Booker (Courting Chaos Book 3)

by Heather Young-Nichols

  I pulled the car into a parking spot and turned it off before sliding my body sideways to look at him. “I totally understand that,” I said then added, “They’re not going to replace you.”

  “You don’t know that. They replaced the last guy.”

  I rolled my eyes. “The last guy had sex with underage girls. Are you going to have sex with underage girls?”

  “Fuck no. I barely have sex with legal aged girls while on tour.”

  Unfortunately, his honesty made me release a really unattractive donkey laugh that was much too loud for the size of my car. Once I stopped laughing, I said, “I’m not really sure how to respond to that.”

  His eyes danced as he looked at me. “Let’s pretend I didn’t say it.”

  I was still giggling to myself as we entered the grocery store and I grabbed a cart. One of the small ones, as I didn’t have a ton of things I needed to get but still didn’t want to carry it all in my arms.

  “So what is it you need?” he asked as I steered us toward the health and beauty section. “How many stops are we making?”

  “Girl stuff. Some snacks. But this store has everything, so it’s just one stop.”

  “Seriously?” He cocked his head to the side. “Don’t girls usually need to make fifty different stops to get the exact thing they want? I mean Indie and Bellamy don’t and they’re the girls I’m around most of the time but I thought that was a thing.”

  “I’m sure it is. But I don’t want to go to a bunch of different stores. I’m a one stop shopping kind of girl. I grew up in foster care, remember. While there are great foster families out there, I didn’t have the luxury of having them all that often. So most of the time, I didn’t have someone who would make more than one stop. This stuff is cheaper than say going to a special shop for soap.”

  I grabbed some face wash and moisturizer, then dropped them into the basket.

  “Indie and Bellamy?” I asked casually, though I cringed at the idea of asking him about them. Clearly women. The names were familiar, though I couldn’t place them. It was probably safe to assume that he wouldn’t have mentioned them if he didn’t want me to ask.

  “Cross’ and Ransom’s girlfriends. Indie grew up going on tour, so she’s as casual as a girl can get.”

  “Why’s that?” The idea of tour fascinated me. To get to travel like that was something I could never have dreamed of. I did spend time wondering whether it was really just tedious and boring or if they ever got to see the cities they were in. “Oh, right.” I snapped my fingers. “Vince Cinderstone’s daughter, right? I knew I’d heard the name before.”

  I only paid passing attention to the gossip blogs and only when someone else shared something on Facebook. But Indie had been in the news quite a bit when the story about Eric Drinkswine had broken. So the name had stuck.

  He nodded. “And tours aren’t glamourous. A lot of times that you have to make due with whatever you have. Not to mention being raised around a bunch of guys probably shaped some of that in her.”

  “What do you need?” I asked him.

  “Um… excuse me,” another voice responded instead. A girl of about seventeen stood in front of the cart, stopping us from going any farther. Her voice wavered. “You’re Booker Coyote of Courting Chaos, right?”

  He chuckled, gave his million dollar smile then said, “That remains to be seen.” And he winked at me.

  I put a hand over my mouth to stifle a giggle. He was referring to being part of the band permanently. The girl couldn’t know that.

  “What?” she asked cocking her head to the side in confusion.

  “Yes. Yes, I am,” he said still grinning.

  “I’ve always loved Chaos, but they’re so much better since you joined,” she said excitedly, her words running together. “Could I get your autograph and maybe a picture?”

  “Sure.” He waved her over.

  The girl reached into her purse and pulled something out. It wasn’t until she handed it over that I could see what it was. A Courting Chaos concert ticket. That’s when I remembered they’d been in Detroit a couple of months ago. She must’ve still had it in there. Booker scribbled his name across the front before handing it back. Then she leaned into him and took a deep calming breath when he put his arm around her and rested his hand on her shoulder. She flipped the camera on her phone and snapped a selfie.

  It was something to watch, that was for sure. A total stranger giving you their love without really knowing you. Must’ve felt amazing.

  “Thanks,” she said with a wave and he waved back.

  “That was fun,” I said once we began walking again. This time he pushed the cart beside me.

  He shrugged my comment off. “It has the potential of being annoying. When that happens I simply remind myself how fucking lucky I am that they give a damn.”

  Three more times people stopped us and asked for a picture as we wandered up one aisle, then down the next. Booker was always gracious and didn’t scoff at taking the pictures even once. The high schoolers were kind of funny, acting as if a touch from Booker could bring them to silent orgasm, which, to be honest, made me a little jealous. I could use a silent orgasm at this point. Or a vocal one. Perhaps I’d prefer the latter. But I’d take the former.

  As we shopped, my friend Barrett kept texting me, so on the millionth text I finally sent her a message that I was getting some groceries and I’d call her later that night. I didn’t mention that I was getting those groceries with Booker Coyote. I loved Barrett, but she’d lose her shit and call me incessantly. I didn’t really want to share the time I was spending with him. Except for with his fans, apparently. But at least they were nice enough to get their picture then leave him alone.

  Along the way, Booker dropped a few items into the cart, but mostly just snacks. I hadn’t seen much junk food in the Coyotes’ kitchen, so it made sense that if he wanted a cookie, he’d have to buy them himself.

  “I’ll hide them in my room,” he said when he noticed me watching him.

  “What?”

  “The cookies. So my mom won’t want them.”

  I rolled my eyes and then headed toward the checkout. As I started to put my items on the conveyer belt, I said, “She can have a cookie if she wants to. Maybe not the whole package, but one or two on occasion would be fine.”

  “Noted,” he said with a nod. “What about a pint of ice cream in front of the television?”

  I scrunched up my face as if I needed to think that over. “Maybe half a pint. I’ll eat the other half.” Booker chuckled and put one of those dividers up to keep his stuff separate from mine. “No, honestly, Marina doesn’t have many food restrictions. Of course she should want to eat healthy—we all should—but it is important for her recovery to be healthy. An occasional treat is fine.”

  When the cashier began ringing up my items, I wondered if she’d recognize Booker like some of the others, though she didn’t look to be in Courting Chaos’ target demographic and didn’t seem to care one way or another.

  I paid for my items and he paid for his, then we headed back out to the car. As we put the bags into the trunk, he asked, “Do you have an apartment?”

  “Yes,” I answered, “but Barrett is living there right now. It’s down in Ann Arbor.”

  “Barrett? Is that a boyfriend or is it like a sublease situation?”

  I turned to him as I replied. “Sort of a sublease. It’d be weird for Barrett to be my boyfriend, considering she’s a woman.”

  “Ah.”

  Was that relief I saw wash over him? I was good at reading people, but I’d only known him a couple of days, so I couldn’t be sure.

  “She was another foster kid in home number three, I think it was. We stayed in touch and now she’s my best friend. I couldn’t imagine life without her.”

  “It’s nice you had someone back then.”

  “Yeah. But even better… She fucking loves Courting Chaos and if you ever have to pay me back for something, I’m going to invi
te her to the house. She’ll make those excited fans”—I pointed back at the store—“look totally normal.”

  He chuckled and folded his arms over his chest. “I guess I better never piss you off then.”

  “That’s an excellent plan.”

  We spent the half an hour drive back to his parents’ house talking. Me about nursing school. But mostly I wanted to hear about how he’d decided to leave school and join a band. I mean… I thought that was every guy’s dream in high school, but he’d actually done it. Turned out the opportunity had fallen into his lap and he’d jumped at it.

  “Does it bother you that you don’t have like… one single band on your resumé?” I asked when we got out of the car back at his house, neither of us moving toward the trunk to get the groceries.

  “A little.” He stopped and leaned against the vehicle. I slid in beside him but turned myself so I’d be able to see him. “Sometimes I wonder if it’s that I’m just not good enough,” he explained. “Or the nerdy Star Wars thing turns them off.”

  I gasped in horror. “Star Wars is not nerdy.”

  He dropped his gaze to me. “So you like Star Wars?”

  I raised my eyebrows at him with a silent question.

  “You got my shirt the first night,” he explained. “A lot of people don’t or at least they don’t say they do in front of others. Now you’re telling me it’s not nerdy.”

  “My favorite foster dad loved Star Wars and I was the only foster kid in the house. To spend some bonding time together, he had me watch all of them. Several times. And when the newest ones came out, I went to the movies alone to see them. It was like he was right there with me.”

  “Why didn’t you stay in that house?”

  “He had a heart attack and died on the way home from work one day. Crashed the car but was dead before the accident happened. The mom was devastated and couldn’t handle having me there anymore.”

  “That sucks.”

  I nodded because there wasn’t really a good response to that. “One single band of your own or not, Booker, you’ve touched a lot of people.”

  His eyes widened. “What have you heard?”

  Shaking my head, I punched him in the arm. Not hard. More like a love tap. “I meant with your music. Those people in the store… you mean something to them and they’ve never even met you until today. Sure, they identify you with Courting Chaos now but they recognized you.”

  “Thank you,” he said quietly.

  A silence fell between us. Booker glanced from my eyes to my lips, then back again. A swirling anticipation curled in my stomach. I wanted him to kiss me, should’ve made a move myself. But damn I wanted him to do it. We’d shared a fair amount of ourselves with each other on our outing making me feel a closeness that I’d never developed with someone so quickly. I only hoped he felt the same way.

  Booker leaned down and pressed his lips against mine. Soft at first, as if he’d acted impulsively and was waiting for my response. I really wanted to give him one.

  I reached up and placed one hand on each side of his face to pull him even closer to me. He took the hint. His lips moved roughly against mine. His tongue slid into my mouth and all was right with the world as I relaxed into him.

  In that second, what had been a fun morning out turned into something that set my body on fire. Booker grabbed me by the hips and pulled me against him—hard. He was careful but firm.

  In the next moment, he pulled away and looked back toward the house.

  “I… uh… ” he stammered.

  I ran my fingers over my mouth, still feeling a tingle from what we’d just done.

  “We should unpack,” I finished for him.

  “Right,” he said, then pushed off the side of my car to go around the back where he opened up the trunk.

  There were so many bags that we should’ve needed more than one trip but Booker scooped most of them up himself and I sure as hell didn’t hate the view of his tattooed muscles engaging.

  Chapter Seven

  Booker

  A couple of days later, neither Paige nor I had mentioned the kiss we’d shared out by her car after the grocery store. We’d been talking a lot but not about that. And I was getting dangerously close to having to get back to the tour. Paige took care of my mom during the day and when Mom wasn’t doing PT or whatever else she had going on, I spent as much time with her as I could. The days off were dwindling, but the more I was around her, the more I realized how much of her weakness she tried to hide from me. I didn’t think I knew everything though. Or people played down how much time recovery would take.

  She napped a few times a day and she’d never napped before. When on her walks, if she actually walked, she had to take a lot of breaks and seemed out of breath even after Paige assured me that the pneumonia was clearing up.

  In the evening, or when Mom was asleep, Paige and I hung out. We watched some movies and talked more about… well, almost everything. By this point, I felt like I knew her better than almost anyone else in my life and she knew me.

  It was Friday, and Dad wanted to take Mom out for a nice dinner. Paige assured me that they did this once in a while and it was fine. They were just heading into town. A little restaurant they’d been going to my entire life, so I knew they’d be well taken care of. That meant Paige and I were on our own.

  “Hungry?” I asked her when I came into the kitchen.

  “Not yet.” She turned my way and fiddled with the water bottle in her hand. “I only eat so early because your parents do.” It wasn’t actually all that early, but I got what she was saying. With all the trees around us, it sometimes looked like dusk when it wasn’t quite there yet.

  “How about a walk?” I asked her instead.

  “That I can do.”

  We headed out into the warm Michigan evening and I didn’t bother locking up behind us. The property was so large, our nearest neighbors were over a mile away. Anyone coming up the drive would be noticed. Stepping off the porch, Paige turned toward the path my mom loved to take, probably out of instinct. But it was a great path to walk, so I turned that way too.

  “When do you go back to the tour?” she asked.

  “Too soon. Not soon enough,” I answered her honestly.

  Paige and I had only been honest with each other. Or at least I knew I had been. It seemed like she had been as well. I didn’t feel the need to hide anything from her.

  “You miss it?” she asked.

  “It’s what I’ve known since I was sixteen.”

  We made a right and pushed forward toward the fire pit area, which was where I really wanted to go. I just wanted to be alone with Paige somewhere. Sure, the house was empty, but it was such a beautiful night, I thought being outside would be nicer. As we were walking, I folded her hand into mine and she let me. It was like middle school. We’d kissed but weren’t speaking of it. I’d been nervous to hold her hand because I wasn’t sure she wanted me to.

  “This is my favorite spot,” I said when we got to the fire pit area.

  “Your mom’s, too.” She stood by one of the benches and I sat down in front of her. “Why do you love it?” she asked. “This where you had your first kiss?”

  “No,” I said, then chuckled. “That would be over by the garage.” I pointed the way we’d just come. “But this is secluded enough that you can get away with a lot.”

  Paige stepped closer to me with her hands on her hips. “Are you planning to get away with something tonight?” she asked in this seductive voice that made every part of me wake up.

  “I’m not planning anything,” I said, but I reached out to grab her hips, then pulled her closer and rested my head against her stomach. Paige ran her fingers through my hair and nothing had ever felt as good.

  But then she gave my hair a tug, forcing me to look at her. When she gave me a gentle push, I had no idea what she had in store for me. And I didn’t care. Even welcomed whatever was coming when she climbed onto my lap, straddling my legs and putting us a
t eye level. Paige reached up to the bun in her hair and gave the elastic a tug.

  That was when I realized I’d never seen her with her hair down. She’d always had it up in that bun, which was sexy as hell, but the flow of long, blonde hair that fell over her shoulders took that to the next level. Her brown eyes met mine as my hands ran up her back.

  I hadn’t planned this moment when I’d brought her out here, but now it seemed to be the only reason to be here. I cupped her face and brought her lips to mine.

  Kissing Paige was unlike kissing anyone else. She was soft but didn’t mind my roughness. She didn’t back down and tasted like strawberries. I could’ve kissed her forever. I would’ve if I hadn’t heard my parents’ car pull up. But I didn’t pull back right away. I loved the way she moved against me and given the raging hard-on popping beneath my jeans, Paige knew too.

  “Sorry,” she said, then ran her tongue over her bottom lip, which made me want to dive back in.

  “What could you possibly be sorry for?”

  “Well… I just climbed onto your lap and took my hair down. My hair has incredible powers of seduction.”

  I chuckled quietly, then ran a hand over her blonde hair. “It actually does.”

  “But really, I work for your parents and probably shouldn’t—”

  “Stop right there,” I said. “None of that matters. I like you, Paige.”

  “Then why’d you stop?”

  “My parents are home. I still don’t know everything you do when she’s here.”

  “Oh. Yeah. I get that.” She tried to slide off my lap, but I wasn’t ready to let her go. She smiled and dropped a sweet kiss onto my lips. “But I should probably go make sure your dad doesn’t need any help. I’m technically off the clock, so to speak, but I still like to help.”

  “Let’s go,” I said, standing.

  It turned out by the time we got back up to the house, Dad had Mom inside and at the table in the kitchen.

  “How about some ice cream?” she asked Paige and me.