Under the Lights by Rebecca Royce

to his place, he’d go home with her. It would work. She snuggled closer, and he let himself close his eyes. A quick nap and they’d go at it again.
    She felt so sweet in his arms.
    The ringing woke him. With the room bathed in darkness, he creaked his eyes open to look at the clock. It was two in the morning.
    “I set the alarm for four thirty. Turn it off.” His voice sounded as if a frog had taken residence in his throat.
    “It’s not the alarm.”
    Teirney rolled out of his arms, and he groaned. Sometime during the last couple hours, his arm had fallen asleep with her perched on it. Now that she had moved, feeling rushed in, and he had to raise it to make it stop burning.
    “Hello?”
    It took him a second to recognize she was on the phone. He shook his head. Ian had never woken well when he was startled awake. Something was wrong if the phone rang at two. Even his slow-moving neurons grasped the fact.
    “What is it?” He flipped the light on, and the room blurred while his vision adjusted.
    “Oh.” Teirney’s cry filled the room. Tears streamed down her cheeks as he pulled her against him. “Yes, yes. I’m coming. Now.”
    She tugged out of his arms, and he released her. Teirney’s voice was strained, her movements jerky.
    “Where are my pants?”
    “What happened?”
    He rose fast, shoving his own boxers on while he searched for her clothing. It took him a minute, and then he eventually found her pants behind the chair across the room.
    “She’s dead.” She choked on the words, and his worst fear about what could have happened settled around them.
    “Your grandmother?”
    At her nod, he grabbed her and hugged her tightly. “I am so incredible sorry, Teirney. I can’t tell you how much….”
    She cut him off, shoving him away, hard. It didn’t hurt, yet he was stunned she had done it. He let her go immediately.
    “I don’t wish to be held. I need to rush home. There are things to do, people to call. I wasn’t there.” Her voice hitched again. “She died without me there. All this time, I took care of her, and she passed away without me there to hold her hand.”
    “Teirney.”
    “No, I never should have done this. It was selfish, and I’ll never forgive myself. I’m worse than my parents. They never promised her anything. I made sure she knew I would be there.”
    She collected her things as she ranted, and, although he refused to take her words to heart while she was in such a lost state, he felt a burning in his chest. He’d made her come tonight, kind of pushed her into it, because he wanted her to be able to relax and enjoy what was between them.
    “I….”
    “Ian.” She threw her hands in the air. “I need a taxi.”
    “Right.”
    He threw himself into action. Getting the car would take too long. A taxi would get her home fastest. The doorman could call them one. He threw on the rest of his clothes and chased after her out the door.
    When they got outside, the doorman did manage to flag down a taxi, and she rushed to the door with him right on her heels until she turned to face him.
    “Stay here.”
    “What? No, I’m coming with you.”
    She shook her head. “I don’t have time to argue. There’s nothing for you to do there. You have a show tonight. Go to sleep.”
    “No.” He grabbed her shoulders. “I’m not letting you go through her death alone.”
    “Ian.” She shrugged him off. “I’m always alone. Nothing new there. I don’t want you to come with me, okay?”
    He jerked away, his heart in his throat, and watched as she got in the taxi, which sped off to take her home. She didn’t care for him with her when things were really bad. Nothing had changed. He bent over and gripped his knees. The world felt heavier than it had before, and not only because Teirney’s poor grandmother had passed. His girl didn’t want him when things were bad.
    “Sir?” The doorman called to him and he raised his head. “I think you should return inside.”
    Ian followed the