Aaron was just happy to be leaving the hick town before Lily was back. He took his bag, hopped in his truck, and fired up the engine. Before he pulled away, he looked out at the long stretch of snow—the stretch that he’d found Lily in during the snowstorm, the stretch he’d been looking forward to snowshoeing with Lily once she got back from Los Angeles. The dull pain returned in the center of his chest.
Now, that field just made his blood hot, a reminder that he would never be able to trust anyone. He could never have any real friendships, any real romances. Even with a fake identity, there would always be that doubt lingering in the back of his mind, that people secretly know that he’s the Aaron Brown.
He drove away from the house and started his long drive towards the Chicago airport.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Lily was oblivious to the leak that morning as she drove around Los Angeles with her father. Kilgore was keen on showing Lily around town, showing her all of the spots he loved. Like the drive from the airport the night before, Kilgore sounded like a tour guide, talking constantly about all of the landmarks they passed—most of which were facts he had only read about in travel books. “Apparently that’s the bar where Bruce Springsteen played his first gig,” he said.
“You hate Bruce Springsteen, Dad,” Lily replied. It was true.
It was painfully obvious that Kilgore was trying desperately to get his and Lily’s minds off of the elephant in the room, Kilgore’s questionable relationship with Ming. Lily wanted to tell her father that Ming was poison from hell, but she knew it would just break his heart. And maybe Danny was right, maybe there was something between Kilgore and Ming that only they could understand. Maybe she was doing the right thing by putting on a smiling face. But the tension in the car was thick, unignorable.
“I looked up ‘Best restaurants in LA’ and a million places must have come up. I could eat out every day for the rest of my life, at a different place every meal, and never eat at half of them. How wild is that?” Kilgore asked.
“Pretty wild, Dad.”
“The place we’re going now was in the top ten. It’s Thai. I’ve never eaten Thai before in my life. I’ve heard good things, though. Ming can’t eat there because she’s allergic to peanuts, so I figured it would be a good place for you and I to go and have a bit of father-daughter time.”
Lily forced a smile, but the tension continued to weigh down on her, filling her lungs, her heart, her gut. She found it difficult to look into her father’s eyes during lunch because they looked so different. She couldn’t pinpoint why they were different. They were distant and glazed. He was smiling, but she couldn’t tell if it was happiness in his eyes, or if it was fear or sadness. Kilgore continued to ramble on about Ming and the city and all of the places he wanted to see and things he wanted to do. Then, just before they left the restaurant, he said, “Lily, I need to talk to you about something.” The smile that had been glued to his face all weekend suddenly vanished.
“What is it?”
“I know you don’t like Ming. And I know that you don’t like the apartment, or the idea of me living here.”
Lily just stared back at her father, her lips parted as if to reply. She was silent.
“And I know you think I’m making a huge mistake, and you might be right. Or maybe you aren’t, I don’t even know.” His bottom lip trembled. “But this is a decision I’ve made, and if it’s not working out, then I’ll know when to walk away. People love to give their opinions, and believe me, I’ve heard plenty. But only you know what’s right for you. You have to make your own decisions in life, and it’s never your job to rescue someone else from their decisions.”
Lily smiled. It wasn’t the ‘I’m ready to go home now’ that she was hoping to hear, but it was a relief to hear that her father hadn’t checked out completely, that he knew the whole spur-of-the-moment move to Los Angeles was absurd.
“I still love your mother, and always will. Ming will never replace her, not that I’d want her to anyway. And I can tell you don’t want to live here. Just promise me, if I end up staying here, you’ll come and visit every once in a while.”
Lily wiped her watering eyes with her sleeve. “Only if you promise to visit Burns Bog every once in a while.”
Kilgore hugged his daughter. “Thanks for coming out,” he said.
They got into the truck and started towards home. On the way back to Kilgore’s apartment, Siren of the Bog played on the radio. Lily’s heart stopped.
The slow-moving Los Angeles traffic suddenly felt as though it wasn’t moving at all. Lily’s head was spinning. Her father, who was still beaming, continuing his talkative LA tour, was oblivious to what song was playing on the radio. The song ended abruptly, not even halfway through, and the radio host said, “No, your ears aren’t playing tricks on you. That was Aaron Brown, with his latest single, Siren of the Bog. It was leaked earlier this morning. The link to the full song and the whole story can be found on our site…” The ringing in Lily’s ears overpowered the radio host’s voice. Something was wrong. Very wrong.
She didn’t want to worry Kilgore. He had enough on his mind. So casually, Lily slipped out her phone and sent Aaron a text message. She waited. There was no response. She sent another. Still, no response.
Lily was staring at her phone, hoping Aaron would reply at any second, when she noticed Kilgore was silent. He was staring at her. “Is everything alright?” he asked.
Lily nodded. “Yeah. Everything’s fine.” She faked a big smile and then looked back down at her phone. Still, there was no reply. The drive back to Kilgore’s apartment felt like an eternity.
CHAPTER THIRTY
For Danny, waiting for Lily to return to the apartment also felt like an eternity. Had she heard about the leak? Had she heard that her name was directly tied into it, that she was being blamed? And if she had, would she suspect Danny had anything to do with it?
He felt like such an idiot. He still didn’t understand how they’d gotten so much information with so little. All he wrote was, “Aaron Brown has a new song. How much would you pay for it?” He figured they would see that he signed it “Anonymous” and have the decency to leave it that way in their articles. It infuriated him to think they would have no quarter digging deeper despite the obvious sensitivity of the matter.
Danny didn’t realize it wasn’t the outlet that paid him the $15,000 for the song that ended up publishing his and Lily’s name. It was one of the dozen other outlets he sent the same information to, whose bid Danny didn’t accept. They figured, since we didn’t get the song, the idiot sent us plenty of other personal information we can work with.
Danny kept his mind busy while he waited for Lily to return home, killing time by hopping over to the hardware store, buying some new door hinges and some WD-40, and fixing a few things around the house.
When Lily finally returned, Danny could see the distance in her eyes, and the tension in her rigid body. She didn’t say anything as she walked in and removed her shoes. She didn’t appear to be angry, or maybe she was hiding it well. “Hey Lily,” Danny said, “how was the Thai place? I’ve heard good things.”
It took Lily a few seconds to focus on Danny and register what he’d said. “It was good.” Her smile was obviously forced. “Sorry, I need to go make a phone call.” She went into the guestroom and closed the door behind her.
Danny turned to Kilgore. “Is everything alright?”
Kilgore shrugged. “She was fine until the ride home. The food isn’t sitting well with her. I can’t believe how spicy they make that stuff,” he said. “Thanks for fixing that door. That squeak was going to drive me absolutely insane.”
Kilgore joined Ming in the kitchen, and quietly, Danny sidled up to the guestroom door. He could hear Lily speaking quietly. “Hey Aaron, It’s Lily. Call me as soon as you get this, please. I just heard the news on the radio. I don’t know what happened, but I swear I didn’t do it. Please, just call me back when you get this.”
&nbs
p; Through the thin apartment wall, Danny could hear Lily sniffling and typing on her computer. “What? I don’t understand,” he heard her mutter. Before Lily got back from lunch, Danny went through and deleted the outgoing e-mails that he had sent from her account. He even deleted all of the websites he’d visited from her search history, leaving no evidence anyone had ever touched her computer. He knocked on the door.
“Just a minute,” Lily said between sniffles.
“Can I come in?” He let himself in before waiting for a reply.
Lily wiped her eyes. “What is it?”
He stepped into the room and closed the door. “I could hear you crying. Is everything alright.” He watched her closely, carefully gauging her body language, trying to determine whether she suspected him or not. But she looked totally defeated, sad, confused. Staring down at her feet, she shook her head and shrugged her shoulders. “You know my friend, Fred Stein?”
Danny was silent for a moment while he pretended to rack his brain. “Um, yeah. That’s the guy from the bar, with the beard, yeah?”
“Yeah, well, his name isn’t really Fred.” She passed her laptop to Danny so he could read the article—the same one he’d read that morning.
He scrolled down the article, pretending to read. “Aaron Brown?” he said. “Why does that name sound familiar?” He continued scrolling down the page. “Oh my gosh, that’s us,” he said, perking up, acting shocked.
“But it doesn’t make any sense. I didn’t do it. He won’t answer any of my calls.” Tears began to stream down from her wet eyes.
Danny took a seat next to her and wrapped his arm around her body. “It’s okay. You’ll figured this out. It’s just a misunderstanding, right?”
“I just don’t get it. I really didn’t do anything. I never sent that song to anyone. Did someone hacked my e-mail?”
“It sounds like it. Look, Lily—he’s probably just away from his phone. I’m sure you and him will work this out. Everything will be okay.”
Lily finally allowed her tense body to relax into Danny. It was nice to finally share her secret, to have someone she could finally confide in. It was nice to be told ‘everything will be okay,’ even if she didn’t really believe it.
“He probably doesn’t think you had anything to do with it,” Danny said.
Lily wiped the stream of tears from her face. “Why would you say that?”
“Well, if he really likes you, he would trust you. And if he really trusted you, he would know there was something else going on. Like a hacker, or whatever.” Danny wiped a strand of fallen hair off of Lily’s face.
Maybe Danny was right—unfortunately right. If Aaron really did like Lily, he would have trusted her. And with every ignored phone call, it was more and more obvious that he didn’t trust her.
“If I was Aaron, I’d know you had nothing to do with this. I wouldn’t even consider the possibility.”
“Thanks, Danny,” Lily said. She tilted her head and smiled.
He kissed her on the lips. She froze. Her body became rigid again. After a few seconds, she pulled away. “What are you doing?” Her eyes were wide.
His eyes were just as wide and his heart was racing just as quickly. “I—I’m sorry,” he said. “I thought you… I mean, I thought we…”
Lily stuttered. “I—I don’t think this is a good idea. I’m sorry if I gave you the wrong idea.”
“I love you, Lily.”
The room became silent, save for the beating of Lily’s heart against her ribcage. Lily’s lips parted, but she said nothing. She couldn’t think of anything to say. Danny remained silent, unblinked, eyes wide, awaiting a response. Finally, after a few failed attempts to speak, Lily said, “Why?”
“Because you’re beautiful. And you’re funny and you’re nice. I like you, Lily. I like hanging out with you. I want to be with you.”
“You hardly know me.”
“I know enough.”
“No, you don’t.” Hands trembling, Lily stood up. She took a deep breath and regained her composure. “I’m sorry, Danny. But I love Aaron.”
A dull pain grew in Danny’s chest. He was silent, trying to decide on an emotion. He wanted to cry, then he wanted to yell, then he was just disappointed with himself. It wasn’t Lily’s fault that she didn’t feel the same way. But he still didn’t understand why she didn’t feel the same way, why she didn’t see that he was perfect for her. It was all Aaron’s fault. “Aaron doesn’t love you, you know.”
She could feel her heart twisting in her chest, sinking deeper and deeper into her gut. “How do you know?”
“He told me. At the bar, the other night. I asked if he cared whether or not if I asked you out. He told me to go ahead, that he wasn’t interested. He said you were too crazy for him.”
“Too crazy?” Her eyes began to fill with tears again.
“That’s what he said.” Danny looked up at the clock and then sprung to his feet. “Shoot—I’m late.”
“For what?”
“After talking last night, I realized my heart’s in LA. I’m meeting with a realtor to look at apartments. You should come along. It could be fun.”
“I’ll pass.” She wiped her eyes.
Lily didn’t sleep that night. She spent the whole night sick, on the verge of vomiting, but never actually following through.
Kilgore drove Lily to the airport the next morning for her flight back to Illinois. He walked her to the terminal and then hugged her at the security checkpoint. “Don’t forget to visit,” he said.
“Same goes for you,” she said. He kissed her on the forehead and then watched as she disappeared down the terminal towards her gate. She was flying alone. Danny cancelled his flight home, saying that he wanted to look at a few more properties before he left. He never came back to the apartment after he kissed her. A few hours later, he called to say he was meeting up with some old football buddies, and then he ended up spending the night out.
And as was their new usual, Kilgore and Ming went to sleep early, before it was even dark out.
So Lily spent her last night in Los Angeles alone in her father’s guestroom, staring up at the ceiling, checking her cellphone every five minutes to see if Aaron phoned back. He never did. Before leaving for the airport in the morning, Lily tried calling Aaron one more time. “This number does not exist,” an automated voice said. Aaron changed his number.
It was dark when Lily finally got back to Burns Bog. Before driving home, she went straight to Aaron’s house and her fears were realized the moment she saw the for-sale sign pegged out front. The house was empty. Aaron was gone.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Aaron’s realtor found him a beautiful, isolated home, an hour north of Bismarck, North Dakota, near a town called McClusky. The lot wasn’t treed like his home in Burns Bog, but it was amazingly even more isolated, only accessible by back roads that looked as though they’d never been used. Set on a seemingly endless flat plain, you couldn’t see another structure in any direction. It was perfect.
The movers told him it would take fifteen days before they could get his things from Illinois to North Dakota. They suggested he stay in Burns Bog for at least the first half of those fifteen days, so he didn’t have to pay for half a month at McClusky’s crumby little motel, which was possibly worse than the Save-a-Penny Motel. But Aaron opted to remain in McClusky, so he wouldn’t have to risk facing the woman who stabbed him in the back.
The motel was in the center of the small town, which was about as small as small towns get—possibly smaller than Burns Bog. Ron Fenner was the new name he invented for himself as he familiarized himself with McClusky. The people were nice enough. They were chatty but they were all too absorbed with their own meaningless lives to even ask about what Aaron did for a living. Everyone just assumed Aaron moved to McClusky to start a farm, because every single resident of McClusky, save for the few people who ran the town’s few shops, owned and worked on farms.
It snowed a lot; more than
Burns Bog, even. But, as Aaron discovered within a week of living there, the snow was too dense for snowshoeing. “What do people do around here for fun?” he asked a barista at the local café, as she finished up her shift.
“Work,” she said, and then went into the backroom, changed into a pair of overalls, and took off for a nearby sugarbeet farm. Even the owner of the motel Aaron was staying at worked a second job at one of the local farms.
McClusky didn’t have any local heroes. No one cared for any sports’ teams. People only drank at the bar because there was nothing else to do.
Aaron’s back was killing him from the slab of cement they called a mattress, so he was relieved when the caravan of moving trucks finally rolled into town. Even more relieving, the movers showed up the next day, a Saturday, to continue unloading the trucks and unpack the boxes. No one asked any questions as they brought all of his music equipment down into his basement. By Sunday afternoon, the job was finished, and the movers were gone.
Aaron spent the better half of Sunday night setting up his music studio. He was looking forward to his new life in McClusky, North Dakota—where people “worked” for fun. For years, he’d been looking for a place where he could simply sit and write music without interruption, without judgement, without expectation. But when he finally sat down to work on some new music, his mind became blank.
Maybe he was just tired, he thought. So he went to sleep, woke up refreshed, and picked up where he’d left off. But still, his mind became blank.
He went for a run, took a shower, and then sat down to work again. Nothing.
He tried messing around with his effects pedals. He tried changing amplifiers. Still, he couldn’t get his creativity flowing. So he tried changing guitars. He went down his wall of guitars, trying each one to see if it would make any difference. None of them did. Then, as he was putting the final guitar back on the wall, he noticed an unfamiliar guitar case leaning against the far side of his desk. He opened it up.
LIMELIGHT LOVE: A Small Town Rock Star Romance Page 15