Between Breaths (The Seattle Sound Series Book 2) by Alexa Padgett Read Free Book Online

enough to fit in. I refused to even try. Stupid, I know, but in my defense, my dad had just died.” I shook my head. “God. I said all that aloud, didn’t I? I’m officially embarrassed.”
    “No need for embarrassment. I’ve been told sharing is cleansing.” He paused, clearly pondering something. “My dad died a few years back. I miss him.”
    Something else we shared. I picked at my water label, head down. My feelings toward Hayden built into more than a case of lust.
    “I miss mine, too. So.” I said, flailing and failing to pick a safe topic.
    Hayden linked his fingers, his elbows on his knees. “Before you ask—and because I know you’re interested—my mum has pancreatic cancer. I didn’t find out until a couple of days ago. Her nurse called my record label. Took time for her information to get routed to me.”
    Something in his voice caused me to pause, consider what I could see of his face behind the glasses and the deep shadow cast by the cap. The woman in the truck called out our order. Hayden hopped up from the rough bench we’d commandeered. Holding the bags, he followed me as I turned toward the park a block or so to the east. We found a spot near the fountain with a view of the Space Needle.
    Opening my bag, I started eating. Skipping breakfast was a bad idea. One of these days I’d actually remember to eat it.
    Hayden followed suit, making humming noises in the back of his throat as he sampled the various items in his bowl. We ate in silence for a few minutes, comfortable in the quiet between us. I finished and set my empty container back in the sack and relaxed into the bench, tilting my face up toward the watery sun.
    Hayden packed up his trash. His arm rested on the back of the bench, inches from my hair. Tension pulled at his mouth, firming his jaw and neck. His glasses faced the Space Needle. He was thinking, hard. He took off his sunglasses, tucking them into the pocket of his T-shirt.
    “I didn’t want to come here. I plan to head back to the band tonight. After I talk to her doctor, square away the finances with the director.”
    “You said you and your mother have a rocky relationship?”
    “That’s a polite way of stating it.”
    His eyes narrowed as if he considered something but discarded the idea, and I mourned the loss of his openness. It was obvious Hayden wasn’t emotionally cold like Ken—he felt deeply, but he kept that part of himself behind a wall. I’d bet his emotional repression started with his mother.
    “My mum left when I was little. My dad took me back to Melbourne, where he’d grown up. She never called or wrote.”
    I sucked in a breath. We were more alike than I’d realized. I didn’t think about it, just leaned into his side and gripped his hand, trying to offer what little support I could.
    An immediate and desperate craving to get even closer speared through me. Either he didn’t feel the attraction or he was lost in his thoughts, because he squeezed my fingers with gentle pressure.
    He met my gaze, confusion and sadness mingling in his eyes. “I’m leaving as soon as she dies, maybe before. This is duty.”
    “I get that,” my voice regretful. Like mine, his mother had been selfish, thinking of her own happiness. Never mind her child’s suffering.
    He shrugged, as if trying to brush off the pain that never quite left. “I keep thinking about how she chose to leave me. I can’t imagine making the same choice.”
    He turned back to look at the fountain. So him being here wasn’t just duty. He’d been thrust into an untenable situation and was floundering, both with his feelings for his mother and how to proceed as an orphan.
    “My mom left my dad when I was six. My dad was active-duty military and she hated the moving.”
    “Sounds tough.”
    “Got worse when she started a new family here in Seattle.”
    “And that was that? For you and your sister?” Hayden’s voice sharpened.
    My turn to turn away from his all-too-knowing stare.