Page 103 of Heartstring

“You know this is for the best,” I say.

“Of course, you know everything.”

“Cut the attitude, Kay. What do you want me to do?”

She turns her face to look out the window.

Maybe it’s better to let her be, and hopefully, by the time we get to Bastian’s place, she’ll have calmed down a little.

To be honest, I feel the same way she does. I don’t want to leave Stillwater, and I hope like hell we get to return, although God knows when that’ll be.

I’d hoped the media circus around my relationship with Ty would die down soon enough. We managed to do something good with the attention, but even the best of fans would get tired of the same old photos of me grocery shopping or meeting friends for drinks.

But with the news about Kay, who knows when they’ll get tired. None of the paps identified her by name, but I’m sure the celebrity outlets are already checking for anything in the band’s history that might indicate something changed.

It won’t be hard to find a string of canceled gigs when I was supposedly diagnosed with sudden exhaustion fourteen years ago. It gave me the perfect excuse to not be seen out or perform when I was suddenly left with a newborn.

Bastian’s mom comes out to meet us as soon as we pull up to the house, even though it’s coming up on three a.m. She goes straight to Kay, enveloping her in one of her mom hugs.

“How are you, my dear?” she asks.

Kay gives me a look but shrugs. “Okay, I guess.”

“I wasn’t sure if you were hungry, so I’ve prepared some light snacks.”

We unload the car and take our stuff into the house.

“I’ll just go to bed. I had dinner earlier, and I’m tired.” Kay waves everyone goodnight. Sylvie follows her, gesturing for us to serve ourselves if we’re hungry.

“Your mom is a saint,” I say to Bastian.

“That she is. I’m famished.”

We all make sandwiches with the cold cuts Sylvie left out and grab some coffee.

“Nikko, tell Mik what you found out,” Fox says.

“I was watching the live stream of the gig with Kay. Awesome gig, by the way. If you want Deliriusto tour with you, I’m happy to work with them. They’re amazing.”

“Nikko,” I say, needing him to hurry up.

“Okay, okay. Between songs, there was some commentary, and the presenter kept talking about all these wild theories about how you met Tyler, and if you met a long time ago, how you kept it a secret. Then the other presenter said that if you can keep that secret for so long, what else are you keeping hidden. They joked there was probably a secret baby somewhere.”

I curl my hands into fists. “Nosy. Fucking. Bastards.”

“It was all speculation. Kay and I were even joking about it. But then they said it was all over the internet that you have a secret child.”

Fuck.

“Everything at this point seems like speculation, but you know how they are. They won’t rest until we give them something or they find it themselves.”

“I’m not giving them anything. I’m entitled to my privacy, dammit.”

Bastian places his hand on mine. “Look, we’re all tired. We’ve played a gig and driven four hours. The food is going to knock us out soon enough. Why don’t we go to sleep, and tomorrow we’ll work out a plan?”

I nod and help everyone clean the kitchen.

Sylvie comes down a little after.