Songs of the Heart: Lyrical Odyssey Rock Star Series Book 3

by B. Rose, Charli

  Chapter 20

  Dawson

  As we drove from LAX to my house, I was so nervous. After all this time, I was finally going to show Izzy the house I’d bought for her. For us, before everything went to hell.

  Joe pulled up to the newly installed, top-of-the-line security gate and punched in the code on the keypad. Noiselessly, the iron structure swung inward, permitting us entry. Once we were through, a sensor made it close again.

  As Joe circled to the front door, Deke turned to look at us over his shoulder. “You two stay here while I go inside and make sure everything is good.” He hopped out and disappeared into the house. After a few minutes, he came back signaling the house was clear.

  The gate made me feel better about Izzy being here. I was still worried about her safety now that I’d vetoed my original plan of keeping my distance.

  Izzy’s eyes grew large as we walked up to the front porch. “This is your house?” she asked in awe. “When we came in this direction, I thought we were going to your apartment. It’s like what, two streets over?”

  “Yeah. I bought this place a while back,” I said vaguely. I didn’t want to spill the beans until I knew if she liked it or not.

  “It’s beautiful.” Her head tilted back to take in the two-story, white stone structure. Pink flowering bushes were scattered about the small yard.

  When we went inside, she spun around the entryway. Stained glass hung above the door. With the current position of the sun, it cast a kaleidoscope of colors across the bleached walls.

  “You guys staying in for the rest of the day?” Joe asked me as he stood inside the foyer.

  He smirked at Izzy’s reaction to the house. Deke sat our bags down next to the staircase.

  “Yeah. We’ll hang here. Maybe order in,” I answered with a shrug.

  “Sounds good. I’m in the pool house tonight if you guys need anything. Call me tomorrow if you need to leave the house,” Joe said as he walked out the front door, closing it softly behind him.

  Once we were alone in the house, I turned to Izzy. “You want a tour, or do you want to relax?”

  “Oh, I get to choose this time? Last time we were somewhere you wanted to show off, the tour was mandatory,” she teased with a grin on her lips.

  “You’re right. Tour it is.” I linked her fingers with mine and tugged her to the living room.

  I stayed back, trying to view the room with a critical eye. She ran her fingers over the back of my dark-colored sectional sofa. Stepping around the large square coffee table, she made her way to the windows. They overlooked the side yard and pool. The previous owners had turned the area into an oasis since the property had an ocean view but wasn’t beach front.

  “I bet you spend all your time in the pool,” she gushed.

  “Actually, I haven’t ever used it,” I admitted.

  “Well, we’re going to change that,” she declared, turning back to face me.

  She gasped when she took in the wall beside where I stood. In a position of importance above the mantle, was her Love in Paris painting.

  Her eyes shimmered as she came up to me. “You bought my painting?”

  “Yes,” I whispered. I prayed she wasn’t mad.

  “Why? I would’ve given it to you for free.”

  “I wasn’t the original offer on it. When I saw how torn you were about selling it, I beat the offer. I knew that spot would be perfect for it.” I rested my hands on her hips.

  “How did you get it hung already?”

  “When you’re willing to spare no expense, a lot can be accomplished,” I said sheepishly.

  She wrapped her arms around me and squeezed tightly. “Thank you.”

  Phew. She wasn’t mad.

  “Come on. Let me show you the kitchen,” I said, tugging her through another doorway.

  “Oh, my goodness.” The kitchen window revealed a sliver of ocean, which was what drew Izzy’s attention. She wandered around, trailing her fingers over the granite countertops and stainless-steel appliances. As she made her way to the table, my heart stopped. I should’ve put away the puzzle.

  “What’s this?” she asked with a frown. “It looks like my painting. Only not quite.”

  “It’s from the stalker. She’s been sending a few puzzle pieces in every letter for the last while. I only just got the last pieces after your accident. The whole thing didn’t have faces until then.”

  Izzy leaned forward, tracing the X drawn over her face. I stepped up behind her and pulled her back into my arms. She trembled in my embrace.

  “I see why you’ve been worried.”

  “Yeah. But maybe now that it’s completed, she’s done,” I suggested half-heartedly.

  We stayed frozen by the terror the puzzle incited for a few moments before I turned her away. “Let’s finish the tour.”

  I decided to take her to my music room. From the doorway, my piano and guitar were visible. So was another couch. But the real surprise wouldn’t be revealed until she entered the room. Half of the room had twenty-foot ceilings. Along two of the tall walls, Izzy’s Fate’s Thread collection was displayed. I’d hired someone to install them yesterday. The extra time I spent in South Carolina was to ensure there was enough time for the pieces to arrive and be in place before Izzy got here.

  “You were the anonymous buyer?” she murmured in awe.

  “Yes.” I shrugged. “When I saw the video tour and realized you were selling the collection, I knew I couldn’t let someone else own our story. And I figured you wouldn’t really want to sell it.”

  “I didn’t. But then I decided our story wasn’t over, so if I had to part with a portion that represented our story, everything would be fine. But I have to admit, I’m so glad the buyer was you.”

  She threw herself at me, nearly knocking me down in her enthusiasm. I accepted her passionate kiss, but I kept it from getting too far out of hand, since there was more to show her.

  I walked over to the half of the room that didn’t have a twenty-foot ceiling. Tucked in the corner of the room was a staircase, leading up to a loft. The area was well lit thanks to the wall of glass. The room was high enough that an unobstructed view of the ocean filled the glass. I had a custom art desk installed, along with all the other things Izzy had ever mentioned wanting in her dream studio.

  She turned to me, questions in her eyes.

  “I had this room designed for us. Since we like to create in the same space, I wanted this area converted into a room for the both of us,” I explained.

  “How long did you say you’ve owned the house?” she asked, mentally trying to figure out how I could’ve done all of this in such a short period of time.

  “A little over two years,” I admitted.

  Her brow wrinkled. “What? You bought a house before we broke up and you never said anything?”

  “I bought it for us a few weeks before your visit to Amsterdam two years ago. I was planning to fly you out here when we had to be in town a few months after that. But then everything fell apart….”

  “And you kept the house?”

  “I couldn’t let it go. Even though you’d never set foot in it, I bought it for our future. And somewhere in my heart I always hoped we’d get a second chance.”

  ♪ Home by Phillip Phillips

  “I’m glad you kept it,” she whispered, her voice full of emotion.

  “Me too, flutterby.”

  I turned the knob on the door set in the front corner of the loft. It opened onto the second-floor hallway. As we passed rooms, I explained what had been done to each when I purchased the house. We were almost to the end of the hall, when I revealed a room that was bathed in soft light from the window. The carpet inside was plush. The room stood empty at the moment, but I could envision it a few years in the future filled with toys.

  “Since this room is the closest to our room, I thought this would make a perfect nursery someday.”

  Pain filled her eyes, and she sunk to the floor.

  “
What’s wrong, flutterby? You always wanted to be a mom someday. I’m sorry I assumed that wouldn’t change when I bought the house. It’s OK if you’ve changed your mind.” I was desperate to erase her sorrow.

  My heart ached at the prospect of never getting to parent a child with her. But I’d rather have her than have kids.

  “I still want to be a mom one day,” she whispered as sobs wracked her body. “I just don’t know if it’s a possibility anymore.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “Well, the doctors said infertility might be a consequence of my treatments. I know I should’ve told you sooner, but I wasn’t sure how to even br-bring it up,” she hiccupped.

  I lowered myself to the floor with her and drew her onto my lap.

  “I know you always envisioned yourself being a dad in the future. If this changes how you feel about me or what you see for your life, I understand. It’s a big deal knowing kids might not be a possibility.” She looked into my eyes.

  “Izzy, even without your diagnosis and treatments, there never would’ve been a guarantee that pregnancy would happen easily. But that’s beside the point. There are many ways to become a parent. When the time is right, we can explore our options. But know this, the only thing I can’t live without in my life is you. If kids aren’t in the cards for us, I can deal with that as long as I have you.”

  “Are you sure? I’d never want to cheat you out of your plans for the future.”

  “I’m positive. Now come on, let me show you our room. We can break in our bed.” I waggled my brows at her, drawing a smile to her lips.

  I stood and pulled her to her feet then led her across the hall. With a twist of the knob, I opened the door to the master suite. It was decorated in blue and grey. The bed was massive and until today, had been lonely. A balcony jutted from the side of the house beyond the sliding doors.

  Bending my knees, I lifted her over my shoulder and tossed her onto the bed. She laughed as she bounced.

  “Tour’s over,” I announced.

  She scrunched up her nose as she examined the fancy headboard. “This isn’t the bed you had at your old apartment.”

  “No. That bed was old. It was my mattress from New York. It just didn’t feel right moving a bed that other girls had been on into our house,” I explained with a shrug. I knew my thoughts were probably foolish, but I didn’t want to bring any bad vibes into our place. Lot of good that did me.

  She tackled me, pinning me beneath her. “So, you’re telling me that there have been no women in this house or this bed?”

  “It would be sacrilege to have anyone else in the home or bed that was meant for you.”

  Leaning down, she gave me a hard kiss. “I’m glad.” She smiled against my mouth.

  Every piece of me was filling up with Izzy. Her breath fanned my skin, her taste filled my mouth, her voice echoed in my mind, her beauty seared my vision, imprinting our love in each of my hundred trillion cells. Writing its existence into each strand of DNA comprising my being.

  Her tongue darted out to trace my parted lips. I accepted her kiss and gave back in equal measure, licking and stroking the interior of her mouth. As passion rose between us, her hips began to grind down where my cock twitched against her warmth. I growled and forced myself to keep the pace the same.

  Beneath the weight of her, this house finally felt like a home. And though I was desperate to sink into her heat and chase release for both of us, now that she was here, we had time. Time I planned to take worshipping each cell of her body. We had forever to love each other.

  * * *

  The next morning, I had to leave her asleep in bed while I met with Bas about hiring a manager he recommended.

  When I came back home, Izzy was oddly quiet and distant. She was curled up on the couch with a sketch pad on her lap.

  “Sorry I left before you woke up. Did you get my note?” I asked.

  “Yeah.” Her pencil continued to stroke across the page, but I couldn’t discern what she was drawing just yet.

  “OK. Anyway, Bas suggested three people for us to interview to be our manager. I’m going to talk to the guys about it later.”

  “Cool,” she said without looking up.

  Her one-word answers and lack of eye contact were concerning.

  “I brought takeout for lunch.” I held up the bags of Chinese food. “You hungry?”

  “Starving.”

  I carried the bags to the kitchen and placed them on the counter. Once I unpacked them all, the counter was littered with several cardboard boxes. I filled our plates with our favorites then carried them into the living room. As I slid the plates onto the large coffee table, I glanced over to Izzy in the corner. I willed her to look at me.

  When she didn’t, I got up and returned to the kitchen for napkins, utensils and water bottles.

  Dropping to the floor, I settled in front of my plate at the coffee table. “I got your favorites,” I said, hoping to entice her into looking up and speaking.

  She put her sketchpad aside then sat beside me on the floor. “Thanks,” she said, taking a set of chopsticks from me.

  She grabbed some lo mein noodles and lifted them to her mouth.

  I couldn’t eat. I couldn’t figure out what was bothering her. “Did I do something wrong, flutterby?”

  At first, she didn’t say anything, just continued eating.

  “I know I said I didn’t have anything going on the next few days. I didn’t realize Bas had lined this up. I’m really sorry. It won’t happen again,” I rambled.

  “It’s not about you leaving this morning.”

  “Then what has you so upset? Did something happen?” I turned to face her fully.

  She shrugged. “I slept in. Found your note and the flower on the pillow when I woke up. Then I explored your bathroom.”

  “Oh, did you try out the soaking tub?” I figured she’d love that when I first considered buying the house.

  “No, just the shower, which was amazing by the way.”

  I waited for her to continue.

  “I thought you said no girls had ever been here. Not that you didn’t have the right to while we weren’t together. But you didn’t have to lie to me about it.” She looked down at her plate.

  With my fingers, I gently lifted her chin up so I could see her eyes. “I swear to you on all my guitars no women have ever been here in this house except for those the band employs and the lady who cleans. Why would you think there has been?”

  She put her hand in her pocket. “Then why do you have these in your bathroom?” She pulled her hand out to reveal a tube of strawberry scented lip gloss and a bottle of perfume. “Plus, you have girl shampoo and conditioner in your shower.”

  Laughter and relief exploded from me.

  She looked at me in disbelief. Shaking my head, I plucked the items from her hand. “Flutterby, these are yours. You left them on the tour bus in Europe, remember?”

  She dropped her head into her hands. “Oh my gosh,” she said. Her gaze met mine. “I totally forgot about that. I’m so sorry.”

  “It’s OK, baby. I’m just glad I didn’t really do something. I can be an oblivious idiot sometimes,” I teased. “We’ll settle back into who we are as a couple. And if you want to know something, anything, just ask me. I have no secrets from you.”

  “Complete honesty. Always.”

  Chapter 21

  Izzy

  The day after Dawson met with Bas, we managed to avoid all semblance of reality beyond the walls of Dawson’s house. But our vacation was drawing to a close, if the dinging from Dawson’s phone was any indication.

  “The guys want to hang out tonight,” he said as he scrolled through his messages. “If we don’t agree to meet them somewhere, I’m afraid they’re going to descend on us. They’ll stay all night if they come over.”

  “So, where are we going then?” I asked, a little excited. I really didn’t mind going out with the guys. It would help make things feel like they
were back to normal between me and Dawson.

  “They want to go to The Hole in the Wall.”

  “I thought that place was in Ohio?” I asked, scrunching up my brow in a frown.

  “The one we got our start at is. But the owner has a second location here. We’ve hung out there a lot over the past few weeks.”

  “They going to have live music tonight?” I asked.

  “Yeah. They’ve actually had a few acts who we’d like to work with once we get established as a record label.”

  “That’s great. So, what time do we need to go?”

  He looked at the time on his phone screen. “In a few hours.”

  “So, we have time to go to the beach?” I’d longed to go since we arrived.

  “Sure. I just need to let Joe know.”

  I got to my feet while Dawson tapped away on his phone. Before he could get off the couch, I’d dashed up the stairs to find my bathing suit.

  By the time Dawson crossed the threshold, I was clad in my new one-piece suit.

  “What happened to that little bikini you used to wear? Not that there’s anything wrong with that one. But man, that pink bikini fueled a lot of my fantasies.” He rubbed his hands together.

  My hand drifted to the area over my scar. With a shrug, I said, “The bikini just didn’t seem… right anymore.”

  Dawson closed the distance between us. “I’m going to show you every single day just how sexy I think you are, how much you turn me on, how there is no one more beautiful than you. And one day, you’re going to believe it yourself. In the meantime, since you have a sensible suit, want to go surfing?”

  My mouth spread in a wide grin. I hadn’t surfed in forever. “Together?” I asked.

  When Dawson first started teaching me to surf, I surfed on his board with him. I loved it.

  “Of course,” he said with a smirk.

  He moved to his dresser and rifled around until he found his wet suit. With a little more searching, he unearthed mine from when he got it for me years ago.