When they’d finished and Miles had wandered off to do his own work, Harlow finally turned her phone on and waited for all the buzzing and dinging indicating texts and emails to stop.

  “That sounds busy,” Miles said from where he’d been at his laptop.

  “I had it off. You know how it is,” she said, looking at the screen. Multiple texts from Nora. One from Brian. Poppy saying she’d dropped dailies off with Miles instead of downstairs. Nothing from Gloria but two messages from Mindy.

  The first was an apology that they’d been driven away from the house by Gloria. Harlow wanted to quibble with the brevity. It needed more than two sentences to be made right. But at the same time, these things should be said to her in person, or at least on the phone. And, most importantly, by Hector himself.

  The second was a text saying she and Hector—but not Luis—were still coming to the show that night, and there was no way to stop the sound of disbelief that came from her lips.

  “Harlow?” Miles asked, watching her while she scrolled through her messages.

  “Mindy and Hector are coming tonight.”

  He didn’t like Harlow’s expression at all. Though she was trying to act nonchalant, he could see she was upset.

  “I can deal with the box office if you want. Say no tickets are available. Or make sure they get no backstage access. Just the show and they go home afterward.” He was on his feet and at her side before he’d even thought about it.

  She sighed. “No. I can’t uninvite them after she apologized and then said they were still coming. It’ll look spiteful.”

  “The fuck do you care what they think of you? They’re in the wrong, Harlow. And you deserve a little spite.”

  “I want a relationship with my brothers. Well, right now Mindy and Hector and my niece and nephews. I don’t know about Luis. I don’t need to be at war with him. Just for him to stay away unless or until he can apologize and truly understand where I’m coming from.”

  He wanted to argue, but instead he said, “So we’ll get them up front and you can see them before Above Me goes on. We’ll keep it brief. Hey hi, hope you like the show. Keep it moving. They have kids and they both have jobs so I’m sure they weren’t planning on hanging out afterward anyway.”

  Harlow took his hands and brushed her lips over his knuckles. “Thank you for being so good to me.” She pulled his head down and kissed him until they were both a little out of breath. “I have to go. I told Nora I’d be down shortly. I’ll um, I’ll see you later?”

  “Absolutely you will. As usual, meet you at the elevator banks on your floor and we’ll ride together to the venue.” He paused and then said, “If you need me today, for anything at all, text or call. Please.”

  Nora answered the door and gave Harlow an up and down look before she hugged her. “Want to go for a walk?

  “Yeah. Let’s go grab a coffee and I’ll tell you everything,” Harlow said.

  At the end of the telling, Nora sat back, sipping her iced coffee. “And you’re letting them come tonight why?”

  “She apologized.”

  Nora sighed heavily. “You are such a badassed bitch in so many other parts of your life but when it comes to these fuckos you’re…not. Which makes me extra protective. Mindy apologized? Big fucking deal. Did Hector apologize? It’s his house and his mother and brother who did all that. Did they kick Gloria out? No. You bore the weight of her bullshit like every other time. So, whatever to Mindy apologizing. It’s her kid who is getting the Harlow treatment and Hector still lets your mother into his house? You don’t need any of this bullshit. It’s not yours. I will call them myself and tell them there are no tickets for them tonight and they know why.”

  Nora was incredibly protective of her closest circle, especially Harlow and Brian. She would absolutely call Mindy and say all those things. And in a tone that dared anyone to ask why when they should already know.

  “My dad would be disappointed in me if I didn’t try one last time.”

  “He most certainly would not be,” Nora denied. “He’d be the first person to tell you to cut them off totally once you told him about this situation. I’m on your side. He’s on your side. Miles is on your side. You should be on your side too.”

  “If there’s such a thing as spite success, we are going to have it tonight. I can’t uninvite them. It doesn’t matter at this point that it was Mindy and not Hector who apologized. By text. I get it. I see it. However, we are going to play our asses off tonight because despite everything Gloria says about me, we are awesome. I want them to see it.”

  Understanding settled over Nora’s features. “Ah. Okay. I get it.” She leaned in and hugged Harlow tight. “I think we should play a cover of one of your dad’s songs tonight. Don’t you think?”

  “Excellent idea.”

  Miles circled her, taking in every detail. She always looked fantastic before she went out on stage, but that night there was more going on. Earlier for soundcheck she’d been wearing jeans and a t-shirt but she’d changed into skintight metallic pants with pointy toed boots. Her shirt was sleeveless and lined down the front with little buttons that upon closer inspection, were tiny skulls.

  Her hair was caught back from her face by sparkly pin things, but it was bigger than usual, and her makeup was stage perfect with dark lips and eyes. He only barely managed to hold back his hum of pleasure.

  “I’m feeling a little like a bunny being stalked by a wolf,” she said, making everyone standing around them laugh.

  “You’re no bunny, Harlow.” He leaned in close and whispered in her ear. “But I do like to eat you.”

  She gave him an affectionate look and then sobered quickly. “You’re messing with my game face, Miles Brown.”

  He paused, looking at her closely and then nodded as he understood. “I got you.” He held a hand out and she put hers in it.

  “I’m coming with you when you go out to see Mindy and Hector,” he said as they walked through the long hallways connecting their green rooms to the main stage. He’d spent most of the day thinking about her and the situation she was in. And more importantly how he could help, including staying out of it if necessary.

  It wasn’t necessary that day though. He was still surprised by the audacity of Harlow’s brother in coming and leaning on her hospitality after what he’d done to her not even a full twenty-four hours prior.

  So he’d stand at her side to let the other two know she had someone who would put her first. Miles had no reason to be nice or make them feel welcome. His purpose was to follow Harlow’s lead and back her up.

  “I’m having them brought into a receiving area near the stage,” she said, and he heard nervousness in her tone.

  “Okay.”

  “That gives a maximum of ten minutes. I won’t invite them to dinner with us afterward. Well, okay, if he apologizes and means it I might.”

  He pulled her to a stop and the others kept walking.

  “Hey,” he said when they were alone. “You can handle this however you want. You know my feelings, but what matters here are your feelings. If you want them to come to dinner afterward, invite them. If you don’t, that’s okay too.”

  “I have to be a hardass so stop making me want to cry,” she said, firming her mouth.

  “That what you are, Harlow? A hardass?”

  “No. But they don’t deserve my soft parts and stop looking like that! I wasn’t making a sex comment.”

  He laughed and pulled her into a hug.

  “It’s impossible for me not to think about sex when you’re concerned. But I’ll control myself just this once. You’re not a hardass. You have a beautiful, giving heart and you want to be loved and respected.”

  Poppy called Harlow’s name from the end of the hall so they caught up with her. “I just sent someone to go get your brother and sister-in-law. You can talk to them right through here.” She pointed to a room off to the left. “I had the chairs taken out. I can put them back, but I thought it might encourage brevity.”

  Miles nodded, approving

  “That’s good. Thank you.” Harlow took a deep breath, squared her shoulders, and had just put on a megawatt smile when the doors opened up and Hector and Mindy came in.

  When Harlow normally would have swept it all under the rug to keep the peace and keep anyone but herself from feeling uncomfortable, she thought about how it had felt that night before when no one but Miles had said much to defend her.

  Mindy saw her and her eyes widened as she and Hector came into the room and Poppy left, closing the door, and leaving them. “You look amazing. Our seats are great. Thank you.”

  “Thanks.”

  Miles stood at her side but said little. Hector looked at him though, frowning before he turned back to Harlow. “Could we have some privacy?”

  Miles looked not at Hector, but at Harlow and no, she wasn’t going to send him from the room.

  “Say what you need to say. Miles was there last night, he’s familiar with our family dynamic,” Harlow said because it pissed her off that her brother would pull that. “Being rude isn’t going to end up the way you think it will, Hector,” she added.

  “He’s sorry,” Mindy said. “He’s embarrassed because everything happened, and he was caught off guard.”

  “First, he should speak for himself. Second, he should be embarrassed. Third, no he was not caught off guard.” Harlow held up a hand when her brother opened his mouth to argue. “No. I’m not playing. You knew she might show up. Enough that you called her to tell her not to. And she did anyway. There was no caught off guard. Even I knew she might show up.”

  Time slipped away as Harlow stood there, waiting for…for what? Her brother to own anything? When had he or Luis ever? Their mother had always shielded them from whatever their behavior kicked up.

  “You were in my house and then things got out of hand, and she wouldn’t stop.” Hector shook his head. “If everyone had just taken a deep breath and calmed down, we could have had dinner, but you left early and made it worse.”

  Mindy’s sound of distress was echoed by Harlow’s heart.

  “Remember this moment and your failure to rise above it when your daughter is old enough to figure out her grandmother hates her but loves your sons. Save your money for therapy, I guess.” Though Harlow wanted to cry, she stepped back and then took two more steps until she was at the door. Just outside the usher waited for them. “Can you escort them back to their seats, please?” she asked.

  Poppy took one look at the situation and her brother’s expression, and she bustled over. “Well then. Above Me is on in three minutes. Let’s get you to the stage.” She held her hand out to Harlow, who grabbed it like a lifeline. She left her brother and Mindy without looking back.

  Miles waited a few seconds before he turned back to them.

  “Just what the fuck did you think you were doing?” he asked.

  Hector winced a little, but Mindy shrugged and looked at her husband like she didn’t know the answer either.

  “Oh, no words now?” Miles moved closer once he heard Above Me’s set start and he knew they wouldn’t be interrupted. “You had so many just a few minutes ago even though they were all the wrong ones.”

  “Hey!”

  “Hey what? Go on, let’s hear it?” Miles was so angry at that moment he wished Hector would come at him.

  “She invited us tonight!”

  “Before you abandoned her to the abuse your mother heaped on her while you sat there and did nothing. And you came anyway like you deserved to.” He made a sound with so much derision dripping from it he was sort of proud. “You invited her to your home. You know—because you’ve watched—your mother has a shitty track record with Harlow. But Harlow trusted you. Oh sure, she knew it was a possibility Gloria would show up and she braced for it. But she trusted that you’d at the very least make your home a safe place for her. Though I don’t know why she would because none of you have given her a safe space her whole life.”

  Miles held up a hand and shook his head when Hector opened his mouth to argue.

  “You had your chance to talk and didn’t rise to the occasion. Gloria showed up and from the first moment set out to insult and upset Harlow. Luis was her lapdog, tossing her whatever ammunition she’d need to hurt his own sister. And you…did nothing. You sat there and couldn’t put together two sentences to stand up for your sister who had done nothing but accept an invitation to dinner with her brother and sister-in-law.”

  “I tried to calm it down,” Hector insisted.

  “How so? By blaming it on Harlow tonight? If she hadn’t escaped a toxic situation where her mother was calling her a lazy slut because no one stood up for her everything would be okay? That’s the reason Gloria says the vicious stuff she does with zero pushback?”

  “This is family business,” Hector said. “It’s not your concern. My mom has overcome a lot.”

  “Fuck your mother.” Miles squared his feet slightly apart, waiting. Wanting Hector to make a move because he’d never wanted to punch someone’s face more than he did right then.

  Mindy stood between them staring at Hector. “He’s right. Gloria started all that. She always does. She treats Harlow terribly. I’ve said so for years and you’ve made excuses. I made them too even though I saw how she was. You need to apologize to Harlow. Genuinely. You’re her big brother.”

  “She lives it up in this world and I’m supposed to what? Play nice so we get invites to places? Like she didn’t get to have all the travel and money while we stayed home?”

  Miles was so thoroughly disgusted. “She wanted to share this with you. Wanted you to be proud of her and see how hard she worked to achieve it. You’re backstage right now while she’s on stage and you’re arguing with me instead. You could have said I’m sorry you got treated so badly in my home. Instead, you said she made it worse by leaving. Now get out. Go sit and watch her be amazing and you’d better tell her so afterward with your thank you. And then fuck off. Leave her alone because your absence is less painful than your presence when you abuse her just like your mother does.”

  He slammed the door as he left, not looking back at the usher who’d overheard that entire exchange.

  CHAPTER

  SIXTEEN

  Just over a week later, Miles leaned against the stair rail and watched Above Me’s soundcheck. He’d noticed that Harlow had seemed grumpier than usual earlier that day when they’d woken up, so he wanted to keep an eye out.

  He’d hoped to entice her into a nice bout of morning sex to start the day right, but her phone had buzzed, she’d looked at the screen, her mouth lost that kissable quality and had turned down into a frown,

  Probably had something to do with her fucking idiot brothers or their mother. There weren’t a lot of things Miles actually hated, but Gloria Martin was one of them, right up there with homophobia and racism. She was probably both, come to think on it.

  They headed straight into “Dark Heart”, one of his favorites of theirs and now that he knew her better—and had met her mother—he understood who it was about and hearing her sing it tore him up every time.

  Poppy bounced up to him and handed him a printed email with all the numbers Jeremy had forwarded to them that morning. He nodded. They were doing great. One sold out show after the next. So much they’d added another night to several more US cities.

  Someone in the audience shouted “Seek & Destroy” and Harlow grinned back over her shoulder and played the opening notes, but Nora followed up and so did Brian so they went for it, but it was Harlow who sang it.

  And damn if she didn’t know the whole fucking song, including the bridge where she and Brian kicked ass, and it wasn’t the first time they’d played it either. They put their own spin, speeding it up slightly, slowing it down here and there. Miles was sad he’d missed her metalhead phase, but he could see the foundations of it right then as she played.

  And she shined as she played guitar, clear on her face how much she loved it, and loved playing with Brian and Nora as she turned and played into the last part of the song.

  “Haven’t done that one in a long time,” she said to cheers.

  “Well, not all of us learn to play Metallica guitar solos from Richie Martin,” Brian said of Harlow’s father.

  “Right?” Harlow gave the devil horns with her right hand.

  “Is everything okay?” Poppy asked him as he broke his gaze away from Harlow back to his sister.

  “Yeah. Yeah.” He ran his hands through his hair after he handed the paper back to her. “Good news.”

  “Looks like it. More shows in Europe now too.”

  Selfishly, he’d tried to think on ways to bring her with him. Thought about how to have Above Me open for them in addition to the other bands scheduled.

  But he knew she’d see it as him pulling strings for her instead of Above Me earning their spot. And he also knew she and Above Me were touring the festival circuit over the late summer and early fall when Earthquakes would be in Europe anyway.

  Touring could be exciting and fun and fulfilling. He loved so many elements of it. It was also exhausting. And it was hard to sleep in different beds in different places every single night. It was stressful to be on every moment he was outside his hotel room. It didn’t matter if one of them was sick or had a bad day. Fans paid good money and spent their time to attend a show and it was necessary to give them his best every time.

  Harlow being there with him every day. Traveling with her. Experiencing this magical thing so few people every got the chance to at his side was fucking amazing. It made everything better.

  “Before,” he said to Poppy, “when I was with Sophie, I didn’t have a deep sense of satisfaction like I do with Harlow. When we were apart, it didn’t feel wrong or uncomfortable. With Harlow, I’m different because she’s different.”

  “You’ve been free from that situation for over two years. That’s enough space for you to see the difference and understand why. I wasn’t worried you were going to go and marry whateverhernameis. She didn’t want that either. She got her clicks. You got your kicks. It was fast and it burned hot and was done. And she helped you learn what it is you need and that wasn’t her. I know the way she used all that personal information hurt you and makes you wonder just who you can trust. But that’s about her, not about you. And Harlow is the opposite of that.”