This One Moment (23 page)

Hailey squeezed my hand as we stood in front of my house. “Are you sure about this?” she asked. She glanced back at her parents' home and shuddered. We were going there after this, to help her deal with what had happened almost two weeks ago.

“Yes. I need to do it.” I pulled her toward the front door and unlocked it. What had happened the night my family died wasn't my fault. I'd finally accepted that. For a long time before that night I'd tried to convince my mother to leave my father. I couldn't have predicted the sequence of events or the outcome. None of us could have.

The cops eventually put everything together as to what had happened the night Hailey was found barely alive in Westgate. Philip Brady, the man Mom had been having an affair with, had attacked her in this house, and he panicked. He and his brother took Hailey to Westgate to kill her. They wanted it to look like a random attack. They never expected her to survive. The man I accidentally killed when he attacked Hailey while she was running? He was Philip's brother.

Initially it didn't make sense that Philip had waited so long to make sure there was nothing that could link him to my mother and Sarah. But then we learned that Philip had recently decided he wanted to go into politics, and so he needed to ensure all his skeletons stayed buried deep.

Chris's death was quickly determined to be unrelated, the result of a steroid drug deal gone wrong. His alleged killer had been arrested early last week.

I opened the front door and stepped inside my house. The night Philip had attacked Hailey at her parents', I'd been about to cross the street to my home when I heard her scream. Thinking that the person who'd put her in a coma and the person who had killed Chris was the same and was still running free, I'd called the cops. Fortunately, Hailey's parents had left the spare key in the same place as when she and I were kids.

Now, as we entered the house I'd grown up in, I saw that a layer of dust covered the furniture. The air held a slight musty smell. But otherwise, the place looked no different than I remembered.

I inhaled deeply and started coughing. “Hmm. It's a little dustier than I remembered.” Hailey's parents had arranged for someone to clean every few months for the past five years. Her mother knew my mom would've appreciated it, even if she was dead. I had agreed to it, and the funds had come from my parents' estate. I wasn't sure why I hadn't sold it right away—why I had waited until only recently to finally decide to put it on the market. Maybe deep down I had assumed no one would want to buy a house three people had died violently in. Or maybe deep down I just hadn't been ready to let it go—to let go of the only home my sister had ever known.

Hailey chuckled, taking in the dusty state of the furniture and the house. “Just a little.”

“I guess I should hire someone to deal with it before I sell the place.” I pulled her into my arms and grinned. “Unless you want to delay our flight for another month. Then we can clean it ourselves.”

She made a face. “No heavy lifting for me for a while. Doctor's orders.” Doctor's orders also said we couldn't have sex for a few more weeks while Hailey recovered from surgery. Not that I was counting the days or anything. “Are you sure you want to sell the place?” she asked.

I glanced around. The house had long since ceased being part of my existence. The happy memories associated with it were tainted. “Positive.” I squeezed her hand to let her know that she was my life.

Always had been.

Always would be.

Still holding on to Hailey, I walked into the kitchen. The blood from my mother's murder had long since been scrubbed from the wall and the floor by the cleaning service. I closed my eyes against the image of the last time I'd seen her, lying on the floor in a pool of blood.

Hailey wrapped her arms around my waist and rested her head on my shoulder. I opened my eyes and kissed her temple. “Thank you,” I whispered.

She peered up at me. “You're welcome.”

We climbed the stairs leading to the second floor. Hailey's movements were slow and slightly unsteady. I kept my arm around her hips and let her set the pace.

In my room, I removed from my back jeans pocket the laminated photo that I had held on to for all these years and handed it to Hailey. “Do you remember this?”

She laughed at the picture Mom had taken while I attempted to help Hailey master the guitar. We had been sitting on my bed at the time. “I can't believe you still have this.”

“It was the only thing I held on to from my previous life. I loved you, Hailey. Even though I walked away from Northbridge all those years ago, I couldn't walk away from you completely. Every time I missed you, every time I was about to go onstage, I'd look at the picture. It was like you were with me.” I gently kissed her. “It was what kept me going.”

“I wish I had known that. I thought you had moved on and forgotten me.”

“Never. I couldn't have forgotten you even if I tried.”

Entering Sarah's room was harder than entering the kitchen. If she had still been alive, my sister would've been sixteen years old, with her entire life ahead of her. My gut twisted at seeing her bed and remembering the last time I'd been in the room. I pulled Hailey closer to me.

Sarah had loved Hailey. She would've been thrilled to see us together. The way we were meant to be.

It didn't matter that Sarah had been my half sister. I loved her no matter what.

I picked up the familiar framed photo from my sister's desk. Like everything else, dust blanketed it. With a T-shirt I'd found in her closet, I cleared away the dust, revealing a picture of Sarah, me, and Hailey.

When I had left home for L.A. five years ago, all I took with me was my guitar, clothes, and the one photo of Hailey. I'd fled the town without anything to remember my sister by—other than the tiger tattoo I got soon after arriving in L.A., the one that represented Sarah's favorite stuffed animal. I thought that if I had something of hers with me, I would never move on.

I had been wrong.

I hugged the picture, and after one last quick glance around the room, Hailey and I left to begin our new life together.

“You two ready?” Alyssa asked Hailey and me four days later. In the other room, the media were set up to listen to our press conference. It had been Alyssa's idea, and the record label grudgingly agreed to it after they learned about the threats to Hailey's life.

Not that they had much choice. Alyssa had planned to go public with the news one way or another, and there were plenty of other labels interested in signing her.

Hailey and I nodded, and Monica, Alyssa's assistant, opened the door to the room. The media knew only that Alyssa and I wanted to make a statement. They had no idea that Hailey was also part of the news conference.

The latest rumor was Alyssa and I were announcing our engagement. Or baby news.

I entered the room first, followed by Hailey, then Alyssa. Alyssa and I had planned it that way, to show her support for Hailey and our relationship.

I reached for Hailey's hand and squeezed it to let her know it'd be all right. We had already prepared her for this moment, as had the publicist from the record label. But despite that, her hand trembled in mine as camera flashes momentarily blinded us.

The small conference room was filled with reporters and camerapeople from numerous TV stations. The only individuals excluded were the paparazzi. Whether they were invited or not didn't matter; they would have twisted the story for their own benefit either way.

We walked to the podium, where three microphones were set up. Even though Hailey wasn't excited about the idea of talking to reporters, she understood how important it was that she did.

“Thank you for coming,” Alyssa said, smiling. “I understand you all came here today expecting us to announce our engagement. But trust me, once I find a guy I want to settle down with, I won't be calling a press conference. My publicist will issue a statement. What we wanted to talk about is something more important.” She turned to me.

“For months now, there have been speculations that Alyssa and I are involved. But none of it is true. There's only been one woman I've ever been in love with.” I smiled at Hailey, and she smiled back, the nervousness from a few minutes ago gone.

Unable to help myself, I leaned down and kissed her. Nothing R-rated. It was a simple kiss. One that clearly stated my heart belonged to her as much as hers belonged to me.

The cacophony of clicking cameras grew in intensity, intruding on the moment. And for a second I wished we were alone so I could explore her sweet mouth again, this time more thoroughly.

“Why is it that only a few weeks ago,” a male reporter asked, “Alyssa made a statement that you two were involved and Hailey was nothing more than a friend?”

That was my question to answer. “The record label believed that by announcing Alyssa and I were involved, it would remove the attention from Hailey. At the time, I hadn't realized Hailey would want to uproot herself from her life back home to be with me in L.A., and Hailey hadn't realized I wanted her with me. Obviously we need to work on our communication skills a little more.”

Knowing chuckles greeted us.

“So what made you decide to come forward now?” a female entertainment reporter asked. I recognized her from the movie premiere, when she had helped feed the speculation about the whole Nolyssa crap.

“While the idea of standing in front of all you and discussing my private life scares the hell out of me,” Hailey said to the middle microphone, “I was tired of the unfounded hate Nolyssa fans had toward me. Some individuals threatened me online. I received hate phone calls from one person, who also sent me a letter. The cops in my town have questioned the individual and charges are possible.” It had turned out to be someone in Hailey's apartment building. “People who didn't know me were threatening me or saying hurtful comments about me just because they were supporting something that wasn't real.”

Alyssa placed her hand on Hailey's shoulder. “I've had a chance to get to know Hailey over the past few days, and the negative press she received is undeserved. And unlike the media and Nolan's fans, who didn't get to know him because of secrets he felt he had to keep, I've gotten to know the real Nolan over the past year. He's a great guy, and he and Hailey are the ones who are perfect together. It never should have been about him and me.”

We answered several more questions. Some were about my past, which I told them was behind me and was in no way an indication of who I was. Some were about Hailey's and my plans for the future.

“I'm still recovering from an attack prior to coming here,” Hailey stated. “Then I hope to continue what I was doing back home.” She didn't say what that was, though. She wasn't the one whose career was based on being in the spotlight. She wanted to keep that part of her life private. We could only hope the media would respect her decision.

“Was this an attack from a Nolyssa fan?”

“No,” Hailey said. “It was a home invasion that had nothing to do with Nolan or Alyssa. That's all I can say about it.”

Eventually the questions ended and we thanked everyone for coming. Monica opened the back door for us and the four of us left. She and Alyssa said goodbye to us and walked out to the car waiting for them.

Grinning happily because I was finally going to have Hailey all to myself for a while, I grabbed hold of her hips and brought her flush against me. “So, what do you say, Forget-Me-Not?” I murmured against her ear, and I could've sworn she whimpered. “Why don't we go home and I can help you relax?”

“What do you have in mind?”

“You'll see.” I languidly ran my tongue along the shell of her ear. She moaned softly. “And maybe tomorrow we can start looking for a place to live. Together. Without Jared.”

She laughed. “Sounds good.”

I pulled back. “Which part?”

The smile on her face made my heart do a quick step. “All of it. As long as it's with you.”

T
WO MONTHS LATER

From the throw line in the middle of the sports bar, I tossed my beanbag toward the red bucket. If this had been soccer, I could've dazzled everyone with my fancy footwork. Not that anyone cared. The sole reason the ten people behind me were here was to drool over my boyfriend. Okay, maybe not so much the guy at the end of our line, but definitely the guy on Jared's team. He'd been checking Nolan's ass out, like the rest of the girls at the radio-station sponsored event. But I couldn't say I blamed him. As long as he and the girls realized that only I had Nolan's heart.

The beanbag effortlessly landed in the bucket with a hard plop. Nolan didn't have a chance to congratulate me. He was up next. His team cheered and oohed as he hurled his beanbag at the same target. And he, too, easily made the shot.

We walked together to the end of the line, his hand on my butt. A few girls shot me a jealous glance, but that didn't bother me. It was an improvement compared to a few months ago. Fortunately, once Alyssa had accepted me as a friend, the entire Nolyssa mess had blown over. Not that I had seen her much lately. She was busy in the studio recording her debut album.

“So, Hailey,” Jared said as we waited for the next game to be set up, “you're coming with us on our promo blitz, right?”

“I hope so. Depends on if I can get the time off. Plus we're expecting…a new family member.” How I managed not to laugh at Jared's shocked expression was beyond me.

“Well, um, congratulations.” He hugged me and gave Nolan a one-armed bro hug. The rest of the band was too preoccupied giving Mason a hard time to overhear us.

Nolan burst out laughing. “She's not pregnant. We're adopting a puppy.”

I laughed. “Sorry. Couldn't resist it.”

“Not funny,” Jared grumbled, which seemed like an odd reaction from him. Then the fleeting emotion on his face, which I couldn't get a firm grip on, vanished, and he smiled. “So, when are you getting the new addition?”

“Today.”

I couldn't even remember when the idea of adopting a puppy had first come up. It wasn't one of those “Hey, let's get a dog” conversations that happened one morning over coffee. It started with Nolan's subtle yet wishful glances at golden retrievers as we strolled past them when they and their owners were out for a walk. Then a few weeks ago Nolan stopped to pat one dog we'd seen a number of times, and his longing for one almost knocked me over. We spoke to the owner for a few minutes, and the next thing I knew, we were contacting the breeder from whom the man had adopted his dog. The woman and her dogs came highly recommended, and one of her dogs had recently given birth to a new litter.

Somehow I survived the agonizingly long wait before the radio event finally finished. All I could think about the entire time was our adorable puppy and how he was soon coming home with us. To be a family.

After we said our goodbyes, we drove to the address we had been to one other time. Adopting a puppy from a breeder wasn't like picking out a puppy at a pet store. We had already visited the breeder so she could determine whether we were the right couple for one of her babies.

“Are you sure about this?” Nolan asked. But any uncertainty he might have felt wasn't about getting a dog. Rather, it was because he was leaving soon on a long tour to support the new album Pushing Limits had just released.

“Positive. It'll be nice to have someone to keep me company while you're off flirting with all those groupies.” My tone was light and breezy, and I smirked as he pulled up to the breeder's home. I was kidding, of course. I knew he would be friendly with his fans, because that was part of his job. But there was a thin line between being friendly and flirting, and I trusted that Nolan wouldn't cross it.

Without a word, he parked the car in front of the simple two-story house and we climbed out. Unlike back in Minnesota, spring had paid L.A. a visit more than a month ago. The trees and plants and sweet fragrant flowers in the well-tended garden were lush and green.

Nolan was still oddly silent as we walked toward the path leading to the front door. I was about to tell him I was kidding, in case he hadn't figured it out for himself, when he grabbed my waist and pulled me close.

“The only flirting I'll be doing is with you.” He leaned down, his mouth close to my ear, and murmured, “When you're talking to me on the phone. Naked.”

“Oh, you think so?” I murmured back, my legs weak at the thought of hot phone sex with my equally hot boyfriend while he was on the road. At least I had something to look forward to, other than his safe return.

“I definitely think so.” He ran his tongue along my neck, and heat ignited between my legs. God, the man was such a tease.

But the part I'd said about having someone to keep me company was true. Other than Alyssa, I'd only made a few new friends since the move to L.A., and they were more like casual work acquaintances—not people I could see getting close to. A puppy was exactly what I needed to keep me from missing Nolan too much while he toured with the band.

Nolan stepped away, and my body instantly missed his closeness. “As much as I want to taste you,” he said with a groan, “that's gonna have to wait a little longer.” He threaded his fingers with mine, and we walked along the path to the front door. The freshly awoken ache between my legs cursed him the entire way.

I rang the doorbell, and less than a minute later Gail opened the door and we were ushered into the house. It might have been a simple two-story house on the outside, but inside, the home was warm and welcoming. Gail was originally from Scotland, and while her accent might have softened over the years, her love for her Celtic roots hadn't. She also loved plaid. I mean
really
loved plaid.

“They're looking forward to seeing ye.” No sooner had she said the words than six chubby seven-week-old puppies bounded toward us from the kitchen. Their cuteness factor was way over the top, and I wished we could've adopted them all. Choosing just one had been next to impossible.

They tumbled into each other in their haste to get to us. The slightly curled up edge of the rug sidetracked one puppy, who chewed on it instead.

“How 'bout we go into the backyard with them?” Gail walked toward the kitchen, where the back door was located. They must have sensed where she was going, because they all charged after her, including our little boy, Rocky. The name was both a tribute to Nolan's first dog, Lucky, and a symbol that Nolan would always be my rock star—both in the musical sense and otherwise.

We followed the bundles of cuteness outside and played with them for a while. Like last time, when we'd first fallen in love with Rocky, it was clear that the puppy was as taken with Nolan as I was. Even when the other puppies chased after the ball Gail had thrown, Rocky stayed close to us, waiting for Nolan to toss the ball he was holding.

I sat next to Rocky on the grass and stroked his soft fur. At my touch, he rolled onto his side and gave me those adorable puppy eyes that melted my heart. “So what do you think?” I asked him. “You wanna come home with us?”

Rocky gave a little puppy yap that I interpreted as meaning “yes,” and then attacked the laces of Nolan's sneaker. I laughed as Nolan gently dissuaded the little fur ball from his goal.

While Nolan played with Rocky, I watched the man I loved with all my heart prove that nothing about him was a reflection of his father. For years Nolan had been deprived of the love he deserved from someone who was supposed to love him unconditionally. Watching him with the puppy, it was easy to see how none of his father had rubbed off on him—and what an amazing dad he would be one day. I had no doubts about that.

I also had no doubts that nothing was hotter than a sexy tattooed rock star cuddling with a puppy—even more so when that sexy rock star was all yours.