Not to us. The guy she was with hurried after her. I stared until her hair vanished. Should I follow?
Maybe she hadn’t known Gibs was coming today? Or did she just not want to see him? Mom said she never returned calls, or cards.
“Jonas, baby.” Mom was there pulling my arm. “Come on, we’re going out to eat and get real food. Yeah?”
“There’s a good steakhouse near the interstate, according to the app,” Gibs said as he held up his phone. “Been a while since I had a good steak.”
He didn’t mention KC. She hadn’t known who we were. Gibs wasn’t talking about her now.
Should I bring her up?
“Yes, and you boys can tell me what your summer plans are. Gibs and I are…”
I trailed after them, only half-listening. Dinner wouldn’t take that long. I’d go see KC after.
Thank her for the lyrics.
Maybe we could talk…
One
RAMSEY
Despite being awake already, I let the alarm increase in volume gradually as it repeated the alert that it was time to get up. The louder it grew, the more irritating the sound of chimes became.
Sitting up with a sigh, I picked up my phone and turned it off. It was just after seven. Jonas would be flying back to Tahoe from his father’s today. It was why I was getting up early. Lachlan had barely been around through the course of the summer.
As soon as school was out, Lachlan took off to his dad’s. Jonas and I came here, to Gibs’ house outside of Tahoe, for a break. The plan had been for Jonas to leave to go to his father’s for a visit at the beginning of July.
With our mother and Gibs in the studio recording, it was just going to be the two of us this summer. I had two online classes I would be taking. The extra credits would apply toward my degree and keep me certified as a teacher’s assistant going into another school year.
June was a tense month. Jonas managed to say next to nothing to me the entire month. Not only that, he locked himself away in his room until I had to get the extra set of keys and let myself in.
A part of me had expected to find him in there hurting himself. Thankfully, I’d been wrong. His fury at me checking on him had been somewhat refreshing. Apathy was a lot worse than anger. Still, his anger where KC was concerned, worried me on other levels.
I had no idea he’d developed such an attachment to her. For that matter, I didn’t realize Lachlan had either. They’d carefully edited those moments out of any conversations we’d had.
Then again, I hadn’t kept them updated on my tutoring sessions with her or how I’d rearranged her schedule to make sure I could keep an eye on her and help her without tipping my hand.
After scrubbing both hands over my face, I rolled out of bed and then remade it. Neat corners that were even with the sheets and blankets helped relax me. I liked a tidy environment. Lachlan and Jonas both thrived in chaos. I couldn’t do that.
Once the bed was made, I checked the messages on my phone on the way to the bathroom. Jonas had sent a message with a time only.
That must be when his flight was coming in. Helpful. I had a couple of hours. There were some news alerts on my phone too. I kicked on the water as I scrolled through them.
Over a dozen featured KC partying her way through Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, and Hollywood. She was the talk of the town. More than one article featured pictures of her dancing. In a couple, she looked almost stoned.
I stared at those pictures for a long time before finally turning off the screen and setting the phone down. In the shower, I ducked under the hot water and let it beat down on me. Kaitlin Crosse could irritate and tempt a saint.
Even after telling myself I would turn off the alerts about her, alerts I’d turned on when I found out she was coming to Blue Ivy, I just hadn’t done it. Stubbornness? Masochism? Idiocy?
I craved information about her, even when I disliked it. Craved knowing she was okay, but I didn’t want to picture some other guy kissing her. The fact Lachlan had been wasn’t lost on me, or that Jonas was so damn angry about it.
Neither knew about my indiscretions. I’d kissed her. Not only that, I’d enjoyed kissing her. I’d enjoyed her. Sharper than she came across in the gossip and news stories about her, KC possessed a kind of playful, dry wit that was delightful.
The fact she’d busted her ass to get caught up made lies out of all the reports of her diva behavior. But her mercurial reactions left me stumped. She would go from hot to cold to lukewarm. She dismissed authority, made her own calls, left campus when she felt like it and…
I had to fight the urge to keep from hitting my head on the tile wall. Thinking about Kaitlin Crosse was a dark and dangerous path to pursue. More than once, I’d decided to do one brief check and it would be hours I’d spend poring over the fan sites, the TikTok videos, the Instagram posts, and their personal website where the girls often posted special messages.
The desire to know waged war with the side that said let her go. We might be step-siblings, but she’d made it perfectly clear she wanted nothing to do with us. The fact she hadn’t even realized we were brothers grated, however.
We didn’t advertise it at school. In the same way we hadn’t advertised our new address when Mom and Gibs first moved in together. They spent more time on the road than here, but when they were here, Gibs took the time to talk to us.
He took the time and the energy to ask us what we wanted to do and how we wanted to accomplish it. He was the reason all three of us got to go to Blue Ivy in the first place. Tuition had been his gift to Mom for as long as I could remember. We’d all started at Blue Ivy in the primary grades and worked our way up.
The only thing Gibs ever talked about with the same kind of joy he expressed when we gave him reports about our years was his daughter, Kaitlin. On weekends when she visited, we were always made to be scarce if we were on summer break. Otherwise, we were at school.
Then Gibs’ touring schedule picked up, and she just stopped seeing him. He’d lauded her accomplishments, though. When Torched went platinum, he’d lost his mind. I didn’t understand why she stopped coming to see him. Why did she cut ties with a man who clearly adored her and was so proud of her accomplishments?
My own father didn’t get me. He did his best, but I pursued more intellectual and artistic avenues and he was an executive in the music industry. He dealt in facts and figures, crunched the numbers. Not that he wasn’t proud of me, just…Gibs got KC. They were in the same career. Of course, he understood her.
So why couldn’t she understand him?
I was rinsing the shampoo out of my hair when it hit me. I was doing it again. Obsessing about her. That needed to stop before we got back to school.
Twenty minutes later, I headed into the kitchen where Juliet was just sliding a loaf of bread out of the oven. “Good morning,” I greeted her as I went straight to the coffee.
A whiff of the bread made my mouth water. Pumpkin bread with honey butter. Jonas was coming home, and Juliet was prepping his favorites.
The older woman gave me an indulgent smile. “Don’t you worry, your loaf is going in soon. I just wanted Jonas’ to be ready for when he came in. He’s been gone so much this summer…” Disappointment edged the words. “Lachlan’s barely been here at all.”