Trinity gave her a little wave and Karlie walked down the hall to their practice space. The sound of music grew louder and she could just make out the last notes of “Fortunate Son” fading.
Murmuring broke out and when she stepped into the room, the band was huddled together talking about something. She dropped her purse onto a chair by the door and stepped further into the room. No one noticed her as they moved back to their instruments and started playing “Life’s Been Good.”
Karlie smiled as she watched them work together to play their music. Halfway through, Jax glanced up and met her eyes. He smiled at her as he continued to play before turning his attention back to his chords.
She waited patiently while the last notes faded before stepping closer to Jax while he whipped the guitar over his head. He met her halfway and pulled her into his arms, hugging her tightly.
“I see you got back in one piece,” he murmured in her ear.
She laughed. “Did you doubt I would?”
“I had my moments when you told me you were going with Bailey.”
She smiled and clutched him to her. She leaned back and tilted her head up. “I think I need a hello kiss,” she said, smiling.
He smirked and leaned down, pecking her lips.
She scoffed. “That’s all I get?”
He wagged his eyebrows before swooping down and pressing his lips hard against hers. He pressed her backwards, dipping her, and she was vaguely aware of whoops around them as Jax stood her up again and pulled back. She was slightly light-headed from the sudden movement.
“Good enough for you?” he asked.
She licked her lips and said, “It’ll do. For now.”
He arched a brow as a smile spread across his face. “Is that a promise?”
She shrugged. “I guess you’ll find out.”
Jax kissed her once more before rejoining the band to continue practice. She pulled a chair up and watched. If someone had asked her a few months before if she’d be in a relationship with Jax, she would have scoffed. She couldn’t have imagined herself falling for a playboy like him. Yet, here she was, deliriously happy with him and unable to imagine her life without him.
She was glad she'd decided to take a chance on him and that they were able to work through their issues to reach the place they were in now. It wasn’t always easy, especially since Jax was sometimes clueless about females, but it was worth it to get to the makeup sex.
She met Jax’s gaze, and he smirked at her as he jammed out. Yeah, there weren’t many things better than being with him.
She snorted softly to herself. She never thought she’d be lovestruck about one of the hottest musicians their little town had to offer.
It hadn’t been easy for her to accept her feelings since she didn’t think she could handle Jax or being a musician’s girlfriend. She was glad she hadn’t talked herself out of it though. Jax was one of the sweetest guys she knew and she was so lucky to call him her own.
She watched him strum the guitar idly while Harry and Veronica argued about the vocals on a song and sighed. She hadn’t seen him in weeks and she missed him desperately while she was gone. She longed for when they’d be alone and she could show him just how much she missed him.
Jax glanced toward her and their eyes met. He smiled, his eyes crinkling at the corners. She bit her lip and let her eyes travel down his body, which was clad in its customary jeans, boots, and t-shirt, before bringing them back up to meet his. He winked and she flushed.
Practice seriously needed to be over already.
Later that night, Jax and Karlie snuggled together on the couch while watching a rerun of a sitcom. It was a nice, quiet evening and it was lovely after the constant go of the road trip. But a nice, quiet evening wasn’t really what Karlie had in mind. She wanted an evening that was a bit more arousing.
She bit her lip as she considered her plan of attack. Since they were cuddled up on the couch, her head was on his lap and it gave her the perfect opportunity to tease him a bit. He was wearing cargo shorts, so she nonchalantly slid her fingers under the edge of the leg of his shorts.
His leg tensed, but relaxed after a few moments. She slowly teased his leg around his knee and worked her fingers up as high as possible before bringing them back down. Jax shifted a bit in his seat and she smiled at the thought that he was affected by her.
She continued to slowly drag her fingers over his knee and thigh while Jax continued to shift above her. He cleared his throat, “What are you up to?”
Karlie smiled and rolled to her back and looked up at him. “Nothing.”
He smirked at her. “Nothing?”
She just shrugged and ran her fingers over his t-shirt clad torso. Jax chuckled and grasped her hand in his. “If this is nothin’, I’d hate to see what somethin’ is.”
Before she could respond, he moved her, hauling her up to straddle him on the couch. “Still nothin’?” he asked.
Karlie nodded and leaned in to press a kiss to his mouth. She sighed as she opened her lips for him to thrust his tongue into her mouth. She wrapped her arms around his neck and scooted closer, settling over his length.
Jax groaned into their kiss, running his hands over her torso, squeezing her sides and her breasts before slipping his fingers under the hem of her shirt. He tickled her skin before pulling her shirt off, leaving her clad in just her simple, cotton bra.
She pressed her lips to his again as she reached behind herself to unclasp her bra and pull it off. She then reached for his shirt and pulled it up, stopping when she couldn’t pull it off. She broke their kiss and Jax pulled his shirt the rest of the way off.
She bit her lip as his torso came into view. She never got tired of gazing at his rippling muscles and hard body.
“Like what you see?” he asked, smiling lazily.
She nodded and leaned in, pressing kisses to his neck and to his chest. Jax ran his fingers through her hair, gathering it in his hand. He groaned as she laved his nipple and bit down lightly before moving to the other one.
He pulled her up abruptly when she moved to get off his lip. Their eyes met, hers wide with surprise and his dark with desire.
“What do you say we move this to the bedroom?” he asked roughly.
Not waiting for an answer, he grasped her around her waist and stood. She wrapped her legs around his hips as he strode to her bedroom.
“I can’t wait to show you how much I missed you,” he whispered in her ear as he kicked her bedroom door shut behind him.
She moaned loudly as he showed her everything she missed while she'd been gone.
Much later, when they were both sated, they lay with their legs intertwined, basking in the afterglow of their love-making.
“I missed you,” Jax said, squeezing Karlie’s arm and pulling her more fully into his side.
“I missed you too.” Karlie tilted her head up from where it was resting on his shoulder to kiss him on the cheek.
They lapsed into silence again before Karlie tentatively asked, “When do you leave again?”
Jax trailed his fingers up and down her arm before replying. “In about three weeks.”
“What cities again?”
“Raleigh, Wilmington, Myrtle Beach, Richmond, and some other big ones.”
Karlie rolled her bottom lip into her mouth as she thought over what he said. “And you’ll be gone a month?”
“Yeah.” He shifted so he could roll to his side, looking her in the eye. “What’s up?”
She shrugged and dropped her gaze to his naked chest. She felt embarrassed to admit what was on her mind.
“We have to be honest with each other if I’m going on tour. We talked about this before you left on your road trip.”
Karlie winced, recognizing the truth in Jax’s words. They had talked about being apart before she left and yet here she was, freaking out again.
She blew out a breath and looked at his face through her lashes. Concern was reflected there.
“I
guess I’m just worried about not seeing you for four weeks. This trip was one thing; it was only two weeks long. I guess I just don’t want to be apart from you that long.”
Jax narrowed his eyes, but remained silent. She worried she’d overstepped a boundary with her words. But if she couldn’t be honest with the man she loved, who could she be honest with?
He slowly nodded. “I can see what you mean. But I think we can get through it. Phone calls, texts, maybe you can come to the show in Myrtle Beach?”
“Are you sure?” she asked, hoping blooming in her chest.
He nodded. “Yeah, of course. I wouldn’t ask if I wasn’t. I have to check the schedule, but I think we have a few shows while we’re there, so maybe you can come for a day or two and we can hang out when we’re not in rehearsal.”
Karlie tried to contain the grin that threatened to spread across her face, but quickly lost the battle. Jax inviting her to come was exactly what she wanted to hear.
“Ahh!” she screamed, making Jax jump. “I already can’t wait!”
Jax laughed and pulled her into his arms again. “Girl, you have nothing to worry about. I’m with you and that’s just the end of it. You’re stuck with me.”
Stuck with him? There were certainly worse places to be.
Epilogue
Bailey
Bailey’s phone rang again. She glanced at the caller ID and rolled her eyes. Harry again. She wouldn’t be answering that. Ever since she met him in college, they were on and off again. Right now, they were definitely off. When her phone rang again, she grabbed it, turned it off, and tossed it onto her coffee table.
She turned her attention back to SportsCenter, trying to concentrate on the top ten plays they were going over. She couldn’t though. She felt restless. She'd felt this way before she and Karlie had gone on their trip and she'd hoped it would help with this feeling, but it hadn’t. If anything, it was worse now.
She stood and started to pace, looking around her tiny one bedroom apartment. She could afford a better place, one that was a bit bigger, but she didn’t have any desire to move from this apartment. It had been the first thing she'd used her first paycheck as a PE teacher on, and it was fairly sentimental. It was fully hers and she could do with it what she wished. She didn’t have to answer to anyone about it and she liked that.
She had a lot of memories with Karlie here. She also had a lot of memories with Harry here. Too many memories to count. Some flashed through her mind.
The housewarming gift he'd dropped off that led to them having sex on her couch, only for her to freak out and kick him out the next morning.
His stopping by over Thanksgiving to give her leftovers which led to them having sex on her kitchen table, only for her to freak out and kick him out the next morning.
His coming over to help her fix her leaky faucet which led to them having sex in the shower, only for her to freak out and kick him out immediately after.
She definitely had a pattern with Harry and it didn’t seem to be changing. They’d come together, have great sex, and then she’d get rid of him. It was their thing. It was one they’d been in for years. It was something she didn’t want to change either.
Of course, it hadn’t always been this way. At one point, they’d been in an actual relationship, one with labels and everything. But if there was one thing Bailey didn’t do it was relationships. Relationships led to feelings, which in turn led to expectations. She couldn’t do expectations or feelings. It only led to disappointment and heartache.
A pounding on her door pulled her from her thoughts. She tiptoed over and peeked through her peephole. She released a breath when she saw it was just Karlie. She unlocked the door and opened it.
“What are you doing here?” she asked, shutting and locking the door behind Karlie.
“I can’t come see my best friend?” she asked, sitting on the couch.
Bailey snorted and sat next to her. “You’ve been attached to Jax’s dick for weeks now. I’m surprised you can do anything besides ride it.”
“You’re so crude,” Karlie said, wrinkling her nose.
Bailey shrugged. “And you know this.”
“True, true.”
They lapsed into silence and Bailey waited to see what Karlie wanted. It wasn’t often Karlie stopped by unannounced, so she was sure there was a specific reason for the visit.
“Why’s your phone off?” Karlie finally asked.
Bailey shrugged. “Got tired of the phone calls.”
She glanced at Karlie and saw she was rolling her eyes. “Let me guess, you got tired of Harry calling.”
“Yeah, maybe,” Bailey finally admitted, keeping her eyes glued to the TV.
Karlie sighed. “When are you going to put the two of you out of your misery?”
“I don’t know what you mean.” Bailey stood and walked into her kitchen.
She turned the water on in her sink to wash dishes. She never washed dishes. She always ran the dishwasher. But she wanted to avoid this conversation with Karlie. She knew it was coming. It had been building for months. She was surprised it hadn’t come while they were on their road trip.
She heard footsteps behind her and Karlie came to stand beside her. She grabbed a dish towel and took the clean plate from her hand to dry it.
“Bailey, we can’t avoid this forever.”
“I think we can.”
“Bailey…”
“Karlie…”
They lapsed into silence again. “Why can’t you just admit that you want to be with him?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Bailey scrubbed the cup in her hand with more force than necessary.
“You know exactly what I’m talking about.”
Karlie reached over and jerked the glass out of Bailey’s soapy hands. “You’re going to break that,” Karlie muttered.
Bailey cut her eyes to Karlie and saw she was glaring at her. “I really don’t. I can’t think of a single person I want to be with besides you and that’s because you wouldn’t survive without me.”
Karlie rolled her eyes. “Denying it doesn’t make it any less true.”
“Karlie, I really don’t want to talk about this.”
Karlie threw the towel down and turned to face Bailey. “You always say that. You always say you don’t want to talk about it and change the subject. You aren't getting away with it that easily. As my friend, you forced me to figure things out with Jax. As your friend, I’m going to force you to figure things out with Harry.”
Bailey clenched her jaw. “There’s nothing to figure out.”
Karlie scoffed and shook her head. “You know, it's pretty bad when you’re in such deep denial that you can’t even admit when you want to be with the guy that you’ve loved since you were nineteen.”
Bailey’s stomach rolled. There it was. The L-word. It wasn’t a word Bailey used. Love led to things she didn’t want to think about, mainly things like divorce and resentment. It wasn’t worth it to get involved to that point.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said, pausing her scrubbing.
Karlie scoffed. Bailey shot her a glance and knew Karlie wanted to say something else, but she snapped her teeth together. As Bailey stood at her sink, Karlie grabbed her things and said, “I’ll let myself out.”
The door slammed behind her best friend and Bailey sagged. Karlie was right, she was in denial. But she wouldn’t be admitting that to anyone but herself. She needed Harry like she needed her next breath, but she couldn’t admit that to anyone. Admitting that meant opening herself up to heartache and disappointment, and that just wasn’t something she could do.
Playlist
Ramblin’ Man by The Allman Brothers
Can’t You See by The Marshall Tucker Band
Mississippi Queen by Mountain
Midnight Rider by The Allman Brothers
Hold on Loosely by .38 Special
The Devil Went Down to Georgia by The Charlie Daniels
Band
Gimme Three Steps by Lynyrd Skynyrd
All Summer Long by Kid Rock
Sweet Home Alabama by Lynyrd Skynyrd
Fortunate Son by Creedence Clearwater Revival
Jessie’s Girl by Rick Springfield
Summer of ’69 by Bryan Adams
Runnin’ With the Devil by Van Halen
Life’s Been Good by Joe Walsh
Have you Ever Seen the Rain? by Creedence Clearwater Revival
Wagon Wheel by Old Crow Medicine Show
Acknowledgments
I always find there’s not enough words to adequately express my appreciation for the people that help me get this done. I have so many that push me to write and put myself out there and without them, well, we certainly wouldn’t be sitting here, would we?
To my critique partners, I am so thankful each day that I have the two of you in my life. You each push me to do more, write more, and believe in myself.
To my friends that know I do this: y’all are the best I could ask for. Words can’t tell you how much I love you and how much I appreciate you.
To my family, even though you might not know it, you’re supportive in subtle ways (especially since you don’t know my pen name!) and I am appreciative that you’re always like that.
And last, but certainly not least, the readers. I’m still new and still building my reader base, but without you, what’s the point? I certainly hope y’all enjoyed the story and are looking forward to the next one in the series and anything else I write. I write because I enjoy it, but also because I want others to as well.
About the Author
A.M. Williams is just a simple girl from the south that found herself living abroad. When she’s not annoying her cat or reading, she’s spending time with her husband and traveling as much as possible. She has a serious case of wanderlust and wants to go as many places as possible while she can. She loves Cheerwine, sweet tea, and North Carolina (eastern style) BBQ as well as those crystal clear waters on the North Carolina coast.
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