Westside Series Box Set

by Monica Alexander

  “I know she’s dating him,” Hannah said.” And he’s super-nice and cute, but Henry’s also pretty great. He’s cute and brainy and sweet. Plus, he knows all about the law. That’s sexy.”

  “No, it’s not,” Tory said quickly, making a face.

  “Cam plays the guitar,” I interjected, because there wasn't much that was sexier than that.

  “And he’s like mega-famous,” Tory interjected.

  Yeah, the fame thing didn’t so much interest me, but Tory was enthralled by it.

  “Han,” I said, putting my free hand on her forearm, “you know we all love Henry. He’s a great guy.”

  “He is,” she agreed.

  “He’s fantastic,” Tory said. “But tonight is about Andi, because one month ago we were sitting in almost this exact spot telling her things were going to get better after David the Asshole dumped her.”

  “I dumped him,” I interjected.

  “You chose the noble way out,” Hannah corrected me. “You would have stayed if he wasn’t married.”

  “But he was married, which is why I dumped him,” I clarified.

  “Okay, enough!” Tory said loudly. “My arm is getting tired from holding this drink up. And I’m thirsty. Please allow me to get this toast finished, so we can all enjoy our cocktails.”

  “Then hurry up,” I encouraged her. “But get your facts straight.”

  “Fine,” she said through gritted teeth. “A month ago, we were sitting here trying to cheer up our Andi, because she thought there were no good guys left the world.”

  I nodded. “That’s accurate.”

  “Then, because of her awesome friend Tory’s impulsive nature and desire to sleep with a member of Westside–”

  “I thought you wanted to marry that guy you slept with,” Hannah interjected.

  “Okay, my arm is literally going to fall off,” I told my friends as I supported my wrist on the hand that was holding my drink with my other hand.

  “Alright, alright,” Tory continued. “In summary – and yes, I did want to marry Van, but then I realized that he’s more of a rogue than I want, so I settled for just sleeping with him – and because of that, Andi met–”

  “You changed your mind because he never called you,” Hannah mumbled, causing Tory to shoot her a look before she continued her toast.

  “But, because of my relentless pursuit of Van, Andi met Cam, who has proven to not only be a really nice guy, but who is also incredibly hot and sexy, and we are both jealous of the fact that she’s dating him.”

  “To Andi!” Hannah cheered, raising her glass higher. “Even though I’m not really jealous.”

  I smiled at her need to clarify that point and for cutting Tory off. I had a feeling that whether or not Tory was done talking, Hannah was done listening. I also knew she wasn’t the least bit jealous. She was happy for me. She’d told me that when she’d hugged me earlier. Especially after my meltdown the night before, I think she was glad to see Cam was one of the good ones.

  “To Andi!” Tory echoed, and we all clinked our glasses together.

  “Can I get in on this action?” I heard from between Hannah and me as I took a sip of my wine and almost let the glass slip out of my hand as my eyes got wide.

  “What are you doing here?” I asked Cam who had appeared out of nowhere.

  The excitement in my voice was palpable, and I couldn’t stop staring at him. He was wearing a fedora and hipster glasses with a button-down shirt, which not only disguised him but also made him blend in with the after work crowd of young professionals, most of whom had probably never given much thought to a band like Westside.

  “I couldn’t leave without saying goodbye one more time,” he said as he slid his arm around my waist and drew me to him. “Hi.”

  “Hi,” I said as I melted into his kiss, almost completely forgetting that my friends were there.

  “You guys are too cute,” Tory said, kind of ruining the moment. Although being a girl making out at a bar at my age might not have been the best idea, so perhaps it was good that she’d interjected.

  “Hi Tory,” Cam said, his arm still around me, pulling me against him. He smiled at Hannah.

  “Hi Cam,” Tory said back, a dreamy look on her face. “Do you want to sit?”

  “I’d love to, but I can’t. I’m leaving in a few minutes. I begged Chris to let us stop here so I could see Andi once more. Leaving sucks.”

  “I know,” I said, pouting slightly.

  When I’d given him the name of the bar we were going to, I’d figured it was just an exchange of information. I’d never expected him to come by, but I was so glad he had. I’d already resigned myself to not seeing him for several weeks, so this was the best surprise.

  “Okay, I’ve got to go,” he said then, and I felt sad all over again.

  “Really? You can’t stay for one drink?”

  He shook his head. “Nope. Even stopping by put a huge crunch in our schedule. I never should have taken that judging job.”

  “But I thought you were having fun?”

  He smiled. “If I hadn’t taken it, I could stay here with you,” he said pointedly.

  “Oh, that would have been better.”

  “Yeah, it would have.” He sighed. “Okay, I have to go, but I loved seeing you. I’ll call you later tonight when I get home.”

  “You’d better.”

  He leaned down and kissed me, long and deep. “It’ll be the first thing I do.”

  I watched him leave the bar with a heaviness in my heart, and I wondered if this was what long distance would be like. If we were going to date, and we were going to accept the situations we were in, I had a feeling it would. But not being with Cam would be even harder. I knew that.

  “You’re so going to marry him,” Tory said once Cam was gone.

  I snapped my head up to look at her in shock. “I’ve known him for less than a month, Tory.”

  “Honeymoon phase,” Hannah chimed in, and I had a feeling she was right.

  Tory shrugged. “Just a prediction.”

  “Not to mention that he’s twenty-one years old. He’s not going to be looking to get married anytime soon, and frankly neither am I. I like him. I like him a lot, but that’s it.”

  For now.

  I didn’t say those two words out loud, but I knew what was happening. If things with Cam progressed like they had been and we didn’t get slaughtered by time and distance, I had a feeling there might be something permanent there. It seemed crazy to think it, but at the same time, it felt completely normal. Just like being with him had been from the start. It was just easy.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Cam

  Sitting in a car outside of the Detroit airport wasn’t something I wanted to be doing when the girl I wanted to see was inside. But a busy airport at Christmastime wasn’t a place I was allowed to be alone, according to Chris. Usually I loved my fame. Today I hated it.

  I just wanted to see Andi, and considering her flight had landed, and she was so close, it was taking everything in me to not go in and find her. Of course she assured me that she was plenty capable of making her way to baggage claim, locating her suitcase and meeting Chris and me outside where we were waiting. I’d already texted her our location, and she’d responded with a smiley face that had made me grin like an idiot.

  God, I was so over-the-top for this girl I didn’t know what to do with myself.

  “Do you see her yet?” I asked Chris since Andi had yet to respond to my text asking if she’d gotten her bag yet.

  “Nope,” Chris said in his typical way of using as few words as possible.

  I sighed in frustration as I slumped back against the seat. “I’ll just go inside. I’ll be fast and no one will notice me,” I tried, knowing that wasn’t going to happen.

  “Only if you let me park and go in with you, and then I think you should be prepared to be mobbed, sign autographs and take pictures with fans for the next hour. But if that’s what you want to do.�
��

  I sighed again. “No, it’s not.”

  Andi and I had to be at my mom’s house for dinner in two hours. That gave us just enough time to get to our hotel, get reacquainted, and drive out to the suburbs. There was no time for autographs or selfies unless Andi wanted to take ones of us when we were alone. I’d let her do that if she asked.

  “That’s what I thought,” Chris said sarcastically, knowing me better than most people.

  I didn’t want anyone to know I was in Detroit anyway since my goal was to keep what was going on with Andi and me on the down low. Going public was a big step, and once we did it, we couldn’t go back. I needed her to be prepared for what that meant, since it would change her life significantly. It would change mine too.

  We’d both felt the media frenzy when we were caught holding hands in New York. If I announced to the world that she was my girlfriend – the first one I’d had since I’d become someone people cared about – Andi would turn into a target. The media would want pictures of her with and without me, fans would want to know as much about her as possible, her social media accounts would get invaded, and her privacy would essentially disappear.

  We were already entering into a relationship on shaky ground. I didn’t want to add fuel to the fire until we got some more time under our belt. And I wanted her to know what dating me was really like, because as much as we wanted it to be just us, I knew it couldn’t be. I lived in the public eye. It was the life I’d chosen, and I would protect Andi from that for as long as I could.

  I knew we should have been taking things slow, but we were jumping in headfirst. I’d realized too late that how we were spending Christmas and the fact that we were involving our families might have been a little crazy. I could have just taken her to Fiji like Dillon was doing with Meredith. That might have been smarter, but in the heat of the moment, with too many emotions swirling through my head, I’d made a hasty decision that I couldn’t take back.

  So we were doing this. There was no going back now.

  “There she is,” Chris suddenly said, and in an instant he was out of the car, descending on Andi as she made her way toward our car, her hair whipping around her face in the frigid air.

  It had been seventy-two degrees when I’d left L.A., so the cold Michigan winter had basically assaulted me from the second I’d stepped outside. It reminded me of why I hated cold weather and why I’d been so eager to move to California in the first place.

  As I watched Chris embrace Andi, I got a jealous twinge in my stomach. He got to hug her before me. I didn’t like that, but I was stuck inside the car like a fish in a bowl, watching the world pass by through darkly tinted glass.

  Then a second later the door opened, and the sweet scent of Andi’s perfume wafted inside as she climbed in, a smile on her face when she saw me. I wasted no time hauling her against me, the coldness of her skin a drastic contrast to the warmth of mine as I pressed my lips to hers.

  “Why are you so cold?” I asked her.

  “Because I left the airport at the wrong location, and I walk outside for far too long. I got a little turned around before I finally found the place you told me you’d be.”

  “Andi! You should have texted me. We would have come to you.”

  She smiled at me, her sparkling brown eyes just inches from mine. Damn, it was good to see her. It had been two weeks since I’d said goodbye to her in New York, and I’d gotten to the point where I was going a little nuts. I had no idea how I was supposed to stay away for longer than that. This whole long distance thing was going to suck.

  “I’m fine,” she assured me as she ran her fingers along my jawline against the few days’ worth of stubble I was sporting. “This is new.”

  “It’s not staying. I was just too lazy to shave.”

  “It’s kind of sexy,” she said as Chris started to navigate us out of the airport.

  “Oh yeah?” I said as I pulled her onto my lap so she was straddling my thighs. “It itches.”

  Her lips descended on my cheek, “So shave it,” she murmured against my skin, making me smile. When she raised her head, she was grinning. “I like this too.”

  She tugged on either side of the fur-trimmed hood of my coat. I hated coats, but I hated being colder more, so I was wearing one out of necessity.

  “It’s warm,” I told her.

  “It’s really nice,” she said as she slid her hands into my open coat and down my sides to rest against my hips.

  “How much did you miss me?” I asked her, completely fishing for a compliment.

  She kissed me, and I did a little cheer inside as she pulled back and smiled at me.

  “I missed you a lot. Talking on the phone doesn’t compare to getting to kiss you and touch you. It’s not the same at all.”

  “Well, we’ll end up having about forty-five minutes before we have to leave for my mom’s house, so you can get your fill of me.”

  Andi frowned. “I’m not sure how I feel about that.”

  “About what? Is that not enough time, because we also have all night. I promise you’ll get enough of me before this week is over.”

  “Camden!” she said, full-naming me because she was apparently appalled by what I’d said. I just wasn’t sure what it was that had her so upset.

  “What did I do?” I asked helplessly.

  “I’m sorry, but I’m not having sex at your father’s house,” she hissed.

  “I’m not asking you to,” I said, feeling kind of gross just thinking about that.

  “You just did.”

  “I – No, I didn’t. Trust me, I definitely did not. We’re not staying with my dad.”

  Andi looked at me in confusion. “We’re not? Isn’t that where you stay when you visit?”

  “Not this time. Not with you. Trust me, you don’t want to stay there.”

  “I’m sure it’s fine. You remember where I live, don’t you? In case you’ve forgotten, it’s not exactly a palace.”

  “Uh, that’s not the problem. Andi, my dad doesn’t live in a safe neighborhood. I’m not putting you in that kind of danger.”

  Her eyebrows rose in surprise. “So, it’s okay for you to put yourself in that kind of danger?”

  I held my finger up to make a point. “One, I have a bodyguard,” I said, gesturing to Chris who waved at Andi. “And second, I’m a trained fighter. If anyone messes with me, I’ll probably take their head off.”

  “What if they come at you with a gun? I mean, if your old neighborhood is a bad as you say it is, I’m going to assume people have guns and knives, right?”

  “You would be correct,” I told her. “And that’s when I would defer to Chris.”

  “Oh, because he’s packing?” she said sarcastically.

  “He is, actually,” I said, and a sober reality settled around us.

  “You are?” Andi asked Chris, turning around to eye him.

  “Yes ma’am,” he responded.

  I watched her turn back to me. “It’s just precautionary. Our hopes are that he never has to use one of his weapons, but you never know.”

  “Weapons? As in plural?”

  “Yes. He’s prepared for anything.”

  “Okay, so that just put things in a completely new perspective.”

  “But there’s good news,” I said brightly. “As a result of the fact that my dad lives in a shitty neighborhood, you get to stay in a ridiculously lavish hotel downtown. There’s a fireplace, a sauna, a hot tub, and a huge bed with lots of warm blankets.”

  “You’re kind of obsessed with the cold, aren’t you?”

  I shrugged. “My mom keeps the heat at sixty-two in the winter. My dad keeps his at sixty, and the place is drafty as hell. I’m always freezing at both of their houses, so I prefer to stay where I can keep warm.”

  “But you’re from here,” Andi reminded me.

  I nodded. “I am, but I moved away a while ago. I’m a So Cal boy now. My blood has thinned out. But you’ll probably be fine seeing that you live
in New York and all.”

  “Yeah, it’s not much colder here than it was there.”

  I smiled. “So you’ll be a great source of heat for me. And then we’ll go to Atlanta where it’s going to be downright balmy. I can’t wait.”

  “Who knew you were this weird about the weather,” Andi mused, as we pulled into the parking garage of the hotel and drove to the designated spot.

  Chris had already done the hard work of calling ahead so they knew we were coming. I probably didn’t have to use the double-secret entrance, but I’d gotten used to it when I traveled. It helped me to avoid being spotted, so I took advantage of the perk.

  “Home sweet home,” I told Andi. “At least for the next few days.”

  “Welcome, Mr. Baylor, Ms. Cutler,” the person who opened the door said as Andi scrambled off my lap. I watched her cheeks color in embarrassment at getting caught. It was kind of sexy.

  Andi and I were shown to our suite, and Chris was shown to his next door. I figured he could have a little privacy. I was taking the guy away from his family at Christmas, so it was a small token of my gratitude.

  As soon as the door to the suite shut, and Andi and I had shucked our coats, I tackled her onto the couch where I proceeded to kiss her until she couldn’t breathe. Every night I’d been alone in my bedroom, listening to the ocean and feeling a million miles away from her, I’d thought of one thing, and that was her lips. I’d never loved kissing anyone as much as I loved kissing her.

  Her soft lips, her tongue tangled with mine, her sweet taste – just imagining kissing her was enough to drive me insane, and now that she was in my arms, all I could think about was prolonging the inevitable goodbye. I thought of how many kisses I could get in before I’d have to abstain again, and I wondered if it would always be like this, like there was a deadline looming whenever we were together. I hated that I wasn’t in the moment, that I was again letting things out of my control consume me, but feeling the way I did about her, I also couldn’t help it.

  I was addicted to her, and I wondered briefly if this was how Phillip felt about drugs. I’d been thinking a lot about him, knowing that if he was pissed at anyone, it would be me. I knew he had no desire to quit using. He lived for the high, but that was the problem. The high was what had him chasing greater highs until he made one fatal mistake. That was why I’d done what I had. I’d known that he’d never stop chasing, and he would have ended up killing himself.