Page 68 of Hard Rock Muse

I sighed inwardly. This was getting me nowhere.

“Julian…” I hesitated, before powering on. “Why did you never tell me about your family?”

He stilled, not looking at me. “My mom took off. Left me with her sister.”

“But that’s not all, is it?” I asked.

Julian threw me a frown. “What are you talking about?”

“There’s more to the story. Isn’t there?”

He stood from the sofa in a flurry. “I don’t know what you mean.” He roughly ran a hand through his hair, looking vexed. “Why are we even talking about this?”

“I want to know more about you,” I said. “We were together for years and you never told me about your childhood. Not the whole story, anyway. You knew everything there was to know about me and my life. And I’m missing a big piece of yours.”

“What does it matter?” he said, pacing the living room like a caged tiger.

I stood up too, trying to intercept him, but he kept turning on his heel to avoid me.

“It matters because we’re together again.” I held out a soothing hand, but he ignored it. “It matters because I love you. And if the reason you’re not good with words has something to do with your family, I don’t understand why you won’t tell me.”

“This is stupid,” he muttered. Julian whirled around and pinned me down with an aggravated stare. “Why are you even bringing this up?”

“Seth said—” I winced and bit my lip. I hadn’t meant to bring Seth into this.

Julian’s eyes went wide, as if he’d been hit by a bullet.

“What did Seth say?” he said demanded.

I was taken aback by his reaction. I didn’t know why he had reacted so strongly.

“He just mentioned you didn’t only live with your one aunt. You lived with a few different relatives.”

Julian’s face clouded over, his eyes narrowing.

“He didn’t tell me anything else,” I said, now worried. “I wanted to hear it from you.”

“I’m not having this conversation,” he said flatly. He grabbed his leather jacket from the coat hook and shrugged it on almost violently.

“Why won’t you just talk to me?” I pleaded.

“I’m taking off now.”

“You don’t have to run,” I said desperately. “I just wanted to know more about—”

“Just forget it,” he said. “There’s nothing to know.”

“From the way you’re reacting, I think there is.”

Julian gave me one last withering stare before he slammed the door shut behind him.