It was time to bow out gracefully and let him move on with his life without having to worry about me trying to hang on to something that had never been possible to begin with. The crazy crush I had on him was never going to turn into something more on his part. I had to accept that and move forward with my life instead of keeping my head stuck in a dream that would never become reality.

“I’ll let her know, but it won’t be an issue if you want to hang out with your family in your downtime. I mean, these are rock stars. I’m sure they will be fucking around any chance they can get. You don’t have to babysit them or anything. Just translate for them during interviews and meetings.”

“No,” I said as two blacked-out SUVs pulled up at the end of the parking lot. My heart gave a little lurch, and I knew before the doors even opened who was inside. “I don’t even know if I’ll tell Ryan I’ll be in New York. He’s too busy to hang out with me anyway.”

17

Ryan

I was in a piss-poor mood before I even stepped off the jet. Not only had there been fuckups all week with work that had kept me from traveling with the rest of my family the day before—all thanks to my new personal assistant who was supposed to be top-notch but had only been creating one fuckup after another—but there had also been delays with takeoff times back in New York that had put us behind.

When the driver finally pulled up in front of Hannigans’ bar after I’d stopped long enough to pick up my parents and sister, the first thing I saw was Nova. She was standing with her cousin Max and the rocker’s son, Lyric. But what had me grinding my teeth was the sight of some fucker with his arm around Nova like he had every right to touch her.

“Hey, hey, hey.” Mom snapped her finger in front of my face when an unconscious growl left my throat and I started to open the door. “You will not spill blood at her birthday party. She’s been upset about something, and you don’t want to add to it.”

I tore my gaze away from the sight of the girl who owned my heart to look at Mom. “What do you mean, she’s upset about something? Is she okay? Why would she be upset? I just spoke to her last night, and she was fine.”

She scrunched up her forehead as she stared back at me, seeming utterly bewildered by the questions I was throwing at her. She opened her mouth, and I knew she was going to say something important, but Samara leaned forward from the third-row seat.

“Are we waiting for a parade or what? Come on, people, let’s go. We only have a few hours with Nova before we have to fly back tonight. I didn’t get to spend nearly enough time with her last night because she was so busy.” She clapped her hands impatiently. “Papa, tell your son to open the door already!”