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"No," I hurried to assure him "Killian, she would be the first person to tell you that that is not true"

He bent his head toward s for hi it was a balm for his worry I knew if it was, it was only temporary Like a parent, Killian saw it as his full-time job to worry over his sister

"What were your parents like?" I asked as we pulled back fro surprised by the question "The only other person who’s ever asked me that is Autumn"

"You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to" I didn’t want to push him

"It’s fine," he reassured, and I sank back down to rest my head on his shoulder "They deserve to be talked about To be reood parents Pete adoptedbut ood man You knoas a police officer?"

"No, I didn’t know that"

"He was my real dad’s complete opposite He was CID"

"What’s CID?"

"Criation Departuys" He laughed softly, humorlessly "Hehe wasway he confessed that "I’lad you had that"

"You never knew your father?"

"No But my mom said he was a hero too There was an ambush First a roadside IED that blew off his friend Mullen’s leg Everyone took cover My dad wouldn’t leave Mullen so they offered firing cover while he went back for hi Mullen to safety Mullen survived Mom said he came to visit when I was four, but I don’t remember it"

"Your dad was a hero"

"Yeah, he was I don’t ed for the idea of hihost of him It’s sad," I whispered, "that we both had heroes in our lives, only for them to be taken away from us e needed them most"

His ansas a sweet kiss to my temple

I nuzzled into him "What was your mom like?"

"Brilliant" He answered i their kids a row for coht there with us She’d takeand all the while she’d crack rude jokes they couldn’t repeat to their parents Looking back, they weren’t that rude, but they seemed so at the tireed and then his voice lowered with pain "Sometimes I wished they’d been just a little bit awful"

So it wouldn’t hurt so bad

I only allowed our moment of sad affinity for a few seconds and then I distracted hi him when he first kneanted to work in the music industry

He talked I listened I talked He listened

And that’s hoas

Easy

Our voices drifted together into the wee hours of theat all

THE SOUND CRACKLED IN MY ear through the headphones and I heard Oliver say, "It sounds good, but you dropped that last note"

I stared at Oliver sitting at the recording deck behind the glass of the sound booth and then flicked a look at Killian He stood next to my producer with his arhed "We’ve been at this for three hours without a break I’ot to lay down the vocals so we have plenty of tiure out production," Oliver remindeda break, but he just stood there

We’d been secretly dating for the last three weeks