Page 76 of Edge of Heaven

He also likes Legos, which were never my thing, but I can figure it out. There seems to be a way you can build a rock concert set with Lego’s, so I’ve started researching how to buy the pieces and the tutorial. It’s probably way above my skill level, but I know Sam is into that kind of thing, so I’m sure he’ll help me.

There are a lot of logistics to work out, like where we’ll live and how to see each other if she’s a full-time mom, but my hope is that she can live with her mom this fall while I’m on tour. That will give us both time to work and save money so that we can either buy or rent something. At the very least, she needs to be able to hire an attorney so she can get custody.

I’m probably jumping the gun, but I already let her go once before. I can’t do that again. I knew she was it when I was twenty-two but was too stupid to act on it. I’ve had close to five years to regret that decision, so I won’t make it again.

Of course, everything is contingent upon getting her away from Callum first.

And I don’t know how I’m going to watch over her once we leave the tour.

She says she’s working on getting the money to break away sooner, but I don’t know how she’ll pull it off. Payments are slow, and both her agent and the government take a cut off the top, so we don’t know exactly what will be left.

Sasha doesn’t take any kind of agent fee from us—she’s paid by the record company—but we may have to discuss something additional if she continues to coordinate these modeling jobs that keep coming up. If she doesn’t want to handle it, I can always sign on with Taryn’s agent, but I think it would be easier for Sasha to do it since she knows my music and the band comes first.

“You okay, bro?” Sam sinks down next to me as we ride over to the arena for soundcheck.

“Yeah. Just trying to figure out if it’s possible to have it all.”

He cocks his head. “In what way?”

“Even when Taryn leaves Callum, she still has to work. And technically, she lives in L.A. I don’t know how we’ll manage the long-distance thing.”

“Kirsten and I do it. She’s in college in New York, I’m here, and we’ve made it work. She’s about to finish her freshman year and we’re still going strong.”

“Yeah, but you guys—at least her—have money. Right now, Taryn and I don’t. Kirsten can afford to fly out whenever she wants. Once we pay taxes and, in Taryn’s case, her agent’s fifteen percent, we’re not left with a lot.”

“Yeah, but things are changing and she’s getting a lot more work lately, right?”

I nod.

“Why does it feel like there’s more to this story?”

“Because there is,” I mutter. “I just can’t break her confidence.”

He sighs. “Whatever it is she’s hiding, just make sure the two of you are on the same page. There’s no other way for it to work.”

If I ever get Taryn alone again, we are definitely going to talk about everything.

I just don’t know when that will be.

Chapter26

Taryn

Callum isin a foul mood when he gets out of jail, and though he isn’t mad that I didn’t get arrested, he’s suspicious. I thought long and hard about what to tell him but figured it would be too easy to catch me in a lie if I say I’d already gone back to the room. So I give him a version of the truth—that I was with Ryleigh, and Angus got us out of there because he knew the head of the hotel’s security.

I can’t tell if he believes me or not because he’s just pissed off about everything. The fact that they were raided. The fact that he got arrested. The fact that they had to postpone the Houston show.

He’s just mad and has been taking it out on me for two days.

Not physically, thankfully, but verbally. He’s just been awful, and though I do my best to tune him out, he seems to sense it when I do and that’s when he gets ugly.

“You think I don’t know what you’re doing,” he grumbles as we get ready to leave for the arena. “But I’m not stupid.”

“What are you talking about?” I ask warily.

“I know you’re going to leave me the second I hit the send on that final payment for Toby.”

I can’t deny it, but I won’t say it outright either.

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