Page 5 of Between Never and Forever

“Dad,” I whispered, “please don’t make me go.”

“We’ve agreed that it would be best for you and your career. You’re almost eighteen. It’ll be great. Your image will be safer there. We’ll have you paired up with the best in the industry. You’ll give us some breathing room too for Mom to heal.”

“Breathing room?”

“Keelani.” He turned to me now, his eyes hardened to make the point. “You know the mental toll of all we’ve been through? And then you were at a party drinking with men you shouldn’t have been with.” His voice was cajoling but his words struck at my heart.

“Men? They’re my friends. They’re our neighbors, Dad. Dex and Dimitri—”

“They don’t know about our financial struggles or how much your job means to our family, do they?” He lifted a brow. “They may be friends, but we’re family. We stick together. This bonus will help. I can make it work.”

His tone sounded so hopeful with that statement. Even though I knew time and time again that we lost money from his gambling, I still wished he’d win big one day, if only for the happiness it would bring for a moment. The times he’d come home with a few winnings this past year, he’d smiled so big. Yet, the rest of the year hadn’t been so good.

“I’ll get you back here in a few months if Nashville doesn’t work out,” he promised as if he could. My father had lost his office job years ago but had somehow stretched our money out since my mother’s stroke. I knew he’d made some shady deals by just the looks of some of the men who now came around our house, but I didn’t question it. We were family, just like Dad said.

“Dad, I was going to go to college here,” I tried. “I really want to be close. Other kids’ parents are—”

“If this is the worst thing I do to you as a parent, you can thank me, Keelani,” my father cut me off, his tone hardening. “You can take online courses.”

“That’s not the point.”

“The point is your plane leaves next week. Don’t give a statement to anyone. Your new contract has an indemnity clause, which means you can’t refute anything released from Trinity about this car wreck.”

Had I fucked up that much that he sounded so disheartened, so disappointed? I hated that. “Dad, I just want this all to work out.”

“I know, Kee. I know. It will. Your mom will get better.” He said it with conviction, and I heard the love he had in his voice. “We just have to do this for her. You understand?”

I nodded because he was my dad, and I’d have done just about anything to take away the pain I was causing.

“And, Kee, if you’re sneaking around with that Dex who saved you, end it. End it now.”

ChapterTwo

DEX

Gone was the fire.Gone was the passion. In its place was the ice.

A coldhearted Keelani had taken possession of the love of my life. Numb. Frozen. Maybe full of fear. I didn’t fucking know.

That car wreck changed us, and I couldn’t seem to get her back, not even after hanging out with her every day at home, asking her what was wrong aside from the obvious, and visiting her family.

I knocked on her door a week later when I saw the large, black SUV outside her house. It was in my bones to keep tabs on her and her fucking reckless behavior. She went off the rails a lot when the label came to visit, and I knew today wouldn’t be any different.

But when I saw suitcases being wheeled out, my walk turned to a run.

I pushed past her sleazy-ass manager and strode straight into her house. Her mother was at the kitchen table, humming a quiet song about a beach in Hawaii where she’d grown up. I knew it to be a favorite of Kee’s because they would sing it together every now and then. Her and Kee’s voices were so similar that I’d come to find comfort in being in that kitchen, hearing the joy they spread through a melody.

Today, though, the melody was sad as she wiped away tears. Yet, she smiled at me when she saw me. “Dex, come in! Did Dimitri tell you?”

Anela had never known about Keelani’s relationship with me. She thought I came over to entertain her daughter when Dimitri wasn’t around, to check in, to be a good brother and neighbor.

“No. What’s going on? Dimitri has been acting weird.”

Her mother tried to get up, but she didn’t move as easily as she once had since the stroke. I waved away her effort and bent down to hug her.

“I know she’s near eighteen and she’s going to go off to college anyway, but I’m selfish, you know? I want my baby home.”

“Of course you do.” My heart thudded in my chest with confusion and fear now.