UNBROKEN (Friends, Lovers, or Nothing Book 5)

by Jackie Chanel

  “Christina. Mariah, maybe,” Cash replied. “But no one current. She’s a gem.”

  “She is,” Apryl agreed. “So, what do I have to do to get you and Shay one a track together?”

  Cash winked at his manager. “We’ll talk.”

  I wasn’t in the mood to listen to Apryl and Cash’s professional flirting. They better be careful because Savannah, Cash’s girlfriend, was already tolerating an intrusive baby mama. She wasn’t going to put up with his manager too. I bet she wouldn’t hesitate to get Apryl fired for behaving inappropriately with a client. Steele Management has a strict no fraternization policy.

  “Mikey, play it back from the bridge.”

  “I don’t need to hear it,” Joey said. “I was in there with her.” A big grin spread across his face. “I know you’ve been the hottest act on the label, but Shay…” he whistled. “That voice, her look…she might be more famous than you.”

  “What an endorsement!” Apryl drawled. “That’s amazing!”

  “I want her on the road with me. I know I already have an opening act, but I can feature Shay during my set. Can she be ready in two weeks?” I asked her manager.

  “Absolutely.”

  “Hey,” Cash objected. “What am I, chopped liver?”

  “Competition,” I answered. “I can’t have you on tour with me unless we’re co-headlining. That’s sensory overload for my fans.”

  “You mean my fans,” he retorted. “Don’t think I haven’t noticed you trying to hijack my fan base, Tyler.”

  “They were my fans first. I’m just taking them back.”

  “Hey, can I help that everyone needs a little Cash in their lives? I just give the people what they want.”

  “No one needs a pretty boy piano player crooning at them all night, you wannabe John Legend.”

  “Says the dude on the CK billboard on Sunset with his shirt off.”

  I shrugged my shoulders and lifted my t-shirt revealing the band of my black CK boxer briefs. “You hate on my billboard but that CK billboard is buying me a G5. You can crack jokes when you you’re your own plane, youngin. Also, which one of us has a sixty city tour that sold out two weeks before it’s supposed to start and which one of us still has five tracks to finish on his next album?”

  “I’ll be finished with my album soon and you’re still going to be sitting on that G5 alone after CK makes you shoot a campaign with your ex. She’s the reason you got the deal anyway.”

  “Low blow, Myers.”

  I checked the time on my phone. It was a little after nine. I knew we could easily be in the studio all night if I didn’t call it. We’d already completed two full tracks. As much as I wanted to stay and work on a third, I needed to go home and go to bed. Roxy will murder me if I’m late to the KIIS FM interview tomorrow. Even though she knows I despise doing morning show interviews, Roxy always gets me booked on at least three before every tour and then once in every city on the tour schedule. It’s so annoying.

  “Joey, I’m gonna roll out. Gotta be at KIIS FM at six. Don’t have her here all night.”

  Joey patted my back then playfully pushed me towards the door. “Don’t tell me how to do my job. I taught you everything you know. And take that one with you.” He pointed at Cash. “She’ll have five tracks done without you two beauty queens in here distracting her. Ol’ America’s Next Top Model wannabees.”

  “Sounds like someone’s jealous,” I said. “I’ll holla at you later. Cash, let’s stop by Liam’s. He’s got a 1957 Porsche Speedster in the garage to restore. You gotta see it, man.”

  “Bye, Aiden! Bye, Cash!” Shay yelled from inside the booth.

  “Bye!”

  “Later, sweetheart.” It came out ‘Latuh, swee-haht’ because Cash always turns on his Boston accent when he’s flirtin’ with hot LA chicks.

  “Yo, she’s smokin’ hot,” Cash said as we walked outside to our cars. “She needs to stay single ‘cause any dude that deals with her is gonna have a problem.”

  “Definitely. But I can’t make her stay single.”

  “You better talk to her. The last thing she needs around her while she’s blowin’ up is some insecure dude tryin’ to make a come up.”

  “Apryl’s her manager. Hopefully they’ve had that discussion.”

  We were close to our cars when someone sitting on the hood of my Lamborghini Huracan made us both slow down. I didn’t know who the hell the girl was or why she was sitting on the hood of a two-hundred thousand dollar car like it belonged to her.

  “Who the hell is that?”

  “Why she’s on your car is the better question.”

  “Yo!” I yelled as Cash and I sped up the pace. “Get off my car!”

  The girl looked up form her hone and hopped down off the hood. She couldn’t have been older than eighteen or nineteen, or younger. She looked like a student at UCLA or worse…a blogger.

  “Oh thank God, Aiden. You scared me. I’ve been waiting here for hours. I didn’t know when you’d come out. I saw you at Hollywood Burger but I couldn’t get your attention so I decided to wait here.”

  Cash burst out laughing. “Wait here for what?”

  The girl ignored Cash like he was just some regular guy on the street trying to get her number. All her attention was focused on me. The laser-like focus of her eyes on me had me taken aback and a little nervous. Then I started to feel stupid. She looked harmless. I’m a grown man and she was just a kid.

  “I’ve been sending you messages on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram for months,” she stated. “How come you haven’t replied?”

  “I get a lot of messages,” I said slowly. “You want an autograph or a picture or something?”

  “I’m Stella,” she said. “I know you’ve seen my messages.”

  “Stella, I don’t know—”

  “I know you check your messages!” Stella shouted angrily. “You said in People that you run your own social media accounts. Last week, you reposted the pic of my concert tickets that I put on IG. You know me! I’m Stella! Why have you been ignoring me?”

  This chick was obviously stranger than my regular fans and a little neurotic. I’ve dealt with my fair share of crazy fans but never in a dim parking lot at night. I decided to end this conversation ASAP.

  “Okay, Stella. Sorry. What do you want?”

  “I want to know why you’re moving to Atlanta. Did Sunny talk you into it? Why are you letting her control you? You can’t leave LA. We need you here. I need you here.”

  The amber glowing parking lot lights were bright enough to reveal Stella’s eyes brimming with tears. This was insane. She was insane. I quickly glanced at Cash. He was as freaked out as I was. We had to go. For real.

  “Umm,” I stammered. “Stella, it’s cool. You’ll be fine.”

  “No, I won’t!” she wailed. “Please don’t leave me!”

  “Let’s get the hell outta here,” Cash whispered. “Or call the cops.”

  “Call LAPD on a kid?”

  “Yeah…a crazy stalker kid.”

  “Let’s just go. Ride with me. We’ll get your car later.”

  I hit the button on my car remote to start it up and unlock the doors. Stella had thrown herself on the ground and was bawling uncontrollably. I don’t even think she noticed me and Cash hurrying around her and hopping into the running car.

  “What the fuck?” Cash laughed.

  “Leave her alone.” I was cracking up now that we were safe in the car. “She’s like what…eighteen?”

  “Which means she can legally institutionalized by the police.”

  I put the car in drive and started to pull out of the space when Stella jumped up and started running behind the car, screaming and crying for me to stop. I peeled out of the lot so fast that I’m sure they heard my tires screeching inside the building.

  “See! This is why I gotta get the hell out of LA.”

  “You need to get more security is what you need to do.”

  “Fuck that. I don’t s
ee you walking around with a bunch of dudes protecting you from fangirls.”

  “That’s because Boston boys are born tough. I don’t know about you. Mt. Vernon sounds like a place that breeds softies.”

  “Fuck you. Your girl knows how hard I am.”

  “I’mma tell her you said that.”

  We could joke about it because I’d never let another man see me sweat over a teenager. However, this type of incident had to be brought to Paulie and Roxy’s attention. The last thing I’m going to add to my already drama-filled plate is a stalker.

  I dropped Cash off at his condo off Sunset then headed up the hill. I was glad that I hadn’t wasted time stopping by Sunny’s house because her car was already in my driveway. Mom’s Bentley, Delilah’s Audi, Sara’s BMW, and a dark Escalade that I didn’t recognize were all parked in the driveway too. That pissed me off because I couldn’t maneuver around them to get to the garage and they all know that I park this car in the garage all the time. It’s going to be awesome when everyone can just walk to whose house they want to congregate at when we move.

  “Yo!” I yelled when I walked through the backdoor. “Why are your cars blocking the garage?”

  Summer came running into the kitchen like a puppy excited to see its owner.

  “Daddy, we have company!”

  “Yeah, I see that.” I picked her up and walked into the living room. Then stopped dead in my tracks.

  This can’t be happening tonight.

  Sunny walked over and hugged me. “Don’t be mad, okay. This was my idea.”

  “I figured.”

  The only reason Ramey was sitting on my couch was because Sunny let her. I felt like I’d just walked into an intervention. Everyone was looking at me like I’d done something wrong or they were expecting me to start yelling. Either way, they were making me more uncomfortable than Stella had in the CMG parking lot.

  I briefly ignored my ex-wife because something else caught my attention and held it. My mother was holding Ramey’s son on her lap.

  My son.

  I wondered how I was going to feel when I first laid eyes on him. Would there be the same sense of wonderment and connection that I had with Winter and Summer? I walked over to my mom and sat down next to her. The boy looked at me like he was grateful that someone else with a penis had entered the room. I understood. I feel like that all the time.

  He kinda looked like me. Better yet, he looked a lot like Delilah when she was a baby, when Mom had to keep her dressed in extra girly clothes because she looked like a bald little boy.

  “Babe,” Sunny said softly. “Meet your son.”

  As if he knew what Sunny said, Hendrix reached out to me.

  “C’mere lil man,” I said and took him from my mother. I sat him on my lap and couldn’t take my eyes off him.

  “Hendrix,” Ramey said. “Who’s that? Who’s that man?”

  Hendrix brought his eyes to mine and gave me a toothless grin.

  “Can he talk?” I asked Ramey.

  “Yes, he can talk. He’s been talking for the last four months. Hendrix, who’s that?” she repeated.

  He looked at me again, this time like he was trying to remember what his mom had told him. Then he laughed.

  “Da-dee.”

  Holy shit!

  I’m sure Daddy wasn’t his first word but it was the first word that I’ve ever heard him say and it sounded incredibly special. I shut my eyes and leaned my head back for a second. I was not about to let all these sentimental women in this room see me cry.

  “Yep, I’m Daddy,” I managed to choke out around the lump in my throat. I kissed his head. “I’m your daddy, lil man. You’re stuck with me, okay?”

  “Okay.”

  “Oh my goodness,” my mother cried. “How precious is he?”

  “I’ve been showing him your picture all day,” Ramey explained. “He’s excited to meet you.”

  Sunny sat down beside me. I checked her face carefully for any signs of sadness or discomfort. She wasn’t giving me that vacant expression she’s been giving for the last few days so I took it as a good sign. I squeezed her hand and kissed her cheek. She didn’t look thrilled but that would come later…hopefully.

  “He looks like you,” she said.

  “Yeah, he does.”

  “Actually,” Sara giggled and I knew she was about to start some shit with Delilah. “He looks just like Delilah.”

  Summer’s face was completely shocked. “Did you look like a boy, Aunt Dee-Lee?”

  “No!”

  “Yes, she did, Summer. She didn’t have any hair at all,” Sara continued to tease our baby sister. “Daddy used to call her cue ball.”

  “But look at all that beautiful hair she has now.” Mom fluffed Delilah’s golden locks and kissed her cheek. “You leave my baby alone.”

  Summer waved her hand to get my attention. “Daddy.”

  “What?”

  “Nana is your mommy, right? And she’s Aunt Sara and Aunt Dee-Lee’s mommy, right?”

  “Yes. What are you getting at?”

  “So, now you are the same. You have two girls and a boy just like Nana and Grandpa.”

  Until she said that, it never dawned on me. I have a wife, a beautiful home, two daughters, and a son in the exact same order as my parents. I’m living the life that my dad had, the one that was sacred to him, the life that he sacrificed a professional football career and his dreams for. Our lives aren’t mirror images because I am living my rockstar dream while still having the family that I want. He has no choice but to be proud of me now.

  Ramey picked up her phone off the table and pointed it at me holding Hendrix.

  “Don’t move. I gotta preserve this first meeting.”

  Everyone else took advantage of the photo op as Summer, not the one to be left out of any picture, climbed onto my lap too.

  “That picture better not show up in another book, Ramey,” I said. “Next time, I will sue you.”

  Acknowledgements

  I’ve never been good with writing acknowledgements because I have a bad memory and I’d feel bad if I left someone out.

  First and foremost, I have to thank my creator. It’s not arrogance that allows me to believe that I am a great author. It is my belief that my talent is God-given and because of that, I will not fail. He is my strength, my courage, and my comforter.

  As always, my family... My mother, who is my biggest fan. My sisters who support me like no other. My nieces and nephew. My world would be so much darker without them.

  To my readers who I will never call fans, I appreciate you all so much that I can’t even put it into words. Anyone who has ever read a Jackie Chanel book has a special place in my heart FOR-EV-VER. Thank you so much!

  Every book I write is dedicated to my grandmother and my cousin. My grandmother supported everything I ever dreamed of doing. She was so special to me and saying goodbye was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do.

  My cousin, DJ, was the first person I ever told that there was slim possibility that I was not going to be a doctor and he was the first person who encouraged me to pursue a career as an author. Up until the moment he took his last breath, he believed in me. Losing my best friend at seventeen is a pain that has never dulled with time. I write because I know he would be so disappointed if I didn’t.

  About the Author

  On a good day, Jackie Chanel is a writer, editor, and music fanatic. Most days, she's just a pop culture enthusiast, coffee in the morning/wine in the evening drinker, and reality TV junkie.

  "Writing books isn't what I decided to do; it's what I was born to do. At any given time, I have about fifteen characters in my head and they all speak at once."

  Jackie Chanel has written fourteen novels ranging from Urban Fiction to Contemporary Romance. When she's not writing in her batcave, she can usually be found in her favorite reading spot reading one of the 700 books on her TBR list.

  For more information about the author, visit her website<
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  http://jackiechanel.com

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