Van (Pushing Daisies Book 2)

by Heather Young-Nichols

  When he dipped his tongue inside me, my hips leaped off the mattress. Van used a strong arm to pull me back down and I would’ve sworn I heard him chuckle. Asshole.

  Still, he kept working until the room tilted on its axis and stars rained down on us. There was no stopping it, not that I wanted to.

  Once I came back down and caught my breath, Van was beside me, gently sucking on my neck. This was the chance I had to reach out and touch him. That granite was covered by silky smooth skin. He lay back and let me work on him for a minute. I pumped up and then back down several times before I was ready to do my thing. Though I didn’t think it’d be nearly as good as what he’d done to me, I was willing to try.

  I opened my mouth and descended, but he stopped me. My gaze flicked up to his.

  “What?” I asked, my voice not sounding like mine at all. “I know how.”

  He ran a hand down the back of my head and said, “I’m sure you do and as much as I’d love to see my dick in your mouth, I’d rather be in your pussy right about now.”

  I bit my lips together and fell back onto the bed, spreading my legs for him. “As you wish.”

  Van moved gracefully but quickly. He yanked a condom out of his pants and slid it down his length. I had some too if he hadn’t brought his own since a girl can never be too prepared.

  Then he was above me, pushing inside as he kissed me stupid once again. The low murmurs of us coming together filled the room, though neither of us was overly loud. We were breathless and humming our approval with each movement until his thrusts grew harder and harder. The veins on the sides of his neck bulged and then he stilled, his body weight pressing me into the mattress.

  Several beats later, Van kissed me deeply, as if he were starting all over again, then told me he’d be right back.

  He returned a minute later without a condom and climbed back onto the bed. That was my cue. I scurried off and cleaned myself up before returning to him and sinking into the bed beside him, where he covered us with the sheet and blanket.

  He’d turned the TV off and the room had nothing more than the ambient glow of the moonlight.

  I was going to be sore tomorrow.

  10

  Van

  Waking up next to Lexi was the best thing I’d done all year. Maybe ever. I’d woken up next to women before but always with the main focus being getting out of there or getting them out of there. With Lexi, I was dreading having to leave her room yet knew I had to.

  Most of all, I wanted to wake her before I left but decided against it. We’d been up late and she looked so comfortable snuggled down into the mattress. Most disappointedly, she’d put pajamas on before we’d fallen asleep last night.

  I sat on the bed watching her for as long as I dared before leaning over and pressing a gentle kiss to her forehead. Then I slipped from her room as quietly as I could. Just because I needed to go take care of some things didn’t mean she should get up.

  “What the fuck?” that annoying voice said from behind me right after the door finally closed.

  Of course Lawson would see me leaving his sister’s room. Of course he would.

  I’d known I was going to have to deal with him at some point. May as well be now. I didn’t give two shits if he knew about Lexi and me but she seemed to which meant I had to respect that. But it wasn’t my fault he was lurking around her room this fucking early in the morning.

  “Morning, Lawson,” I said after I turned toward him. He was in his standard dress pants and shirt. I never understood why he dressed that way, given that not a single fucking person would’ve cared what he was wearing. Most people on tour wore jeans and T-shirts but now Lawson and now that I thought about it, not Mack. I guess it’s a manager thing.

  “Again,” he said. “What the fuck?”

  I folded my arms over my chest and took a deep breath. This was going to require some patience. “What are you doing out here?”

  “Daisy’s and my room is just two doors down.”

  Well, that was awkward.

  “Now,” he continued, “and please don’t make me say it again. What the fuck?”

  I scratched the back of my head and fought off a grin. “You’ll have to be more specific.”

  “I just saw you coming out of Lexi’s room. What were you doing with my sister?”

  Now I winced. “I don’t think you want those details. I know I sure as fuck don’t want to give them.”

  Lawson’s jaw tightened and he took one step forward before stopping himself. “Jesus Christ, Van. You’re taking this thing with me too far.”

  “What the fuck are you talking about?”

  “You’re messing with my sister to get back at me. I get it. You don’t want me with Daisy. I hear from Mack all the fucking time that I’m too old for her. But this…this is taking it too far. You don’t get it, man. You don’t know what she’s going through right now and it’s not OK.”

  I furrowed my brows. I didn’t know what Lexi was going through because she hadn’t told me and had made it crystal clear that she didn’t want to.

  “What the fuck are you talking about?” I took a step toward him. We were slowly getting closer and that was such a bad idea on every damn level.

  “You’re not the only one using Lexi for shit reasons and this has to stop.”

  “Again,” I yelled, not caring who heard me, “what the fuck are you talking about?”

  “What the hell is going on out here?” Hearing Daisy’s voice took my focus off Lawson. When I finally glanced around us, I realized that Daisy and my brothers had all joined us. Perfect.

  Two of my brothers mostly thought I should let this thing with Lawson go. Daisy had made her decision and I had to accept it. But Mack was on my side. We weren’t stopping her from being with Lawson or even trying to stop her. Not really. But that didn’t mean we couldn’t give him a hard time about it. Mack understood because he was the same age as Lawson and would never think about dating a twenty-one-year-old woman. Six years at that age is a lot.

  “Nothing,” I told Lexi through a clenched jaw but kept glaring at Lawson.

  He’d said I wasn’t the only one using Lexi for shit reasons and I had a problem with that for several reasons. The first being that I wasn’t using Lexi. The second was that I wanted to know who was.

  “Doesn’t sound like nothing,” she countered.

  Her tone almost forced me to take my eyes off Lawson. She was still in her pajamas. Boxer shorts and a tank top. She’d worn that to bed since she was maybe thirteen. Except in the winter. Then it became leggings and a long-sleeved thermal top.

  Michigan got cold in the winter.

  “Just having a chat with your boyfriend,” I said sweetly.

  “Yeah, one the entire hotel can hear.” She glanced at Lawson, but he was still glaring at me. “What’s going on?” she directed at him.

  When she placed her hand on his arm, it forced him to take his eyes off me and focus on her.

  “I found him coming out of Lexi’s room,” he told her. It wasn’t a lie, but the way he said it didn’t sit right in my gut. As if I were up to something nefarious or like I wasn’t supposed to be in there but she’d fucking invited me.

  Daisy’s eyes grew wide as she spun around to me. “Seriously?”

  The difference between her reaction and Lawson’s was that he was pissed as hell and she looked…excited.

  “Are you two a thing?” she asked. “I’m going to talk to Lexi.”

  As she moved around me, I shot my hand out to grab her arm, bringing her to a stop.

  “Let her sleep,” I told my sister.

  She cocked her head to the side as a smile pulled at the corners of her mouth. “You know she’s asleep?”

  Narrowing my eyes on her, I said, “Could you just not?”

  She snorted but nodded and pulled away from me.

  “Are you guys out here yelling about me?” The sweetest voice I’d ever heard came from behind me. I turned just enough to see Lexi lean
ing against the doorjamb as she played with the hem of her shirt and her cheeks were stained like bright pink cotton candy, though they were quickly turning to candy apple red.

  Now I know I hadn’t left her flushed, which meant this was something else. Glancing around and realizing that she was looking out at basically my entire family and her brother gave me the answer.

  “No,” I said at the same time Lawson said, “Yes.”

  I ground my teeth together. The least the fucker could’ve done was made her feel better. When I turned my glare on him, he shrugged.

  “What?” he asked. “We are.”

  “Not anymore,” I told him.

  “Uh…” She tucked a piece of dark hair behind her ear and brought those clear blues back to me. “Maybe we could talk about this without such a big audience?”

  “Everyone go about your day,” I said, waving my brothers away. They were going to stay until I told them they could go because that was what brothers did. They had my back, but I didn’t need them right now. “You too, Daisy.” I gave her a little encouragement, which earned me a middle finger.

  “We’re talking about this,” Lawson said to his sister.

  Lexi didn’t answer other than to give him a weak salute as Daisy pulled him away.

  But I now had questions that needed answers. I backed Lexi into her room and let the door shut behind us.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked. “I know my brother can be a lot, but you’re a brother, so you should understand where he’s coming from. Of course I have no idea what he said to you, so it could be really bad. Was it really bad?” She worked her bottom lip back and forth between her teeth.

  “No,” I said through a chuckle. “He’s concerned about you. Or more to the point that I’m using you to get to him, as you told me before. I’m not. He’ll have to get used to it.”

  “Like you’ve gotten used to him and Daisy?” Lexi bit her lips together and looked at me with raised eyebrows.

  I held a hand up. She had me there. “Point taken, but I don’t want to talk about Lawson or Daisy right now.”

  “Then what do you want to talk about?”

  “You.”

  Her face widened in surprise. “Me?”

  “Yeah. Lawson said I’m not the only one using you for shit reasons,” I told her. That surprise fell to something else. Not sadness exactly, more like annoyance. “Since I’m not using you at all, who is he talking about?”

  My girl folded her arms under her very perky breasts. I couldn’t help but notice the way her nipples poked at the fabric. She must’ve caught a draft in the hallway, but my focus needed to be on her, not her tits.

  I closed the distance between us and gently ran my hands up her arms. “Honey, you’ve got to tell me what he’s talking about.” I didn’t think I’d ever said anything so gently demanding in my life. The time had come for her fess up to the things she hadn’t wanted to talk about. If she still didn’t, I’d have to accept that, but fuck, I wanted to know what was going on.

  Lexi shifted her weight from one foot to the other as she battled with herself over whether she was going to answer me or not. I’d wait her out.

  “So I have this friend,” she finally said as she pulled away from me. “Or ex-friend now, I guess.”

  A brick settled low in my gut. Scorned women could be ruthless. Lexi paced the floor back and forth in front of the bed. The bed we’d spent a great night in.

  “Without getting into all of the details, she decided she didn’t want to be friends anymore and told some people some things about me.” She stopped right in front of me. “That absolutely is not true.”

  “I don’t care.” Nothing anyone said about her would change how I was feeling.

  “But they aren’t true.”

  “OK.” She needed that reassurance and I’d give it to her. Lexi wet her lips quickly but didn’t begin pacing again.

  “So I noticed some social media posts. Then a guy messaged me because of what he thought I’d be willing to do.”

  Well, that just sent my anger into the stratosphere. Guys are fucking disgusting.

  “Anyway, eventually, I found out that she, I assume it was her, opened an account in my name on a hookup app. Some of the guys on there found me on Instagram and well, let’s just say it’s why I wanted to get away from home. I don’t know if she gave these guys my address.”

  “Did you delete the account?”

  “I can’t.” She let out a frustrated groan. “If only I could. I don’t have the password and can’t reset it and tech support wouldn’t help me because I don’t even know the information she used to do it.”

  “That fucking sucks.” I didn’t have any other reaction to this whole thing. “Why are girls such bitches to each other?”

  She snorted and I patted my own back for that. At least she could see the humor in this garbage. “I don’t know. But look, Lawson is helping me. He said that he had some people who helped with Daisy’s situation, so I’m sure he’ll get it taken care of, but that’s the stuff I didn’t want to talk about.”

  “Why didn’t you want to tell me about this?”

  “Because it’s embarrassing.”

  “Hey.” I pulled her into my arms. “You’re not the one who should be embarrassed.” Dropping a kiss to the top of her head, I held her right there in place for quite a while. “I’ve got to go shower then get to soundcheck. You going to be OK?”

  “If you showered here, I could join you.” Her words were muffled against my chest and for a split second, I thought I’d heard her wrong.

  “I’d honestly love nothing more, but if I get you naked right now, I’ll miss soundcheck.” I paused for effect. “Fuck it. I’m willing to miss it.”

  When she laughed against my cheek, that heavy brick that had been sitting in my gut miraculously disappeared.

  “No.” She pushed away from me, leaving my arms feeling very empty. “You’re not going to miss soundcheck. I have to shower and stuff too. I’m glad we get two nights in the hotel.”

  “Me too.”

  Though my reasons may or may not have been the same as hers. I guess I’d find out later.

  11

  Lexi

  I’d spent the time after Van had left my room thinking about Nora’s shenanigans for far too long before deciding that it wasn’t worth working myself up. She hadn’t tried to contact me and I’d been doing a good job of ignoring whatever messages I got on social media. Actually, I’d been doing a good job of ignoring social media altogether.

  Being on the road was a different experience. There were few times we got two nights in a hotel like we were right now. Usually, it was a different city every day, but there was rarely enough time to see much of the city we were in.

  I wandered sometimes, but Lawson really didn’t like me going alone and while I could snag Indie and Bellamy once in a while, Daisy and Barrett were always working.

  I was walking around the hotel for something to do when I almost, literally, ran into Indie. She might have been tiny but her strong body didn’t move much on impact. We both instinctively grabbed onto each other’s arms to steady ourselves and didn’t let go until we were both good.

  “I’m so sorry,” I said with a laugh.

  “You’re fine.” She smiled back. Her blonde hair was pulled up into a bun the same as mine. I began to wonder if the messy bun was the uniform of the tour but it was just easier. Easier to have the hair out of the way most of the time. “Bored?”

  I bit my lips together, something I’d been finding I did more now than ever and nodded. “There’s a lot of downtimes.”

  “For us,” she agreed. “The bands too, but there’s never enough time to do much other than grab food and hang out backstage when it’s happening. What are you doing right now?”

  “Thinking about finding coffee.”

  “Excellent. I’ll go with you.”

  Indie Googled to find the closest coffee place and we headed there. After ordering, we decided to
walk around a bit while enjoying our iced coffees. I asked for an iced mocha latte and she an iced caramel macchiato. I’d never been to New Jersey before, but she, of course, had.

  “You’ve been doing this touring thing since you were a kid right?” I asked her as we turned our first corner.

  “Yeah. It’s how I’ve spent most of my summers. It was surprisingly normal given how all of this is.”

  We continued to meander slowly, not taking in the things around us. Sightseeing wasn’t the point of this trip. The coffee was.

  “That’s amazing. You got to see all of these places.”

  She nodded. “Yeah. I only cared about seeing my dad. In fact, I’m leaving this tour soon to go out and see him.”

  “A different tour?” I asked. “Or…”

  She shook her head as she took another drink. “Kissing Cinder isn’t touring this year. They decided to take a break and just focus on making some new music.”

  But since she’d still been in school and her dad had come to see her a few times over the year, and now she wanted to go visit him for a while. Cross obviously couldn’t go with her.

  I loved the idea that she still had a close relationship with her dad despite the chaos tours were and I couldn’t imagine raising a kid on the road. People did it. Sure. But single guy Vince Cinderstone with a little girl on tour was a picture I just couldn’t imagine.

  Everyone knew Vince Cinderstone was famously single and lots of people, even those my age, talked about taking advantage of that.

  Walking back toward the hotel, I ended up dropping my empty cup in a bin on the street. It wasn’t a bad way to spend some time. Coffee and girl talk always recharged me.

  Back at the hotel, she said, “I’m going to get a car to the venue. Spend some time with Cross before the show. You headed there?”

  I checked my phone and found a text from Van saying he was heading back to the hotel until the show. I fought back a smile because I didn’t want to make it obvious how much I liked that he’d sent that message. Indie hadn’t asked about Van and me, so I didn’t offer anything up. Not yet.