Going to the desk near the window, I searched out a notepad and pen.
My Belle,
I’ll treasure every second we spent together.
Love,
Griffith
Then I wrote my cell number and placed the note next to her on my pillow.
My eyes drank her in until I received a text that my car was there. With a sigh, I headed towards the elevator. This fucking sucked. For the first time in my life, I wasn’t looking forward to recording. Music had been knocked down a notch and was no longer my favorite thing. That spot now belonged to a curvy brunette with a sweet laugh and smoking body. I was more determined than ever to return to her as soon as possible.
Chapter 8
Belle
I’d always been more of a morning person than a night owl, but that’d changed in the past few weeks since I usually talked to Griffith when I was already in bed for the night. Our schedules were kind of opposite each other. Mine started bright and early so I could get to the flower shop with enough time to do all of the arrangements before any of the weddings started in the chapel. Rising Phoenix tended to burn the midnight oil in the studio, but every single night he ducked out of their work to call me. It was the lifeline I held onto while we were apart; that connection I had with him while we were on the phone.
Tonight was no different, but our conversation wasn’t providing me with the comfort it had for the first two and a half weeks. It hadn’t the last few times we talked, and I’d told myself I was just being over-sensitive. That I was imagining the feeling that Griffith’s interest in me was starting to wane. But I couldn’t keep denying it. I needed to know what the heck was going on with him. “You seem really distracted. Is everything okay?”
“Hmm?”
I rolled over and punched my pillow in frustration. “Is this a bad time to talk? Are they waiting for you in the studio or something?”
“They’re always waiting for me when I call you.”
Wow. Okay, his answer wasn’t super comforting. If anything, it only made me feel worse. “Yeah, but it never really bothered you before.”
“What?” His voice was muffled, as though his hand was over the phone because the question was meant for someone else.
“Never mind,” I muttered, my eyes filling with tears. “Go take care of whatever it is that’s so important, and I guess I’ll talk to you later.” Or not, at the rate we were going.
I didn’t wait for him to respond. I couldn’t, not unless I wanted him to hear me cry since I had a sob bubbling up my chest. After stabbing my finger at the screen to end the call, I powered my phone down and dropped it on the bedside table. As desperate as I was to hear his voice, I was more afraid of what he might say. I’d thought I was ready to push him to tell me what was going on, but I was wrong. I couldn’t bear to face the possibility that he was starting to distance himself because it would make it easier to break up with me.
It was probably childish of me to hang up on Griffith and turn my phone off so he couldn’t call me, but at the moment I just didn’t have it in me to be an adult. Not only was I sad and scared, I was also exhausted—physically and mentally. Curling my body around my pillow, I gripped the sleeves of the shirt I was wearing in my fists. It was one of Griffith’s, and I’d worn it to bed every night since he’d left. Crying myself to sleep, I couldn’t help but wonder if it was the only thing I’d have left of him from our two nights together.
Early the next morning, I plastered a smile on my face when the bell above the flower shop door jingled. When I realized it was just Aurora, I gave up trying to impress anyone. It wasn’t worth the effort since there was no way a fake smile was going to fool my sister. She knew me too well.
“Dude. What’s going on with you? You look like the walking dead.” She rushed to my side and reached out to check my temperature by placing her wrist against my forehead. “Are you sick? Do we need to get someone in to cover for you so you can go home and rest? We can’t have you infecting any of our brides and grooms.”
I pushed her hand away and rolled my eyes at her overreaction. “No, I’m just tired. I didn’t sleep very well last night.”
Her familiar brown eyes, so much like my own, filled with worry. “You’ve been tired a lot lately, but this is a whole new level. You look like you’re about ready to faint any second.”
“Maybe my late-night phone calls with Griffith are just catching up to me.” My voice cracked on his name, and any hope I had of her accepting my excuse flew out the window.
“Sit down before you pass out,” she ordered, practically shoving me into a chair before she stomped over to the door. After flipping over the “Open” sign, she turned the lock and hurried back to my side. Crouching down in front of me, she took my hands in hers and squeezed.
My sister’s simple gesture of comfort blasted through my already weak defenses, and suddenly I was bawling uncontrollably. Aurora wrapped her arms around me and held on until I got it all out of my system. Then she shoved some tissues into my hand and asked, “Do I need to drive to LA and kick some rock star ass? Because I totally will.”
“Maybe?” I sniffled after I blew my nose. “But we both know that you’re not really going to hop in your car and head to LA just because Griffith might be getting ready to break up with me.”
“I don’t know any such thing. It’s not like I didn’t warn him what would happen if he hurt you.” She grabbed the extra chair from behind the counter, rolled it in front of me, and dropped down onto it. “But first I need more details. I have to make sure Griffith has earned the kind of crap I have in store for him if I’m forced to take a road trip out there.”
Aurora was one of the nicest people I’d ever known, but she was also fierce when it came to protecting the people she loved. There were a few mean girls who’d tried to bully Ariel when she was a sophomore in high school. It’d only gone on for two days before another freshman told me about it, and I went running to Aurora, who was a senior. She took care of the situation that night. I never found out exactly what she’d done to them, but two of the girls transferred to another school and the other went running in the opposite direction any time she saw one of us.
Judging by the intense gleam in her eyes, I had no doubt that she’d find a way to make Griffith pay if he broke my heart. But it wasn’t much comfort since I’d rather have my sexy rock god than revenge. “He hasn’t earned whatever it is you’re cooking up in your brain. Or at least, not yet.”
Aurora made a circular gesture with her hand, telling me to get on with it. After taking a deep breath to steady myself, the story spilled out. I shared all my fears about Griffith with her, but she looked less than impressed when I was done.
“That’s it?”
I nodded and let out a shuddering breath.
“Belle, you’re my sister. I love you, and I’ll always have your back.” She tapped my apron, right over my cell phone. “But call him. Now.”
“Nuh uh. No way.” I shook my head. “I can’t talk to him now. I’m a mess, and he’s probably asleep.”
“Quit making excuses.” She pulled my phone out of my apron and handed it to me. “I don’t know if it’s because this is the first time you’ve ever been in a relationship or what, but you’re not thinking clearly. Your emotions are all over the place, and you’re letting them build this up into something big when it could be any number of things that don’t have anything to do with breaking up with you.”
“Oh, yeah? Like what?” I sounded doubtful, but I really hoped she came up with about a million different reasons that I could hold onto.
“Things could be going bad with the album Rising Phoenix is recording, and it’s pissing him off because it means he’ll have to wait longer to see you again. One of his bandmates could be going through a rough time, and Griffith is preoccupied thinking about how he can help them. It could be as simple as him missing you, and like most guys he sucks at sharing his emotions.” She’d been ticking her points off with her
fingers and waved her hand in my face. “There you go, that’s three ideas right off the top of my head. I could keep going, or you could just call the man and ask him.”
“I don’t know,” I whispered, looking down at my phone. “It’ll hurt so much if he really does want to end things.”
“If falling in love makes it impossible for you to use your brain, I hope it’s a long time before it happens to me,” she muttered. “Putting off talking to him isn’t helping anything. You’re already hurting enough that it’s messing with your sleep and appetite.”
Falling in love.
It hit me when Aurora said it; I wasn’t just falling. I was already in love with Griffith. Maybe that was why my emotions were all over the place lately.
Acknowledging my love for him gave me a much-needed boost of confidence. It was impossible to believe that my feelings were one-sided. Loving someone meant you trusted them...and talked to them when stuff was bothering you. “You’re right. I should call him.”
I pressed the button to power up my phone since I hadn’t bothered to turn it on this morning. My heart began to race, but in a good way, when I saw that I had two missed calls from Griffith. Then my text notifications popped up, and there were a few missed messages from him. I quickly scanned them, my lips curving up when I saw that he’d assumed I’d fallen asleep while we were talking last night since I hadn’t picked up when he called me back after he realized we’d been disconnected.
I suddenly couldn’t wait to talk to him, even if it meant waking him up. I clicked on his number, but the call went straight to voicemail, making me groan. He must’ve turned his phone off when he finally went to sleep, and it only served me right since I’d done the same to him last night.
I’d felt so much better after my talk with Aurora. Even though I hadn’t been able to get ahold of Griffith, I was sure when we talked, everything would be set straight.
I waited until the time he was normally up and tried him again, but it went to voicemail like last time. After another hour, I tried again. And so it went for most of the morning. Finally, in the early afternoon, he picked up.
“Hey baby, I can’t talk right now. I’ll have to call you back.” His tone was distracted, and it pricked at my insecurities.
“Griffith, I really need to talk—”
“Baby,” he cut me off impatiently. “I promise, we’ll talk later but right now, I just can’t.” I heard a muffled female voice and Griffith telling her to hang on. Tears gathered in my eyes. “I’m sorry, Belle. I’ve got to go.” Then he hung up.
Fear and sorrow welled up inside me, churning in my stomach. Had I been right? Had he…moved on already? Suddenly, my tummy lurched, and I slapped a hand over my mouth as I bolted for the bathroom in the back of the shop.
Chapter 9
Griffith
Shit.
I hated having to practically hang up on Belle, but I was running to catch my connection and cut it so close that I had to sweet talk the flight attendant into opening the door back up with a promise of VIP tickets and autographed albums. I worried the whole way to Las Vegas but once I stepped off that plane, I felt like I could finally breathe again. I was so close to my love.
I grabbed my bags and headed to the area where I was supposed to meet the driver picking me up. When I got there, my name wasn’t on the list.
I was irritated but figured it was no big deal and headed out to the cab line. It was just my luck that I decided to travel on a day when there was not only one of the biggest MMA fights in the world happening, but also, the finals of the Poker World Series.
The wait for a cab was over three hours long. If I didn’t get to The Lennox soon, I was liable to murder the next person to piss me off.
Then I was almost mobbed when someone recognized me. After I got away, I swore a blue streak in my head as I stomped back into the airport to the offices for the car service. The woman at the counter was harried and close to falling apart, but she was still staring at me with starry eyes and it was making her even more incompetent. She typed away on her computer, sneaking glances at me every few seconds. After a minute, she stared intently at the screen then looked up at me warily. “I’m sorry sir, I don’t have your reservation.”
“Look again,” I growled. I was beyond caring about manners. All I cared about was getting my ass to The Lennox. She typed some more then lifted her head, but her suspiciously shiny eyes wouldn’t meet mine. “Sorry, sir—um.”
“Whether it’s there or not isn’t the issue at this point,” I snapped. “I need to get to my fucking hotel as soon as possible, so get me a damn ride!”
I knew I’d been distant the last week, even more so the last few days. Levi and Brooklynn had been awesome when I explained the situation, and we worked pretty much around the clock for three days to get our song done. It was the last track that needed to be finished before I could get back to my Belle. We’d even worked it out with the label to do any necessary tweaking at a studio in Las Vegas.
We’d wrapped late last night, and I hopped on a plane first thing in the morning. It wasn’t a long ride normally, but because it was a last-minute booking and with the number of people already trying to get to Vegas…I’d ended up being routed through Oakland, to Reno, then to Vegas. If I’d been thinking clearly, I would’ve just booked a private jet instead. But I’d been too damn focused on getting out the door to think about how long it was going to take me to get to Belle with the flight I’d booked. And now I was paying for it. I was fucking exhausted and wanted nothing more than to wrap Belle up in my arms, kiss the hell out of her, then curl up with her and take a nap.
“Sir—”
I was so done with this chick. I waved her off and stepped out of line, whipping out my cell phone. I tapped the screen a few times, then waited while it rang. It went to voicemail, and I groaned. If I couldn’t get a hold of Drew…fuck. I really didn’t want to make the call to the next person on my list.
I sighed and scrolled to the next contact I needed and hit send.
“Thorne,” Knox growled when he answered. “Was I not clear about what would happen if you broke my sister’s heart?”
“I need your help.” I practically choked on the words.
“Why the fuck would I help you when I just held my sister in my arms while she cried herself to sleep? Not to mention spending the afternoon puking her damn guts up because you made her so upset she couldn’t even keep anything down. It’s barely dark out, but at least she’s getting the rest she needs after the craptastic day she’s had thanks to you.”
“Something’s wrong with Belle?” I practically shouted, my fingers squeezing the phone so hard it was amazing it didn’t crack. Pain sliced through my heart when I guessed that she’d been crying because I had been such an idiot and tried to surprise her. But for now, I need to focus on the fact that she was sick.
“I called a doctor to check on her. He said she’s fine, but when I went in to check on her, she fell the fuck apart.”
“Where is she? Let me talk to her,” I demanded.
“I’m not telling you shit until I decide whether you’re going to live or die, Thorne. Now, Drew convinced me to give you the benefit of the doubt and not kick your ass until I got an explanation. And before you blow smoke up my ass about the contract, I know you haven’t signed it yet. So, tell me why I shouldn’t rip you a new asshole.”
“For fuck’s sake, Knox,” I ground through a clenched jaw. “Can’t you trust the guy you’ve known for years just this once? I’m in Las Vegas. I’ve had to endure the flights from hell, and I just need to get to the fucking hotel! Then I promise, after I explain myself to Belle, who is the only person I owe it to, you’ll get your fucking turn!” I was shouting by the time I was done, and I winced when a mother with two small children threw me a dirty look.
“You’re at the airport?” he asked.
“Yes. And, apparently, it will take a miracle to get a car service or cab. So, send me Drew’s fucking driver, Moses
.” I was a little quieter this time, but no less forceful.
I heard what sounded like a muffled chuckle but wondered if I’d imagined it when he growled, “He’ll be on his way in a few minutes.”
He gave me a specific location to meet the driver, somewhere we could avoid the crowds and keep me from being seen. I thanked him grudgingly, then sprinted to the exit where I would finally get on my way to Belle.
Once I arrived at The Lennox, I realized how stupid I’d been. I’d come here assuming Belle would be in her shop next door, but if she’d been sick, she might have gone home. And, I had no idea where that was since we’d spent our two days together in my hotel room.
I left my luggage with the driver and made a beeline for the chapel, hoping Aurora would be there since she managed the place. She was just hurrying out of her office when I approached and almost smacked right into me.
“Griffith! Dude, you better be here to make up with my sister or I’m going to make you pay, then hand you over to my brother.” Her brown eyes were narrowed, and I had the distinct impression that I needed to guard my balls.
“Where?” I asked, already pivoting on my heel to head back to the car.
“Wait!” Aurora called. “She got sick at the shop, so Autumn took her to their guest suite.”
I waved thanks and ran to the elevator. Since Autumn and Drew kept a guest suite on the same floor as their apartment, I was able to hop into their private elevator and avoid the crush of tourists waiting on the others in the lobby.
My foot tapped impatiently all the way up. When the car halted and the doors slid open, I could finally take a deep breath. I stepped off and turned to the left. I passed the first set of double doors, which led to Drew and Autumn’s place, and stopped at the next set.
Vegas, Baby: Complete Series Page 18