by Mia Josephs
He loved that she’d gone from not sharing anything to sharing everything, and that was something he definitely wanted to continue.
“I get why you’re worried, but the idea of not being with you...of not trying to make something out of what it’s like to be around you, with Jonah… It’s suffocating.”
“You can breathe fine without us.”
His heart stopped and then thunked harder. “I don’t want to breathe without you.”
Chris’ phone beeped again. Dammit. “We’re ignoring that one too.”
“You…” She turned toward him smiling. “I sit here, knowing that I’m maybe being a little crazy, and you’re just… You just talk to me until I feel okay. And I don’t… I don’t feel weird about it anymore.”
“I am so amazing,” he teased. “Hang around. Find out.”
He watched her full lips pull into a smile, and his heart swelled that it was because of him.
“I hate that it’s so busy,” he continued. “I hope you understand. I hope you realize that if I didn’t have this big thing going on, that every second would be wrapped up with you and Jonah.”
“Every second, huh?” She turned to face him, readjusting until she straddled his lap.
“This is such a perfect way to wake up.” He kissed her collarbone. The smoothness of her neck. The angle of her jaw. The corner of her mouth. Touched his tongue lightly to her upper lip until her mouth opened.
“Auntie Corinne!” Jonah’s small footsteps banged on the stairs.
“I think our morning is over.” Chris smiled, knowing that in any other situation, he’d be going insane, but he was too damn happy they were there to care that they’d been interrupted, and much more worried about covering up before they scarred the poor kid for life.
Corinne slipped off his lap, snatching the sheets and pulling them over her chest.
Jonah burst into the room with wide eyes. “Wow!”
Jonah ran for the glass, immediately pressing his face against the un-streaked surface and his hands rested out to the sides, also pressed against the glass. Corinne cringed at the mess he was making.
“The ocean!”
She slipped her tank on and smoothed her hands under the blankets for panties.
Damn.
She should have planned, but she was new at the parenting and dating thing. Very new.
“Here,” Chris whispered sliding the fabric into her hand.
She glanced and he was back in a t-shirt and boxers.
“How did you get dressed so fast?” she whispered with a laugh.
“Can we go to the beach?” Jonah whirled around and Corinne froze for a moment before remembering the sheet still covered her.
“Yeah,” Corinne answered as she pushed her hair off her face.
Chris’ phone beeped again. “Okay. I’m going to go ahead and get this.”
“Morning sunshine!” Max called just before stepping in the room.
Too much at once. Chris on the phone, Jonah jumping up and down in the massive room and pressing his face against the window and then Max, looking equal parts bemused and annoyed.
“Morning.” Corinne glanced down.
Max stopped next to the bed, looked up at Jonah and then toward Chris who was looking the other way and tapping on his phone. “You sure this is what you want?” he whispered.
She sighed. “I have no idea—”
“What’s up?” Chris asked as he turned. “My room, really Max?”
“Lita’s downstairs. Has been downstairs. She’s driving me insane, Chris. I think she was a good move on our part. But me? Insane.” His eyes widened. “I need you now. Donovan arrives today.”
Chris waved his phone. “I just got off the phone with Lita.”
“Good then!” Max slapped his hands together with a smile.
“Beach?” Jonah asked and Max paused, watching him for a moment.
Corinne grabbed her jeans and quickly pulled them on under the covers.
“I’m Max.” Max stepped forward watching Jonah almost like he was his own.
Jonah stuck his hand out. “I’m Jonah. Pleased to meet you Max.”
Chris grinned and Corinne warmed with how proud she was.
Max took his hand and stared back at Corinne mouthing, “Just like him.”
A pang of worry rocketed through her, just like every time Jonah’s dad was mentioned. Something she didn’t even want to admit to herself was that part of her being on edge was the always present fear that Jonah’s dad would at some point gain an interest in his son. His parental rights had been stripped, but still…
It was something she’d never shake.
“You going to continue to add to the awkwardness Max?” Chris chuckled.
Max just laughed sliding his hands into his pressed pockets. “If you’d followed my rules from the beginning, there would be no awkwardness.”
“Just as much my fault, Max.” Corinne swatted at him before standing up, vowing to take a shower and figure out what in her pack was wearable while Chris worked.
“Jonah,” Chris said. “Why don’t you show Max your room?”
Corinne snorted and Max’s eyes widened again.
Jonah leapt toward Max, clasped his hand, and pulled him from the room. Max tossed an unreadable look over his shoulder at Chris before they disappeared.
“Max okay?” Corinne asked.
Chris grabbed her from the side, lifting her from the ground.
Her scream echoed in the room as Chris hauled her into his bathroom. “Shower?” He pressed his lips to her cheek and walked toward a large walk-in shower.
Corinne pushed him away. “You have to work. I have to feed a five-year old and rescue Max.”
His smile fell a little as she backed up. Chris nodded and stepped around her, pushing open a door into a massive walk-in closet. “I had...crap...the girl who picked the clothes for the tour...Becca…? Ann…? Anyway. She picked up a few things you might like.”
“Like for what?” Corinne stared at the massive space. She’d have never pegged Chris as a big closet guy, but the space was immaculate and filled with stacks of folded, color-coded t-shirts and hanging jeans…
“To wear, Corinne.” He stepped into the room and gestured to a few small neatly folded piles on an ottoman. “I had no idea… I mean, I see you in yoga clothes and sometimes jeans…” He jerked his head, flipping his hair back again. “Shit. I’m always afraid you’re going to read in things that I don’t mean. I have no idea how to spoil you because you don’t want anything that I have any power to give you. These clothes make zero statement about how you dress, or how I want you to look. I didn’t pick most of them out. I just wanted to do something and I can’t imagine that you’re a jewelry girl.”
“You…” She wanted to protest, wanted to wonder so many things, but she made a decision to trust that he was trying to be nice. She touched the top of a stack of jeans not wanting to even think about how much he’d spent. “This is too much.”
“It’s not too much. I had no idea on sizes, so Becca, or Ann or whoever, got to go to the store with the idea that you’re smoking hot with gorgeous skin and handful-sized breasts,” he teased. “Keep everything. Keep only some. Whatever. I just… You dropped everything to come here, and you let me in when I showed up there, I had to—”
“Stop rambling.” She slipped her fingers around the waist of his boxers and tugged him closer. “I’m going to ignore everything crazy that’s screaming inside me and say thank you.”
His arm came around her lower back, clutching her to him. “Shower?”
“Corinne!” Jonah yelled. “Come down and see! They’re playing soccer on the beach!”
Chris managed to pout while smiling and kissed her nose and then her lips. Her legs weakened and he held her to him. “This has been the almost-perfect way to start my day.”
She smiled, sucked in her bottom lip and agreed. “See you in a bit.”
The upstairs of Chris’ house was silent. Jon
ah sat on the porch watching the beach, and Corinne lounged in a new pair of insanely soft jeans and tank that was made out of some kind of magical cotton. She was overwhelmed by the gift, but at least he hadn’t gone out and filled his closet with mini-dresses and heels. And she didn’t have jeans to wear that she hadn’t hauled firewood in at some point.
“Can we go to the beach?” Jonah asked.
Corinne swallowed. She knew he’d want to go down. She knew that she’d almost definitely just blend. Almost. One person knowing who she was, or one photographer, or anything tying Corinne to this place or Jaxen or Jonah… Now she understood why Chris spent so much time inside.
“For a few minutes.”
TWENTY-ONE
“Do you know why she moved to that tiny town in Washington?” Max asked as he drove Chris. Away from his home. Away from Corinne and Jonah…
Max twitched in his seat, adjusting the volume on the music, changing the temperature settings…
“Because she’s from there?” Chris wasn’t in the mood. He’d missed their morning. Was missing their lunch for a meeting in downtown, and he was pissed because Donovan was coming in later that day, so he was probably going to miss something else. On top of all that, Max had dropped that there was a charity concert with Maroon 5, Kings of Leon, The Neon Trees and a few others that night where Chris was supposed to be for one song. All that work for one damn song.
“She’s not from there,” Max countered, still twitching even more than normal. “She’s from Seattle. She moved there to get away from all of this because even Seattle felt too big for her after leaving this shithole. She does not want this life, Chris.” Max pointed at him. “You do.”
“She’s here.” He kicked his foot into the floorboards of Max’s Porsche, knowing he was acting like a petulant kid.
“Because she’s falling for you.”
Even though he was sorta pissed at Max, he felt a smile form on his face. He loved that Max said Corinne was falling for him. Loved the idea of it. Loved hearing about it.
“She wants a small town life with a nice family and PTA meetings and quiet and peace and none of the shit that follows you around whether you want it to or not.” Max’s voice was more parental scolding than friend and manager.
“So, you want me to just walk away?” Chris asked.
Max sighed as he tapped on the rolled sleeves of his shirt. “No. And it’s not like you’d listen to me anyway. I just want you to really think about why you like her. Is it for the totally selfish reason I think it is, in that you’re writing again, which keeps your mind off all the things you’d rather have running through your system than words?”
“I wouldn’t rather be high than write, Max, or I’d have caved in to that months ago.”
“Fair enough. But you need to really think about whether or not you’re willing to give up your life for hers, because asking her to give up what she’s so carefully built just to step back into the chaos she barely escaped from, isn’t fair. At all.” His voice was low and harsh and maybe more serious than Chris had ever heard him.
His stomach twisted and turned. Max...had a point. He hated that Max had a point, but he did. Was Chris just being selfish?
“We both know you’re not going to give up your music for her. And no one should give up what they love for someone else. But with that comes everything she escaped.”
“I get it, Max.” Max was right. Chris wouldn’t be the same guy without his music. Without moving forward with his music. He was smart enough to know he wouldn’t be happy. He couldn’t even think about Corinne having that same unhappiness he’d have without his music, without her quiet safety.
“The clothes, Jonah’s room. Was that for you or for them?” Max asked.
Both. To be honest. Both. “Can we be done now?” Chris asked.
“I love that girl. She’s difficult at times, but—”
“You helped put her in a shit situation before, and you don’t want to do it again.” Chris was guessing, but he knew he had it right.
It was Max’s turn to be annoyed. Chris watched his knuckles turn white on the steering wheel. “No. I never want to be any part of her getting hurt again.”
“I think I’m in love.”
“Well, hell.” Max sighed. “That really complicates things, doesn’t it?”
Or makes it all much simpler. Wasn’t love supposed to conquer everything?
The second they stopped in Chris’ driveway, he jogged into the house, wanting to spend some time with Jonah and Corinne before Donovan arrived.
“Welcome home,” Donovan said with a small smile as soon as he stepped inside. “Sorry, I’m here, and this is your house, and…”
Chris waved him off. “It’s fine. Trust me. You should have seen the number of people in my bedroom this morning.”
Donovan cocked a brow, his messy, red hair a shade longer than it had been in Oregon.
“I’m looking for Corinne.” He walked toward the porch, knowing he was being a shitty host to Donovan, but even worse for Corinne. “Have you met Lita?”
“Terrified to,” he admitted. “I just got dropped off a second ago by…Miranda? And she said to wait in this room for you or Max.”
“There ya are kid!” Max boomed as he stepped in the door.
“Corinne and Jonah are outside on the beach,” Donovan said to Chris and then turned his attention to Max. “Great to be here.”
“Good, good.” Max slapped him on the back. “Because if Christian Meyer continues to be an idiot about a certain someone, you might be able to take his place.”
Donovan glanced between the two men a few times. “Uh…”
“He’s messing with us,” Chris said even though he wasn’t totally sure that Max was just messing around. “I’ll be back in a sec. Griffin’s downstairs with Lita. He’s a cool guy. Lita is...a perfectionist. I’ll be back in to smooth things over once I find Corinne and Jonah.”
“Smooth things over?” he heard Donovan say as he took off down the stairs for the door to the beach. Maybe they were still out there.
The beach was public, so every once in a while there were problems with photographers, but when he popped his head out, there were just a few people. Too windy for the California population, he guessed.
He heard Corinne’s laughter first and started her direction.
Jonah was grinning from ear to ear running in the edges of the cold water. They were like a moving postcard of happy normal. Why did Max think they wouldn’t work here?
“Christian Meyer?”
He turned just in time to hear a camera click. Shit.
Chris smiled a little and nodded. He should get Corinne and maybe sneak a few minutes with her and Jonah before sitting down to play a bit with Lita and Donovan.
And Corinne could sit in the studio with them all, but Lita would probably have a fit if there were a kid in the room. Jonah was good, but there’s no way he’d be still and quiet for the couple hours Lita would probably want. Chris would push back at some point, but on Donovan’s first day, it wasn’t a good idea.
Without Jonah it would be…
But he stopped, his chest aching. Without Jonah it would only be half of what he wanted. Only… everything about his life was more complicated with him. Corinne had taken him out of school on Friday, and wanted to make sure he was back in school on Monday. One weekend was all he was getting.
And there was a concert that night, which he did not want to go to without Corinne, but with Jonah here and her not wanting to be seen... All of Max’s words and warnings slammed into him again, but they were so much to think about. He took a step closer and froze when he realized the man with the camera was still there.
“You out here with anyone?” he asked glancing up the beach.
A lump formed in Chris’ throat. She was right there, but far enough that she wouldn’t see him. Wouldn’t know he’d come down. He was afraid to do something as simple as play with them on the edges of the waves because it would mean
that Jonah’s picture might show up somewhere. “No.” He turned toward the house with all of Max’s warning ringing in his head. “Just needed air.”
TWENTY-TWO
She shuffled her feet over and over on the doormat, trying to get off the sand. Jonah was stripped and running for the bathtub.
As she moved down the hall to the studio, Chris sang a song she hadn’t heard before. She froze to hear more, but his voice stopped abruptly.
“So, that’ll be my first song after the crossover that me and Donovan do.”
Lita laughed a little. “So, you guys aren’t even going to give the audience a breather between, huh?”
“That was the point, right?” Chris asked. “That we each get some time onstage, and overlap and that the show’s not about just one person.”
“I still can’t believe you guys invited me in on this.” Corinne knew Donovan’s voice right away.
“You are still the warm-up,” Lita teased.
Corinne cracked the door and Chris was on his feet immediately, smiling wide and moving across the room.
“Can’t stay,” she said. “Jonah’s in the tub.”
He didn’t pause before his arms came around her and again, the frustrations of trying to fill a day without him, when she’d come to see him were melting away.
“I thought me and Jonah would hit the store. There are a few things—”
Chris tensed and she stopped.
“Let’s send someone out.” His voice was stilted, and Corinne pushed away to see his face.
“What’s going on?”
“If you don’t want to be photographed, you’ll want to send someone. Apparently the numbers outside the front gate have doubled. So, you could take a limo to the store, or—”
“No.” Corinne leaned back against the wall. “This is suffocating, you know?”
Chris’ eyes closed briefly. “I’m so sorry. It’s just timing. I swear I’m never this interesting.”