I exhaled loudly as Ashby and I strummed the lengthy interlude, before the gorgeous mother-daughter team finished out the last song of this set.
Oh, fear is a hearty mistress, cutting no slack
Grab my hand, stop looking back
The moonlight is ours, the sunlight for us.
Baby, nothing comes between us
No matter the cost.
Once the song ended, and the crowd lifted us up with their applause, we announced our short break and headed to the shed.
“That was stunning, Ember.” I tugged her hand until her body was against mine, kissing her neck as I spoke.
She overrode my system every time she sang. I’d fallen in love with her on a stage, and every time we took one together. It felt like that first night all over again, only it was better. Now she was mine.
Ember squeezed my hand and backed away from my lips. “Come with me.”
She pulled me through the back door, where we were greeted by a large field and the canopy of every star in the universe hovering over us. The crowd hummed on the other side of the sage, but they seemed a million miles away as Ember led me down a small hill, sitting us in tall grass dotted with wildflowers.
I sat next to her and wrapped my arm around her shoulders, pulling her flush with me once again.
She lifted her face to me, allowing me to kiss her nose, making her smile as she spoke. “I’m sorry for this morning.”
I took my other arm and squeezed her tighter. “I’m the one who’s sorry. You have nothing to be sorry for. I was an asshole for losing my temper with you.”
Ember sat back, crossing her legs as she grabbed my hands, the intensity of her gaze grounding me. “No. I’m sorry for not telling you everything. You deserve more than my tantrum, Bo. We’re a fucking team. You remember that. Every day you tell me what you’re feeling, good and bad. No matter how much it hurts. You let me ask you about nightmares you have in the middle of the night, and you answer me even if its two thirty in the morning. You would never dream of brushing me off like I did to you today.”
“Ember, I’ve had years of therapy that’s allowed me to do that. It’s hard, but it’s the only way I can ever keep myself from shutting down completely.” I brushed a loose wave of hair away from her eyes, tucking it behind her ear.
She twisted her lips in apparent embarrassment. “I’m sorry for asking you to marry me.”
I laughed once, loudly. “You’re forgiven. Try not to let it happen again, K?”
“What?” she teased. “I can’t ask you to marry me? Women can propose, you know.”
I twiched my mouth into a grin. “Not to me, they can’t.”
“Are you some sort of a caveman?”
“I am.” I nodded definitively.
“Hmm, I’ll take it.” She turned her back, settling herself between my knees and leaning her head against my chest. “Seriously, though. I should have told you everything. In order. I’m not mad at you. I’m just … heartbroken.” Her voice cut off at the end of her sentence, and the tightening of her shoulders cued me into the tears that were undoubtedly rolling down her face.
I swept her hair over one shoulder, allowing me access to her tear-soaked cheeks, where I kissed some of them away. “It’s okay to be hurting. Your dad kind of filled me in when we got here. Not the gory details, but about their … open relationship with Michael and Solstice.” I held my breath, unsure if my words would push her too hard.
“I don’t even know what I’m most upset about. Not knowing I had a sister this whole time, or that I have one at all.”
“Well,” I offered, “you and Willow were close when you were younger, right?”
She nodded. “We were. And last year, when you and I got here, Willow and I were as close as we’d always been. It hurt like hell when she came on to you, Bo. It came out of nowhere. She had a reputation, but it had never affected me or my relationship with her. We were like sisters. Turns out, we are actually sisters, and she was taking it out on me.”
“Did she know your dad was also her dad?”
“I think she knew. It’s pretty fucking obvious now, isn’t it? It’s like she was punishing me for being the one who got to keep my dad, or something. Even though it feels like the exact opposite …” She trailed off and took a deep breath, exhaling as her shoulders sank.
“You feel like you lost him?”
“I feel like I don’t know him at all, Bo. I mean, sure, I knew that he and my mom weren’t married. But, I thought they were one of those special couples that stayed together because they chose each other, over and over again every day because they wanted to and not because there were legal documents that demanded their togetherness.”
“Your dad said—”
Ember sat forward and put her hand up, waving it around. “I’m not ready for what he said, okay? I just need to talk about how I’m feeling. My gut reactions.” She turned and looked at me with a determination I was glad to see.