Shatter

I held my hand in the air. They both ignored me and walked out of the room. Whatever. I was just pumped that I hadn’t stuck my tongue down Nat’s throat after my own blood-related brother. I mean, it still gave me a grossed out feeling… family shouldn’t share, not in that way.

“Hey, wait up.” I called after them.

Chapter Thirty-seven

Alec

I watched Nat pack up her two bags. I was powerless to stop it. Powerless to stop what she was doing. Instead of emptiness, I felt a jarring sense of determination.

“You have everything you need?” I asked.

She nodded. “Yup. I’m just going to be staying at my parents for a while, it’s not like I’m moving to Siberia or anything.”

“Then why does it feel like Siberia?” I tucked her blonde hair behind her ear and kissed her hand. “Why does it feel like you’re going to be a thousand lifetimes away?”

She pulled her hand back and rolled her eyes. “Next door, Alec. I’ll be next door. Plus, now that filming’s done I could really use some time to rest before the tour. You’ll see me after your counseling sessions with my mom.”

Right. Like her mother was going to let me have my cake and eat it too. As cool as Mrs. Murray had been about everything, I highly doubted she would be okay with me pouring out my heart and soul to her and then running upstairs to sleep in her daughter’s bedroom. The same daughter I got pregnant and abandoned. Hell, it was a miracle I was still breathing.

Exhaling, I pursed my lips together and asked the question that had been hanging over us for the past week and a half. “Are we okay?”

Her brown eyes met mine.

Silence.

Not my preferred answer.

I thought long and hard about what I could say to that, what I could say to make her stay. But in the end it wasn’t about forcing her to do something she didn’t want to do. It was about loving her regardless of where she was. I knew she needed her space. I was just hoping space meant her own bedroom or a day without texting.

Not a different house.

Siberia? Sure as hell felt like it.

We only had three more weeks of Seaside bliss until we had to report to L.A. to start prepping for the tour. A bit stressful, since I was trying to fit a lifetime full of therapy in those three weeks as well as trying to win the heart of my girlfriend back. Hell, while I’m at it I’ll cure a few diseases and save the world. No biggie.

“Two weeks.” Nat picked up her purse and slung it over her shoulder. “You have two weeks to make me remember.”

“Remember?”

“The Alec Daniels I fell in love with… make me remember”

It was what she didn’t say that killed me. Because, if for some reason I couldn’t make her remember, I had a sinking feeling it meant we were lost.

And then she walked out of my room. Remember? She wanted to remember? Challenge accepted. I’d make sure she never forgot for as long as she lived.

I was hers.

She was mine.

We were permanent. And I was going to prove it.

****

After Nat left, I have to admit to feeling semi-depressed. It didn’t help that Jaymeson was still pissed about everything that happened with his step-mom and dad. The good news was he at least got his teeth fixed, so now he wasn’t scaring small children. He’d decided to stay with us until the tour started. I’m pretty sure it also had to do with not wanting to go into public with his face all bruised.

“Where’s Nat going?” Jaymeson pulled a soda from the fridge and cracked it open.

“Back home.”

“Um?” Jaymeson shook his head. “I thought she camped out here?”

“Did, past tense. More soda?”

He opened the fridge and tossed me a soda. “So, you guys are what, like on a break?”

“We’re on a time out.” I sipped the cold liquid and briefly closed my eyes for a minute. “I’m going to prove my love.”

Jaymeson cracked a smile. “You going to write her some more songs? Croon the hell out of her? Get her to toss her panties on stage and—”

“—Seriously,” I interrupted him. “Stop hanging out with Demetri. It’s getting freaky.”

“What’s freaky?” Demetri called from the door.

Jaymeson raised his hand.

Demetri took that as an invitation. No wonder I’d nearly lost my mind.

“So, what’s the plan?” Demetri pulled out a bar stool. “We’ve got three weeks before we all go back to L.A., and Nat needs to be wooed.”

“Not to brag, but I’m really good at wooing.” This from Jaymeson.

“He knows wooing and sex are different, right?” I asked Demetri.

Jaymeson took another sip of soda and snapped his fingers. “Probably why Chelsey, Kelsey? Kendra? Whatever. It’s probably why she left so pissed last night.”

“Right, it had nothing to do with your inability to remember her name,” I pointed out.

“Not my fault I was too distracted by bedroom activities.”

Demetri sighed. “Hopeless romantic. P.S., I guarantee Nat will take a machete to your man parts if you listen to his advice.”

“I’m British, which makes me foreign, therefore, good at wooing and causing girls to swoon. It’s the accent.”

I laughed and set my soda down. “Fine, 007. What’s your plan?”

“Oh, I’ve got to hear this.” Demetri rolled his eyes. “Yes, British man-whore, what’s your plan to help our brother out?”