Simon: Rockstar Romance (The ProVokaTiv Series Book 3) by Cara Nelson Read Free Book Online Page A

asked.
    “Well, my family is important, but I don’t really relate to them anymore.”
    My heart did a kerplunk in my stomach. As I watched, Simon’s blue eyes developed a storm in them. I had no idea what, but something about his family made him a bit sad, which made me feel horrible. “Do they have a hard time with your fame or something?”
    “No, they’re fine with it.”
    “Oh,” I said.  His mood was still slightly somber. “Any plans to see them soon?”
    “My brother Daniel will be on leave from the Air Force and we’ll be hooking up for my grandmother’s birthday party. That should be okay.”
    “Is he older or younger?” I asked. I leaned forward just a bit and realized that I had my fork stabbed into my food, but was not lifting it to my mouth. Why?
    “Younger by two years.” I watched Simon as he took a bite of his food and briefly got distracted, wanting to see some signs that he liked it. He didn’t wince so that was a good thing.
    “I have a younger sister, too. Love her to death but she was a pain in the butt growing up. Was your brother like that?” I suddenly felt anxious, a bit desperate for a conversation, and felt like my subject matter was about as boring as bringing up the weather on a first date. Wait—this wasn’t a date. Had to keep pounding that into my head. It was just a business meeting. A last chance to convince him to commit to my plan.
    “Did you ever lose her?” Simon asked, his voice barely a whisper.
    I looked at him, not wanting to show my shock at the odd question, but from his expression I could see that I had.  Okay Jessie, pick your jaw up and talk , I thought. “Sorry, did you say lose her?”
    “Yes.” Now Simon had his fork down, his fist clenched on the table, and he glanced at me over the rim of his can of Coke as he took a drink.
    “No, I can’t say that I did, thankfully. Why? Did you lose your brother?” I realized how harsh that sounded and quickly rambled. “I mean…uh…ugh…that didn’t sound right.”  I kept fumbling for words and Simon watched me, a bit entertained I suspected, and finally he let me off the hook.
    “It’s okay, Jessie. You didn’t lose my brother.”
    “What happened?” I asked.
    “When we were kids, I was eight and Daniel was six and we were out in the yard. We’d just gotten into trouble in the house for breaking a lamp, something like that, and mom shooed us outside, telling me to watch him. Well, I was only a kid and I got wrapped up in something and one of my friends came by, and I just didn’t pay attention. Suddenly my mom was yelling on the front stoop, ‘Simon, where’s Daniel?’ and he wasn’t anywhere.”
    “Scary,” I said, furrowing her brow.
    “Not really, I just assumed that he was hiding somewhere and trying to get me into more trouble. I was mad as hell, but then after ten minutes and then a half hour and a full hour, I was scared. My mom called my dad home from work and she called all around the neighborhood—called everyone we knew—to see if he was at anyone’s home. He wasn’t. They had me go down to the park and look for him. I went to our usual park and he wasn’t there. On a whim, I decided to go to the playground at our school and there he was, just swinging away like he didn’t have a care in the world. I was so pissed, but I was so happy too, you know? It was crazy.”
    I stared at Simon, drawn in by the number of intense feelings that flashed across his face as he shared his story. There was anger, fear, determination, each emotion blurring into the next. Still, it seemed like pretty normal kid-stuff to me. I wondered why it meant so much to him.
    “I’m glad he was all right,” I said finally.
    “He was and when I got him back home, Dad was home already, too, and we all went in the house. They started questioning Daniel first and when he said, ‘I told Simon but he wasn’t paying attention. He was talking to Jason,’ all eyes turned on me. I think you can fill in