Holy cow. He was serious.
I folded up my legs in the lawn chair and turned all the way to face him. “I’m guessing this is a long story. Start wherever you want. I will do my best not to have Ayla’s latest song running through my head.”
“Emma.” His mouth twitched in a half-smile.
“I’m sorry, it’s just?—”
“I really want to kiss you.”
My heart thumped. “I’m sitting right here. Not going to stop you.”
Ashford leaned forward, tilting his head. His lips looked so inviting.
But then he grimaced. “Itisa long story. It’s not my favorite either. If I kiss you, I won’t be able to stop, and I need to get this out.”
“Okay. Kissing later, then.”
He took a deep breath. Blew it out again.
“I told you about Lori’s family. How her dad, the colonel, was so cruel to them. But Ayla got the worst of it. She was a sensitive kid. Different. After their mom left, Ayla ran away to New York City. She was sixteen. This was about a year after I’d met them. Lori tried to get in touch with her. To send her money. But Ayla wanted nothing to do with any of her family.”
“I assume Maxwell is a stage name.”
“You assume right. Lori googled her constantly over the years, trying to keep track of her sister the best she could. Bythe time Lori got pregnant with Maisie, Ayla was developing a fanbase online. Then her career blew up like wildfire. Ayla was all over TV, radio, socials. The damn magazines in the grocery checkout line. Lori was proud of her sister, but it hurt too. Since Ayla didn’t want Lori in her life.”
“I bet.”
“It was wild. Suddenly, Ayla was a household name with millions of people clamoring for any scrap of info about her. We decided it would be better if nobody knew Lori was her sister. We didn’t want any of that attention on us. Much less to seem like we were capitalizing on her fame. I couldn’t tell Callum because my little brother has trouble keeping his mouth shut. But if I didn’t tell Callum, that meant I couldn’t tell Grace.”
“That must’ve been hard.”
“A little, but really, Ayla’s life didn’t have anything to do with us. Her fame was like a galaxy out in space. We could see it, but it might as well have been another universe. A couple of years went by. Then Lori’s father died, and we went for the funeral. Ayla didn’t come. She sent some assistant. But I think that’s how Lori managed to get Ayla’s number.”
Ashford pulled a phone from his pocket. His device had a black case, but this phone was glittery purple. His knuckles were white from how hard he was squeezing it.
“Was that Lori’s?” I asked.
“She dropped it the night she died, and the police found it. I guessed her passcode after a couple tries. Checked her call log. Lori had called a Los Angeles number several times in the weeks before she died. Including the last night of her life.”
“Ayla?”
He nodded. “Ayla didn’t show up to Lori’s funeral either, thankfully, because that would’ve been a circus. But I called that LA number. Ayla answered. She claimed Lori had left hera voicemail the night she died, but there was too much static to hear what she’d said.”
“Do you believe that?”
“Not really. But what can I do? Before then, I’d realized Lori was keeping something from me. I thought it was about dating some new guy. But what if Lori was worried about something, and called her sister? Because for some reason, she couldn’t trust me.”
I knew he was thinking of what the driver had seen just before Lori was hit. Someone else on the highway who’d pushed her.
“After Lori’s death, why would Ayla keep that from you? Or from the police?”
He shook his head. “Wish I knew.”
“What’s going on now? Why has Ayla been contacting you?”
“To see Maisie. Be a part of her life. Ayla finally realized that Maisie is the only family she has left, and she won’t stop calling. I block one number, and she just gets another. Always an LA area code, even though I assume she’s calling from all over the world.”
“But you don’t trust her.”
