Spin My Love (My Love #1)(27)

What I wouldn’t give to be that fork right now …

When she finishes her mouthful she looks up at me. “So tell me how you got into DJing. I mean, I know you’ve always been into music, but how did you go from playing at school dances to sold-out music festivals?”

“Well when I left Perth I went to stay with my cousin in London,” I say. My body tenses as I think about Keiran, but I don’t want to talk about that with her. Not now. Not when we’re enjoying ourselves. “He knew a lot of people and got me a weekend gig at a pretty good club in Soho. After a few months, a scout offered me a place in a local music festival’s line-up and I accepted. It went really well, and then the scouts kept coming.”

It was weird, really. I’d been young as hell and all that attention and recognition had been a big shock. I definitely didn’t deal with it as well as I could have.

“That must have been a massive change for you,” Giselle says.

I nod. “Yeah it was pretty crazy. It was cool though, for a while. Things just got too hectic,” I say. I decide to change the subject so she won’t press further. “What about you? You always did say you wanted to be surrounded by books.”

She laughs, pushing a stray strand of hair behind her ear. I seriously can’t get used to how stunning she is. She doesn’t even realise it. “I can’t explain it; I just love it. I don’t think anyone gets it, but it just makes me happy.”

Her smile makes me smile. “That’s all that matters.” We finish our meal in comfortable silence.





Chapter Thirteen

Giselle

The evening seems to end too quickly. It feels good to be able to ask him questions I’ve wondered about over the last few years. On our way home, I remind him about what he promised.

“You said I get to ask you a question,” I say, wringing my hands.

He groans. “I should have known you wouldn’t forget.”

“Tane—”

“Ask away,” he says, cutting me off from telling him he didn’t have to answer if he didn’t want to.

My mind races. I have so many more questions I want to ask him, so many things I want to know. “After your mum passed away, you just left town. You hadn’t even told anyone you were leaving until the day you showed up to say bye. I want to know why.”

He exhales heavily, staying quiet for a few tense seconds. “After Mum died, I was hurting. You know how much I loved her; she was everything to me. I was a mama’s boy, no point even trying to deny that.”

I smile, because it was the truth. He loved his mum, and they had a great relationship, unlike what he had with his father. Their relationship was definitely strained.

“Anyway, after she passed away, Darren gets piss-drunk and gets into one of his moods. I flip out on him as well because I was just tired of his shit. Then he tells me that I’m not even his son. He was yelling about how he had to spend his life raising a kid that wasn’t even his.”

“No!” I gasp, his comment taking me off-guard. Darren wasn’t his father? “How is that possible?”

“I don’t even know, really,” Tane admits. “He just said that he met my mum when she was already pregnant, fell in love with her and took me on for her. Well, Darren hadn’t been quite that articulate, and I remember him saying he wished I’d died instead of her.”

“Wait, what? Did he say who your father was?”

“Yeah he gave me a man’s name, someone I’ve never heard of. Then he told me to get out, because now that Mum was gone he didn’t have to put up with me anymore.”

I make a choked sound. That bastard! How could someone be so cruel? Darren had been there for Tane’s whole life. How could he just disregard him like that? The fact that he wasn’t his biological son shouldn’t have mattered. My heart breaks for Tane, but anger overrides my system.

“I better not see that bastard around town,” I mutter.

Surprising me, Tane laughs.

“You know you were always welcome to come stay with us,” I say, hating that he felt he had to leave town. Why wouldn’t he come to us? He and Gage had been friends since primary school. My parents would have welcomed him without hesitation if he’d said he needed somewhere to stay.

He nods. “I know, I just … I just wanted to get away, you know? I was hurting. I wasn’t thinking. I just wanted to escape.”

I stay silent, thinking everything over. “Thank you for telling me,” I finally say.

“I’ve never told anyone. No one else knows except my cousin, and now you.”

My eyes widen at that. I feel like he’s trusted me with a sacred piece of his past. “Your cousin?”

“Yeah, Keiran, I think you met him once when we were younger,” he replies, clearing his throat.

I rack my brain. “I think I remember him. Blond hair and blue eyes?”

“Yeah,” he replies, his voice sounding hoarse. I have a feeling this doesn’t have a happy ending.

“Where does he live?” I ask.

“He lived in London.” Past tense.

I should have known something was up by the way he was acting, but I kept asking questions. “Where does he live now?”

“He passed away last year,” he says in a low tone, his voice laced with sadness and pain.