Van (Pushing Daisies Book 2)

by Heather Young-Nichols

  One of the best things about traveling so much, aside from the awesomeness that was playing the shows, was that once in a while, I got to go see something that I’d read about and had wanted to visit. Today we were in Pennsylvania and I’d read about Ringing Rocks Park.

  Musical rocks? Sign me up.

  “Hey, Lexi,” I called out when I saw her. She’d just come out of Courting Chaos’ dressing room and was carrying a bag, looking freshly showered. All kinds of things ran through my imagination right then. Every single one of them had to be shaken off. Totally inappropriate.

  “Hey, Van. What’s up?” she asked once I’d caught up with her.

  “I’m heading out for a while and wanted to know if you’d like to go with me.”

  This small, sweet smile formed on her lips and she tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. If she’d just showered and washed her hair, she’d also blow-dried her hair because it wasn’t wet. That smile had my dick stirring. “Sure. Where are you going?”

  The fact that she said yes before asking where I was going just hit differently. “Ringing Rocks Park. It’s about an hour and a half from here, so I have to leave now to get back in time for the show and stuff.”

  Lexi pushed past me and started walking. I fell in beside her. Damn this girl could move. She had to take two steps for one of mine and was still faster than me.

  “What about soundcheck?” she asked. “That’s earlier, right?”

  I nodded. “I asked Bonham to take care of my stuff.”

  “I just have to drop this stuff off on the bus and I’ll be ready. I’ll text Lawson once we’re on the road.”

  Not five minutes later, we were headed for the car that Mack arranged for me. It had been here waiting for me when I’d woken up. There were definite perks to being in a band that was catching some air.

  “Hey, Van,” a woman called. There was already a small group waiting behind the metal barrier set up to keep fans out of the bus area. Most of them showed early for Courting Chaos, but we’d gained enough popularity that some of them were for us.

  I waved, but the pleading for me to come over became intense and I remembered what Mack had told us. Now was the time that we hook the fans by being as accessible as we could be. Daisy’s problem with a crazy fan had put that on hold for a while, but now we were clear to go. Lawson still watched her like a fucking hawk though. We all did.

  “Hey, how’s it going?” I asked as they thrust things at me to sign.

  I did my best to scribble my name on as many as I could and smiled for their pictures.

  “It’d be even better if you wanted to get together after the show,” this tall blonde said as I signed her T-shirt. Too close to her tits if you asked me. This woman was model gorgeous and was making an offer I wouldn’t have passed up not so long ago. Now, there was only the smallest hint of desire to see her naked and I had a suspicion as to why. It was the petite brunette waiting off to the side for me.

  It wasn’t just Lexi being close by that had me against the idea of hooking up with this woman. It was Lexi in general. The way we talked and laughed. The way she didn’t seem to want anything from me. She was like nobody I’d experienced thus far and I didn’t want her to see me that way. The fucking whore of the band that stuck his dick wherever he could. Even if that version of me had existed very fucking recently.

  Instead, I chuckled but didn’t respond. Two more offers came my way. Obviously, my reputation preceded me. Lexi waited patiently, scrolling through her phone like this was all boring to her. Not an ounce of judgment on her face, either.

  “OK, I’ve got to go now,” I told them as I waved. “See you at the show later.”

  In reality, I wouldn’t see any of them. There were few spots that we could see from the stage and I wouldn’t remember any of their faces anyway.

  Finally, ten minutes after we’d left the bus area, I had our location locked into the GPS and we were on our way.

  “Sorry about that,” I told her as I pulled us onto the highway.

  “It’s fine. I’ve known the guys in Courting Chaos for years. I know the deal,” she said, sinking down into her seat like she wanted to get comfortable, but the stiffness of her movements wasn’t natural. If I had to guess, I’d say the offers had made her uncomfortable. “Does that happen a lot with you guys?”

  I rubbed a hand over the back of my head. Lexi and I were friends by now, so answering her honestly was the only choice.

  “Pretty often,” I told her. “Especially with me.”

  “Why especially with you?” she asked. I could feel her eyes on me, though I kept mine on the road in front of me.

  “I’m the one with the reputation.”

  “What kind of reputation?”

  “Oh, come on.” I glanced at her, but she seriously looked like she had no idea what I was talking about. “You’ve been online, right?”

  She shook her head as I went back to focusing on the road. “I don’t believe what others say. Trust me. Rumors are rampant and usually not true, so I don’t read them and don’t believe them. So what reputation?”

  I took a deep breath and sighed. Damn, this woman was never what I expected. Mostly because she wasn’t like the women I’d known in my life. The ones that wanted the ride and disappeared because I didn’t do relationships. The ones that wanted something from me.

  “Well, if I weren’t a guy, people would say I’m a whore.”

  “If you weren’t a guy?”

  I nodded. “Women get such a bad rap. I do it and people are impressed or want to high-five me or what the fuck ever, but if a woman sleeps around, she’s a whore and easy and ostracized by other women. It’s dumb.”

  “That’s true,” she said so quietly that it made me uncomfortable. “But whatever, so you enjoy sex and live your life. Obviously, you have to opportunity.”

  “Yeah,” I agreed because I had more than enough opportunity. “But this is even before the band.”

  “So like high school?”

  “Yup.”

  “I would love to hear about this,” she said, setting her chin on her fist like she was listening intently.

  I chuckled. “Just what I said. I had the opportunity then, too.”

  “Girlfriends?” she asked.

  “Nah. Never had girlfriends. Had girls who were friends who wanted to hook up. If they were interested in a relationship, they went to Bonham.”

  “Oh, he’s the Boy Scout?”

  “I wouldn’t say that.” Hell no would I say that. But when it came to sex, he’d only been with girlfriends in high school. He didn’t do the random hooking up that I did like we were the opposite sides of the same coin. As twins, that was entirely possible.

  “So there’s really never been a girl to make you consider a relationship?” she continued.

  That wasn’t a question I wanted to answer right now, given that the woman next to me had me considering all kinds of things. But we were only friends. There wasn’t a chance in hell I wanted to ruin that by making a move she didn’t want me to.

  But damn. If you don’t shoot your shot, you never know if what you want is possible. The best thing to do was to shoot half a shot, I decided. Part of a shot. Something that would begin laying the groundwork without being too forward.

  “There is,” I said then let my gaze settle on her as long as I dared. She sucked her bottom lip in and held it between her teeth. And now all I could think about was biting that damn lip. Fighting back a smile, I asked, “What about you? You said you don’t have a boyfriend, but did you recently have a breakup that sent you running here?”

  “No.” She shook her head, but it was the look on her face that kept me glancing her way. There was a sadness there. Something had happened to her, but she clearly didn’t want to talk about it. “I didn’t run here,” she snapped in a snotty tone. Then she sighed. “Wait. That’s not really true. Things weren’t going that well back home and I wanted a break, so maybe I did run here.” I opened my mouth to ask mor
e questions, but she spoke before I could get a word out. “And I don’t really want to talk about it, to be honest.”

  “OK.” I’d respect that. I wanted to know what she’d been dealing with, but she’d tell me in her own time if she wanted to.

  Lexi and I talked more as we drove. She talked about when she and Lawson had been kids and about her sister. I told her some things about us when we’d been kids, how we’d gotten into music, and about how we’d had to convince Daisy to join us. But that girl had the voice of an angel and we wouldn’t be as far as were without her. I had a decent voice, but it was nothing like Daisy. She was amazing.

  “We’re here,” I said as I pulled the car into the parking lot. We both exited the vehicle but I reached into the back seat to grab the two hammers I’d asked Mack to find for me.

  I wish I could’ve seen his face as I stood there asking for a car and two hammers but not telling him why I wanted either.

  This place wasn’t necessarily anything special, but I’d heard about it years ago and had told myself then that if the opportunity ever arose, I’d come to see it for myself. I didn’t think I’d have a better chance when I’d seen Hershey Park on the schedule.

  “Come on.” I waved her over to me and on a whim, took her hand in mine as soon as she was close enough. There were two ways it could’ve played out. She could’ve pulled away and punched me in the nuts or she could’ve just let me hold her hand. It was her call, but damn, I was thankful that she chose to let me hold her hand.

  I hadn’t held a girl’s hand…maybe ever. Well, probably in middle school, but after that, holding hands hadn’t been what anyone had been interested in.

  “So what is this place again?” she asked. “And what’s in your hand?”

  I chuckled. It did look a little weird to be walking a girl into a park where there could be secluded areas with two hammers in my hand.

  “First answer is this park has a boulder field that, when struck, rings. I read that you can find decent groupings to make some amazing sounds. The hammers are for striking the rocks. Mack found a maintenance guy who agreed to lend them to me.”

  “Can’t wait,” she said with a big smile.

  We wouldn’t be able to stay as long as I liked, but it should be a fun day. And I’d seen on the map that there was a waterfall and I definitely wanted to take Lexi to see that.

  The place wasn’t too crowded, which was nice. It being a weekday and during work hours probably helped with that.

  As soon as we got to the boulder field, I handed her one of the hammers and we got to striking. We moved around the field hitting every rock we came across until I found a really good grouping.

  “Can I borrow your hammer for a second?” I asked her. She handed it over without asking why.

  I started tapping. Then a little harder until I found my groove. I used those hammers like drumsticks and, while I was no drummer, I beat out a decent tune. Sweat slid its way down my back. Pennsylvania in the summer was humid like Michigan and today was particularly hot. I’d worked up quite a bit of sweat by the time I brought my little song to its natural conclusion.

  When I glanced up at Lexi, she was holding her phone in her hand. I looked up at her, though she was hard to see due to the shadow of the sun.

  “Were you recording me?”

  “Maybe…” She drew the word out. “I won’t show anybody. It was just really good and I’m not the only one who thinks so.”

  I quickly glanced around to find maybe six other people with their phones out as well. As I hopped to my feet, the crowd dispersed and I rejoined Lexi.

  “I don’t care that you recorded me and I wouldn’t care who you showed. It was more curiosity over what would make you record me.”

  Her cheeks blushed pink and she glanced away. I stifled a laugh and took her hand again.

  “Come on. There’s something else I want to see before we head back.”

  Lexi came with me willingly as I led her down the path to the waterfall.

  “Oh my gosh,” she exclaimed. “I didn’t know this was here.”

  “Did you know any of this was here?” I spoke loudly over the sound of the waterfall. It wasn’t so loud that I couldn’t hear her but it did mean we had to speak up a bit.

  “Well, no.” Her eyes locked with mine. “Shut up.”

  I let the laugh that I’d been holding in free. They weren’t impressive waterfalls, but they were beautiful. We walked around them until I found a boulder that overlooked the entire area. We sat down and I let go of her hand, only to slide mine around her back to rest on her hip. She shimmied a bit closer to me. These were all good signs.

  “This is such a great day,” Lexi told me as we both watched the water rushing over the rocks. “Something I needed more than you can know.”

  I nodded. “I’d like to ask why you needed it, but earlier you said you didn’t want to talk about it.”

  Her muscles stiffened and her jaw clenched shut. Whatever happened before she got here pissed her off as well as hurt her. Maybe not a physical hurt but I could see it in her eyes. “That’s right. I just don’t even want to think about it, honestly. I really don’t want to talk about it with you, though. It’s embarrassing and just…yeah.”

  “You’re all right, though, right?”

  She nodded, but I didn’t love the look on her face. As if she weren’t being totally upfront on this. Lexi wouldn’t meet my eyes which was a dead giveaway. “I’m fine. It’s more of an emotional thing.”

  “OK.” Though now I wanted to know even more, I’d have to respect her wishes on it.

  She’d tell me when she was ready to. As long as she was physically fine, I’d have to deal with it. This was the moment that I realized that I cared about Lexi. Even just thinking about her made me smile. She was the only person I would’ve asked to come with me today. I thought about her more than I should ever admit to anyone.

  We’d become friends, but the energy in my body was insistent that it wanted more than friends and now I was realizing, so did I.

  There were some problems there. The biggest being that she was Lawson’s sister and that could get complicated. Though I was absolutely age-appropriate, where he wasn’t for Daisy.

  Wouldn’t he be a hypocrite to tell me not to date his sister, though?

  I turned to face her. We were merely inches apart when I said, “We should probably head back. I have the show tonight.”

  “Yeah.” She had the tone that said she didn’t want to leave but knew she had to. It was the little sigh that gave her away.

  I couldn’t help myself. I leaned toward her. Those lips were calling my name, but I stopped partway there. She had to know I wanted to kiss her. It’d be up to her to close the gap. That way I knew I wasn’t pushing myself on her. She had the option to turn away or tell me to go to hell.

  She didn’t do either of those things.

  When her lips touched mine, I just about melted into the rock beneath us. Her mouth was warm and sweet as her hand snaked up to cup my jaw. That sent electricity skittering up my spine like tiny magical hands. A feeling I’d never had before with anyone else.

  In that moment, she owned me. I wanted her in every single way a guy could want a woman. My hand settled on her outer thigh, where the skin was so soft, it almost didn’t feel real. I licked at her lips and she granted permission again. The moment my tongue touched hers, I thought I’d died and gone to heaven. I could only imagine how being inside her would feel.

  That idea had me hardening in my jeans painfully. Too much more of this and I’d be coming in my jeans like a teenager. Lexi had some kind of hold on me that no one else had even come close to.

  Nope. My imagination was running away from me and I knew I had to bring this to an end before I fucked it up.

  When I pulled away, her eyes were wide and her mouth was slightly open. Once she regained her composure, she pulled her lips into her mouth briefly, creating a thin line before letting them pop back out. “I can’t be
lieve we just did that.”

  After licking my bottom lip just to taste her one last time, I said, “I could say I’m sorry, but I’m not, so I won’t.”

  She broke out into a laugh, the sound better than the music I’d just played on the rocks. “Didn’t you say we should get back?”

  I groaned. “Yeah. Let’s go.”

  But I didn’t let her go. I held her hand back to the car and then on the drive to the venue.

  We pulled into the parking lot at the venue far too quickly. When we got out, Lexi came over to my side of the car while I sent Mack a text letting him know we were back and he could arrange for the car to be picked up. There was a service he’d used or something.

  Lawson was standing in the distance and while I could only see him out of my periphery, I would’ve bet everything we made on this tour that he was watching us. After I sent the text, I slid my arm around Lexi’s shoulders and headed for the buses.

  As we passed Lawson and Daisy, I dipped my head at him in greeting. But I did it with the biggest, shittiest grin on my face.

  His jaw tensed, but he didn’t say anything. I just kept my arm around Lexi until we arrived at her bus. I had to go start getting ready for the show.

  “Are you coming to the show tonight?”

  She shook her head. “I hadn’t planned on it, but I might watch from the side stage. I want to take a shower first.” She glanced down at herself. “I’m a little sweaty.”

  “Yeah. I have to go do that now. You could join me if you want.”

  She laughed loudly. The kind that you can’t keep in no matter how hard you try. She didn’t respond other than to say, “Get out of here.”

  I chuckled but did just that. I did have to get ready for tonight. My only regret was that I didn’t get to kiss her again.

  7

  Lexi

  After taking a quick shower in Courting Chaos’ dressing room and pulling my hair up into a bun, I made my way back out to the bus with what was likely a stupid smile on my face. Spending the day with Van had me feeling like I was walking on air.