Van (Pushing Daisies Book 2)

by Heather Young-Nichols

  Lexis exaggeratedly rolled her eyes. “Oh, please. He’s what? Six years older than her.”

  “Exactly.”

  “You think that’s too old?” I nodded. “How old are you?”

  “Twenty-three.”

  “So you wouldn’t date a woman who’s twenty-nine?”

  Damn. She had me there. I probably wouldn’t date a woman of any age, at least not any time soon, but it wasn’t the age that stopped me. “I would. But I wouldn’t date someone who’s seventeen.”

  She snorted. “Yeah. That would be illegal in most states.” Lexi readjusted her weight in her chair as she pushed her cup back and forth between the fingertips on each hand. “You shouldn’t be so hard on Lawson, though,” she said more seriously.

  “Why’s that?” I sat back and crossed my arms over my chest.

  “Honestly?” Her beautiful blue eyes settled on mine, so I nodded. “He really loves Daisy. I’ve never seen him like this with anyone and if there’s one thing about Lawson, it’s that if he cares about someone, no one could ever keep that person safer.”

  The honesty in her voice was incredibly convincing. I didn’t have a choice but to believe her. “I still have to fuck with him, though.” That wasn’t going away anytime soon. I could trust the guy with my sister. Didn’t mean I had to like it.

  Lexi smiled widely and set her hand on her chest. “I still have to fuck with him. Of course we have to fuck with him.” The harsh word on her sweet lips just didn’t feel right.

  “As long as we’re clear.”

  We both smiled at each other and if I were being honest with myself, this was the easiest conversation I’d had in months. Our eyes remained locked until she broke the contact as she jammed a hand into her purse and pulled out her phone.

  “Damn it,” she muttered.

  “Something wrong?”

  “No. Not really. I just lost an intense game of Words with Friends. I’ve been slightly ahead until she played a Z on a triple letter spot.”

  I snorted, which brought her gaze back up to me.

  “Sorry,” she said. “That was probably the nerdiest sentence I’ve ever said.”

  “You play Words with Friends, too?”

  Her eyebrows shot sky-high. “You play Words with Friends?”

  I couldn’t help but laugh at the look on her face. No, that was not the most rock-star thing about me but it passed the time. “Listen, do you know how much of my life is spent on the road? Even before this tour, we were traveling a lot.”

  “Well…” She swallowed the last of her coffee. “Now I’m going to be on the road a lot, so add me. We can play together.”

  The dick in my pants stirred when she said play together. “You’ve got it open,” I told her. “Add me.”

  She nodded in agreement. “What’s your name on there?”

  “HalenMorrison.”

  She stopped, dropped her hands, and cocked her head to the side. “Really?”

  I snickered back at her. “Yup.”

  Van Halen. Van Morrison. It was perfect.

  I drained the last of my cup, and we both got up and took care of our trash. Then it was time to get back to the venue. Everyone would be awake now and probably wondering where I was. If I was really lucky, Lawson might see Lexi and me coming back together. I’d never lie about Lexi, but I couldn’t help it if her brother came to his own conclusions.

  Having her around could seriously help me fuck with her brother.

  5

  Lexi

  Lawson was heading into the venue when Van and I returned. I’d kind of been hoping that he wouldn’t see me with Van. Only because it seemed those two were still figuring out their new dynamic. Eventually, I figured Van and Lawson would learn to get along or at least not be so adversarial. They both loved Daisy so it seemed like a good bet.

  My brother didn’t say anything when he saw us, but I noticed the look he schooled quickly. Van wouldn’t have, but I sure did. It was a cross between surprise, anger, and annoyance.

  After showering in the venue, I went back to the bus to relax and get ready for the show. Lawson, or rather Barrett, Courting Chaos’ PR person, had snagged me a really good seat for the show. Turned out, I wasn’t alone. All of Courting Chaos’ girlfriends were with them on the road right now and Barrett made sure I was with them.

  Indie Cinderstone, Cross Rhode’s girl, was the smallest of us all, though none of us were winning any height contests any time soon. She was blonde and sweet. Bellamy Harper, girlfriend to singer Ransom Drake, had luxurious red curls that fell just past her shoulders. Her red wasn’t as red as Daisy’s. No. Bellamy’s red was deeper, not as bright. At least not compared to Daisy. I would’ve sworn that Bellamy’s eyes were the color of honey.

  Then Paige Wilson, whose boyfriend was the newest member of Courting Chaos, Booker Coyote, had her blonde hair pulled back into a messy bun and she looked the most serious in the way she held herself, but Barrett had told me she was a nurse and out of all the women, she’d been in her career the longest. Oh, and she was Barrett’s best friend, which, she’d said, was perfect since Paige was with Booker and Barrett was with Dixon.

  They made quite a group.

  We laughed and danced to the music of both bands and the girls were genuinely concerned that I had a good time.

  It was the best night I’d had in a while. Unfortunately, I also couldn’t keep my eyes off Van as his hands worked the bass. The way his fingers moved had me thinking about other things his fingers could do which made my skin burn. Crushing on him was the worst idea I’d had in too long of a time. Yet here I was.

  “I can’t believe this is your last night here,” Barrett said to Paige, looping their arms together as the group of us walked back to the buses.

  “I have to work.” It had been explained to me that Paige comes to visit as often as she could and when Booker had even a day off, he’d fly back to Michigan to spend even one night with her.

  They were committed to making this relationship work if they were willing to put this much work into spending time together.

  “Ugh. We should probably start looking for something,” Bellamy said to Indie, then she looked at me. “We both just graduated and haven’t put our all into finding jobs.”

  “Congratulations,” I told them both quietly. They were where I’d be next summer and in some ways, I couldn’t wait. In others, I wasn’t looking forward to it. The whole real-world thing wasn’t as appealing the closer to it I became.

  The closer to the buses we got, the louder we had to talk due to the crowd that had formed to see one of the guys or Daisy come out. Lawson had told me before that they’d take time to greet the fans whenever they could, but it wasn’t every night. Yet every night the fans stayed after the shows in hopes of catching any one of them.

  After wishing the girls a good night, I climbed onto my brother’s bus, cleaned myself up, and got ready for bed, not wanting to wait up to talk to my brother. With my purse on the table, Lawson would know when he got here that I was already back and we could get on the road whenever he wanted.

  Sleep did not come easily for me tonight. I was still getting used to sleeping on the moving bus and my brain wouldn’t shut off. Normally, this would’ve been the time I’d scroll through social media, but that had been taken from me a while ago. If I got on there and saw more shit about me, then I’d never fall asleep.

  The one thing I had left to slow down my racing thoughts was the stupid game I kept playing. But now I was playing it with Van and that seemed safe enough. Appealing even. We’d each played a bit earlier, but not much because he’d been getting ready for the show. Now at least, he’d played another word and for some reason, I wished the game told you what time the last move had been played. Then I’d know if it was earlier or just now. I really wanted to know that.

  Either way, I didn’t have much in the form of letters, so I went with an easy one and added a Q on his open ‘I’ to make qi. Then I’d have to wait for his respons
e.

  Didn’t have to wait long. A little red dot appeared in the corner of the window where private messages came within the game. I quickly opened it.

  That’s not a word, Van’s message read.

  I giggled quietly to not wake Lawson and Daisy. If they were asleep. It’s a word, I replied. The game accepted it.

  Must be a glitch, he insisted.

  I was grinning like an idiot when I typed out my response. It’s the basis of Chinese philosophy and medicine, dude.

  Do you mean chi? He asked right away.

  Yes, but it’s qi.

  I don’t think it is.

  He had to be messing with me. After sighing, I brought up the internet on my phone, Googled qi and screenshot the answer. Then I sent it to Van and typed out a new message.

  It’s the circulating life force whose existence and properties are the basis of much Chinese philosophy and medicine.

  He came back with: You can doctor screenshots.

  Jesus Christ. It’s not like I got a triple letter score or something and I can’t doctor anything, especially in four seconds.

  You could’ve planned it.

  All I could do then was laugh and hoped he was too. I thought we were done, but then another message popped up.

  What’s your number?

  I tapped it out quickly and held my breath. Not thirty seconds later, my phone rang softly in my hands. I’d turned the volume down to not disturb my brother.

  “Calling to harass me?” I asked instead of saying hello. His number wasn’t in my phone, obviously, but it didn’t take a lot of brainpower to figure out it was Van calling me when he’d just asked for my phone number.

  “I’m just trying to keep you honest,” he said back, his voice deep and quiet. Dreamy, of course.

  “The game won’t let you cheat.”

  “I don’t know that.” But then he laughed and I knew for sure he was messing with me. “So why are you still awake?”

  “Couldn’t sleep,” I answered honestly. “Still getting used to the feeling of movement all the time. Lots of stuff on my mind.”

  “Anything you want to talk about?”

  “Not really,” I told him quickly. The last person I wanted to know what was going on with the pervy dudes messaging me was Van Zant Thompson. The fact that I was even talking to him right now was enough to blow my mind.

  “OK.” He blew out a breath. “Then how did you like the show tonight?”

  A safe topic. “It was fantastic. The girls are so much fun.”

  “They’re loud when they’re all together.”

  He wasn’t wrong, but for the first time in years, I hadn’t felt on edge around a group of girls. Even when Nora had still been pretending to be my friend, I hadn’t been truly comfortable with her. Especially when she’d made comments about how hot my brother was when she hadn’t even met him. Her overall attitude sucked, I knew this now and wouldn’t admit it back then. But she’d never met Lawson yet still acted like she knew him in some way. It was part of the reason I never invited her to meet him.

  “It was so much fun. Daisy is amazing.”

  “Yeah, she is.”

  “You all are.”

  He snorted, then said, “You think I’m amazing?”

  I rolled my eyes, even though he’d never see it. Of course he had an ego. They all did and had to in this business, I supposed.

  “Courting Chaos was better.” I bit my lips together to keep from giggling like a schoolgirl.

  Now he full-out laughed and I wondered if anyone on his bus was asleep or if some of the guys had groupies with them. I hoped he didn’t because he was talking to me, but I also kind of detested the idea of him with anyone else ever.

  “I don’t know about that,” he said. “So you’re awake with nothing to do. You don’t want to hang out with your brother?”

  I bit my lips together and thought about what I wanted to say. There were so many options. I could say something to make him gag or nothing at all and everything in between.

  “I don’t think you want to know what Lawson is doing right now.”

  “Fucking hell,” he said with a groan. “I don’t need to hear that shit.”

  “You did ask.”

  He was silent for about fifteen seconds before admitting he’d asked for that. “I guess I did.”

  “So tell me what’s going on on your bus.” I figured switching the script on him would work pretty well. Get his mind off his sister and tell me what I wanted to know.

  “Pretty sure Bonham is asleep. Mack is probably working and Daltrey is most likely doing something I don’t want to know about.”

  “How does that work?” I asked him.

  “What?”

  “If Daltrey or…any of you bring a woman back to the bus. We’re moving on to the next city. Does she come with you? What does she do once you’re there? I mean, she just left her own town and now she’s in a strange one.”

  Van blew out a breath. “Do you think about this a lot?”

  “Not really, but I am curious. And who the hell else could I possibly ask? Lawson isn’t going to tell me this stuff.”

  Something rustled against the phone. “Daltrey doesn’t have a woman on the bus,” he said as if he needed to clarify that to me. “Not tonight. But no, normally, you’d do…whatever you wanted to do before the buses pull out. They won’t leave until we’re ready, so we have time. When we stay in hotels, sure that’s easier to go all night, but I supposed if one of us were to bring someone with us to the next city, we’d just arrange for transport back to her city.”

  “They must love that.”

  “I’ve never done it, nor have any of my brothers, but I imagine that’s what we’d do.” I heard him swallow on the other end. “But the women know what they’re getting when they come to hook up. Does that make me sound like an asshole?”

  It took a few seconds of thinking it over for me to decide if it did or didn’t. In the end, I decided it didn’t. “No,” I told him. “If everyone knows what’s up and you all don’t treat the women like garbage, then it doesn’t make you an asshole. I know the Courting Chaos guys are respectful. My brother would murder them if they weren’t.”

  “We don’t treat anyone like shit,” he told me. “Except maybe your brother, but that’s the price of admission for dating our sister.”

  “He can take it.”

  “I know he can.” Again I thought about explaining to Van that Lawson wasn’t going anywhere so he should try harder to get along but I didn’t want to talk about my brother. I was worried Van was going to end our call but then he asked, “What other things have you been wondering about?”

  “That was the biggest, I guess.” I twirled a lock of hair around my finger as I thought it over. I could ask him anything and he’d answer. That much was clear. It was kind of like talking to Ransom, a person who it is physically impossible to embarrass. Ask him anything. He’ll tell you. Now, I didn’t know if Van got embarrassed or not, but he seemed pretty open to anything I wanted to know. Yet here I was drawing a blank. “Why don’t you ask me something?”

  “OK.” Silence hung between us, which made me think he was mulling it over. I didn’t know if I could be as open with him as he was with me. I’d try but couldn’t guarantee it. “Do you have a boyfriend and if you do, what does he think about you being gone?”

  “No boyfriend, so I assume it’s fine.”

  We both laughed.

  “You’ve had a boyfriend, though, right?”

  “If you’re asking if I’m a virgin, the answer is no. But yes, I’ve had boyfriends. Lawson has disliked every single one.”

  “As a big brother, it comes with the job title. No one is good enough for your little sister.”

  “But someone’s got to be,” I told him seriously. “Unless you want your sister to be alone her whole life and that’s just sad.”

  “I’m not going to admit you’re right. But I won’t say that you’re wrong.”

  A
loud yawn hit me out of nowhere. I’d been wide awake when Van had called and now I thought I was tired enough to fall asleep.

  “I better let you go,” he said quietly.

  “You don’t have to.”

  “You’re tired.” Couldn’t argue with him there. “You’re not leaving right away, so we can talk soon.”

  “Yeah. You’re right. Good night, Van.” I was going to let it go at that but then decided to add, “And thanks for the talk. I think my brain has slowed down enough for me to get some rest.”

  A deep chuckle met my ear. “Are you saying that I put you to sleep?”

  My eyes grew wide. That was what it had sounded like, but that wasn’t at all what I’d meant. “No! You relaxed me, but I didn’t mean—”

  His laughter grew. “I’m fucking with you, Lexi.”

  I slapped a hand over my face and shook my head. I’d fallen for that like a rock. “Ohmigod.”

  “Goodnight, Lexi.”

  “Goodnight.”

  I quickly ended the call so I wouldn’t make a fool of myself with the hottest guy I’d ever seen. Though if he argued about a word I used in the game again, he might just fall down that list a few notches.

  Either way, talking to Van had calmed me enough that I fell right to sleep.

  6

  Van

  Lexi and I played Words with Friends so much that I had no idea how many games we’d gone through in the last four days and every time, I’d found a way to harass her about one of her words. They were all good words and only qi had actually thrown me, but it gave me an excuse to talk to her, and fuck I’d been looking for excuses.

  Did I hope that she’d mention our chats to her brother? Yes. Did I enjoy them? Also yes. Did I imagine her smile every time she sent me a laughing emoji? No question.

  She was the first person who came to mind when I planned my little excursion before the show. The only person I’d even considered asking. I hoped she’d come with me. Going alone wouldn’t bother me but having her there would make everything better.

  Dare I say that a little buzz of nervousness fluttered in my chest at the idea of asking her given that she might say no.