“What?” Jaxon asked through a squinted eye.
“Shit. I don’t want to say this, but the songs you’re bringing to rehearsals, man, they’re…”
“They’re bad.”
“Yeah dude, they’re pretty bad. That’s why the guys and I think you should take a break. Get out and see some different stuff. Find a new muse. Or…”
“Or?”
“Well, the rest of us agreed to step up to the plate. Will scribbled out a few workable lyrics the other night. I think he’s still pretty haunted by Honey but it could make for a good song or two. I mean shit, I could even give it a try. Girls like songs about sex.” Stefan’s gaze drifted off to someplace else.
“Yeah, well usually only if you’re clever about it.”
Jaxon wasn’t sold on the idea but apparently the guys weren’t buying his crap lyrics anymore. He didn’t blame them. But whether they realized it or not, Sin Pointe was bigger than the four of them now. It was a distinct sound. His sound. Stefan might see this as selfish, but Jaxon really was trying to think of the band and what their fans expected. “No, that’s not gonna work. The songs, not saying they wouldn’t be good songs, but they wouldn’t be Sin Pointe.”
Stefan walked into the kitchen and helped himself to a beer. “Near beer man, you want one?” Jaxon knew Stefan must have stopped and bought the stuff on the way over. His mate would never drink that piss otherwise. Nope, that was just for his recovering alcoholic benefit.
“Fuck no.”
Stefan plopped back down on to the couch and gagged after taking a long swig. “Ack.”
“Told you.”
“Yeah, so hey. Since when do you ever get an early start to anything? Who’s that curvy babe we'll call your motivation upstairs?”
“Nice try. You gonna hang for a bitty?” He wasn’t sharing; soon Stefan would realize that.
“Fuck. I guess so.”
“What, no motivation to get home to tonight? That fruit sample girl at the smoothie shop is into you.”
“She’s too sweet.”
“Maybe that’s why she makes such good smoothies.”
“Fuck you. Feel like getting your ass kicked in Fall for Duty?”
He knew he should be forcing himself to sleep since he’d promised Lily they’d take off in the morning. Well, looks like he was gonna have to smooth-talk his driver who hadn’t gotten around to booking them any flights. He’d make sure and tell Benny to pack a bag before he turned in. Stefan grabbed his joystick and started up where they’d last saved their game.
Two hours later, his rubber necking had become obnoxious. He cut out on his game with Stefan. “Hey man, stay as long as you want but I gotta get some sleepies.”
“That’s right. Your secret big day. Night, sweetie.”
“Night, asshole,” Jaxon said and then made his way up to his room.
Lily apparently didn’t like choosing sides as she was curled up smack in the middle of his bed. He undressed and then lay with as many good manners as he could at her left side.
* * * *
Lily was having the hardest time waking up from her dream. She was snuggled between Stefan Calderon and Jaxon James. The room was mostly dark but the space on either side of her was filled with hunky, manly shoulders. Jaxon’s extremely buff and muscled, Stefan’s tanned and kissable. Even though her mind was trying to force her to question it, there was no doubt, she was lying in the middle of two sexy, musical gods.
Stefan’s snores were the loudest sound in the room and she wondered if it was because he was drunk. A funky smelling beer cloud hovered near his otherwise kissable lips. It was funny that with all Stefan’s kissable parts, Lily kept inching closer to Jaxon. Her feet rubbed up against the soft hairs of Jaxon’s shin. Her hands were in nervous fists but the silk sheets balled up inside them felt like pure luxury. Her face was cool. Trepidation filled her silly heart. She sensed nearly every detail of this dream and the last thing to hit her was the taste of morning breath coating her tongue. Trying to work up enough saliva to wash some of it away, she realized this was no dream. She feared them coming to when she realized she was the only one awake. Quickly, she closed her eyes tight and swore not to be the first to reopen them. The things her red hair had gotten her into. Magnificent, once in a lifetime things.
* * * *
What the fuck was Stefan doing in bed with them?
A sudden drowning feeling began to fill Jaxon’s lungs.
As much as he had already begun to like having Lily there with him, this scared the shit out of him. The fun was over because no matter how hard he tried, his expertise was in blurring lines. He had to get her out of here as soon as possible. And even though he’d just promised to go with her, he knew that was a bad idea.
He was skirting some pretty serious danger. Lily had a raging crush on his lead singer. He could tell the minute they’d walked in the room and she practically drooled. Stefan had that affect. Trissy would kill Jaxon if she knew he’d made a Stefan-Jaxon sandwich out of her baby sis.
And here he’d thought he could spend one night with Lily and not hurt her.
But wasn’t that the damned funniest thing?
Here was a girl who thought Stefan Calderon was the ultimate sexy rock god yet her temptress toes were rubbing up against Jaxon’s very sensitive shins.
Shit motherfucker. He was fully aroused now.
He had to get her out of there. He had absolutely no idea if he should let her at least finish sleeping or snatch her up and stick her in his car and send her and Benny on their way. No way did he belong with her on the road.
No fucking way. That was just bananas.
He stayed alert, making sure Stefan’s wandering hands didn’t get anywhere near her tempting curves. And then he tried to think with his head and not his dick and prayed Stefan would roll off the bed onto the floor. Jaxon prayed her sweet eyes wouldn’t flicker open and realize what he’d let happen.
What a beautiful woman she was. He’d never felt the things he did during their moment on the beach last night. If he could keep her and hang out, he’d do it in a heartbeat. Too bad that wasn’t possible. When would he ever learn?
Chapter Eleven
The next day; the town of Jaxon-less Bugscuffle, Tennessee…
Lily was busy cursing Stefan Calderon for crawling into Jaxon’s bed with them and ruining everything, when a man she didn’t know waved his hands in front of her face. “Weight loss group meets on the third floor, young lady, up the stairs, all the way at the end of the hall.”
“Gee, thanks,” she muttered absentmindedly. Do I look that bad? Great, are my underwear grooves showing tonight?
Her fire engine red Leeloo hair on day three had washed halfway out, just as Benny had said it would, leaving her a dark strawberry golden blonde hue. With the loss of vibrancy she’d also bid goodbye to the little boost of sexy confidence she’d felt in California at Jaxon’s villa. Her feelings about how that had gone were just too messy to figure out right now. And to top it all off, here she was at the community center to pick up some new Lamaze flyers, alone, being mistaken for an overeater. Guess the joke was on her. That overstepping stranger had gotten Lily exactly right. She hadn’t been able to stop snacking since she’d been given the black leather steel-toed boot from Jaxon’s.
Lily just stood there in the community center hallway, hoping her observant, gentlemanly helper would keep on his way. She didn’t know what his business was up the flight of stairs he took—he was a slim fellow—but she knew where she was headed. And it wasn’t where he’d assumed. Yeah, that made her feel all kinds of wonderful inside. Ah, what’s the use? I've got nothing to complain about and I know it. Reconsidering that thought, she pushed open the Lamaze Center’s door with a nice big breath. She wished like hell Tris was at her side but understood why she couldn’t be, and tried to forget the man who had stopped short of calling her fat.
She pretended to adjust her top but really checked for hip flab. Yep, it was there, that
inch, inch and a half that seemed to really love being a part of her body, no matter how much she told it she hated it. She tugged on the shirt hem poking out under her sweater.
She let a giant, pregnant woman exit the Lamaze room door and then made her way inside to collect Tris’s brochures. Anything they could suggest to help alleviate stress was welcome Tris’ doctor-ordered bed rest had been extended to her due date.
Yep, that was Lily’s fault. She’d been so close to bringing home the cure for her sister’s blues and then it had all slipped away. Damn that Stefan Calderon. Now Lily was back to scrambling for ways to be everything else Tris might need in a sister since there was no best friend coming to her aid.
Lily thumbed through the spiritual section of the brochure rack. She still struggled with the fact that she and her big sister were the girls who had grown up across the street from a church in a podunk Oklahoma town. These thoughts sometimes trickled in, unwelcome. It might take the rest of her life to understand how she’d lived with the same man, under the same roof, yet knew nothing except his good, fatherly concern. And still, she knew enough about the way Tris had always been so sad and preoccupied that she had no doubts her sister had told her the truth. He was dead now, her father, Tris’s step-father.
I honestly don’t know what I’m doing here.
Her head popped up at a female voice.
“Where’s your sister tonight, Lily?” asked Tris’s Lamaze coach.
“Oh, she’s home, having some of those early contractions.”
Lily wanted to add that Tris was happily married to a man named, of all things, Lucky, and that she and her sister had opened and were running their very own dress shop. Painting a happy picture had saved her from many pitiful days back in Oklahoma.
“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that. She’s how far along?”
“Six months.” They both nodded at how serious the situation was. “She’s on doctor-ordered bed rest but I thought I might find some breathing tricks to help too.”
“Well,” the coach pulled out two pamphlets and pressed them into Lily’s hands. “I’ll keep her in my prayers, hun. How good of you to be here thinking of her. She’s lucky she has you.”
Lily wanted to feel like the good sister, but didn’t. One thing for sure was Lily didn’t have any answers tonight. What she did have was a dress shop to run in her sister’s absence, a backlog of Christmas orders to produce, and a fear of their screwy, ancient sewing machine which would mean a long night of painstaking hand-stitching. There were also the images of Jaxon James and how stupidly close she’d gotten to him. She left the building and hopped up into her Jetta.
At seven o’clock on the dot, her cell phone rang.
“Hey Lily, everything all right? You on your way home?” his voice crackled with bad reception.
God, her sister was lucky. “Hey Lucky. Yep, everything’s fine. But I’m stopping by the shop so don’t worry if I’m not there for a while. How’s Tris?”
“Aww, she’s, you know, a little…tired.”
“You mean cranky.”
“Naw, she’s perfect,” he chuckled. “Don’t be out too late. We worry, you know.”
“I do and I’ll try to finish up as soon as I can.” The road was already dark, the air cold and her Jetta’s heater sucked.
“All right. Hey Lily?”
“Yeah?”
“Thanks, darlin’. Really, for everything. You don’t know how much it means to your sister the things you’ve tried to do for her. She hates being condemned to bed.”
Tried, and failed. Was it really best she’d gone out and embarrassed herself to get Jaxon James back? Not if this pain inside didn’t go away soon. She would have responded sooner but tears were gonna make her voice quiver like a Billy goat and she didn’t want Lucky worrying about anyone but his pregnant wife.
“Me too. See you guys soon,” she said keeping it simple and then made her way through the tree-lined darkness to the dress shop.
“Hello, Trista and Lily’s Pad—ow, may I help you?”
Ouch. Dang it. She rubbed her foot, cursing its bareness. It hurt so bad she forgot about there being someone on the phone. She licked her finger and rubbed at the tiny blood-pricked spot on her heel and vowed to vacuum the shop once she got the orders catalogued and in the ledger.
“Hello? Anybody there? Hello?” a sexy, prickly male voice called to her insides but they must have had a bad connection because she could barely hear him. Bugscuffle, land where cellphone calls go to die.
“Sorry, sorry, sorry. I’m here,” she remembered to respond. She sighed, missing Jaxon sorely. “Sorry again,” she stuttered after the line became overly quiet. “Hello?”
Scratchy air whooshed over the cell waves. “Are you okay?” came the rough voice again.
“Yeah,” she said, surprised the stranger on the other end hadn’t chosen to cuss her out. “Just stabbed myself,” she blurted, figuring he wouldn’t hear anyway.
“Whoa, and you’re sure you’re okay?” asked the stranger.
“Oh yeah, I guess stabbed is a bit dramatic. Just a prick.” Why was she telling him all this and why hadn’t he hung up on her yet? She tested her heel against the cool wood of the shop floor. “All better. Now that I’m done wasting your time, what can I do for you?” She eyeballed the stack of dress orders yet to be logged and cursed Lucky for getting Tris pregnant. “Yeah, uh, I’m not even sure I have the right number. I’m trying to get a hold of Triss…um, Trista Hart, uh Mason. Trista Mason. Is this her business number?”
He sounded familiar but that was probably because she’d compared every male voice she’d heard that day to Jaxon’s and now, apparently, her ears were worn out. Lily wondered what this guy would sound like without the white noise of their bad connection. More importantly, why was he stuttering over her sister’s name? “Well, you’ve got the right number. She’s just not here today.” Or this month. Or next. “Can I take a message?”
She was pretty sure he let out a loud breath. “Well, yeah, you see, it’s kind of personal. Can you just tell her Jaxon called and I really need her to call me back because if she doesn’t….”
“Jaxon? As in Jaxon, Jaxon?”
“Yeah. Sure. I’m sorry, I can barely hear you.” He was in and out.
He must be dealing with the same impersonation of hurricane force winds on his end because admitting he hadn’t recognized her voice hurt worse than being mistaken for the wrong self-help group. She blew out three short puffy exhales like she’d seen Tris and Lucky practicing the past two months. Instead of calming her anxiety at having him on the phone, it left her light headed. She grabbed the counter.
“Well, yes. Sort of.” We slept together the morning I left. In your bed. With Stefan. No, no, no. Don’t say that. It sounds horrible and lame and actually…kind of exciting. But that wasn’t exactly what had happened. And then you sent me packing. “Um, it’s me? Lily, the little sister?” she eeked out.
Silence greeted her. What? Had Jaxon forgotten the scene he’d made that morning the three of them had woken up together? She’d just barely squirmed off the bed in time before Jaxon, half dressed, pummeled Stefan, completely naked, to the floor. It had taken exactly one second for Stefan to accidentally uncover himself with the sheet in a yawning stretch before the two guys became a blur of tanned flesh and burly muscles before her woozy eyes.
“Hello? Jaxon?”
“Sorry, Lily. Of course I remember you. Guess I’m, you know, still not used to Trissy having a baby sister and her answering the phone.”
She told herself he sounded distant but not like he was being a jerk. Jerks had that certain venom to every slimy word that fell out of their spoiled mouths. While it was rare for Tris to talk badly about Jaxon, she did occasionally throw out the word selfish. Lily breathed in a fresh gulp of good attitude and tried to forget the butterflies kicking her belly like she was carrying five thousand of them. She remembered he’d sounded urgent. “It’s okay. That’s what I get for making
it a habit of showing up on peoples’ doorsteps, unannounced.” Okay, so that was the oddest thing she could have said out of a thousand other awkward choices. Jaxon hadn’t responded, again. “Jaxon, I’ll try and get whatever message you have to Tris as soon as I can. I’m actually planning on seeing her at some point tonight if she’s up for it.”
Lily wondered if he was okay. It was too quiet for a second.
“Is she okay?” he asked her in a rush.
“Sort of,” she sputtered out in an effort to make the heart attack in his voice go away.
“Sort of? Oh my God, is she okay?”
Well, it had taken her long enough to realize the reason for Jaxon’s call. He was worried about Tris. She twisted her lips, wondering what that felt like.
“Hello? Lily?”
She smiled at finally hearing her name by way of his soft Aussie voice. “I’m sorry, Jaxon. Tris’s now officially on doctor-ordered bed rest for the rest of her pregnancy.”
Maybe she should have nipped this convo in the bud and told him to call Benny, who was at Tris and Lucky’s as they spoke. It was why she wasn’t hating on Jaxon right now. He’d cared enough to send her packing with a proper escort and the Range Rover had been a wonderful ride. She just wished it had been Jaxon driving. She eyed the stack of dress orders threatening to topple over and knew she wouldn’t make it home anytime soon.
“Well I hope she’s really all right. Listen baby, the reason I’m calling is because we…”
Jaxon called me baby, just like he did on our one special night. But she knew who she really wished had called her that. Sweet, one-chaired, beach-night Jaxon. Not this version who was just worried about Tris and trying to be nice to Lily. He had changed his mind where Lily was concerned and as much as it had hurt, she could see the reason behind his actions, as much as she hated it and wished people would let her be the deciding factor. She cracked her knuckles and found a new pile of fabric samples to busy her silly brain.
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