“I thought we sounded pretty kick ass if you ask me,” Damon gloated. He wiped his blond hair out of his face as he wiped the sweat off his face with his shirt sleeve. “If we keep playing this, we could do Want You at the barbeque. A ‘Hey this is our first single, don’t tell anyone yet’, kind of thing.”
“Label would throw a fucking cow if they’re not the first to know about our music and the people coming are.” Mike replied, and we all agreed. But outside of shows and anything music related, the label stayed away from us, unless they were hounding us over the phone about one thing or another.
“So what? What will they do, drop us?” I said. “We’re they’re biggest band; they can’t.”
“Why don’t we just forget about the label right now and nail this song,” Alex suggested, and we were back at it.
That’s how the couple of days leading up to Fourth of July went: wake up, practice, lunch, practice, dinner, Liam, write, sleep. Yes, I did mention Liam. After dinner at the house, I’d go visit him while he was working, and one night he actually left with me to go to another bar down the street.
Of course, that ONE night, I get recognized as soon as I walk in the door. It didn’t bother Liam though, he held onto my hand tighter after some guy tried proposing to me. Liam kindly told the guy I was with him, which made me feel a lot safer. I wasn’t sure what was going on between us, maybe just a friendship, maybe something more. What would be once the band leaves at the end of July and heads back to the studio? I tried not to think about that, but when Liam took me back to my car that night, he full on kissed me square on the lips.
Nothing else happened that night except for that one kiss. Wow, could that guy kiss.
I didn’t dare tell anyone except Emily, otherwise I would never hear the end of it, and it would probably piss Pauly off so much he’d ignore me for the rest of the trip.
“So who do you think is the better kisser?” Emily asked me as we sat in her bedroom flipping through music magazines. “Liam or Pauly?”
“Why do you have to ask me that Em?” I groaned. “I don’t know, I mean, that kiss with Liam was so…”
“Safe?” She interjected.
I hated to admit it, but that was the truth. “Yeah, but Pauly, he’s the kind of guy that comes off aggressive and kisses with that same amount of passion.”
“And fucks like that.”
“Emily!” I shushed her so the guys wouldn’t overhear our conversation.
“Sorry, Luce, I had to say it,” she grinned. “I don’t know. When Liam stopped by while you guys were practicing, he seemed almost too… I can’t even explain it… he just seems like he would be a good friend, not boyfriend material.”
“But what about Pauly?” I asked her. “Sleeping with groupies all the time does not make him boyfriend material...”
“Just you wait,” Emily assured me. “It just takes one girl. One girl to steal his breath away. One girl to change how he thinks about himself, and the world around him. That one girl will cause him to stop his sleeping around ways and settle down.” She took a deep breath and continued. “I think that girl is you, Lucy. I know that you’re still trying to get to know Liam, and that’s cool, he’s a nice guy. But you’ve known Pauly forever. He needs someone like you who is in the same business as he is and knows everything about him. His flaws, what he like on his pizza, what he wears to sleep. Do you know any of that about Liam?”
I slumped back against the pillows and realized Emily was right. Again. I didn’t know that stuff about Liam. In due time I would, but I knew only what he told me the first night at the party; we’d had casual conversations about how each other’s days had gone when I saw him at the restaurant. I didn’t know what he liked on his pizza, his flaws, let alone what he slept in. Like that really mattered, but since I’ve known him for a little while now, I should have felt a small spark, or a hint of hope that he wanted to take things further than one kiss.
“I hate being caught in the middle,” I shouted into the pillow next to me.
“No one’s holding a gun to your head, Luce,” Emily giggled. “You already know what I think. Keep hanging out with Liam, but Pauly’s the one who should be in your bed, if you know what I mean.”
“EMILY!” I shrieked again. Lowering my voice to a whisper, I said, “Yes, I know what you mean.”
“Okay, then so it’s settled.” She rubbed her hands together. “Tell Liam you don’t think things will work out, but you can still be friends.”
“I never said I was doing that,” I reminded Emily. “I was going to see how he handled the 4th of July Barbeque first…”
“Excuses, excuses my friend.” Emily patted me on the shoulder. “But speaking of that, who else is coming that I’ve forgotten about?”
“Well, we invited Abel and his band, maybe Cale, Bryn…”
“And Tyler? All in one place?” Emily scrunched up her face. “Are you sure that’s a good idea after that whole situation?”
“It’s not that big of a deal, Em. I’ve been around both of them since then. Remember that shooting in Pontiac? Both our bands were playing at that festival. We were fine,” I told her, referring to Tyler and Cale.
“If you say so. Add your new ‘friend’ to the mix and this going to make one hell of a party.” She rubbed her hands together.
“That’s an understatement,” I snorted. I only hoped that things would go well with Liam being around my friends and family or else I was going to tell him I couldn’t see him anymore. We weren’t even dating, but with the way I saw him every day, people were starting to get that impression.
There was only one guy I was truly interested in dating, but there was no possibility of that. I mean, it’s pretty damn obvious Pauly was trying to make up for being such an ass that morning, but it’s hard for me to trust him.
“Why don’t we go out for a little girl’s day before we start setting up for the barbeque?” Emily suggested. “I’ll make reservations for that salon in town and we can get our nails done and everything. It’ll help take your mind off all of this guy drama.” That wasn’t such a bad idea. I ran a couple of colored strands of hair through my fingers, noticing how the color was starting to fade.
“What do you think about a dark pink?” I asked Emily as I held out a piece of my hair.
“It’d look hot on you, Luce. Pink to go with your natural color would look amazing,” she smiled. I had started getting colored streaks in my hair when I was nineteen while we were on break from tour. I liked them so much, I’ve been putting them in my hair ever since.
“What would look amazing?” Damon asked as he stood in the doorway wearing pajama pants and no shirt.
“None of your business, cousin. Now go to sleep, jack off, do something.” Emily tried shooing Damon away, but he crossed his arms over his chest and grinned even wider.
“Watch your mouth, Charming 2.0; I’ll call Aunt Jessie and tell her you're being a brat,” Damon pretended to whine. We started cracking up. “Seriously, was it anything I needed to know?”
“No, Damon, we’re talking about girl stuff. Now run along.” I got off the bed and pushed him out of the way so I could shut my bedroom door. “See you in the morning.”
I sat back down and we started laughing again. I heard him shout, “You’re no fun!” as he walked away from the door.
“Damon needs to get a girlfriend,” we both said in unison.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen him settle down with someone… ever.” I said to Emily. “Besides this one girl he told us about before we met at music camp. And that feels like centuries ago.”
“We should make that our goal when we get back home,” Emily said to me. “Make it a ‘find Mrs. Charming’ operation.” I gave Emily a funny look, and she giggled. “It’s the only thing I could think of on the spot like that, sheesh.”
I high-fived Emily and said, “Sounds like a plan.”
***
The Fourth of July came quicker than I had imagined. I woke up
to a text from both my siblings saying they leaving in about an hour, and they’d get to Alpena by mid-afternoon depending on traffic. I was so excited to see my nieces and nephews. They were getting older to where they’d enjoy watching the fireworks and would probably let Aunt Lucy take them for a dip in the lake if it was nice out.
I hadn’t heard from Liam yet and, quite honestly, I didn’t care. Emily and I went to the salon as we planned and had a fun time just us two, talking about the teaching job that she was offered for the year—high school advanced choir. By the time our appointment was over, I looked at myself in the mirror as the hairdresser finished drying my hair and was impressed with my new hair-do.
I decided to chop quite a few inches of my hair off, leaving the length just above my shoulders, and I told the girl who cut my hair to add the dark pink highlights into my hair, which looked great with my tanning skin. Having short hair was going to be something to get used to since I usually liked my hair longer and tied up, but I’d had a sudden change of heart.
“Damn, Luce, I wish I could pull off the short hair,” Emily groaned, studying herself in the mirror in front of us.
“Oh, please, you look hotter than me! Stop being so unsure of yourself,” I encouraged her, and we went up to pay. My phone buzzed in my pocket, and I saw I had a few new texts.
Bryn: Hey girl, we’re almost there. At least I think we are because Tyler has directions on his phone and Cale is driving.
I smiled to myself. Putting those boys in charge of driving and directions sounded like they’d get sidetracked to Mackinaw pretty quickly.
Me: Oh no, I’m surprised you haven’t gotten lost yet!
Bryn: I know! Cale hasn’t even lost his temper once… well, except when a semi almost rammed into us, but that’s to be expected. Do you need us to grab anything?
Me: It’s okay, Bryn, I think we’ve got everything covered. See you in a bit; I can’t wait!
Bryn: Me, either!
“That was Bryn,” I said to Emily as we got into my car and headed for the cabin. “You’ll really like her. She’s so down to earth and completely chill.”
We were just passing the stop sign near Liam’s restaurant when Emily caught sight of him first.
“Uhm, Lucy?” she nearly whispered. “Did he ever mention having like nieces or nephews?”
I shook my head. He never mentioned anything about kids in his family before. “No, why?”
She pointed over to the parking lot of his place, where I caught sight of Liam kissing some girl who had a car seat dangling from her arm. My mouth instantly dropped. ‘What the fuck?’ I said to myself as I came to an abrupt halt at another stop sign.
“That didn’t look like a friendly sibling kiss to me,” my voice sounded bitter. “That makes no sense to me. He has a kid and never mentioned it to me, let alone that he was obviously seeing whoever that woman was.”
“Explains why he hasn’t tried to sleep with you, or has barely even kissed you,” Emily pointed out. She was right. Catching sight of that explained a few of my reservations about Liam, but still, to lie to my face? Not fucking cool. I wanted an explanation from him and why he would lie to me about something that’s pretty fucking serious. How could you not bring up your kid in a conversation?
Or maybe I was just overreacting, and it really was a sister, cousin, someone other than a girlfriend.
As we pulled up to the cabin, I shot Liam a quick text that we needed to talk. I didn’t get a response right away, and I tried to forget about it when I saw a familiar looking van parked in front of us.
“Looks like we’ve got some company!” I squealed, shutting my door as I spotted Bryn grabbing luggage from the back of the van.
“Lucy, oh my gosh, I haven’t seen you in forever!” Technically, it had been a few months. Bryn shouted, dropping the suitcases in her hand and giving me a huge hug. I had gotten to know Bryn over the past year. She had such a kind heart and was still learning more about the business every day, but she’d quickly became one of my best girlfriends.
“How was the rest of the trip up?” I asked her.
“Long as hell. Especially when you have five other guys in the van squished together like sardines who smell. But it was like that on the bus so I guess I shouldn’t complain,” she shrugged her shoulders.
Emily walked up to my side, and I introduced her to Bryn. “Bryn this is Emily Charming, one of my good friends from home and Damon’s cousin. Em, this is Bryn Schaefler, Cale’s new lead guitarist in Everlasting.” They greeted each other and shared a brief hug.
“Cale’s around here somewhere.” Bryn said.
“How is he doing?”
“Oh, you mean after rehab?” she clarified, and I nodded. “Pretty great, actually. It’s only been a few weeks since he got out of the program, but he hasn’t had any crazy mood swings or slip ups.” I watched Bryn’s face light up as she talked about Cale. It was obvious the girl loved him. I knew that look very well having dating him for so long.
“I’m glad he went through it.” I gave Bryn a smile. “It’s because he loves you enough to get better.”
“Well, it was either that or I think we were all about to walk out on him,” Bryn replied. “Can you help me with the rest of this? There’s not much left.”
“Yeah, of course.” I grabbed a bag and we headed toward the front door.
“I can’t believe you guys have this place. Just the property alone is crazy, and it actually goes all the way to the lake!” Bryn exclaimed as we stepped inside and her head darted all around, trying to take everything in. “This is so much nicer than what my parents’ house used to look like.”
I knew the back-story with Bryn; how she’d left her extremely controlling parents’ house after graduation. Both of my parents worked their asses off for their money, and even after they divorced, my dad made sure we had the essential things the three of us kids needed.
“Wait until you see the back, Bryn and the view of the lake. You’ll never want to leave!” I joked, linking arms with her and Emily as we set the luggage down and I gave her a brief tour of the downstairs.
“Lucy’s right, babe, I think we should build another small place on the property and call it home.” I heard Cale shout as he walked downstairs with his band mates. This was the first time I’d seen Cale since the show in Detroit where he told Bryn and everyone else later that night, that he’d registered into a 90-day rehab program for his addiction to painkillers. He didn’t have the dark circles under his eyes anymore. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but he just seemed genuinely happy, and Bryn was part of that.
“Hey, you look good,” I said softly, pulling him into a friendly hug. “How do you feel?”
Cale let go and scratched the top of his head. “The best I’ve ever felt actually. Been over three months completely pill free and it feels completely strange saying that.”
“I don’t even know how to react to his lack of mood swings now,” Tyler teased Cale, punching him in the arm. He gave me a one armed hug and kissed me on the cheek. “Love the hair, by the way.”
“Thanks, Tyler,” I replied. “You guys remember Emily, right?”
The guys each gave Emily a hug, and then me afterwards. They were just another extended family I couldn’t live without since I started dating Cale because of his band mates.
“I’m going to get the grill fired up, you guys want to help?” Damon asked as he approached us from the kitchen, plates full of uncooked meat in his hand.
“Shit dude, we just got here and you’re putting us to work?” Vince joked, taking a plate from Damon. “Just kidding, I’m a grill master.”
“That’s a lie because just the other day you burnt our damn steaks at the house!” Cale shouted, and we all started laughing.
“Hey now, I’m redeeming myself!” Vince responded, with Luke and Raptor following him and Damon out to the grill.
I gave Bryn a complete tour of the upstairs and a spare room where she’d be sleeping, and she was in c
omplete awe the whole time. As we were going out back so I could show her the walkway to the lake, my phone chirped.
Liam: Can we talk?
I immediately rolled my eyes.
“Boy drama,” I said to Bryn, and she nodded like she understood exactly.
Me: I’m busy with BBQ stuff right now. Is it about your wife and kid that you failed to mention to me?
Right after I sent the text, I saw Liam was calling me.
“I’ll get a head start outside,” Bryn whispered as I answered the phone, walking downstairs.
“Hello?”
“Hey, Lucy.”
“So, I think you have some explaining to do. Like why you made me think you were this completely hot single man, when all this time you never mentioned you had a child, or a girlfriend for that matter?” I tried to stay as calm as I could. I didn’t like drama and confronting people about things, so I didn’t want to turn something like this into a full-blown war. He wasn’t worth it.
I heard him take a deep breath as he began to talk. “I take it you saw me outside the restaurant today.” When I didn’t respond, he took the hint that I had. “That’s my ex-wife. Long story short, we got married in college and she became pregnant with our daughter less than a year ago. She was pissed, hated me for it, and took off before she had the baby. She mailed me the divorce papers. Right after I kissed you the other night, she showed up at my doorstep, arm hooked in the car seat, telling me she’s giving me Alexia and she’s never coming back.”
“That doesn’t explain the kiss though…”
“Yeah, I know. She considered it as an ‘I’m never seeing you again’ last kiss. What you didn’t see was right after that, she peeled out of the restaurant parking lot and I’m left with my daughter whom I’ve never seen before.” After hearing his explanation, I couldn’t be pissed at him. My heart broke for him because he’d had such a shitty relationship with his ex-wife and now he was expected to be the sole parent for a daughter he’d never met.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered. “So I’m guessing I won’t be seeing you anymore.”
Don't Break My Heart (Straight from the Heart #3) Page 7