Page 11 of Everything After

“Yeah, last year after my deadbeat father passed away.”

“Passed away?” I sounded surprised.

“Well, the official autopsy report says that him and his two buddies died from some bad smack.”

“All three of them?” I asked, shocked that I hadn’t heard about that, but relieved for Kara and Poppy at the same time. A sense of relief flowed through my veins that Kara no longer needed to look over her shoulder anymore.

Poppy nodded. “Mom said he likely pissed someone off and they’d gotten even.”

“Howisyour mom?” I asked, sounding eager to my own ears.

“She’s good. She’s working in hospitality on the cruise ships out of Fort Lauderdale now. I stay with Auntie Sienna whenever she’s away.”

I needed to know much more about them, but I was conscious that Lily had been due at the airport. “Sorry, hon, I need to split right now to pick up my wife. I’m coming back. Tell your mom and your Auntie Sienna I’ll be in touch soon.”

CHAPTER 7

LILY

“What’s up?” Cody, my co-singing bandmate asked, frowning and eyeing me with suspicion.

“That was strange,” I admitted, staring at my cell phone when Cody caught me off guard by his question.

“What was?” he asked, leaning over and placing a hand on my knee.

I glanced down at his overly familiar gesture and sat back in my seat, out of his reach. “Alfie, he went to visit an old flame without mentioning it to me.”

“An old flame?” Cody questioned with his brows raised in surprise. For a second, I thought I detected a note of smugness in his tone

“It doesn’t mean anything,” I blurted out. “It’s… oh, I’m just tired,” I muttered, sighing and unwilling to explain her relationship to Alfie for him.

Sienna Oliver had a onetime, special, ‘before me’ history with Alfie, and she was his dead army buddy Gary’s sister and was also Alfie’s only real ex-girlfriend.

Before and after Sienna, Alfie had been a player until he’d met me and had never tied himself to one girl. However, lately, Sienna’s name had been cropping up frequently in conversation with a note of melancholy, whenever Alfie had reminisced about missing his friend.

Am I to be concerned? Aren’t Alfie and I solid?I immediately asked myself. For a while now, Alfie and I had spent a lot less time together, that had been true for the previous eighteen months. But I still believed we were deeply in love. So why did I have an attack of insecurity because he’d gone to meet her without mentioning his intention to me?

As far as I knew, he had only seen Sienna once since his buddy’s funeral, and that was at Alfie’s sister, Layla’s wedding. Anyway, I reminded myself that I wasn’t Alfie’s keeper and figured, had I been home, he may well have taken me with him.

Alfie wasn’t a man who normally dwelled in the past, which made me question why this Memorial Day had been different to all the others since Gary had died. Was it a special anniversary or something I’d had no clue about? Or was there some unfinished business in relation to that? Or did he think being with Sienna would somehow make him feel closer to the friend that he’d lost?

I shook off my negative thoughts and told myself that my husband adored me, while I tried desperately to squash any sense of emotional betrayal that tried to gain purchase in my conscience.

So why, if I was so certain of Alfie’s feelings toward me, had I felt insecure to know he was with her? Since we’d been married, Alfie had never given me reason to doubt his commitment to us before. If anything, he’d always been an alpha-type guy with a fiercely possessive streak when it came to me.

Maybe I’d reacted strongly because Sienna was the one person that had loved him long before he had a following, before his fame and groupies—before me.

A question crashed into my mind that I hadn’t welcomed.Had unresolved feelings for Sienna resurfaced?

The dull alarm of the seatbelt sign flashing dragged me out of my reverie as we began our descent into Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport.

“Any plans for the rest of the weekend?” Cody asked, breaking into my thoughts. It had been unusual for the two of us to travel alone. But since Lennie, our lead guitarist, had stayed in New York with his partners Rick and Coral, and my other bandmates had planned visits in other States, we’d found ourselves alone for the ride home to Miami.

“None until Lennie’s barbecue on the weekend,” I responded, smiling at the thought of time alone with Alfie. Although, I don’t see why Lennie couldn’t have flown home with us and had Rick and Coral meet us in Miami,” I argued.

“Something about an appearance Rick had to do first,” Cody informed me. “Rick thought that was the plan too, but Lennie wanted to show up and surprise them.”

“Have you planned anything or are you going to chill at home for a while?” I queried.