Page 39 of Wylder & the Rising Rockstar
Logan’s jaw tightened. “Nice to see you too, brother.” He swallowed down the words Wylder knew he wanted to say and pointed behind him. “He’s there.”
Luke nodded and walked past them in silence.
Logan released a breath. “How is he here?” He rubbed his eyes. “Was he finally coming to see us when I called? I don’t understand.”
Wylder lifted her chin, taking in the glassy quality of Logan’s eyes, the way his breath rasped past his lips. This boy… how had she fallen so hard for this boy? So hard she needed him to know the truth, to know everything she’d kept from him. She hadn’t meant to keep Luke’s secret. There’d never seemed like a good time.
Until now, Logan seemed like he’d almost been… happy. And she hadn’t wanted to ruin that, to ruin them. But that wasn’t fair to a boy who’d always relied on his brothers and no one else. For so long, they’d only had each other. She knew how much it tore him up not to know where Luke was.
They’d lost their music career, but they were supposed to still have each other.
“Logan.” Wylder squeezed his hand. “Let’s give Luke a moment with Sebastian and step outside. There’s something I need to tell you.”
He let her lead him through the ER and out into the cold night. She shivered, and Logan tried to draw her close to warm her, but she didn’t deserve his warmth, not until he knew, so she pushed him away and walked ahead of him.
“Wylder, what’s going on?”
She walked past a couple of ambulances to where a green metal bench looked out on the circular drive. Taking a seat, she patted the open spot beside her.
When Logan lowered himself at her side, she began. “I didn’t know he was there at first.”
“Who—"
“Please just let me get it out, and then you can yell at me.”
He nodded.
“At first, I thought my family was keeping something small from me. They wouldn’t answer my calls. Even Nicky avoided me, and that’s not like him. Becks, my parents. I started getting really angry. So, I decided to go home in the middle of the day. I just wanted to play my old drum set, to remember the girl I was. I was confused, Logan. By my family, by you. I didn’t want to have these feelings for you when I knew you didn’t feel the same.”
“But I do.”
“I know that now, and that’s why this sucks so much. I managed to get off campus and hitch a ride home with a friend. I figured no one would be there and I could just sit in the basement that had been my music room. Only… there was someone there.”
Wylder buried her face in her hands, wishing this wasn’t the moment he lost faith in her. When everything between them had seemed so good. “It was Luke.”
His eyes snapped to her, but she couldn’t look at him.
“Becks convinced my parents to let him hide out from the media in Twin Rivers.”
“And from his brothers.” Logan shot to his feet. “How long, Wylder? How long have you known?”
“They all asked me to keep it a secret until Luke was ready to talk to you.”
“How long?”
“About two weeks.”
Logan paced in front of her. “Two weeks where I didn’t know if my brother was dead or if he’d taken up orders in a monastery somewhere. He’s been fifteen minutes away staying with the parents of the girl I lo—" He shook his head. There was no anger in his words, but the desperation, the sadness was almost worse. “And you knew.”
He stopped pacing and dropped an accusing gaze to her.
“Logan—“
“No, it’s my turn to speak. Wylder.” He scrubbed a hand over his face and dropped down to the bench again. “I don’t care who asked you to keep this a secret, you should have told me.”
“I know. I tried, so hard. I tried. I promise you I did. But Logan, things were good. With you, with us. For the first time, we’d stopped the pretense that we meant anything less than we do to each other. If I’d told you, all the drama would have come roaring back, and I wasn’t ready for that.”
“Don’t you get it? It doesn’t matter what you were ready for or what I needed. He’s my brother, Wylder. If Becks was in trouble, if he was missing, what would that do to you?”
