I’d blown her off the other day, not really eager to confess what I’d done to Ransom or why. Leann loved me in her own, bitchy, smartass way, I knew that. But she was still just my boss and Ransom was her blood. I knew where her loyalties would lie if I’d made my confession to her. I didn’t want to risk that, not before. Now it looked like I didn’t have a choice.
“Hey,” she said, pulling her attention away from her phone as I approached. “That was fucking glorious.” She nodded toward the auditorium.
“You heard my audition?”
When Leann only tilted her head, dropped her phone on the hood of her car like it was the least important thing to her in the world, my mouth fell open, surprised by her shock. “Aly, of course I heard you. Did you think…” she exhaled, offered me her hand to help me onto her car. “Something I don’t think you have ever quite gotten is that I love you, kid.”
“Leann…”
“I don’t say that just to say it, you know.” My body swayed a little when Leann pushed me with her elbow. She looked over at me, knuckle on her chin and smiled, like I was simple, a little ignorant how she felt. “Keira got pregnant with Ransom before we were even twenty. I followed her lead the next year. You think I don’t know how hard it is, struggling on your own? You don’t think I get that you want to succeed and do whatever the hell you can to get your head above water?” She took my hand and held it on her knee. “Sweetie, no one wants you to kick ass more than I do. No one will scream louder for you when you do that ass kicking.”
I couldn’t look at her, not directly. My eyes had gone too blurry. “I thought, maybe you were mad at me, because I quit on Keira.”
“Oh, Aly, I know why you quit.”
“No, Leann, you don’t.”
That smile was wide, a little wicked. “You love Ransom. He loves you but he is such a knuckle head and can’t let go of the past and you, sweetheart, aren’t the type of woman who likes walking behind shadows.” She squeezed my hand. “Or ghosts.”
“I really screwed up,” I told her, ignoring the frown she gave me. “I screwed up bad, Leann.”
She didn’t give me an invitation to explain and I didn’t wait for one. Instead, I told my boss everything. I glossed over the year and a half of me pining after Ransom like some stupid groupie. She knew that part already. But I confessed about the dance—God, not everything about it—and him kissing me, twice and the last dance that I promised her I’d ever perform at Summerland’s. When I was done, I didn’t feel the weight of my fear leave me. Not immediately, not until Leann’s eyes relaxed and her grip on my fingers tightened.
“Well,” she started, releasing a breath. “I’m not happy about you messing around with Ironside. That man is disgusting bottom feeder and he likes to take advantage of young, pretty girls. That was something I’d asked Misty to watch out for when she called me to ask after you for the choreography gig.”
“You know her?”
Leann’s laugh was light, but sounded generally amused. “Honey, New Orleans isn’t that big of a city. Yeah, I know her. She’s smart, a little ruthless, but still smart.” She nodded once, as though answering her own silent question and then continued. “I don’t want you to go back there.”
“I won’t. Don’t worry.” No way I’d step foot in that place again. I was sticking to the college thing and depending on what the judges thought of my performance, keeping to CPU as often as I could. Besides, Summerland’s held too much bad for me and I was full up with that shit.
Leann stretched her neck and I thought maybe she was done with our conversation, but then she glanced at me, holding her elbows on her knees and kept her eyes in a squint and I knew the lecture was coming. “As for you quitting on Keira, I’ll be honest, it hurt them. Koa especially. He misses you. You should go back.”
“Leann…”
She wouldn’t let me finish, shook her head to cut me off. I didn’t put up much of a fight and I doubted my weak explanation would make much of an impact anyway. “Sweetie, I love Ransom like he’s my own kid and I love you too.” She nudge me again, Leann’s form of affection. “Whatever happens between the two of you, will happen. Maybe you can mend things with him and try to be his friend. Maybe you can’t, but Keira and Kona need you and no matter what happens with Ransom, you don’t run out on people who need you. Especially if you love them.”
And I did love them. They meant a lot to me in a very short time. But I thought walking away would be for the best. I thought not being around anything or anyone that reminded me of Ransom would help me forget that expression on his face or the obvious hatred in his eyes before he left me alone in that private room.
“Sometimes,” Leann continued, “we have to take one for the team.” I had no idea what she meant, but let her continue. “Sometimes, though it hurts us, we have to walk through shit to get the people we love to the shore.”
“You saying I shouldn’t let Ransom keep me from helping out Keira?”
Leann smiled and winked at me. “Pretty, talented and smart. Look at you, Miss Triple Threat.” She ignored the quick finger salute I gave her and moved the smile from her face, giving me that quiet, serious stare I’d only seen from Leann a couple of times. “Do what you think is best but remember, sweetie, you are loved, you are needed and, hell, you shouldn’t just walk away. Not from us.”
18
Kona Hale is a stubborn, pigheaded bull sometimes. No more so than when his wife is sad and mopey. And if you’re the unfortunate jackass that Kona decided had put his wife in that particular mood, then you got threats. Even if you were his kid. Let’s be honest, they weren’t real threats, more along the “You are pissing me off” variety but I caught the meaning. He wouldn’t lay a finger on me, I knew that. Since he’d returned to our lives I could count on one hand the times my father has yelled at me. He was getting damn good at the fatherly anger, though, and today was Yell-Number-Three.
“Koa has not stopped crying since Monday. Monday, Ransom and your mom is completely worn out. You go make this right and then bring Aly to me. I want a word with her.”
“Why is that my job?” I’d regretted the question before it left my mouth, but still asked it anyway.
“Because she’s your friend and because if Keira doesn’t smile soon I’m gonna be without a job for making a scene at Leann’s studio.”
“Dad…”
“No. Don’t even try it,” he’d said, his voice so loud over the phone that three girls passing me in Kenner Hall laughed at the sound. “This shit would not have happened if you…”
“You’re putting this on me?” I’d stopped in the middle of the lobby then, not caring who watched me or how stupid I looked screaming into my phone. “You don’t even know what went down.”
“Because you don’t tell us shit anymore!”
Dad’s breath was heavy, it matched mine but neither of us spoke for a few seconds. Instead, I looked through the glass doors, scuffing my shoes against the molding. My father wasn’t wrong. I kept myself to myself because I didn’t want to add to the worry my parents already had, all because their son had screwed up again. My silence had hurt them, I’d known that but I’d never understood how deeply that hurt ran or how frustrating I’d become.
“Dad…”
“Look, keki kane, I’m sorry.” I believed he meant that apology. “I shouldn’t scream at you, but you’ve got to understand, we can’t get through to her. None of us. Leann is trying but Aly’s still wary. Please, for the sake of my sanity, go see her. Work this shit out.”