Page 51 of Her Rock Star's Dark Secret

“She’s out grocery shopping, but I’ll let her know about your event.” He started to shut the door, but Chase put his hand out.

“You’re not even going to invite me in?”

“Not tonight, son.”

Disappointment clouded Chase’s features. “Have a good night, Dad. I hope to see you tomorrow.”

His dad shut the door, and Chase turned away in defeat. “That did not go the way I’d hoped.”

Lauren hugged him. “I’m sorry, Chase.”

He stiffened his back. “Let’s just go.”

When they got back in the car, he pulled out of the driveway. Once they were out of the neighborhood and on the road back to the school, he turned to Lauren. “See what I mean? I’m terrible at relationships. I didn’t know what to say. I couldn’t make peace with my dad.”

“You did all you could.”

“I could have apologized or something.” He raked a hand through his hair. “I don’t know.”

“Did you do anything wrong?”

“Not really. I guess I could have tried sooner to reach out.”

“But they hadn’t given you any indication that they wanted you to do that, which means you were respecting their wishes. So you have nothing to apologize for. You did all you could, just like I said.”

“I told you I stink at relationships.”

“That doesn’t mean you’re bad at relationships. It means your parents have issues. You just proved to me that you’re willing to do hard things when it means it’s the right thing to do. In my book, that makes you excellent at relationships.”

“You really want to be with me, don’t you?”

Lauren gazed up into his eyes. “I do want to be with you. But only if you’re ready.”

“I told you earlier that there’s something you don’t know. And I’m not sure I’m ready to share that with you yet.”

“So you have some kind of a dark secret?”

“Exactly.”

And he had to share it on his timetable. Frustration swirled through Lauren. How was she supposed to fix it if she didn’t even know what it was?

They drove back toward the school, and their conversation danced around the topic of Chase’s dark secret. Lauren tried to keep the topic light, but she couldn’t get rid of the knot that was forming in her belly.

“So this is it?” Lauren turned to him when they pulled up in the school parking lot. “We just end this here?”

Chase nodded. “This is it.”

Because he was one big wimp. She blamed herself for being so scary when he first got into town. She must have been so cranky with him that he didn’t feel safe sharing his secret with her.

She felt angry with herself. Why couldn’t she control her tongue? Why did she have to be so rude to Chase? She’d been such an idiot. And now she was going to lose the best man she’d ever known.

And she didn’t know how to make it better.

Chapter 16

Chase stepped out onto the stage as crew members scurried around him, setting up the sound equipment for the night’s festivities. Chase had been up half the night, thinking about everything Lauren had told him yesterday.

He never felt ready enough for performances, and that never changed for him. But he did them anyway, because it was part of the job. The biggest part of the job. And tonight was the most important performance of all. He had done a lot of thinking in the past several hours.

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