Chapter 25
Ace
“Well shit,” I muttered when I opened the front door the next morning and saw who was standing there. “I don’t suppose you’re supposed to be here?” I asked her. She looked up at me nervously and shook her head. I let out a heavy sigh. “Yeah, I didn’t think so.” I opened the door wider to let her in. She was shivering in her jeans and a jacket that was much too thin for the weather we were having. “You might as well come in before you freeze to death.” She dragged her small suitcase in behind her and I closed the door.
“Well hello, darling. Who are you?” Spade was standing there in a pair of sweatpants and nothing else. Our guest’s eyes were fixated on his bare chest. I just shook my head.
“Seventeen dude,” I told him.
“Damn, that’s too bad.”
“Sadie!” I hollered. “You got a delivery.”
“What is it?” Her question preceded her appearance in the foyer, but as soon as she stepped into view, she stopped and her brow wrinkled in confusion. “Mia, what are you doing here? Do Mom and Dad know you’re here?”
“Mom and Dad?” Spade questioned. “Damn, another sister. Mr. and Mrs. Pierce sure know how to make ‘em.” He looked back at Mia. “You come find me in a few years when you’re not jailbait anymore.” He winked at her and then disappeared into the living room.
Mia seemed to snap out of her daze once he was gone and she met her sister’s disapproving look. “He’s … intense.”
“Yeah, don’t even think about it,” Sadie told her. “Now explain what you’re doing here.”
Mia’s eyes dropped to the floor. “I had a fight with Mom. I just couldn’t stay there. I had to get away.”
“So you ran away and hopped on a plane?” Sadie asked incredulously.
“Come on, I didn’t run away. I came to visit my sister.”
“But Mom and Dad don’t know you’re here.”
“Well, no. I told them I was going to spend the night with a friend. Michelle is going to try and cover for me if Mom calls.”
“Mia!” Sadie scolded her. “You can’t do that. They’re going to kill you when they find out and then they’re going to kill me.”
“They can’t get mad at you. You didn’t even know I was coming, and who says they even have to find out? It’s not like Mom’s the most attentive parent, maybe she won’t bother checking up on me.”
Sadie let out a frustrated sigh, “Mia, she’s going to find out. You know she’ll call your friend’s parents and your friend won’t be able to cover for you for very long. When Mom finds out you lied to her, it won’t take her long to track you down and we both know she won’t have any trouble finding a way to blame me for this. Then we’ll be lucky if she lets you even speak to me again.”
“So what then? You just want to send me back there. God! I thought you, more than anyone, would understand why I had to get out of there. I can’t stand it. She’s so controlling and she disapproves of everything I do. It’s impossible to even have a civil conversation with her, and Dad doesn’t do anything. He’s never home and she’s always there, getting in my face, telling me how disappointed she is because my grades aren’t good enough, I don’t practice the piano enough, I’m not proper enough, I don’t have the right friends, I’m not in the right clubs. I swear if I have to spend my entire Christmas break in that house with her, I’ll lose my damn mind. Don’t force me to go back, at least not yet. Give me a few days. Please!”
I felt for the girl, she seemed truly miserable and dismayed at the idea of being sent back, but I could also tell how worried Sadie was about the consequences of letting her stay. I knew what her relationship with Mia meant to her, how happy it made her to be able to talk to her sister on the phone and text her. She wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize that and I couldn’t blame her, but I also wanted to help Mia out.
“What if we just let her stay the night and you can try calling your dad in the morning? Maybe talking to him will be better than dealing with your mom,” I suggested.
Mia looked hopeful, but Sadie still seemed reluctant. Finally she gave in. “Fine, you can stay the night and tomorrow we’ll call dad and see what he says. Maybe he can talk to Mom and we can work out a way for you to spend your break here, but if not you have to go back. I’m sorry, I really am, but running away isn’t going to solve any of your problems.”
“Thank you,” Mia squealed and then rushed to hug her sister, then she looked over at me. “Thank you for letting me stay.”
“No problem kid. Let me take your bag to one of the guest rooms and Sadie can show you around.” Sadie gave me an appreciative smile and I pressed a soft kiss to her lips before I took the bag and left the two of them standing there, but not before I saw her blush and Mia’s grin. Yeah, I was going to do that a lot more often now that she was mine, and she was mine. I’d made sure we were clear on that last night when we got home from the light festival. We stayed up late talking, getting everything out and then I didn’t ask, I told her we were doing this. No more kind of dating and seeing what happens. We were doing this for real and all that shit now. She was my girlfriend, and fuck, that made me want to beat on my chest and yell it from the rooftops. She. Is. Mine.
“Wipe that stupid grin off your face asshole. It’s sickening,” Spade was leaning against the wall with a giant bowl of cereal in his hand. He shoveled a large bite into his mouth and continued to smirk at me around the spoon.
“Not even you can piss me off today man, so don’t bother.” I bypassed him to get to the bedrooms.
“Well shit, another one bites the dust. I guess I’m not all that surprised. It was inevitable.”
I didn’t even bother to argue with him, besides, it wasn’t like what he was saying wasn’t true. Apparently Spade didn’t take the hint that I wasn’t going to engage, because he followed after me down the hall.
“You’re sticking the kid in a room down here?” He asked when I pushed open the door to one of the spare bedrooms.
“Well, I’m sure as hell not sticking her upstairs near your room.” He knew better. He was an asshole, but he had his boundaries and I trusted him not to cross them, but still, it was better not to tempt him, especially when I still didn’t have that good of a read on Mia. I liked her and she seemed sweet and a lot like Sadie, but I still couldn’t be sure that she didn’t have a little bit of Leila in her, and she had been eyeing Spade with more than a little female appreciation. It was better not to take any chances. Spade had a bad track record with little sisters; they had a habit of falling for him.
“So how long is she staying?”
“I don’t know. Her parents don’t know she’s here. Sadie’s worried about how they’ll react, but for now she’s here and you need to behave,” I warned him.
“Hey man, I’m not gonna touch her. I’m a dick, but not that big of a dick. She’s cute, but I was joking before. I could tell she was just a kid. I don’t mess with little girls.”
“I know you wouldn’t, but don’t even joke around with her. The last thing we need is her falling for you because you’re a flirt.”
“Yeah, yeah. I got you. I’ll behave,” he assured me.
I set Mia’s bag down at the foot of the bed and then went in search of the girls. I found them out by the pool and hot tub. The tour seemed to have stopped there, and they were sitting on the ledge of the hot tub with their shoes off, pants rolled up and legs dangling in the water. Ivy was laying beside Sadie, with her head in her lap.
“So what’s it like dating a rock star?” I heard Mia ask. “You guys are officially dating now, right?”
“Yeah, we are,” Sadie answered her last question but chose to ignore the first. I was curious myself how she felt about that. We hadn’t really talked about it – the fame and fans and what she thought about it all. She’d handled it really well so far when we were out in public, I just hoped that wouldn’t change now that that we were actually a couple.
“But you weren’t dating at T
hanksgiving?”
“Uh no. I mean we’d gone on a date, but we weren’t official or anything. He wasn’t my …”
“Boyfriend,” Mia finished for her.
“Yeah that.”
“So did it happen when you went home with him to meet his family? What were they like?”
Sadie laughed dryly, “Nothing like ours, that’s for sure. They were … normal.”
Normal? She thought my insane family was fucking normal? Huh.
“Normal, huh?” Mia echoed my thoughts.
“Yeah. Normal, and nice. Really nice. A little on the quirky side, especially his grandma, but overall they were great. They actually like spending time with each other. They talk at meal times. It’s not just awkward silence, and his mom loves to cook and bake for everyone. She also likes her eggnog heavy on the rum, but she’s one of the sweetest people I’ve ever met. She made me feel welcome, and even when they argue or bicker, you can tell they really care about each other. His whole family gets together to decorate and bake for Christmas. They sing Christmas carols and watch Christmas movies and the whole works. It was like being in a Hallmark movie.”
“That’s fuckin weird,” Mia responded.
“Yeah, it was,” Sadie agreed and my heart started to drop. I’d thought she’d had a good time. I didn’t realize it had weirded her out. “It was also kind of amazing,” Sadie added and I smiled.
“Think they’d adopt me?” Mia asked.
“Probably,” Sadie told her, and it was true. My parents probably would.
“I don’t want to go home for Christmas,” Mia admitted quietly. “I hate it there.”
Sadie wrapped her arm around her sister’s shoulders and they leaned their heads together. “I know. I’ll try to talk to Dad, I promise.”
“Thanks.”
They sat there quietly, and I started to feel awkward for intruding and listening in on their moment, so I quietly backed into the house and then intentionally made noise on the way back out so they would hear me come up behind them.
“Hey, there you guys are,” I said. They both turned to look at me. “Mia, are you hungry? Did you eat anything before you got here? I was just about to make some French toast.”
“That sounds great.” She smiled up at me and Sadie’s face matched.
“Okay, French toast, coming up.”
When the girls came inside fifteen minutes later, I was pulling the last of the bacon from the pan and already had three plates of French toast and scrambled eggs ready. I tossed a few pieces of bacon onto each one and then slid them across the counter towards the girls, along with the syrup. Then I watched as both girls not only drenched their French toast, but their bacon and eggs as well.
“That’s disgusting,” I told them and took a bite out a piece of bacon, sans the syrup.
They both looked at each other and down at their plates, like they hadn’t even realized they both did it. They both just smiled and shrugged, then proceeded to eat their syrup with a side of actual breakfast.
At one point Danny came crawling out of his room looking like he needed a few more hours of sleep, and grabbed one of the extra pieces of French toast off the now cool griddle, and folded it in half before shoving it into his mouth and going to the fridge to drink some juice straight from the carton. He hadn’t entirely evolved yet. Mia watched him curiously, but Sadie was used to it and just rolled her eyes and went back to her breakfast.
A few minutes later Chris emerged in just his boxer shorts, and if I thought Mia had enjoyed seeing Spade shirtless, she was looking at Chris like he was the damn Statue of David. Sadie didn’t notice, but I sure as hell did, and then Mia caught me noticing. I raised an amused eyebrow at her and she blushed the same as her sister.
“Who’s this?” Chris asked, nodding at Mia, when he slid into the stool next to mine.
“Chris, Mia, my little sister,” Sadie introduced him. “Mia, Chris. Mostly just ignore him.”
“Hey!” Chris protested, then looked at Mia. “Don’t listen to her. You don’t have to ignore me. I’m a lot of fun.” He put an emphasis on fun and I smacked him in the back of his head.
“Did she mention that this is her little, seventeen year old, sister.” Mia frowned when I pointed that out, but I didn’t much care. It was for her own good.
“Dude, I didn’t mean that kind of fun. I’m not an idiot, I can tell jailbait when I see it. I was just being nice.” Mia frowned again when he said jailbait and I started to worry that her visit here was going to get complicated. I thought maybe we could ask Jax if she could stay with her instead of a house full of guys. Then I realized with the amount of sex those two were probably having, that wasn’t the best idea either. I’d just have to keep an eye on her, and them. I really did believe that they knew better, but Mia was a pretty girl and they didn’t always think things through, at least not with the right head.
“It was nice meeting you Mia, I’m sure I’ll see you later.” She smiled at him and then he stood and looked at me. “We’ve got to be in the studio today at one, don’t forget.”
“Yeah, I know,” I told him. We were working on our newest album. It would be our third to release and the label was really pushing us hard to get it finished. The next couple weeks would be insane between recording sessions, the Christmas concert we were doing to raise money for the Children’s hospital and the two late night shows we were making appearances on.
After breakfast the girls disappeared again and I hit the workout room before getting ready to head to the studio. It was a long day and by the time we walked back in the door that night, the lights were off and the house was quiet. I thought about knocking on Sadie’s door, but decided against it. It would be too hard to go in there and see her looking all sleepy and relaxed in her bed and not want to climb in with her. Instead I went to my own room, slipped out of my clothes and fell onto the giant mattress I paid a lot of money for to feel like I was sleeping on a cloud.
Chapter 26
Sadie
“Hello.” Even over the phone, my father’s voice was stern and commanding. It sounded like ‘hello’ but with that one word he managed to convey so much more. It said, “Don’t you know who you’re speaking with? I’m Paul Pierce and I’ve got more important things to do than talk to you, so make it quick and don’t waste my time.” Yup, with one word he said all that.
“Hey Dad, it’s Sadie.” I stood up from the bed where I’d been sitting. Something about speaking to my father made it impossible for me to be relaxed. I started pacing my room while Mia remained seated on the bed, looking both nervous and hopeful.
“Sadie,” I could hear his surprise. “I wasn’t expecting to hear from you. How are you? I know we haven’t spoken since Thanksgiving. I really did mean to get in touch and talk about that.”
Yeah. Uh huh, sure. I guess he just forgot. “It’s fine. That’s not why I’m calling,” I said.
“Oh. Well then, what do you need, dear?” It might’ve sounded affectionate when he called me ‘dear’ except that I knew he also used that term with his secretaries and just about any female under the age of thirty-five.
“I need you to not freak out when I tell you something.”
I heard his heavy sigh come through the phone before he spoke again. “What is it?”
“Mia’s here.”
The line was quiet for a moment before my father spoke again. Through the strain in his voice, I could hear the effort it was taking for him not to lose his cool. “What is your sister doing in Boston?”
“I had nothing to do with it. I guess she and Mom had a fight and Mia took off. She showed up on my doorstep yesterday morning.” Mia’s eyes widened and then she narrowed them at me for ratting her out like that, but if we wanted this to work, I had to be honest with him. Besides, it wasn’t like there was a good excuse we could make up anyway. She was the one who made the decision to take off.
“Right, and can you explain why you didn’t put her on a plane right back here?” He wasn�
��t pleased. I didn’t really blame him. It was incredibly reckless of my sister to run away, but I needed to find a way to make my father understand so she wouldn’t end up grounded until her eighteenth birthday. She was counting on me, and if anyone was really to blame, I had no doubt it was my mother. She had a habit of driving her daughters away.
“She was really upset. I told her she needed to go home, but I knew that if I sent her back, she would just take off again and end up somewhere else. I thought it was safer for her to spend the night here until she calmed down, and now I’m calling you to tell you she’s here.”
“Can you put her on the phone?” It wasn’t really a question even though he phrased it like one, but I didn’t think it would be a good idea to let him speak to Mia right now when he was clearly angry with her and she would easily be set off.
“Can you please just hear me out for a minute first?”
“Fine,” he blew out an exasperated breath.
“I don’t know what Mom and Mia fought about,” he started to interrupt me, but I kept going, “and I don’t really need to know. Mia’s upset and from what I can tell she’s been feeling this way for a while and she’s about ready to blow. Sending her back now is just asking for more trouble. She’s just going to keep butting heads with Mom and there’s a good chance she’ll take off again or continue to act out.”
“What are you suggesting, Sadie?”
“Let her stay with me for a while,” I but my lip nervously.
“Absolutely not.” That was pretty much what I had expected to hear, but I was still disappointed.
“Why not? She wants to be here, she’s on break from school so she’s not missing anything and I can keep an eye on her and it will give her and Mom both a chance to calm down, away from each other, so this can all blow over,” I tried to convince him.
“No. It’s just not a good idea Sadie. Mia doesn’t need to be on her own in a city she’s unfamiliar with, and I don’t like the idea of her being around that bunch you spend your time with. The last thing that girl needs, is the influence of a bunch of debauched musicians.” He had a slight point there with that last part, not that they would be a bad influence, but it would be difficult to convince him that they weren’t debauched rockstars. Mostly because they are, but they’re nice, debauched rockstars with good hearts and intentions underneath it all. I’d come to realize that in my time living with them.
Chasing Ever After Page 24