Echoes of the Heart, Casey, L.A. [reader novel .txt] 📗

I loved this woman so much, I couldn’t fathom my life without her and I didn’t want to. She was my whole world and she was being snatched away from me by an enemy I could not fight. My eyes misted with tears and when I swiped away the few that fell, Mum looked back at me.

“Now, honey bear,” she said in a very matter-of-fact tone. “Don’t you . . . be crying. There are too many things . . . to smile about. Even if everything goes wrong . . . it’s all gonna be okay. You’ll see.”

I stared at my mother as she beamed my way. When she blinked and looked around, I knew her moment of clarity had passed but her words struck a chord deep within me. Those words could be applied to every little thing that scared me right now. My relationship with Risk, my fear of my life without my mother, a possible future without them both in it. I could fret and cry about the unknowns that were to come but what good would it do? I still didn’t know what would happen. All the fear I felt was taking away from my time with two people I loved so desperately in the here and now, and I had to force that feeling to take a back seat.

I just had to trust that things would end up being the way they were meant to be and that I could somehow live with whatever that turned out to be. It was still scary, so bloody scary, but letting go of what I couldn’t control made my heart beat a little easier.

My mum was right. Even if everything went wrong, it was all going to be okay.

CHAPTER TWENTY

FRANKIE

“Frankie, relax.”

I looked at Angel when he spoke to me and I knew I had a deer-in-the-headlights expression on my face.

“I am relaxed. I’ve never been as relaxed as I am right now. I’m insanely relaxed.”

I looked at Hayes when he simpered. “No, you’re wound up tighter than a—”

“Hayes!”

He burst into laughter. “I was gonna say clock.”

He bloody well wasn’t.

“Stop it.” Summer, Hayes’s wife, elbowed him and winked at me. “Leave her alone.”

I beamed her way. I had only met her a short while ago but we instantly hit it off.

“You’re still not relaxed, muse.”

I looked at Angel. “Stop bringing attention to it.”

“Tell me why your back is as stiff as a board and I will.”

I glanced from Angel to Hayes and Summer before I cleared my throat.

“I don’t think I should have come along today,” I glanced around the living room that was bigger than my entire cottage floor plan. “I feel very out of place here.”

On Saturday, Risk asked me to come to the band’s first concert of three at Wembley Stadium. I agreed. When he left on Sunday morning, I damn well felt like I was sending him off to war instead of London. Fast forward to Monday morning, I woke up extra early and went through the works for beautifying myself. I showered, shaved and exfoliated my entire body until I was smooth to the touch. I cleansed my face and lips with a scrub then applied a mask to help my oily skin.

I applied roughly one hundred different products to my hair to tame it because I was born with hair like Merida from the Disney movie Brave. If I wanted it to look cute, I had to put in a shocking amount of effort for it to be that way. Even then, I prayed to God until I diffused my hair and was happy with how it turned out. The make-up part stumped me because I didn’t wear it. I had the kind of skin that oiled up fast so wearing make-up had never been worth it. I wanted to look nice for Risk’s big night so I sat through a make-up tutorial to cover up my healing bruise. I didn’t have half of the stuff the guy used in his videos, but I had the basics. Primer, foundation, concealer, setting powder, eyebrow stuff and blush.

I had no clue how to contour so I didn’t even attempt it, and making my eyes look nice with my skill set wasn’t an option.

When I was finished, I looked in the mirror and wanted to cry. I looked like a five-year-old got into her mother’s make-up bag and had the time of her life. By the time I was finished, it was too late for me to start over so I did what any normal person would do, I rang Risk on the new number he gave me and I told him I wasn’t going.

“You’re coming,” he told me. “If I have to go back to Southwold and get you, you’re coming.”

“I don’t look cute!” I told him. “My make-up is a joke, you can still see my bruise. I have nothing to wear to a rock concert. I don’t even have a Blood Oath T-shirt! People will think I’m lost!”

“Summer is here, she’ll help you put some of the crap on your face if you’re so inclined to have it. Put on a pair of jeans and I’ll have a T-shirt here for you. How does that sound?”

It sounded like I was losing the argument.

I found myself in Risk’s London townhouse four hours later. I sat in his living room with Angel, Hayes and Summer. Risk and May were busy speaking to the band’s manager in another room. I had yet to meet Chris Harrison and from the random shouting that flowed in the from hall every so often, I knew meeting him could have been delayed a million years and I wouldn’t have minded a bit. He seemed like a stressed-out person.

“Why do you think that?” Summer frowned. “You look great and, girl, your make-up is on point now that I’ve helped you contour and we smoked your eyes. Your bruise is completely hidden. Your eyes are huge