28. Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Laredo
“ B ro? You good?” Adam questions me and shoves with a kick to the swivel chair I’m sitting on across the studio floor. The two of us are in the console room, Ariel in the adjoining soundproof room, unable to hear us.
“That song.” This morning, I heard for the first time the song Adam wrote. The one Ariel loves. The one I thought he wrote for her, “I’ll Never Apologize . ” She asked me to do a once-over of the music, tighten it, and tweak it, which I did the first hour. Not until she gave me the lyrics to the song did it hit me.
“You wrote that? Is it about me? Us?” It is clear as day that it is. His song is about an unequal relationship that neither person can walk away from. One person feels they’ve been mistreated, but they still love the other unconditionally.
Adam and I have had this type of relationship. For years, I thought his good-guy persona was a facade that the rest of the world couldn’t see past. Only me. I carried with me the secret that our parents died while picking up a custom-designed guitar he’d ordered. A replica of the guitar I longed for but could never save enough to purchase. He saved for and ordered the guitar without saying a word to me or our sister. And our parents died picking it up for him.
For years, Hailey and I were left in the dark why our parents were on that narrow country road they never normally traveled. Adam knew and never said a word. Years of silence led to anger when I discovered the guitar hidden in the attic of our home. I held the secret of the discovery, hoping Adam would come clean. I waited.
The secret poisoned our relationship, and he had no clue why. He continued to love me unconditionally, even when I tried to tear him down. Last summer, all our family secrets came to light.
He’d purchased the guitar as a surprise gift for me. He had the discipline to save where I never did. He worked hard and stayed focused while I chased after my next stage high and the girls who came with it. For years, he carried the secret on his own, the guilt eating away at him. The truth cleared the path for Adam and I began to repair our relationship. We’ve come a long way in a short period.
“Not all the time.” Even given our history and all the damage I’ve done he takes the high road.
“No more. Time for me to grow up.” I chew on my bottom lip and replay the conversation with Betty last evening. Adam is my twin. You can’t get any closer than that to another person on the planet. There shouldn’t be any more secrets between us. “Can I talk to you about Betty?”
“She finally wise up and kicked you to the curb?” He gives me grief, as expected. He must read my face as the humor falls from his voice, “What happened?”
How do I begin to tell my brother that he was almost an uncle? I open my mouth, but before I can speak, we are interrupted by the pounding of Ariel’s fist on the glass.
Adam flips the button on the control board. “Get in here, both of you.” Her glee-filled voice releases the tension in the room, and I’m surprised when Adam lifts a finger to the glass— one second —and flips the microphone off. “Can we pick this up later?”
I rise from the chair and pull him into a tight hug. “I’m proud of you, little brother. I don’t say it enough. I love you.”
“Ditto,” he whispers, punching my arm. He hops to his feet; he’s been summoned by his other half, and I won’t keep him another second from her.
I watch through the glass as Adam enters the room, and Ariel races to meet him. I don’t hear what they say, but I don’t need to. Her hands on his forearms, their gazes locked on one another as if they are the only two people in the world, smiles on their faces as wide as the Mississippi.
I no longer have to worry about Adam’s heart. One look at Ariel destroys any reservations I might have carried. She’s falling for him, and that makes me incredibly happy. He deserves a woman like her. I fast-forward my thoughts to the end of this session. To the work I need to do to win over the girl who has monopolized my heart since landing in Oregon.
I have a date to plan. Something special that requires more brain cells than I possess.
I could call my sister, but she’s in another time zone, on tour, and what little free time she has, she’s reserved it for her boyfriend, Marshall. Besides, this isn’t something she could help me with. I need someone who not only knows this town but also knows Betty.
My unlikely ally who has been dropping breadcrumbs and handing me clues before I even knew I needed them.
Olivia.