This One Moment (Pushing Limits, #1)(51)

“So what are you going to do?” Kayla asked.

“About what?”

“About you and Nolan?”

“There is no me and Nolan.” I grabbed a couple of grocery bags from the car with one hand and, with the phone sandwiched between my ear and shoulder, closed the trunk.

“Right. That’s not what it looks like from the photos.”

“It was no big deal. We just kissed.” And had sex. Several times. Great sex. Several times. “He’s returning to L.A. next week anyway. So whatever we had between us will be over.” Being his heart and soul will be over.

“Are you sure about that?”

“Positive.”

Kayla believed everyone deserved a happily-ever-after. And maybe it was true. But Nolan and I wouldn’t be getting ours. Not together, at least.

Not if it put his music career in jeopardy.





Chapter 32


Nolan


After Hailey left to go shopping, I sat on the couch and began phoning around. I needed to find a space to rent for when the guys showed up next week. We couldn’t stay here. There wasn’t enough space and the walls were too thin. The last thing Hailey needed was for us to piss off her neighbors with our loud music.

Forty minutes later, and no closer to finding us a place to work in, I hit speed dial on my phone.

“Hey, what’s up?” Brandon asked.

I told him what I needed. “Any suggestions?”

“Sorry, can’t help you there. I mean other than…” His final words faded away, his unspoken suggestion all too clear.

“No! No way in hell I’m going back there. I’ve already told you that.”

“I know, but you have to admit it’s perfect.”

I shook my head. Visiting the cemetery had been hard enough. Returning to the house where it all happened would be a thousand times worse.

I just couldn’t do it.

“He’s dead, Nolan,” Brandon said after a long silence. “He can’t hurt you anymore.”

Tell me something I don’t already know. “That doesn’t matter.”

“You really want to be in the dark about what happened?” I could hear the frown in his voice, along with When did you become such a *?

Or maybe that was just the voice in my own head. “What’s the point of me remembering? It won’t bring back the dead.”

He sighed heavily, the sound reverberating through the phone. “You’re right. It won’t.”

Since I had him on the phone and he would find out soon enough, I filled him in on what had happened earlier. I also filled him in on what the label wanted me to do about the situation.

“What exactly is going on with you and Hailey?” His words were slow, questioning. He wasn’t asking me about what she and I were doing together. He was questioning my motives and where I thought this would all end up.

“You mean other than I still love her?”

“Shit, you had sex with her, didn’t you?”

“Maybe.” I cringed at his groan.

“You sure know how to complicate things.” Epic understatement of the year. “Have you told her how you feel about her?”

I squirmed on the couch. “Kind of.”

“I take that as a no. You need to tell her the truth, Nolan. With all the other lies circulating about you, you need to tell her the truth.”

“And then what? We have a long-distance relationship? It would never work.”

“Why not? You’ll never know if you don’t give it a chance.”

I swore aliens had abducted my best friend. Since when did the king of going-nowhere relationships dole out relationship advice? “It doesn’t matter, not with the label pushing for this fictitious romance between me and Alyssa. I can’t do that to Hailey. She deserves better than to be hidden away like some dirty secret. But that’s exactly what will happen.”

Brandon released a defeated sigh but didn’t say more on the topic. We ended the call and I went back to fiddling around with a new song I’d been working on.

But as much as I tried to block it from my mind, the image of my parents’ home sneaked into my thoughts. And with it came the promise of a new memory of that night.





Chapter 33


Nolan


FIVE YEARS AGO

I entered my house and flipped the light on. Instead of the usual warm glow, the light was cold and harsh. But that wasn’t what filled my body with icy dread.

Blood drops on the beige carpet formed a trail to the kitchen.

I strained to hear a sound, but my ears were met with nothing but silence. Darkness seeped from the room, and I walked toward it, my gaze glued to the bloody trail. A strong, unpleasant odor sat heavy in the air, and my stomach turned.

Ignoring the five alarms in my head telling me to get out of the house, I stepped into the kitchen and turned on the light. My hand recoiled at the sticky wetness on the light switch and I glanced down to see what it was.

And wished I hadn’t.

Smeared bloody handprints stained the walls.





Chapter 34


Nolan


I snapped out of the memory and rested my head on the back of the couch, body trembling. I closed my eyes and tried to focus on other things. Like Hailey. Naked.