Lee strode back to the car with a tight, grim expression, “What’s the deal?” Flynn asked.
“There from Michigan, boss.” Flynn continued to stare out the window, “They can’t be much more than fourteen,” he sighed; revising the estimate on age I’d had even lower. A worried look crossed his face, “Bet their parents are out of their minds,” he’d said as he continued to watch them.
After a minute, he sighed deeply, “All right, take us inside, Lee, then come back, and bring them up to the house. I don’t want to be responsible for kids being put at risk, but you’re going upstairs, Valerie. I won’t have your safety compromised by inviting some crazy fans into our home.”
“Stop it, Flynn, really? Are you forgetting I was their age when I met you? They obviously have strong feelings to have been motivated to come all the way down here in the hope of meeting you. Don’t treat them with any less respect than anyone else.”
“No, I haven’t forgotten how old you were when I met you, Valerie, how could I? That was different, you were in your own home surrounded by your family, babe, and I wasn’t famous then. This situation is different. I just can’t handle any more shit, that’s all. Don’t you see, I’m damned if I invite them here and the same if I don’t? What’s the bet they run to the newspapers about wild stories of what happened in my home? Did you think of that?” he’d asked, his nervous eyes scanning my face.
I hadn’t. “Well, that depends on how they are treated, Flynn. I’m staying. You’re not shutting me away every time a fan gets in the way.”
An angry, tight expression cast over his face as he slid against the back of his seat. I wasn’t going to allow him to underestimate me, nor would I let him judge the girls that had traveled all the way from another state just to catch a glimpse of him.
Lee dropped us at the house, switched the alarm off for downstairs, but left the one upstairs on. He saw my brow bunch, “You never know. One may ask to go to the bathroom and go snooping, and I won’t leave Flynn with one of them.”
The way Lee and Flynn’s thought processes worked made me realize just how vulnerable he was. Not only was he responsible for his actions, but he had to cover all bases just in case someone made false allegations.
Ten minutes later, the two giggling girls came bundling into the hallway behind Lee. One was definitely the leader of the two, and far more streetwise than her friend. I watched them from the kitchen, “Stay here,” Flynn ordered abruptly, as he made his way into the hall.
“Oh. My. God. I can’t believe it. I’m in Flynn Docherty’s house. You’re Flynn Docherty,” she screamed so loud her voice carried all the way through the vaulted space and bounced off the walls to echo back at us. As soon she’d declared who Flynn was, she ran at him, but Lee caught her by the waist and set her down again away from Flynn.
“None of that or you’re straight back on the other side of the gates,” Lee barked menacingly to her.
An odd silence fell and I heard Flynn say, “Michigan, huh? How did you get here?”
“Oh, we hitched a ride with a truck driver,” the more vocal of the two girls said.
“Jesus. H—Don’t you know how dangerous that was? Where do your parents think you are? Look at you. You’re too young to be out here like this.”
“You never said that about Valerie,” the quieter girl offered.
“Valerie’s different. I met her at her home, her brother was my friend, and I was nineteen years old,” Flynn ground out.
I’d heard enough—Flynn wasn’t handling them the way I’d thought was appropriate. And even though they had a point, that I was the same age as them when he’d been attracted to me, they needed to understand the weight of their actions.
Stepping out from the kitchen I saw both girls eyes dart in my direction. Flynn spun to look at me, and I could see how annoyed he was that I hadn’t done as he’d asked.
“Hey, ladies, I saw you at the gates. You must be freezing. I bet you could use a warm drink, huh?”
Their jaws dropped more at seeing me than they had about being face-to-face with their idol, I’d thought. Both nodded, and I cast my eyes over them. I saw through their pseudo-confidence. “Lee, would you ask Niamh to make some hot chocolate and bring it to the den? We’ve still got a couple of hours before our flight.” Lee’s expression was murderous, and I almost burst out laughing.
“Flynn, maybe you can rustle up some autographed swag for the girls from the music nook while they get warm and we have a chat.” Flynn’s eyebrow was raised to his hairline in a what-the-fuck-are-you-doing look.
I could see he wasn’t budging, so I gestured to the girls to follow me through to the den. Flynn caught up quickly and pulled me to the side. “You have no idea…”
“I’ve got this. Go get them some pictures of yourself, there are some on the side table in there,” I’d said and gestured with my eyes toward the space between the den and the kitchen.
Lee came into the den, and Flynn turned to him. “Could you grab me a couple of our profile packs from the office area please, Lee,” he’d said sitting down on the sofa and pulling me down beside him. He wasn’t leaving me.
“So, you really must like Flynn’s music to come all the way from…Michigan was it?”
The quieter one clasped her hands around the hot cup and nodded while she glanced nervously for support from her more extroverted friend beside her.
“Yeah, I’ve followed you from day one, but there’s been hardly any news out there about you anymore. So, we figured we’d come and find out what was going on for ourselves,” she said, addressing Flynn.
“Don’t you think your parents will be worried about you?” Flynn asked, sounding anxious for them.
“Nah, my Mom’s a crack head, and I never knew my sad. Helen’s parents died when she was seven.”
“You’re in the care system?”
“Yeah and we know your story, it gives us hope for ourselves in a few years.”
Flynn’s face softened, “Jesus, you’re runaways? People will be sick with worry, honey, you can’t just pick up and do what you both did today.”
“Yesterday,” the quieter one mumbled.
Flynn’s eyes popped wide open, and he stared incredulously at them, “Yesterday? Jeez, there will be a missing person report out for you girls. Don’t you have any sense?”
I placed my hand on his leg, and he stopped to stare me down, “What? Anything could have happened—”
“It didn’t, Flynn, they’re here, and they’re safe,” I calmly reminded him.
“We don’t really care what happens to us. No one else does, so why should we?” the louder one offered.
“We do,” I offered quietly and gave them a genuine smile.
Flynn stood, ran his fingers through his hair and began to pace, his signature sign for feeling stressed.
“Helen and…”
“Alison,” she offered.
“Girls, you must know that this won’t look good for Flynn? You saw what his ex-girlfriend did and all the lies she tried to spread about him, right?”
Alison nodded, “Yeah, I never liked her. She always looked bitchy in the pictures. You’re much prettier.”
Flynn smirked and dropped his head for a moment to hide a smile before looking up again.
“Okay, listen. This is what we’re going to do. Craig Southers is staying here with his girlfriend, Simone. I’m going to call them to arrange for you ladies to get home. Flynn and I have to take care of some urgent business in Iowa, but I’m going to contact you in a few weeks with information about Flynn. I promise you that your effort to see Flynn won’t go unrewarded. What I need you to promise me is that you won’t tell anyone you were here until after I call you.”
Both girls nodded excitedly, “Okay, we need the number of your group home,” Flynn said.
They both looked nervously at each other, “Is there any other reason you don’t want to go back there?” I asked.
“Not really, but we’re going to be gro
unded for life.”
“Not if I have anything to do with it,” Flynn piped up.
Alison gave Flynn the number, and he left the room to make the call in the kitchen.
“God, he’s so beautiful. I could look at him all day long. Doesn’t he smell delicious?” Alison sighed forgetting who I was for a moment. Helen nudged her friend’s shoulder and nodded slightly towards me, gesturing with her eyes that her comments were out of line with me there.
“Sorry…he’s just…wow.”
I gave her a genuine smile. I knew exactly what she meant, and I could never blame any woman for swooning over him. As long as that’s all they did.
Flynn came back a few minutes later with Simone in tow.
“I’ve called the home and explained where you are, and that you’re safe. I’ve also told them that I’m going to be monitoring how you are treated when you get back, and I’ve invited everyone to a small music event we’ll put together soon. How does that sound? You can all come to the show, meet with Valerie and me afterward and we’ll do something fun.”
My heart soared at Flynn’s humanity for the girl’s issue, and he stepped forward and gestured for Alison to stand. “Thank you for being my fan. I appreciate your support, and I’m sorry you were concerned about me. As you can see, I’m fine. Valerie here takes great care of me. I’m a very lucky man.”
Alison was physically shaking in her shoes that Flynn had hugged her and kissed her cheek, and Helen sat silently blushing while he spoke with her friend. She touched her cheek with her hand after Flynn kissed it and stood in a trance-like state.
“Your turn, come here,” he said smiling at the other girl.
Helen stood and twisted her cardigan sleeve nervously until Flynn leaned forward and gave her a friendly hug. At that moment, I somehow saw my fifteen-year-old self in her, and a flashback to something he’d said to me came to mind. I saw what he’d seen when he looked at me a few years before. As distressed and mad as I’d been when he’d left at that time, he was right—there was no way I’d been ready for Flynn.
After we’d made the arrangement for the girls to get back, we had to hurry to the airport to catch our chartered flight. We’d left the girls in the capable hands of Simone and I knew that was the situation with the girls was the lesser of the two difficult situations we faced. We were on our way home to talk to Kayden. Although we’d told my parents from the start, I still hadn’t told Kayden I was pregnant. I was scared to.
I knew he’d be upset I never shared my news from the beginning, but in my defense, I’d done it to protect him because, rightly or wrongly, I figured that if I’d told him, and lost the baby before my pregnancy was established, it would have killed him. I prayed he’d understand my need to protect him. I also knew that he wouldn’t be too happy his baby sister had become a teenage pregnancy statistic. I prayed he’d understand my need to protect him.
News that I was having a baby paled into insignificance with the other news I still had no answer regarding, about Melanie. However, I’d decided to gauge how strong Kayden was before I delivered the rest. I knew he would know what to do about our parents if we ever found out that Melanie’s baby was Martin’s.
We settled in our seats for take-off and Flynn had laid his head back on the headrest. A few moments later he broke our comfortable silence with a random question.
“Did you know your mom thought I’d only been in care for only a year? I overheard her saying something to your Aunt Joan.”
I had remembered something my mom said when she said that he wasn’t an orphan and that Flynn was in the care system. “Yeah, I remember her saying that in the kitchen the day you came home with Martin, why?”
“Wonder where she got that information from? It just occurred to me that your parents know very little about my life, that’s all,” he responded.
It was true. Flynn knew more about them than they did about him. He had become a permanent feature in the family so quickly. What had happened to Flynn was sketchy at best, but it was important that my family realized how much he’d been through as well. It would help them to understand why we were so attuned to each other. There was no reason to keep his family history from them.
“I’m sure they’ve heard bits and pieces in the media, but maybe they should hear it from me.” I nodded in agreement and felt privileged that he wanted to share his awful past with my family.
Chapter 24 ~ Valerie
This spot here
It was almost 11:00 pm by the time we arrived back at the cabin on my parent’s property. My mom had made a light supper of chicken, crackers, cheese and a few of her fabulous pulled pork sandwiches. Flynn split one in half and stuffed the whole thing in his mouth.
“Hungry bear,” I smirked.
“You don’t say that when I’m eating your pussy, babe.”
“Flynn Docherty, do you think about sex all the time?”
“No, I sleep sometimes as well,” he said deadpan and walked me gently back against the wall while his hands caged me in.
His eyes penetrated mine in a stare so full of love and protection it took my breath away. “Have I ever told you I get lost in your eyes,” he whispered.
I stood silently, and he dropped his forehead gently to meet mine, “I can’t believe my luck, Valerie. Promise you’ll never leave me. What we’re about to do…the baby, Melanie, Bernie, launching the band...I worry about us,” he said swallowing roughly as his voice filled with emotion.
“As long as you don’t give me reason, Flynn, there’s no chance of that.”
His hand grabbed my hair and leaned back a little tilting my head to the side.
“See this spot here?” he said, pecking the pulsating vein on my neck, “This is mine. One of my favorite spots on your hot little body, babe. You know why? Because I see what my lips do when I kiss you here. Every tiny goose bump on your body is mine because I put it there,” he said gruffly as his mouth showered my neck again in tiny feather-light kisses. An electrical thrill ran down my spine, and I moaned with pleasure as his mouth wreaked havoc on my already raging hormones.
As suddenly as he’d started to seduce me, he pushed off the wall and walked away, I stared after him a little breathless and dizzy. “As for control, hon, I’m going to show you I have balls of steel when it comes to restraint. I’ve done it before, just about three years ago with a girl, she’s the only one I’d ever deny myself for, babe,” he winked.
I knew he was talking about me, and my heart swelled in my chest that he’d chosen me. “Why me?”
Flynn held a cracker in front of his mouth that he was about to pop in and dropped it back onto the cutting board on the countertop. “You really have to ask that? Look at you, Why the fuck not?” he said, and gestured at me with the cracker back in his hand.
“I’m curious what it is you see in me, Flynn. I mean all those women—”
“Are not you,” he finished as he pulled me into a hug. He smiled down at me, kissing the end of my nose. “You know what I think? We were born to love each other. Martin, God rest his soul, is our cupid.”
A knock at the door interrupted us, “Who is that at this time of the night?” I asked.
Flynn let go of me and wandered to the window, “It’s Kayden,” he said, and went to let him inside.
My brother’s happy face beamed at me as he rushed toward me, “Valerie. I couldn’t wait until the morning, I saw the light on and thought I’d come and find out how your trip to Chicago went?”
My eyes darted to Flynn, and I could see Kayden’s question affected all of us, “Productive and informative,” I stated.
“Do you always have to sound like a business woman, Valerie?” he drawled and snickered.
I’d made up my mind I wasn’t saying much to Kayden until I could figure out how he was feeling, but as soon as we were in the same room, my resolve melted away. “Come and sit down Kayden, I have good news and…some other news. I’m not sure how to feel about the other news yet,” I’d said in
a gentle tone.
“Hmm, not sure I like the sound of this,” he said. His smile instantly dropped, and his face registered his concern as he sat on the sofa without taking his eyes off of me.
Flynn raised an eyebrow at me as if to say, You’re really going to get into this now? and I chewed my lip, but went over and sat down beside Kayden.
“We have a couple of things to share with you, Kayden. The first is great news, and I hope you’ll be excited about it. Flynn and I are having a baby.”
Kayden looked from me to Flynn in disbelief his eyes widening, “You’re nineteen for Christ’s sake, Valerie. What are you doing? You have your whole life ahead of you to have babies.”
It wasn’t the response I’d wanted from him at all. Sure I was young, but once it had been confirmed I’d welcomed the baby and his response made me angry.
“Flynn and I never planned the pregnancy, Kayden. It’s taken both of us by surprise, but we’re happy about it. This child is going to be your niece or nephew. How can you behave like I won’t be responsible for it?”
Kayden closed his eyes and looked worried, “What happened to the Valerie that didn’t want to be a teenage mom?”
Trust Kayden to remember my comment, “That was before Flynn. It was before Martin died and all the shit and distress we’ve been through, Kayd. I’m really happy with Flynn, and we’re going to love this baby.”
Raising his head, he glanced at Flynn then leaned over and pulled me into a tight hug, “I’m sorry, Valerie. Of course, I’m happy if you’re happy. Flynn, if you let my sister down, I’ll skin your dick, get me?”
“Ouch,” Flynn chuckled.
“So what’s this other news you have for me? Do I need to go get my antacids from my bathroom cabinet? Or will hospitalization be required?” Kayden said trying to lighten the mood between us. I wasn’t as confident about telling him as before and wondered if maybe we should have waited until we knew all of the facts.
“This is my shit, Valerie. It’s my story to share. I don’t want you doing my dirty work for me,” Flynn said assertively.
Ready For Flynn, Part 2 : A Rockstar Romance (The Ready For Flynn) Page 21