Page 108 of When the Stars Rise

Noah could have died today.

He could have died.

The door opens and shuts. I don’t look up from my phone, but I hear Dean asking Lauren and Jonathan to give us a few minutes alone. When they’re gone, he comes to stand beside me, gaze dipping to the phone in my hand as I watch yet another video that looks as if it was taken by a bystander.

“This is not the time to be Googling Noah McCallister,” Dean says, arms crossed over his chest, a scowl on his face. “You have fifteen minutes until the show—"

“What was he thinking?” I chew on my lip and look up at Dean. Not that he has the answers, but I really want to know.

Why would he risk his life like that? Why not wait for emergency services to show up?

“Why does Noah always think it’shisjob to save people?” I ask, taking deep breaths to try and calm my jittery stomach. I feel like I’m going to be sick.

Dean sighs, gaze darting to my leg that won’t stop jumping. “Let’s just focus on the show. Noah is fine. This happened hours ago. So try and put it out of your head.”

I know he’s fine. He texted me earlier saying he was taking off and would be back in a few hours, but he conveniently left out the part where he rescued a man from a bridge. “What was he even doing on that bridge?” I wonder.

Rather than wait for Dean’s response, I consult Google for the answer.

“Sweetheart, hand me your phone.”

Dean tries to take my phone, but I yank it away and read the words on my screen, trying to make sense of them.

“BASE jumping off Perrine Bridge?” What the hell is BASE jumping? I have to Google that too and when I find the answer—jumping off a fixed object like tall buildings, structures or natural features and deploying a chute—I stare at the words on my screen until they all blur together.

I keep scrolling, searching for information on what has been called the world’s most dangerous sport. Unlike jumping from a plane, there’s not enough time to deploy a reserve chute if the first one doesn’t work. There is zero room for error.

The fatality and injury rate is forty-three times higher than skydiving. One article calls it a suicide mission, not a sport. But no, Noah couldn’t have been doing that. If he’d started BASE jumping, I would have known about it.

None of this makes sense. “But…” I shake my head. “Noah wasn’t BASE jumping.”

Dean presses his lips together and says nothing.

It can’t be true. There must be some mistake.

“He went rock climbing. He told me…” I suck in a deep breath and forge on, trying to find a loophole. “He told me he was going to Twin Falls to do some climbing with a friend. That’s what he told me. So maybe he just happened to be crossing that bridge on his way back to Salt Lake City and stopped to see if he could help. I’m sure that must be it. That must be it, right?” I look to Dean for the truth.

“Hayley,” Dean says quietly. He rubs his hand over his jaw as if debating how much to tell me.

“I need the truth, Dean. If you know, just tell me…”

He nods. “That’s not how it happened. There are videos of him jumping off that bridge.”

“No. He wouldn’t lie to me about something like that. He just wouldn’t,” I insist. “Noah is… he’s not a liar.” I’m shaking my head no even as I scroll through the videos proving Dean right.

Someone even tagged me in one of them. What would make anyone think that I’d want to see the love of my life doing a backflip off a fucking bridge? And there’s another one of him doing a handstand on the railing before hurling himself off the bridge. Like this is all just fun and games for him when meanwhile one wrong move could have killed him.

My eyes drift shut as the realization washes over me.

Noah lied to me.

He lied to me.

“I’m going to fucking kill Zoe,” Dean grits out.

“It’s not Zoe’s fault,” I say dully, pointing to my phone. “I would have found out eventually.” That’s another thing. Did he even stop to think that there was a good chance I’d catch him in a lie? Or was he so focused on getting his kicks that he didn’t even care?

“Okay. This is what we’re going to do,” Dean says, all business now. “For the next two hours, I need you to put this out of your mind. Focus on the music. Focus on your audience and tonight’s performance. Nothing else matters.”