Page 31 of Always a Chance
I nodded.
“Do you have any questions before we begin?”
Words tumbled over themselves until finally forcing my lips open. I couldn’t stop what came next. “I need assurances.”
“Assurances?”
Aidan gave me a look of warning, but I ignored it. “If we’re going to do this, I need your word that you will write an accurate representation of me and won’t let your feelings influence it.”
She didn’t respond, and the idiot that I was kept going. “Assure me it won’t be a hit piece.”
Aidan closed his eyes with a sigh. Talia stared at me, her jaw clenched. After a few moments of suffocating silence, she reached for her phone and turned off the recording before tucking it into her purse and standing. Anger radiated off her every movement, and I couldn’t do anything except watch her.
“This was a mistake.” She started toward the door. “You and I shouldn’t be working together. I’ll get my boss to send someone else. Goodbye, Aidan. Johnny.”
As the door slammed behind her, Aidan let out a breath and clapped me on the shoulder. “Good going, bro.”
16
TALIA
I slammed into my father’s house, still fuming from the few minutes I spent in Johnny’s presence. He really thought so little of my professionalism, my career, that he even considered I’d sabotage him? I was a journalist. We did not let our own feelings influence what we wrote.
That guy’s ego just couldn’t handle the fact that I might like my job more than I hated him. I wanted to be indifferent, to not feel anything at all, but that wasn’t possible. Instead, I’d get Mr. Irons to send someone else to do the interview, and I’d head back to New York, to a life without Johnny Kelly in it.
I stopped in the living room when I caught sight of Gianna asleep on the couch, looking much younger than her twenty-six years. Dad must have put her there since her Hoyer lift didn’t work with couches. Her wild black hair was splayed across the pillows and covering half her face. When she was like this, I could almost forget the struggles she faced, how one moment when we were teenagers changed her life forever.
Edging closer, I crouched down and brushed a strand of hair from her cheek. My sister was the best thing in my life, and I’d let my guilt keep me away from her too often. She murmured something in her sleep, but I couldn’t make it out. I vowed to do better, even when I returned to the city. The thought of leaving her made me feel like someone punched a hole in my chest and grabbed hold of my heart.
“She looks so vulnerable in sleep, doesn’t she?” My dad’s voice surprised me.
I stood and turned to find him watching me from the doorway to the kitchen. “She’s never been vulnerable.” I didn’t want to move, to break this moment of him finally talking to me.
“No, I suppose you’re right. Gigi has always been stronger than the rest of us.”
“Dad—”
“Well, I should get back to work.”
The hope inside me deflated as he walked toward his office. I couldn’t stand being in this house a moment longer with a dad who could barely look at me, a sister who reflected my guilt back at me.
Air clogged in my throat, and I gasped for breath as I pushed through the front door, letting it swing shut behind me. Out on the front porch, I sucked in oxygen and tried to will the tears away.
I made my way to the swing hanging from the rafters, but all I saw were flashes of me and Johnny sitting here at twelve years old, after Bobby Anderson teased me about my braces. Swinging with Johnny at fifteen, when my first boyfriend, Seth Holden, broke up with me. At eighteen, the day I told him I couldn’t stand being around him after what happened to Gianna.
He’d been there for every part of my young life, and now it was just me, swinging alone.
My phone buzzed with a text from Barrett. Wiping away a tear, I opened it to find a GIF of Jensen Ackles dancing shirtless. Barrett had a man-crush on Jensen, and whenever he wanted to make me smile, he sent me a GIF because there were no GIFs like the ones about the Supernatural star.
A smile curved my lips as I texted him back.
Me:You have no idea how much I needed that.
Barrett:Everything okay?
Me:No. I wish you were here with me.
Barrett:Keep your head up. Jensen demands it.
