Marrying Ember Read online

  I held my breath. I was certain Ember wouldn’t tell her parents about Willow’s accusation that she and Ember were half sisters, but her mother’s casual attitude about their apparent rivalry was bound to make Ember’s head explode one of these days.

  “It’s not a problem for me,” Ember asserted. “Does Willow know she’ll be cozy with us for the next several hours, at the very least?”

  “Let’s find out, shall we?” Ashby said with a smile as he opened the RV door for Willow, who bounded up the steps with much more pep than awaited her in the cabin of the vehicle.

  “Hey, guys …” Her brightness slid away with her words as she looked at Ember.

  Before any of us had a chance to say anything, there was a loud pounding on the door.

  Just behind Willow marched a much shorter, and much louder, Georgia. Willow turned to face her, having to look down to meet Georgia’s eyes. That didn’t seem to affect Georgia as she pointed emphatically at Willow.

  “Listen here,” she spoke to Willow without so much as looking in our direction, laying on her thickest Eastern Massachusetts accent, “we both know the kind of shit you pull. We also know you won’t be pulling that with Regan, correct?”

  “Excuse—” Willow started, but was cut off.

  “Correct?” Georgia stepped up one more stair so she was as close as she was going to get to Willow’s eye-line.

  “Whatever,” Willow mumbled as she slumped down in her seat right behind Ashby.

  “Will that be all, Georgia?” Ashby arched the eyebrow he’d passed down to Ember.

  She smiled and kissed him on the cheek. “You betchya, Mr. Harris. Bye guys! See you in a few weeks!” She waved frantically at us for a second before bounding off the bus and back to her car.

  The RV was silent with the precise tension that fills a high school classroom after a clashing of the social groups. I thought, based on Willow’s initial silence, that we’d successfully passed through level one unscathed.

  I was wrong.

  Ember’s shoulders rose with a huge breath as Willow stood and walked with an inappropriately seductive grin to the back of the vehicle.

  “Don’t worry,” Willow said, smiling at Regan as she sat next to him across the table from Ember and me. “You’re not really my type. No offense.”

  “None taken.” Regan pulled his Kindle out of his backpack and diverted his attention from the table.

  “Doing anyone and everyone isn’t really a type, Willow.” Ember pulled her iPod from her bag, plugged in her earbuds, and leaned her head back as she closed her eyes.

  A flash of homicidal irritation passed through Willow’s eyes before she turned her gaze to me. And grinned.

  “Not everyone,” she whispered.

  I held my face steady enough as she rose from the table and walked back to her seat.

  I exhaled once I was sure Willow was securely fastened somewhere far from me. Regan shook his head and lifted his eyes from his reading. “Good fuckin’ luck, dude.”

  “Thanks,” I murmured.

  Let me be clear. There wasn’t one ounce of anything I found attractive about Willow Shaw. Sure, she was visually attractive, but the venom that appeared to course through her body erased it all, and then some. The problem, it seemed, was that she wasn’t going to give up. I hoped that stunt she pulled was more in response to feeling burned by Georgia, and not any lingering game she saw in me.

  * * *

  “Bo … Bo …” A sickeningly familiar voice called me from the pleasant nap I’d been enjoying. As consciousness overtook me, I realized the RV had stopped. Looking to my left, out the window, I saw we were at a park and some of the band members were eating at nearby picnic tables.

  I didn’t want to look right. I knew who was there, and I didn’t want to acknowledge her. Sitting up, I rubbed the sleep from my eyes, wondering where Ember was, and why the hell she’d leave Willow in the RV with me.

  Looking up, I indeed saw Willow, who was sitting in the chair across the aisle from the table I’d been napping at. Her legs were crossed at the knee, and her foot bobbed softly as she sat with her arms crossed.

  I cleared my throat while I sat up. “Where is everyone?”

  She nodded her head to the windows. “Eating. Stretching.”

  “K …” I took a deep breath and slid out of the bench seat, standing in the aisle, stretching once more.

  I felt her eyes on me as I made my way toward the door. You’d think I would breathe a sigh of relief as I saw Ember approach the RV. You’d be wrong. Just as I reached the top of the stairs, Ember pushed past me and headed straight for Willow.

  “What the hell are you doing in here?” She yelled, causing the hair on the back of my neck to stand up.

  Willow’s voice was maniacally even. “What? You don’t trust your soul mate?” The sarcasm around the term threw Ember into a rage. I turned around and walked quickly back to the quarrel.

  Ember’s hands flew everywhere as she screamed some more. “I don’t trust you! You’ve already tried to put your slutty hands all over him once, and I’ll be damned if you try again. He’s too much of a gentleman to tell you to fuck off, but I’m not.”

  Willow thrusted her hands forward, aiming for Ember’s hair, but Ember stuck her arm up. The cracking of skin sent me forward, and I wrapped my arm around Ember’s waist, pulling her back as she lunged forward.

  “Are you kidding me? You were going to slap me? Slap me, then! Do it! I fucking dare you, Willow. Slap me.”

  I spun Ember around, so I was standing between the mortal enemies, my ears fielding obscenities from both sides.

  “Guys, stop!” I yelled. A completely futile effort on my part as words shot through and around me, and hands grabbed at whatever they could.

  Willow’s eyes were black with rage as her lip curled with each perfectly crafted insult.

  “You’re a spoiled little daddy’s girl who can’t handle when she loses.”

  Ember scrunched her face as she growled. Growled. “I’m spoiled? I’m spoiled?! You’re the one who grew up with her daddy’s trust fund behind every school you were admitted to, before you were kicked out!”

  What seemed like a full minute later—and a minute is a long time when you’re in the middle of a bonafied cat fight—Regan raced up the stairs.

  “What the fuck?” He held out his hands, seeming to feel as helpless as I probably looked.

  “Get her out!” I nodded to Ember, who was closest to the door, as I held Willow back with my forearm.

  I breathed half a sigh of relief as Regan squatted down and hoisted a flailing Ember over his shoulder.

  “Let me down, Regan! This isn’t funny!”

  “No shit it’s not funny, you’ve lost your head. Shut up and stop moving so we both don’t fall down the stairs.” Their voices trailed off as I remained planted in the RV, and saw the rest of the group and crew moving toward the vehicle.

  Oh good. A full-blown scene.

  “You can put your arm down, you know.” Willow spoke as if nothing had happened, though I could still her ragged breath between her words.

  I turned slowly, my eyes nearly bulging out of my head. “You need to get it together.” Those were the only words that I spoke before dropping my guard and walking off the RV, to a still enraged Ember.

  “November Blue, get ahold of yourself.” Ashby grabbed his daughter’s shoulders as they moved up and down against deep breaths.

  Raven moved to my side. “What happened?” Her look was slightly suspicious, and I couldn’t really blame her given the undercurrent to the girls’ relationship, but I was still slightly offended.

  “Nothing to do with me, Raven.” I shook my head, annoyed.

  She sighed and said, “Of course not, that’s not what I meant.”

  It was, but I let it slide. We were all human in our thinking, after all.

  The muscles in my back froze as I heard the measured steps of Willow making her way off the RV.

  Finally,
Ember spoke as she pointed to the pot-stirrer who had her arms crossed as she stood just to my side.

  “Her. She happened,” Ember seethed as she crossed to come face to face with Willow. It was kind of like watching a predator and prey in the wild, though none of us knew who was which at the moment, so we stood still. On alert.

  “Girls,” Solstice, Willow’s mother who was normally ethereal and quiet, cut her words through the awkward silence. “Enough is enough.”

  “This has gone on long enough,” Michael added.

  I noticed that Mags and Journey were hanging back, watching the scene carefully, as though it were a series of whipping live wires.

  Raven sounded flustered as she threw her hands in the air. “If this has nothing to do with Bo, then I demand you two spill what it is that has you at each other’s throats.”

  Oh, God …

  Regan and I looked at each other, his face paling as his eyes grew wide. Ember and Willow turned, facing each other with their hands on their hip as if they were silently daring each other to say it.

  Just when I thought one of them had come up with a fabulous lie, Ember slowly lifted her chin and turned to face the band.

  “For months … months … Willow has insisted that she and I are sisters. Half sisters. I’ve told her to drop it a thousand times, and she won’t. Now is a good a time as any to put it to rest, don’t you think.”

  Ember tucked her hair behind her ears, and I watched a tear roll down Solstice’s cheek.

  “Mom,” Willow spoke with the vulnerability of a lost toddler. “I’m right, aren’t I?”

  Ember snapped. “Come on, you’re completely ridiculous.”

  At once, Raven moved to Ashby’s side, and Michael clutched Solstice’s hand. They all looked at each other in a way that made me move to Ember and grab her hand. She looked up at me with the hope of the last few months shattered in her eyes.

  Solstice cleared her throat. “She’s right … Willow is right.”

  The words “Willow’s right” dropped like an atom bomb over the group as we stood in a gorgeous, unassuming park in Northern California. Out of the corner of my eye, I watched Journey and Mags turn and walk back to their picnic blanket, never once looking over their shoulder. Regan looked like he didn’t know what to do, but being the kind of guy he is, he stepped closer to me and Ember. From just behind me I heard the release of Willow’s tears. Stranded and alone against the side of the RV as her parents walked around us to get to her.

  Parents.

  Ember stared at hers, then moved her gaze to Willow.

  “No.” Ember shook her head, and I could feel the muscles trembling in her hands. “No …”

  “Sweetie,” Raven let go of Ashby’s hand and stepped toward Ember, who took a step back.

  “Then who … if we’re … who is … no …”

  “Girls,” Michael spoke with his arm around Willow. “We should talk about this inside.” He nodded to the RV and led Willow and his wife up the stairs.

  “Let’s go,” Ashby whispered, placing his arm around Ember’s shoulders.

  “No … no …” Ember was in a daze, her tone getting angrier by the moment.

  I kissed her temple and gave her hand a soft squeeze. “I’ll be right here when you come out.”

  She whipped her head around, staring at me in apparent fear. “You’re not coming?”

  My eyes moved over the fragile family, and I stroked Ember’s cheek with my thumb. “This is between you and them, okay? I’ll literally be standing right here when you come out.”

  Ember leaned against Ashby’s body as he led her up the stairs into the RV. Raven mouthed a grateful “thank you” to me as she followed the pair, shutting the door behind her.

  As soon as they were out of sight, I rubbed my hand over my mouth, leaving it there as I took a deep breath.

  “Shit,” I mumbled with my hand still over my mouth.

  Regan let out a heavy breath. “Yeah … shit. Want to go for a walk, or something?”

  I shook my head. “I told her I’d be here when they were done.”

  “It could take forever.”

  “Yep.”

  Regan nodded and posted up next to me. “So, what … the hell? Ember looks exactly like her mom, and Willow looks like her mom.”

  I turned my head, watching Regan play DNA connect-the-dots in his head.

  I shrugged. “And, it doesn’t help that Ashby and Michael kind of look alike. Not like brothers, but maybe cousins … God, I don’t know. Suddenly I can’t remember what the hell anyone looks like.” I squatted down on my heels and Regan followed.

  “They have the same exact eyes.” He sat all the way on the ground, resting his hands behind him as he stretched his legs out in front of him.

  “Ember and Willow?”

  His eyebrows shot up. “You’ve never noticed?”

  I sighed, sinking my body onto the loose gravel at the edge of the parking lot. “It was the first thing I noticed when I met Willow for the first time last year. It startled me, honestly. To see the first thing I ever noticed about November mirrored back on the face of a childhood friend of hers? Jesus …”

  “It’s not just the color, either. It’s the shape, the way they sit on their faces …” Regan trailed off.

  “This isn’t good.” My mouth dried at the implications.

  Regan sat forward, bending his knees. “So … that means one of them grew up with a dad that wasn’t their biological dad, then, right?”

  The thought speared me in a way I hadn’t felt pain in a long time. Ember and her dad had an amazing relationship. It was peaceful and respectful, a silent harmony always flowing between them.

  “That’s why Ember never wanted to talk about it. I mean, Christ, Regan, we talk about everything and she didn’t even want to talk about this. Not one sentence. There was nothing I could do to even ease into the conversation.”

  “Do you think she knew?”

  I shrugged and shook my head. “I have no fucking idea. I honestly think she didn’t even want to think about it. For months this has been bubbling under the surface. Fuck, I want to ask this woman to marry me and I can’t even get her to talk about something this big?” My heart raced. I couldn’t reach Ember about this. She kept me away. I wondered if she was still going to push me away when she walked out of that RV.

  From behind me, soft footsteps carried a softer voice. “You guys will be okay. This will be okay.” Mags brushed her fingertips along my back as she and Journey sat on either side of me.

  “I’m gonna call Georgia. I’ll be back in a bit.” Regan stood, brushing dust from his jeans as he walked away.

  I could hardly blame him for needing some space from the conversation, and I respected his desire to give me privacy, but I could have used a little assistance with the Hippie Peace Force that surrounded me.

  “Do you want to take a walk, too?” Journey nudged my arm with her elbow.

  Mags looked around me to her parter. “He told November he’d be right here when she came out.” She planted a soft kiss on my cheek. “I think that’s sweet.”

  “It’s necessary. Did you two know anything?”

  Mags looked to the sky as Journey let out a slight sigh.

  Fantastic.

  “Come on, Mags,” I pleaded.

  Mags ran her hand over her short brown hair, stopping it at the back of her neck. When she looked at me, her large brown eyes were uncertain. “It’s not my story to tell, Bo.”

  As a matter of course, I looked to Journey for a second opinion. Her blonde dreadlocks moved slowly as she shook her head in apology.

  I was growing annoyed—and more anxious—as the minutes passed, though I was sure they felt longer inside that RV than out where I was sitting. “Fine. If you two don’t mind, I’d rather wait here alone.”

  Without another word, the couple stood and wandered through two thick trees and into an open field far from the RV. Every other second, or so, I wanted to bail from my post a
nd join them in the sun. In a world that existed only an hour before. The world where Ember knew where she came from. Given the unrest Ember discussed in her childhood—always moving from place to place—she always said that her family was what anchored her. I didn’t know what was going on inside that RV, but I readied the rowboat anyway.

  ***

  A few hours passed before any signs of life came from the RV. Regan had returned earlier, but grabbed my guitar from underneath the vehicle and posted up under a tree a couple hundred feet away, toying with the strings. At some point, Journey and Mags made their way back to the second RV in our dysfunctional caravan, and I hadn’t seen them in two hours.

  My legs were alternating between burning and falling asleep when the door opened. In a second I shot to my feet, regretting the hasty movement as my legs woke angrily. With grace on my side, Ember was the first out of the RV. There wasn’t anything in my emotional history that could have prepared me for what awaited.

  With swollen eyes, red splotches across her paler cheeks, and her hair tied back from her face, Ember moved slowly down the stairs. The sounds from my guitar ceased from behind me, as Regan appeared to be taking in the scene.

  I stepped toward her and held out my hand. When she reached me she didn’t look up. She simply took my hand and started walking toward the far end of the parking lot.

  “We’re renting a car and driving to the next venue.” Her voice was hoarse and further away than I’d ever heard. She didn’t try to clear her throat as she continued. “You and I are driving to the rest of the tour dates, okay? I’ve called the car company and they’ll be here in twenty minutes. Can you get our things?”

  I stopped us at the edge of the grass and grabbed her shoulders, turning her to face me. When she still wouldn’t look up, I lifted her chin with my fingers. Reluctantly, her eyes moved to mine.

  “Ember,” I whispered. “What happened?”

  Without hesitation, her face melted into a torrent of tears. Words stumbled out fragmented between sobs. “Just … just get the stuff, okay?”

  I pulled her to me, holding her head to my chest, still left with as many questions as I had hours earlier. When her cries quieted, I kissed the top of her head. “I’ll be right back.”