, but when she gives me a look of warning, I stop in place.

“Did you know that they were together for six months?!” she yells, sitting up against the wall and wrapping her arms around her bent legs.

“Logan, what are you talking about?” I question, scooting a little closer to her on my ass.

“My dad and your mom!” she yells louder, making me turn my head to make sure no one is around. “Did you know he was fucking cheating on my mom?!”

My head rears back. “What?!With my mom?!”

Her face falls, and she starts crying again. Not small, little cries, but full-blown sobs that echo through the hallway. Putting a hand on her arm, I try to soothe her. “Logan, calm down.”

She starts hyperventilating, her eyes connecting with mine and showing me that she can’t calm down. She can’t fucking get control right now.

“Okay, c’mon.” I stand up, bending down and slipping one arm under her legs and one under her back to pick her up. “We need to go somewhere a little more private.”

She wraps her arms around my neck, sobbing into the lapel of my suit jacket as I carry her down the hallway to try and find somewhere we can hide out. I try the first door I go past, but it’s locked. I try the second, and it opens to a dark room that looks like a smaller version of the one we’re having the wedding party in. I slide through the door, closing it behind me and sitting down on the floor, pulling Logan into my lap.

Keeping her arms wrapped around me, her face presses into my neck as she cries. “I can’t believe he would do that to her.”

I rub my hands down her back, trying to calm her down. “Shhh, it’s okay, baby.”

She cries until she can’t anymore, until my neck is completely soaked and marked with the blackness of her makeup. When she finally starts to go quiet, her chest moving a little bit slower, I run my hands down her back once more. “It’s okay.”

She shakes her head against my neck. “I can’t believe he would do that.”

I slide my hands to her hair, gently threading them through the strands. “Talk to me.”

She pulls her face from my neck, and I find her eyes wild and bloodshot. “When did you meet my dad?”

The question catches me off guard, so my brows pull down. “Ummm…” I run through the timeline in my head.

“Maybe five, six months ago?” I look at her, curious. “Why?”

Her eyes fill with tears again, but I stroke my hands along her hair and down her neck to try to get them to subside. “What is going on, Logan?”

She shakes her head, sniffling. “He was still with my mom then.”

“What?!” My muscles go tight. “When did your parents split up?!”

“Split up?!”she spits. “Theyneversplit up. My mom died almost five months ago, and they were still together when she did!”

My mouth hangs open, and I can’t seem to find any words to say back to her. When she sees the shock on my face, she realizes that I wasn’t complacent in this, and she starts crying again.

“I’m going to fucking kill him,” I growl, tightening my hands in her hair from the anger running through my veins. “I swear to God, I’ll kill him.”

She chokes on another wave of tears, trying to clear her throat to make it subside. “I can’t fucking do this right now.”

She doesn’t say anything else, just tilts her head up to align her face with mine, then she presses her lips to mine in a kiss so soft that I feel myself relaxing.

thirty-four

LOGAN

Carson is hesitant to kiss me back at first, keeping the movements of his lips slow and gentle, but when I shift on his lap to straddle him, his hands tighten in my hair again and his tongue slips into my mouth.

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