Just One Spark (The Kingston Family 4)

His remorse was real and genuine, the raw pain in his voice and expression heart-wrenching. Cassidy might be biased when it came to Dash Kingston, but she had a feeling America would understand his teenage actions.

The show went to commercial. Dash had one more segment and remained in his seat. Cassidy walked to a private corner and quickly checked her phone for messages. Axel had texted to check in. She shot her brother a quick reply to let him know everything was okay.

The break was long, so she pulled up her Instagram account and scrolled through, her thumb stopping the screen on a picture Adam had posted. She hadn’t deleted or blocked him because he wasn’t a frequent poster, and in truth, she rarely thought about him enough to have considered it.

Until now.

The photos, actually a set of photos once she swiped left, stood out. They were staged and set on a gorgeous beach. The first one was a picture of Adam on one knee, an open ring box in hand. A brunette stood in front of him, her eyes wide, her hands over her mouth in surprise. Cassidy flipped to the next picture, which showed the woman’s hand, an engagement ring on her finger, a round diamond sparkling in the sunlight. And the final photo displayed the happy couple, Adam’s fiancée’s hand turned out, showing off the ring with the caption, We’re Engaged! added on to the picture.

Cassidy sucked in a breath, a combination of shock and nausea hitting her. Not over her ex getting married, she truly had no feelings for him now, but at how quickly he’d moved on to this stage of a new relationship.

Had Cassidy fallen for Dash? Yes, she had. But while she still had her internal struggle over potential issues between them, Adam had jumped to getting married. Which brought up the question, how long had they been seeing each other? Cassidy and Adam had only broken up a short time ago. Had Adam and his fiancée been sneaking around while Cassidy had been traveling with Sasha?

She pressed a hand to her stomach and looked around, remembering where she was and realizing she’d missed the return to live TV. She rushed back to her spot off-stage where Dash could see her. His jaw was tight as he spoke, his tension obvious until he saw her and relaxed back into his seat.

The interview ended shortly afterwards, and she blew out a relieved breath that it was over.

Dash stood and waited while someone removed his microphone, then headed toward her, and she met him off-stage. Together they walked back to the greenroom.

Nobody else was there and she pulled him into a hug. “Good job,” she said softly.

“What is it they say? The truth will set you free? Or give the world a story to talk about,” he muttered.

She stepped back and clasped his forearms, the muscles firm beneath her fingers. “You accomplished what you wanted to. You told your side and stopped hiding your pain. Do you feel any better for doing it?” she asked.

“Not as much as I thought I would, which tells me I need to talk to Heather.”

She nodded. “And I understand but it won’t be easy.”

“But it’s necessary.”

And she respected his need to do it. “I’m proud of you,” she said, her lips meeting his. She cared so much for this man, and the thought that what they had now might not last put a knot in her stomach.

“You can’t buy that kind of positive publicity,” a familiar voice said, interrupting the kiss.

They broke apart, turning at the sound of Dean’s voice. She hadn’t heard anyone come in. Obviously Dash hadn’t either, but Dean stood inside.

“What are you doing here?” Dash asked.

Dean shut the door behind him and strode over to where they stood. “I’m your manager. It’s my job to know where you are and be by your side when you need me.”

“Let me guess,” he said to Dean. “You avoided my calls because you didn’t want a one-on-one conversation where I could rip you a new one. But you figured if you showed up here, I’d be forced to be nice and not make a scene.”

The manager shrugged. “I was giving you time to cool off.” Dean, dressed in a suit for his trip to a national morning show, kept his voice low. “We’ve had disagreements before about how to handle the little things, and in the end, we worked it out and moved on with what was best for the band. No reason we can’t do that again.”

“What is best for the band.” Dash’s entire body vibrated with anger and his words sent chills along Cassidy’s skin. His fury simmered just below the surface, his hands in fists, his jaw set but Dean was too arrogant to realize how much trouble he was in.