Page 68 of Shy Girls Can't Date Rockstars
“I think she’s right.”
I flinch. “Why would you say that?”
“Well, when Miranda said social services called to let her know her sister had passed, and that you needed a home, she kinda…”
He leaves the sentence dangling.
“What?” I sit taller. “She kinda, what?”
“Blurted some stuff out,” Ryder says carefully. “She didn’t mean to, and I shouldn’t repeat it.”
I grab onto his blazer sleeve and struggle for a real breath. “Yes, you should. Tell me. I need to know.”
Ryder pries my hand off him. “No. Don’t put me in the middle of your family drama. I’ve got enough to deal with on my own.”
“Don’t be so selfish,” I snipe. “You do realize my mom is gone, right? I’ll never get to ask her myself.”
“Alice,” he mutters through gritted teeth. “Don’t. It’s up to Miranda.”
I collapse against the bench seat, pouting. “It’s like there’s this whole part of my mom’s life that I know nothing about.” I watch the ducks, yearning to trade places with them. “Miranda won’t tell me this secret.”
Ryder turns on the seat so he’s facing me. “About that day in my practice room.” He clears his throat and looks down at his jumping knee. “I know it was an accident, and I know I overreacted.”
I swallow hard, rearing back on the seat. “Where are you going with this?”
“You’d just moved in, you were alone, and I know it’s difficult to adjust in that creepy old house.”
I don’t budge an inch, skeptical of his seemingly kind words.
“Look, what Miranda told me about your family, it, like, colored my impression of you. I thought I knew you before I actually met you.”
“What did you think of me? What did Miranda say?”
Ryder shakes his head, settling a hand on his knee. “Look, I’m just sorry for making you feel bad. It doesn’t matter what went down in the past. Your family isn’t around anymore. I’m sure Miranda will lighten up soon.”
My brow lifts. “Lighten up?”
“She can’t be mad forever, right?”
I hug my middle, frowning at the ducks having a great time in the water. “I just wish I knew what happened.”
“Maybe you can’t see it because of how Miranda lives now,” Ryder suggests.
“What does that mean?”
“Nothing.” Ryder gets up, obviously regretting how much he’s already said. “It’s just, she and her sister were so different.”
I unbutton my blazer, feeling hot and constricted. “That’s putting it mildly.”
Ryder’s phone buzzes again, making him groan. “I really gotta post something before the guys from promotions start calling.”
Ryder ambles toward the pond, lifting his phone and opening the camera app.
Even if Miranda blurted some stuff out in front of Ryder, he still doesn’t know what my mother was like. But he knows Mom and her sister were so different?
Is that all it is? They were at odds because of how differently they lived?
Maybe Miranda was jealous? Maybe she wanted a simpler life? To be married? To have a child?
