“Oh, fuck.” She covered her face once more, peeking at me through her fingers. “You heard that?”
“Sure did.”
She laughed so hard she snorted, and it made me laugh even harder. “I would say ‘gee thanks for a fun night’ and bail, but I’m already in your car. I’m kind of committed now.”
“So, you’re not going to make a run for it?”
“No.” She paused, smirking over at me, and I felt my heart catch in my throat. “But only because I really like donuts.”
“That’s fair.” I snickered, put the car back in drive, and proceeded to the drive-thru. I ordered a half-dozen assorted donuts and two hot chocolates. I made it through the pickup window without being recognized and turned out of the parking lot onto the main road. “Now, for the main event.”
“Listen, I’m just glad you didn’t turn this Batmobile back around toward the Lion’s Den. I would have made a run for it, and you’d have been left with no donuts.” She grinned over at me, clutching the box in her hands. “That would have been tragic.”
“Please.” I pretended to beg. “Donut run away.”
“Donut do this to me,” she fired back, throwing her head back with that bouncy laugh of hers. “Donut tell terrible donut jokes.”
“Hey, I thought that was pretty clever.” I shrugged, winking at her.
“Okay, yeah. It was pretty good.” She pressed her lips together, suppressing a laugh. “Donut go getting a big head about it.”
We howled with laughter as I turned the car and began to wind my way through the familiar roads of the Berry Hill neighborhood of Nashville.
“Hey,” she said bright-eyed. “I know where we are. Sort of. There’s that awesome coffee place with the really good lavender lattes.”
“Sam and Zoe’s.” I nodded. “Though I’m partial to the Davey Mabee.”
“Mmmm. That’s a good one,” she agreed. “This seems a little off the beaten path for you. I thought most of the record companies were around Music Row?”
“They are,” I explained, “but the recording studios aren’t.” I parked the car in an empty overflow lot, cutting off the engine.
“Wow, there’s literally nobody over here.” She surveyed the quiet street as she unbuckled her seatbelt. “It’s completely deserted.”
“It’s one of the things I love most about this spot.” I smiled over at her.
“This isn’t about to turn into an episode of Criminal Minds, is it? If it is, can I at least have a donut first for my trouble?” Her eyes glittered mischievously.
“No.” I stuck my tongue out at her. “It’s not. Now come on. Let’s walk.”
“Wait, so we don’t get to eat the donuts?”
“We do,” I assured her. I grabbed the hot chocolates, and she carried the donuts as we started off down the desolate road. “But I’m taking you to one of my favorite spots first.”
“So, the parking lot wasn’t it?” She continued to tease me, and I loved every second of it. The air felt as though it were filled with an electric charge as I fell into step beside her.
The quaint tree-lined neighborhood was full of old homes that had been converted into various businesses. However, those businesses weren’t generally open past six or seven in the evening, leaving this little corner of the city quiet at such a late hour. “We recorded all of our last album here and part of the one before that. Blackbird Studios is a couple of streets over, but my favorite studio is House of Blues because it’s a short walk from this amazing pie diner that serves nothing but sweet and savory pies.” I gestured toward The Loving Pie Company sign on our right.
“A pie diner?” Her eyes were wide with wonder. “That sounds like heaven.”
“It is. The owner makes these personal-sized pot pies and this mac-n-cheese pie that puts all other mac-n-cheese to shame. Mac-n-cheese. In a pie crust.”
“Sign me up.”
“I’ll have to bring you here one day.” She eyed me curiously, but didn’t say anything. It wasn’t a no, so I’d take it. “Anytime we record during the day, I always try to sneak down here for pie. If we’re on a late-night schedule, it’s donuts.” I nodded toward the box in her hands. “Speaking of donuts, let’s sit down for a minute because those donuts are calling my name.” I gestured toward the small cluster of picnic tables outside the pie shop that was illuminated by twinkly golden globe lights. I climbed up and sat on top of the table, placing the hot chocolates down so I could give her my hand.
“Thanks.” She used my hand to steady herself. I took the donut box from her hands, opening it and placing it on the small stretch of the table she left between us. “What’s your poison?” I asked, handing her one of the hot chocolates.
She chewed her bottom lip in thought before finally plucking the strawberry iced with sprinkles from the box. “Thank you.” She took one perfect bite out of it. “So, donuts, pie… I’m guessing you have a major sweet tooth.”
“You guessed right.” I downed an original glazed in two bites for emphasis, and she laughed as she took another bite. “Tell me more about your bakery. Did you always want to bake?”
She looked down at her partially eaten donut for a moment. “I always enjoyed it,” she said tentatively. “I started out baking cakes in my tiny apartment and delivering them to people long before Livvie Cakes was born. It was one of those things that kind of took on a life of its own.” Her phone pinged with a text, and she set her hot chocolate down so she could extract it from her back pocket. “It’s Ella.”
“Making sure I’m on my best behavior?”
“Something like that.” She smirked.
“You mentioned that Ella works with you?” I plucked a chocolate glazed donut from the box and scarfed it down.
She nodded. “About a year after I opened the bakery, Ella’s husband passed away. Grace had just turned five, and at the time Ella was a stay at home mom.” She took another bite of her donut, lost in thought for a moment. “Ella’s been my best friend since our freshman year in high school. No matter what, it’s always been the two of us, you know? When Craig died, I knew I had to make the business work. It had to succeed because I had to make sure she and Grace were taken care of. So, Ella joined me full-time, and now we’ve been named the city’s top bakery six years in a row. I couldn’t do it without her.”
“I was really shocked to learn you guys weren’t sisters,” I said as she finished off her donut. “The way you guys are with each other, I assumed you were.”
“We are.” She smiled fondly. “In all the ways that matter. Grace and Ella are my family. My folks passed away a few years ago, and I never had any siblings. Grace and Ella are all I have left.” She sighed and opened her mouth as though she were going to say something else, but she didn’t.
“Does that mean there’s no special someone in your life?”
“I told you about the two special someones in my life.” She raised her brow at me before taking a drink of her hot chocolate.
“I meant a different type of someone.” I held the box out to her again as she grabbed a maple glazed donut and took a bite. “A romantic someone.”
She took another bite, not in any hurry to answer my question. “Not anymore.” She glanced over at me quizzically. “Why do you want to know?”
“Because I have a sweet tooth, and you own a bakery.” I nudged her playfully.
Why wouldn’t I want to know? She was beautiful and freaking hilarious, but there was something else about her that drew me in. There was something in her eyes that said she was no stranger to heartbreak, and that was something we had in common.
She studied me a moment as though she were considering if she should press the question further, but didn’t. “What about you?” She took another small bite of her donut. “Tell me about your family.”
I plucked a cream-filled donut from the box. “Honestly, th
e band is my family.”
“Isn’t that a thing that all bands say while secretly hating each other?”
“Sometimes.” I laughed. “But in our case it’s true.” I took a big bite and chewed thoughtfully before finally returning the partially eaten pastry to the box. “I grew up in foster care. My dad died when I was a baby, and my mom struggled with addiction her entire life. I guess the drugs kind of won out. By the time I was in foster care permanently, I was already eleven years old. A lot of people want to adopt babies, but they’re not exactly lining up to adopt the kid with behavioral issues and a drug addict mom.” I sucked in a breath, shocked at how easily my life story began to tumble out of me. There was something about Liv that made me want to show her the version of me most people never saw.
“Jax…” Her face softened, and her eyes met mine.
“I had two different sets of foster parents, and neither of them were exactly winning parent of the year awards. They were both content to collect their checks. In exchange, I had a roof over my head, but not parents, you know? The second family I was placed with, the Millers, lived across the street from Derek. We used to ride our bikes together in the neighborhood, and because of Derek, I met Dallas. That’s when my life started to change. They became the brothers I never had.”
“Were they the ones that got you into music?”
I nodded. “We spent most of our time at Dallas’s house. His dad had this old record player and a massive record collection. After school, we’d go hang out in his garage and listen to music for hours. Everything from Bob Dylan to Fleetwood Mac to Pink Floyd and Michael Jackson. Dal’s dad got him and Derek a couple of guitars from some thrift store. He signed them up for lessons, and they started teaching me to play too. Once Dal got his drum set, he passed his guitar on to me. That’s when I became obsessed with it. Music was my escape. After Derek and I graduated, he went away to the same college as Dallas, and that’s when they started Dallas Knights.”
“That’s when it was just the two of them, right?”
“Yep. Meanwhile, I was waiting tables at two different restaurants just trying to survive. I rented this shitty studio apartment that didn’t even have a kitchen, but I fucking loved it because it was the first thing besides my guitar and my car that was mine. I would go to work for fourteen to sixteen hours every day and come home and practice until my fingers were numb. By that time, I was writing songs and playing at every coffee shop or writer’s night I could get to between shifts. One night when Derek and Dallas were home for the summer, I invited them to a round I was playing at some hole in the wall bar. They heard me sing some of the songs I’d written, and that’s when they asked me to join their band.”
“How did you guys connect with Luca?”
“For a few months, it was just the three of us. We played some shows together that summer while they were still in town, and people really liked our stuff. We started with some cover songs and slowly started doing some of my originals, but it felt like something was missing.” I took a sip of my hot chocolate. “When they went back to school that fall, Dallas rented this little run-down house off campus with a garage for us to rehearse in, but he needed a roommate. He put out an ad, and as luck would have it, Luca was the one that found it. The rest was history. From the second the four of us played together the first time, we knew we had something special. Thankfully, a lot of people agreed with us.”
“Wow,” she said. “I love that. You guys clearly have a strong bond.”
“We definitely have our issues from time to time. Luca and I probably butt heads the most. He came from a similar background as me. He grew up in a group home in Lexington, and until he joined the band, he didn’t exactly have a lot of friends. He can be a bit closed off sometimes, but we’ve been around him long enough to know that’s how he copes. Honestly, if I hadn’t found Derek and Dal all those years ago, we might have been a lot more alike.”
“I never would have pegged him for being closed off,” she admitted. “He seems very comfortable with attention.”
I nodded. “Attention is kind of a drug for him, but actual attachment? That’s not one of his strong points. I feel like we’ve only gotten close to him these last couple of years, and close is a relative term. He doesn’t let people in easily.”
“That’s good that he has you, though. That you all have each other. Finding our people in life is important.” She took another bite of her donut. “So, do you have someone special in your life?” She looked at me pointedly, tossing my own question back at me.
I looked at her as she waited for me to answer, her skin illuminated by the twinkly golden lights. “Not yet.”
She nodded, her eyes fixed on mine, and I swear I’d never seen anyone more breathtaking.
“You have some icing right here,” I lied. I gently reached out to touch the corner of her perfect mouth, and her cheeks blushed beneath my touch. Her skin was as soft and buttery as I’d imagined.
“Thanks,” she said softly, as I forced my hand away from her.
“You up for a walk?” I asked as she chewed the last bite of her donut. She nodded, and we discarded our cups and the box in the bin outside the pie shop. I walked alongside her, shoving my hands in my pockets to keep myself from reaching for her hand.
We walked and talked our way through the neighborhood, strolling past a couple of boutiques, a salon, and even a tattoo shop. As we circled back around, we found ourselves near the House of Blues taking in the hand-painted murals on the picket fence that lined the street of artists like Minnie Pearl, Dolly Parton, Stevie Wonder, Prince, and Johnny Cash. Set against bold, colorful patterns their likenesses appeared almost alive beneath the flickering glow of the street lamps. Finally, she stopped in front of the Johnny Cash painting, studying his face for a moment before turning to look at me.
“I did have someone,” she blurted suddenly. “I was married. I got married when I was really young. He was in the music industry on the business side of things.”
“Liv…”
“I wanted to put that out there. It’s something I’m still getting used to.” She looked down at her feet. “Our divorce was finalized six months ago.”
“I’m sorry,” I murmured, afraid if I pushed too much this would be the last piece I would receive to the puzzle that was Olivia Sinclair.
“It’s okay. I may not have been the one that filed the papers, but I can’t say I didn’t see it coming.”
“Regardless, I can’t imagine how much that hurt you.”
“It did,” she admitted. “Yesterday, I saw a picture of him with this young supermodel looking girl, and honestly, it fucking sucked. It’s not even that I miss him anymore.” She chewed her bottom lip, deep in thought for a moment, and I waited patiently. I wanted whatever pieces of herself she was willing to reveal to me. “Anyway, I saw this picture of them together and the way he leaned into her, looking so proud to have her on his arm. I recognized it all too well because that’s exactly the way he used to be with me. Back then, he loved to have me all dolled up and perched on his arm at all of these industry galas and parties. But as time went on, the invitations stopped coming.” She laughed then, though I sensed she didn’t think any part of what she said was funny. “He’d say he needed to go alone, or he was going to pop by the party and wouldn’t be late. Needless to say, he always was.” She ground her boot into the asphalt, still not meeting my gaze. “It’s not like I didn’t suspect there was someone else. Or maybe even more than one someone. I guess I didn’t want to know. I didn’t want to know I wasn’t enough for him.”
My heart twisted inside my chest. Not enough? This guy was a fucking idiot. She fell silent, and her face turned downward. At that moment, all I wanted to do was hold her like she deserved to be held.
I took a step toward her, placing my hand on her arm. “Any man would be lucky to have you.”
“I’m sorry.” She shook her
head as a flush crept across her cheeks. “I wasn’t fishing for compliments or anything. You don’t have to—”
“I know I don’t have to say it.” I interrupted her. “I said it because I meant it. I don’t think you realize how rare you are, Liv.”
She sighed, looking at me from beneath her long black lashes. “You hardly know me, Jax.”
“But I want to know you,” I said softly. “Listen, Liv, I’m not going to mince words here. You’re ridiculously funny. You’re clearly driven and talented, and I don’t have to know you well to see how sweet and kind you are. That’s obvious from the way you are with Ella and Grace and how you were with the guys and me.” My chest tightened, already afraid I’d said too much. “And you’re beautiful. Disarmingly so. I don’t know if you’ve noticed or not, but I can’t take my eyes off you.” She pressed her lips together, and I pressed forward. “So, what do you say? Will you let me know you?”
“Why?” She asked bluntly, her eyes narrowing on me.
“Look, I know we just met, and you probably think I’m crazy.” I scrubbed my hands over my face. “I feel a little crazy right now, to be honest with you, but I’m drawn to you. Don’t you feel it too?”
The faintest smile crossed her lips before her gaze shifted to the pavement. Fuck. She really was going to head for the hills. Finally, her eyes returned to mine. “Can I ask you a question?”
“Sure,” I said hopefully.
She peered up into my eyes, and the cool breeze whirled around us, sending a hint of sweet citrus and champagne in my direction. “How old are you?”
Chapter 5
Liv
Twenty-nine. My head was spinning. I suspected he was younger than me, but I didn’t think he was twenty-nine younger.
“Yeah, I turned twenty-nine on August 13th,” Jax continued, not helping. “When’s your birthday?”
“October 17th,” I said flatly.
“That’s soon. I’d love to help you celebrate.” He was trying to distract me.
“You’re twenty-nine.”
Home Is Where You Are Page 5