“Wow. That’s so cool.” Zoey’s eyes went wide with wonder. “I never knew that sort of thing existed, maybe that’s something I could do one day.”
“For me it was a turning point. When I sang flat out for the first time it was a huge surprise for all of us that my voice had power and range. I loved to play guitar and assumed I’d be able to hide behind it, but Zane is a virtuoso. He’s even better than Carter,” I mused. “By the time we graduated they basically forced me into the lead singer position.”
“Well I, for one, am grateful to both of them.” The adoring looks Zoey gave me were the best addiction. I wanted to keep talking so she’d keep looking at me that way.
“Zane and I started writing dozens and dozens of songs and lyrics. Within a couple of years we finalized the band lineup with Jace and Connor,” I continued. “We all just clicked, the four musketeers united in our quest to make it!”
“There’s no doubt you’re going to make it, Ty. You’ve worked so hard.” Zoey beamed at me, still rubbing my hands with hers.
“LTZ is everything to me.” I looked her in the eyes. “It’s my ticket out.”
“I have every faith in you, Ty.” Zoey leaned in for a kiss. Touching my lips to hers felt heavenly, and when my tongue met hers, we were lost to each other as we always were. I knew that Zoey was becoming everything to me, but I hadn’t told her yet. The fact was, I needed her like I needed air.
We made out in her room and it felt like my entire life had led me to this moment. Not only did I have my band, but now I had a confident, affectionate, supportive girlfriend to spend my time with. A beautiful butterfly who smelled heavenly and looked at me like I hung the sun in the sky. A girl who I loved and would always love.
Even after I unloaded my family drama on her, she didn’t see me as a kid whose drunken, loser mom worked in a shitty bar and brought a steady rotation of “dates” home nearly every night. Or a guy whose father didn’t know I existed. She was part of the new life I had created with my tight-knit band family and Carter. A big part.
We really were primed for success. Carter had taught us the importance of playing as many live shows as possible, building our fanbase, and selling merchandise to supplement our band income. Jace was freakishly great at marketing and, as annoying as he could be with his relentless posts, our Instagram and YouTube accounts were at nearly fifty thousand followers and we were starting to get offers for endorsements and sponsorships. LTZ was in massive demand all over Seattle and the northwest, now we were ready to expand.
The week before, Carter proclaimed that we had enough leverage to negotiate favorable agreements with his management team and booking agent. He was also exploring the possibility of a distribution-only deal with his record label. It was time to go big or go home and, for me, going home was not an option.
“Oh crap! Do we need to leave?” Zoey pulled away from my embrace suddenly, looking for her phone to check the time.
“Shit, yes! We’re going to be late.” I got up quickly, stopping to look down at her and caress the side of her face. “Thank you for listening to me.”
“I adore you. Sometimes I have to pinch myself that you’re my boyfriend.” Zoey kissed my forehead before she got up and walked over to her closet.
“Okay, missy. Let’s go so you can finally meet Carter.” I couldn’t control my excitement. I started for the door.
“Ah—no. I need fifteen minutes to change and put some makeup on. Out, you. Go hang out with Mike and Olivia.” Zoey put her hands on her hips saucily.
Gazing at her stunning face, which needed no embellishment whatsoever, I happily did as I was told and waited for her downstairs with her parents.
Chapter 5
ZOEY
An hour later, we arrived at Carter’s sprawling house on Lake Washington, one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in Seattle. I looked up at the beautiful, immaculate craftsman mansion and became really tense. Ty held up his hand when he parked my car, making sure I stayed seated until he opened the passenger door. I stepped out, taking his arm and snuck a kiss because I wanted him to know that I noticed all the little things that he did to make me feel cherished every day.
“I’m nervous.” I couldn’t help but clutch vise-like to Ty’s hand as we walked up to the house. Truthfully, I was also a pretty shy introvert who wasn’t great at meeting new people. I purposely dressed to blend in with a simple pair of cut-offs, gray flowy top, and flip-flops. My stomach was churning with excitement at the thought of meeting Carter Pope, but part of me wished we were back in my room so I could still be making out with Ty.
“Don’t be nervous, butterfly.” Ty cupped my head to hold me against him. “I’ve got you.”
Ty used his own key to let us into the ornate, old-growth wood door into the house. Carter’s house was surprisingly traditional. Tan walls with thick crown molding stained a deep cherry red adorned each room. Throughout the house, beautifully gleaming light hardwood floors were covered with sumptuous rugs, the walls filled with gold and platinum records and photos of Limelight throughout their career. I could hear laughter coming from the backyard, and Ty led me there through a sunken living room with a grand piano, stone fireplace, and a wall of windows that overlooked Lake Washington.
We stepped outside holding hands, his bandmates, Carter, and a guy I didn’t recognize were sitting around a fire pit in the middle of a beautifully manicured lawn. The yard was surrounded by a stunning garden filled with shrubs, trees, and flowers of every color.
“Dude, you’re here!” Zane appeared behind us from a back stairwell leading a darling, petite pixie-like girl with long, straight, glossy black hair by the hand.
“Hey, Zane. Fee.” Ty stopped, draping his arm around my shoulder. “This is Zoey.”
“Hey.” I smiled nervously.
“Zoey's the girl that’s stolen our guy’s heart.” Zane chuckled gleefully, pulling me into a bear hug.
“Zoey, Fiona Reynolds is the daughter of Gus Reynolds, who owns The Mission,” Ty said, rolling his eyes at Zane.
“Oh, that’s cool!” I practically gushed to the pretty girl who was only a couple years older than me. “Nice to meet you.”
“You too,” Fiona said.
“Well you guys are late, the food is probably ready. Let’s go eat!” Zane bounded over to the sliding glass door and motioned for all of us to head out.
After Ty introduced me around, we filled our plates with barbequed corn on the cob, salmon, and potato salad and then joined the others around the fire pit. Carter and the guys were all so nice and welcoming that my nervousness subsided immediately. The guys all talked relentlessly about band business. I sat quietly, soaking it in. Once everyone was finished, Fiona got up and started collecting plates to clean up, and I got up to help her.
“So, you’re Ty’s girlfriend?” Fiona asked as we brought the garbage into the house to throw away.
“Yes, we’ve been together for a couple of months.” I smiled. “Are you Zane’s girlfriend?”
“Uh, no.” She rolled her eyes. “He’s not capable of keeping his dick in his pants, so I’m not about to get my heart broken.”
“Oh.” I looked at her wide-eyed.
“Don’t worry, I’m pretty sure Ty’s a saint. So is Connor.” She smiled at me kindly, by this time we had made our way back outside. “Zane and Jace? Meh.”
“Musicians aren’t meant to keep it in their pants,” Jace snorted. “We’re too young to be tied down.”
“I got into a lot of trouble not keeping it in my pants,” Carter retorted while warming his hands over the fire.
“It is very hard to stop visualizing what you’re not keeping in your pants,” I deadpanned, surprising myself that I said what I was thinking out loud.
Everyone erupted in laughter, making me feel like I fit right in.
Still laughing, Ty pulled me onto his lap when I passed by him and possessively wrapped his arms around me. I leaned back against him and he nuzzled my ear. I couldn’t belie
ve that I was at Carter fucking Pope’s house, sitting on my boyfriend’s lap in front of the entire LTZ band. Life couldn’t get much better than this.
“Zoey, Ty tells us you’re going off to college in a couple months.” Carter eased back down in his chair, studying me.
“Yes, I’m going to Western this September.”
“Ah, that’s great. It’s important to get a college degree,” Gus Reynolds chimed in. “I’m hoping Fiona will finally agree with me.”
“I like helping you run the club, Dad.” Fiona fixed him with a pointed look.
“Speaking of which, we need to go.” Gus stood with a gleam in his eye. “Carter, do you want to come with us and risk these guys destroying your house?”
“Ha! These boys are wusses. They don’t party. I left Ty and Zane here last winter when we were in Europe, I think the worst thing that happened was a pizza stain on my new rug.” Carter got up to follow Gus. “Anyway. I’m going to pass, but I’ll walk you to the door.”
With Gus, Fiona, and Carter gone, leaving a bunch of empty chairs, I felt conspicuous still sitting on Ty’s lap. Nervously, I shifted to move into my own seat.
“Don’t get up, Zoey. We’re all pretty stoked that Ty’s finally brought a beautiful girl around.” Zane’s leg was bouncing energetically.
Ty just wrapped his arms tighter around my middle, leaning his head against mine. I decided to go with the flow and relax and hang out.
“Now that you’re with Ty, you’ll be seeing a lot of us.” Jace looked up from his phone. “We’re so busy preparing for the studio and our tour, we are all practically living here.”
“We’re all curious, Saint Ty never hangs out with chicks.” Connor took a long pull from the beer he was drinking.
“Guys, quit with the Saint Ty shit.” Ty stroked my stomach with his big palm, a slight smirk on his face. “Can’t you lay off for a night?”
“I just hadn’t realized that my charm and beauty made you switch teams, babe,” I gently teased.
The entire band burst out in laughter, including Ty. It was a great feeling, to fit right in by giving them shit.
“Remember when Carter actually did think we were gay?” Zane laughed. “Zoey listen to this. Carter’s always going on and on about us protecting ourselves and avoiding skanky groupies, yada, yada, yada. We never let him know about the girls we hooked up with. One day, Carter sat us down and had an entire interrogation about our love lives, and it morphed into how being gay was okay and how he’d support us no matter what—”
“Zane, God. Please don’t.” Ty covered his face with one big palm, his cheeks reddening with embarrassment.
Zane ignored him. “We had just lost our virginity in the band room.”
“Together? Dude!” Connor’s mouth lolled open.
“No, not together. Well kinda. Two chicks were hitting on us after the school talent show. We brought them to the band room and were on opposite sides of the room making out. I looked over and Ty’s girl had nearly impaled herself on his monster dick before he threw her off him to fumble with a condom,” Zane relayed the story gleefully. “I was, like, yeah! Green light! We both did them right there in the same room, it was awesome.”
“Not awesome.” Ty frowned.
“Monster dick?” Jace winced. “God, please erase that visual.”
“Yeah, I told Carter that even if I was gay, I’d be keeping my pristine ass far away from that thing.” Zane was laughing so hard he nearly fell off his lawn chair. “It’s huuuuggggee! Right, Zoey?”
My face was flaming red. Now the entire band assumed we were sleeping together, but I hadn’t gotten anywhere close to seeing Ty’s penis. Plus, now all I could picture was some girl impaling herself on my boyfriend, which pissed me off. I felt enraged.
Jealous.
“I have no problem with a little slagging, but have a little respect, guys.” Ty gripped my waist and gently eased me off his lap so he could get up. “Zoey is my girlfriend, our love life isn’t any of y’all’s business.”
“Oh dude! I’m so sorry.” Zane jumped up and ran over to Ty, looking remorseful. “I didn’t mean anything.”
“It’s fine, just please shut the fuck up.” Ty grimaced but held out his hand to me. “Z, do you want me to show you the practice space?”
“Sure.” I felt so uncomfortable, but I appreciated Ty wanting to diffuse the conversation. Admittedly, after Zane’s story, I was anxious to see Ty’s “monster” dick. I was also scared because Ty had experience that I didn’t have, which probably explained why he never pressured me.
My mom had made me promise to wait for the person who would love and cherish me, and I still really wanted Ty to be my first. I was beginning to truly believe he’d be my only. I was desperately in love with Ty and hoped with all my heart that he felt the same. I still needed to hear the words before I’d tell him. And, I knew I wouldn’t be able to have sex with him if he didn’t feel the same way I did.
Oblivious to my inner dialogue, Ty led me back through the living room and down a hallway lined with Carter’s personal photos. I stopped to take a look.
“That’s Zane when he was a baby. His mom, Lianne, is holding him.” Ty pointed to a picture of a waiflike beauty with long, dark-red hair, porcelain skin, and doe eyes holding tiny Zane dressed in a baby version of Grunge wear, flannel, cutoffs, long underwear, tiny Doc Martins, and a gray skull cap.
The next picture was Carter and Limelight on their tour bus, with baby Zane dressed in a similar outfit, playing with some toys. The rest of the pictures were early band shots of Limelight and a ton of Carter with Zane when he was a toddler and small boy, both of them sporting various hairstyles. In a still, from one of the band’s most famous videos at the iconic club RKCNDY, you could see Zane’s stroller in the background. I reached up to touch the so-called geek picture of Ty and Zane, at about sixteen or seventeen, with crazy hair and sullen looks. Both of them held guitars. Ty was definitely not a geek, his pent-up charisma seemed ready to explode out of a mussed-up, angsty-teen boy.
“God, I hate that he has that brutal picture hanging up.” Ty buried his face in my neck. “It’s mortifying.”
“I love it.” I traced Ty’s face in the picture.
“I’m sorry about all that talk about dicks out there.” Ty wrapped his arms around my shoulders. “And, I’m sorry you found out about the virginity thing that way.”
“It was before me.” I peered up at him. “Obviously, I knew you weren’t a virgin.”
“God, it’s sure not my proudest moment.” He squeezed his eyes shut. “I really just wanted to get it over with.”
“Did they scare you off?” Carter interrupted our conversation and sauntered in beside us, surveying the photos.
“No, they were just trying to get a rise out of Zoey, so we came inside.”
“Ah, well. Musicians. We’re at best, heathens.” Carter shrugged.
“I love these pictures.” My voice was barely a whisper, still nervous because of my comment outside, not to mention a fangirl reaction to Carter up close and personal.
“Me too. Zane has always been the light of my life, my little dude. He was the mascot of Limelight when we had our first gold record.” Carter looked at me. “But I got caught up in booze, blow, smack, and any mind-altering substances I could get my hands on. I fucked around on Zane’s mom. It’s not an easy road for the girlfriend of a rock musician. Lianne ditched me and took Zane away for many years, which I deserved.”
“I bet you’re glad that you’ve reconnected.” I tentatively touched his arm. “I know how important my dad is to me, and Ty tells me you’re like a father to him.”
“Shit, I don’t know about that.” Carter laughed sharply. “When Zane brought Tyson home, I was just glad that he had a friend to spend time with while I figured my own crap out.”
“It worked out pretty well.” The reverential way Ty looked at Carter warmed my heart.
Carter’s laid-back coolness cracked a bit. “Zoey, Ty
has the most inner determination of anyone I’ve ever known. It has been an honor to help in some small way.”
“Well you are lucky to have each other’s back.” I untangled myself from Ty’s embrace. “But now I need to use your bathroom.”
“Right over there. We’ll be right across the hall in the rehearsal space, come find us when you’re done.” Ty gestured to a door.
“Okay.” I waved and entered into the beautiful coffee-colored tiled bathroom. Needing a few moments to myself, I breathed deeply and stared at myself in the mirror. Until today, Ty’s home life was something he had been reluctant to share with me. Now, the full impact of how Ty had grown up, hit me.
The old cliché about people from opposite sides of the track being attracted to each other held true for me and Ty. I didn’t have much experience to draw on, but it felt like in all the ways that mattered we were a perfect match despite our different backgrounds. Ty had found a way out of an unstable childhood with his absent, addicted mother. It was mind-boggling for me to comprehend, coming from a normal household in a nice neighborhood with parents who were still married and in love.
He was perfect, and he was mine, and I couldn’t believe my luck at having found my person at such a young age.
Chapter 6
TYSON
As grateful as I was to have a few minutes without Zoey to clear my head after Zane embarrassed me, I knew I was going to get an earful from Carter. I was mortified that Zane outed how we lost our virginity, especially because Zoey and I hadn’t really talked about sex yet. I wanted her desperately, but she also meant more to me than a quick, meaningless fuck.
I hadn’t known it, but my heart had forever longed for what I had found with Zoey. Carter snapped me out of my thoughts by picking up one of his guitars and strumming.
“So, she’s pretty great, right?” I looked at him pointedly, daring him to say otherwise.
ENDLESS: A Less Than Zero Rockstar Romance: Book 1: Ty & Zoey Page 5