Apparently, the storm that is Everett Thompson brings with it a calm that I’ve never felt before. He’s breathing heavily against my skin, and I’m still shaking with the aftershocks of the passion he made flow through me.
“I need to get up and take care of things,” he whispers as he lifts his head, his green eyes meeting mine.
In the aftermath, we’re both shy, neither one of us knowing what to say, but it’s a comfortable shyness. I follow him into the bathroom and do a little cleanup of my own before we come back into the bedroom. Neither one of us put clothes back on, before we slip in between the sheets.
I go to his arms without any thought, and he tucks me in beside him like we’ve been doing this for years.
“Thank you,” I whisper, kissing him on the cheek.
“For what?” His voice is wrecked, full of a laziness it didn’t have before.
“No one has ever made me feel like that before.”
His hand grasps mine, entwining our fingers together. “I’ll let you in on a little secret, Bri. Nobody’s ever made me feel that way before either. And something you should know about me? I’ll always make sure you’re good.”
Chapter Eighteen
EJ
It’s amazing how you can come from the highest of highs and go to the lowest you’ve felt in a very long time. The only thing keeping me sane as I sit here with my little brother is thinking about what happened last night with Bri. How she gave herself to me, how she made me feel in return, and the excitement I have for our lives together. Because the fear I have right now? It’s not a fear I’d wish on anyone. I’m scared shitless I’m about to wreck the relationship I have with my best friend.
“What’d you wanna talk to me about?” RJ asks as he has a seat on his back deck, bringing me a beer, taking a drink of the one he brought for himself.
I’ve always been the direct one of the two of us, more like my dad than my mom. I don’t beat around the bush, I don’t worry about people’s feelings. I simply ask questions and expect honest answers. But right now, I’m worried about what this answer might be, about what it might mean for us.
“I thought about how I could do this, a million ways I could approach it, to be honest. Know this, I love you, respect you, would do absolutely anything for you. Since Mom and Dad brought you home, you’ve been my best friend. You might drive me crazy, but you’re absolutely one of the most important people in my life. I thought about this a lot…”
“You’re makin’ me nervous.” RJ runs a hand through his hair. Something tells me he knows where this is going, but he doesn’t want to face it as much as I don’t want to say it.
“I’m nervous,” I admit, running my palms along my thighs. “But I want you to know I love you.”
“For fuck’s sake.” He reaches over to grab a cigarette. He doesn’t light it, just holds it between his fingers. I notice it as a nervous gesture we both have. “Just spit it out.”
I take a fortifying drink, wishing I could drink the whole thing down, but I haven’t been that kinda drinker since our early days. “I’m just gonna come right out and say it. I know you’ve been hurting since you and Montgomery broke up, but I also know Montgomery. There’s only one damn reason she’d let anyone go.” I level him with a stare. “What I want to know, is do you need help?”
“You’re accusing me of being a drug addict?”
His reply isn’t angry, it’s resigned.
“Tell me I’m wrong, Rhett.”
He takes a drink from his bottle of beer and then gets up, putting his hands on his hips, walking to the edge of the deck. It’s killing me waiting, but I know whatever this is has to come from him. “I can’t,” he whispers as he puts his hands on the rail and lets his head fall between his shoulders.
“You can’t?” My heart drops to my stomach and I fight the urge to seriously cry.
He turns facing me, the expression as honest as I’ve ever seen it. “No, I can’t.”
“Tell me what’s going on.” I indicate the seat he’s left. “Please, just tell me what’s happening.”
He has a seat, sighing as he takes another drink. “It started out small, like I was having trouble sleeping, my mind would race at all hours of the day, remember? I couldn’t concentrate, and I felt like everything was getting completely away from me.”
I do remember when he’d had such a hard time sleeping and concentrating. He’d been diagnosed with a sleep disorder, and prescribed medication to help him deal with it. “Yeah.”
“They prescribed me Adderall,” he says the word carefully. “To help me concentrate. But I figured out really quickly that not only did it help me concentrate, it would help me stay awake,” he speaks clearly, but slowly. “I wrote our last whole record, my part anyway, in the three days. I didn’t tell you that, but I did. Then when my part was done, I tried to come off of it. But I missed the feeling it gave me. It’s a euphoric feeling, like cocaine, but it was prescription. I complained to the doctor it wasn’t working like it had been, and he gave me more.”
“Fuck, RJ.”
“Yeah.” He looks down at his hands. “I didn’t even realize I had a big problem, until Montgomery asked me if I was doing cocaine because I reminded her of her dad.”
“Oh man.” I run my hand around the back of my neck. “What happened?”
“What do you think? I got mad. I said a lot of shit I shouldn’t have said. Fuck,” he sighs, putting his head in his hands. “The shit I said to her? There’s a reason she’s won’t speak to me right now.”
“How did I not know?”
RJ gives me a sarcastic smile. “Addicts hide their shit well. I was lying to everybody. It’s surprising how easy it is to make people think you’re okay, when you aren’t okay at all.”
“I’m sorry,” I push the words out from my tight throat. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you.”
“I didn’t want anyone there for me. I was so caught up in trying to figure out how to get more, how to stay up longer, how to be better.” He shakes his head. “That in itself was an addiction for me,” he admits. “So after Montgomery left, I had to take a long, hard look at myself.”
“Do Mom and Dad know?”
“No,” he answers quietly. “I haven’t told anyone, except my sponsor.”
“So you got help?” I feel a relief, one I didn’t expect to feel.
“I realized quickly that I did have a problem, that Montgomery wasn’t wrong in what she said in to me, and I had been the most conceited person in not wanting to accept what she was offering. I stayed up or four days straight, called a rehab facility and asked to be let in. Remember when I went to California for a month?”
“Yeah, you were MIA, but I thought it was because of what happened between you and her.”
“I was in rehab.” His voice is low. “I’m still in outpatient here in Nashville. I go to meetings twice a week. Checked in under a fake name and everything, so that no one would know it was me.”
“What’s going to happen when we go on tour?” I hate asking him this question, hate that it sounds like I care more about our tour than I do about his well-being. “And I don’t mean that about us, I mean that about you.”
“No, I get it. Our whole life you’ve cared about me, watched out for me,” he trails off. “But this, I had to do on my own. I can Skype in, to the meetings, and if I need my sponsor he’ll be there.”
“You know if you need me, all you have to do is ask.” I get up, hugging him tightly.
“I know, believe me, I know that, but I didn’t want you to be disappointed in me.”
“I’m not,” I hug him tightly. “I was worried about you, scared for you, not disappointed.”
“That means a lot, bro.” He hugs me back tightly.
“You’ve gotta tell Mom and Dad.”
RJ groans loudly as he sits back down. “I know, and since you’ve opened the lines of communication, I’m gonna go talk to them today.”
“What about Montgomery?�
�� Maybe this isn’t my business, but I know how much he cares for her, know he’s a better guy with her around.
“She knows I’ve gone to rehab, and she knows I’m working to turn everything around. I’ve been clean for two months, but it’s been a restricted two months. I haven’t been asked to do anything other than go to the gym, and write a little bit. When we get on tour and all that stress piles up, I need to see how I’m going to react. I don’t want to win her back before I’ve been tested.”
“Are you two at least speaking?” I can’t help but continue to question.
“This week she sent me a text telling me she hoped tour went well. We’ve texted a few times since then.”
I’m feeling raw as he makes the confession, but feeling happy as I hear that they’re starting to work toward a possible reconciliation. “That makes me happy.”
He stands up. “Makes me happy too.”
I eye the beer bottle in his hand.
He looks down. “I’ve never had an issue drinking, and I stopped for the time I was in rehab. I only have one or two a week now. It’s not a problem, I promise. I’m aware of what my issues are, now more so than I ever have been. I’m doing really good right now, big brother, and if it comes up again that I’m not…you’ll be the first one I talk to.”
“Be sure that you do.” I stand up, shaking his hand. “I love you, Rhett.”
“Love you too, Everett.”
We say goodbye, and when I get into my SUV, I breathe a sigh of relief. Even though my biggest fear has come true, I’m glad to know the little brother I’ve always watched out for has taken care of the biggest issue of his life on his own.
Pride in him makes me smile as I pull out of RJ’s driveway, and head toward the house that has quickly turned into a home thanks to the woman who’s there waiting for me.
Chapter Nineteen
Bri
The dryer buzzes again, causing me to moan loudly. I’ve done probably twenty loads of laundry in the last couple of days, trying to get EJ and myself ready to go on tour.
It’s different, going out with a rock group. I’m learning very quickly.
Like for me? All my clothing is made to my specifications. EJ and the rest of the guys, they wear their own clothes, like the same shit they wear every day around the house, on stage. The only thing they have for hair or makeup are their freaking tooth and hair brushes.
And don’t get me started on shoes.
For my crew, there’s a whole compartment in the bus for shoes. Looks like EJ is bringing four pairs, and three of them are the same freaking shoe.
“Are you sure there isn’t anything else you need to bring?” I ask as I grab his jeans out of the dryer, starting to fold them up for him.
“We’re simple guys.” He grabs me around the waist from behind, kissing me softly where neck and shoulder meet. “Trust me. The fact you’re doing my laundry before we leave is huge. Usually it gets done whenever I find out I need more clothes.”
I pull away from him, my nose scrunched up tight. “You mean you pack dirty clothes to take with you on tour? Is this what I’m hearing?”
“I am who I am, babe.”
“You’re gross.,” I throw a pair of underwear at him. “You’re lucky I came into your life.”
“Been saying that since we got married.” He throws it back at me.
Somehow I catch it with one hand, impressing both him and myself. “Good catch there.”
“Thanks, maybe in another life I could’ve been an athlete.”
“Sure, how about you come play ball with me and RJ next time we do a pickup game?”
They’re both way taller than me. “Uhhh, how about nah.”
“That’s what I thought,” he laughs. “So what are you excited about doing in Europe?”
I continue folding, handing the clothes off to him so that he can stuff it into his duffel bag. “I’ve only been a few times. Even though I’ve toured extensively in the US, I haven’t made my way overseas as much as I would’ve liked.”
“That’s odd, I thought you’d been there more.”
“Nope, rock is still huge, pop is doing its best to make a comeback, but it’s hard. It’s definitely not the days of the Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears - not like it used to be, anyway.”
EJ nods as if he understands. “There’s so many hard rock festivals over there, we can’t not go. It’s a huge part of our touring cycle every summer that we tour. We’ve been asked to do other shows and tours, but we make so much money doing these, we just can’t say no.”
“Do you get to explore?” I ask as I start switching it all over from the washer to the dryer.
“Sometimes. I’m hoping since you’re coming I’ll get to explore a little more than normal.”
“You think I’ll make that big of a difference?” My tone reveals how much I doubt that.
He shrugs. “For some reason record companies tend to want to make married couples happy, so I have faith. Tell me, what is the one thing you wanna do?”
“It’s going to sound stupid.” I fold and then unfold a shirt.
“Tell me.” he snaps the shirt out of my hands. “What is it you wanna do more than anything in Europe?”
“Fine,” I huff. “You can’t make fun of me.”
“Promise.” He crosses his heart.
“Make out with you in a hidden alcove on a side street.” My cheeks burn as I tell him one of my most guarded secrets.
“Interesting. Where did this come from?”
“When we were younger, do you remember those shots of Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel in Europe? They looked so passionate about one another. I’ve always wanted someone to feel that way about me.”
EJ stops smiling. Instead, he walks over, a smirk on his face. He curls his hand around my waist. “Never wonder if I feel that way about you, babe. That’s the one thing you never have to worry about.”
Chapter Twenty
Bri
“For some reason, I assumed your flights would be loud and insane,” I whisper to EJ as we sit in the back of the chartered flight we’re taking to Germany.
This will be the first stop on their summer tour. June will be spent doing festivals, and July will be smaller, more intimate shows. To say I’m excited about this is a complete understatement. While it can be argued that as a pop act I see some of the largest venues in the world, I know Europe is all about rock, and I know some of the crowds we’ll see are massive.
He gives me a grin, the dimples in his cheeks deepening. “This is the calm before the storm. We’re resting up. The next two months will be insane. We have big plans and aspirations for the time spent overseas this tour, and I’ll get to spend it with you,” he finishes off.
When I woke up next to this man, wearing his ring, I never imagined he would be this sweet or considerate. I’m lucky in many ways, and I hope I’ll never take it for granted.
“Believe it or not, I’ve only been on a few chartered flights, so this is pretty cool.” I look around, impressed with what the band has at their fingertips.
Taking in everything has become my new favorite past time, especially since I got on this flight around three hours ago. RJ has gone to sleep near the front, the other two band members are playing a game of Mario Kart on a Switch, and Knox is making business calls, as he types on a laptop.
“What would you normally be doing if I weren’t here?”
“Either playing a video game like they are, cruising the internet, or reading a book. Maybe sleeping, but typically I’m too amped up to do that. As soon as we hit town, we usually go out to eat at someplace local, and that’s one of my favorite things to do.”
“You read?” I’m surprised by the little piece of information he’s just given to me.
“Not literary shit or anything. I like autobiographies and sci-fi. RJ makes fun of me, but sometimes it’s the only thing I can do to shut my brain off. Otherwise it’s going all the damn time.” He reaches over, entwining our fingers toge
ther. “However, I seem to have found a new past time since you came into my life. I kinda like making you squirm, moan, and scream my name.” His voice tilted low so that I’m the only one who can hear.
Clearing my throat, I make an admission. “I read romance.” I grin at him as I turn to face him, sitting cross-legged on the couch.
“Oh really?” He pulls his legs up on the couch too, so that we face one another.
I move so that our knees and shins touch, even through clothing I love the way he feels. If I’m being honest, his body heat, the smell of the cologne he wears, the soft touch he glides across my body whenever we’re around one another - all of it makes me feel safe and leaves me with a longing to be near him all the time. “Yeah, my grandmother got me started on them when I was about fourteen.”
“Do you read the really raunchy ones?” There’s a curiosity behind the question that I can’t help but want to explore.
“Depends on what kind of a mood I’m in.”
“Can they put you in a mood?” I can read between the lines, figure out pretty easily what he’s trying to ask me.
Laughing I give him a nod, we’ve been nothing but honest with each other. It won’t pay for either one of us to start lying now. “Yes, they can if they’re written well enough, if the scenes are hot enough.”
He licks his lips, pulling his bottom one between his teeth before a grin spreads across his face. “Interesting.”
I’m feeling more vulnerable right now than I’ve ever felt in front of anyone else, but I’m finding with him I like it. I like being the girl with him that doesn’t always have to be on, doesn’t always have to have it all together. We can flirt, joke, and have serious discussions. “You think so, huh?” I lean my forehead on his shoulder, too shy for a moment to meet his gaze.
Power Couple: A Marriage of Convenience Romance (The Nashvegas Series Book 1) Page 11
