“Which means you’re the very last guy he’d ever want to see her with.” She held up her hand before he could respond. “You’re my brother and I love you and I think you’re great. The greatest. But the fact is, you’re still a rock star. And life with you is the exact opposite of straitlaced and neat and tidy.” Just then, screams from his fans pierced the door, and she shook her head. “Plus, it’s gotten even crazier than it was before. You’re really, really famous now.”
He couldn’t deny any of that either. But that didn’t mean he was willing to give Ashley up. “We can make it work.”
“How? Long distance, with her in school and you on the road?”
“If that’s what it takes. I’m not willing to give her up, Olivia.” Just the thought of it made every part of him tense up. “Anything but her.”
His sister’s expression softened. “You’re different with Ashley, Drew. Happier. And so much lighter, too. I know how hard losing Mom has been for you.”
“For all of us.”
“Yes. All of us.” She closed her eyes, and in that moment, he watched her fall apart, then put herself back together. “Sean is lucky. He found Serena, and she’s helped change everything for the better for him. And Justin always has Taylor to lean on, even if they’re both too dumb to realize that they’re actually in love and not just best friends.”
“Things are going to hit a breaking point soon for them,” Drew predicted.
“God, I hope so, because it’s just gotten downright painful to watch the two of them circle each other.” She pinned him with her laser-focus gaze. “Do you think that maybe what you’re feeling for Ashley seems so strong because she’s helped heal you?”
“She has helped heal me,” he told his sister. “But that’s only one of the reasons why I love her.”
His sister’s eyes went big. “Love?”
He’d been circling it himself for a while now. Since the very beginning, if he was being totally honest with himself. “I’m in love with Ashley.” It was the biggest thing he’d ever known. And the best. If he could have shouted it from the rooftops, he would have.
“Does she know?”
Just then, a knock came at the door. “Two minutes, Drew,” James called.
“Not yet,” he told his sister as they both got up to head out of the room.
And he’d be counting every second until it was just the two of them alone on the bus so that he could tell Ashley she was absolutely everything to him.
“Thanks, sis,” he said to Olivia. “I miss you, miss hanging out with all of you.”
“I miss you, too,” she said, her voice as thick with emotion as his. “But we’ll always be there whenever you’re ready to come home. Just like Mom always said, we want you to live your dream.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Ashley was blown away by the Morrisons.
Not just because they were all so beautiful that it almost made her eyes hurt to look at them standing together in the VIP section of Drew’s show. And not just because they were all so smart and successful.
It was the way they loved one another. She’d never seen anything like it. They watched out for one another. They helped one another. They were simply there for one another.
Madison was adorable and hilarious. Ashley loved the way Drew doted on his youngest sister. Madison had clearly thrived as a result of the endless affection and encouragement that she’d been given by her family.
Drew had said that Olivia was someone Ashley could be friends with, probably because they were both the quiet, studious type. Ashley was a little surprised that the two of them had never met before on the Stanford campus. If they had, she definitely would have been drawn instantly to someone as bright and utterly unaware of her shockingly good looks as Olivia.
Grant was the lone Morrison in a suit, but it looked exactly right on him. He didn’t look like other high-tech CEOs in their sweatshirts and jeans, but Ashley had read enough case studies of Collide to know that Drew’s oldest brother had always marched brilliantly to the beat of his own drummer. They’d had a fascinating conversation about the music business during dinner, and he’d asked her if she would email her indie label proposal to him to look over. In fact, the part he’d seemed to be the most interested in was her conviction that there should be women in the executive level positions at the new label. Women who understood other women. Women who had once been the girls in the audience at shows like Drew’s. Women who weren’t afraid to support music that touched you deeply.