I’d only seen Van briefly between soundcheck and the show. They had some radio interviews and whatever else rock stars did. Whenever I thought of him as a rock star, I had to stifle a giggle. Me dating a rock star was a ridiculous idea and when I was with him, it didn’t feel that way. It was Van I was falling for, not the bass player from Pushing Daisies.
He’d tried to talk me into staying on his bus, but I’d fended him off. Lawson and I still needed to talk about what had happened the other day in the hallway at the hotel and I hadn’t spent any time with his brothers. As much as I wanted to, I also didn’t want to rush anything in the way of formal statements. Which meant staying on his bus definitely would’ve made a formal statement.
“There’s plenty of time,” I heard Daisy say as I finished getting dressed. I’d been lying around all morning. It wasn’t like I had any plans. Van and I had been talking but hadn’t set up anything specific. I wanted to see him, though. There was no doubt of that.
“Plenty of time for what?” I asked, making both Daisy’s and Lawson’s gazes jump to me. Sometimes it was like they forgot I was on the bus with them.
Daisy’s big smile was infectious. “For us to have a girls’ day. Get pedicures. They can do the soundcheck without me this one time.” That last part wasn’t for me. It was for my brother.
“I was just saying that you might be cutting it close,” he said as a way of defending himself.
“Pft. Cutting it close. Whatever.”
“That sounds fun,” I said. “You should do it. Girls need to pamper themselves once in a while, brother.” I patted him on the shoulder as I passed and grabbed a Pop-Tart out of the box on the counter. “You should do it sometime too. Take care of those nasty feet of yours.”
Daisy stifled a giggle as Lawson countered, “My feet aren’t nasty.”
I stopped chewing and asked, “You’ve seen them, right?” Then I shivered to drive the point home.
“They looked fine to me,” Daisy told me, but the glimmer in her told me that she liked this dynamic we had going on.
After I rolled my eyes, I said, “Of course they look fine to you. I’m assuming he doesn’t shove those monsters right in your face.”
“No, he does not.”
“And,” he said, cutting in, “I haven’t done that to you since I was twelve.”
“I’ve still seen them since then,” I told him. “That one pinky toe is on backward, I think.”
“I’ve broken that thing five times.”
Shaking my head, I said, “You should’ve had them amputate it the last time.”
Lawson had played all the sports in high school. Which meant he’d had his share of injuries. He’d broken a toe once during baseball and once during basketball. He’d played the rest of the game with that one. Probably had hurt like hell. I couldn’t remember the other three times he was talking about.
“Anyway.” Daisy’s voice bounced, which meant she was trying really hard not to laugh. “I was thinking you’d go with me.”
Took me a full thirty seconds to realize she meant me.
“Oh. Yeah. Absolutely.” I hadn’t had anything done in so long and was way overdue. “I’d love to.” I also knew that Calvin would be coming with us. My brother insisted his favorite security guard follow Daisy whenever she left the venue since she’d had that crazy fan a few weeks ago. Cal was also the best. He kept his watch but didn’t interfere with whatever she was doing. “Sweet. When do you want to go?”
“As soon as possible,” she said as she slid out from the table. “That way, we have plenty of time and the worrywart won’t have a heart attack.”
I shrugged. “He will anyway.”
Lawson groaned and stood up as well. “Here.” His credit card was between his fingers and he was holding it out to me.
“Uh, I can pay for it,” I told him, though to be honest, I hadn’t worked much during the school year and my savings account was dwindling. I’d made a mental note to figure that out in the near future. Every other summer, I’d worked my ass off at multiple jobs—usually as a waitress or in retail—to save enough money so I wouldn’t be overwhelmed during the school year. I hadn’t set anything up for this summer before the shit hit the fan. After that, I hadn’t wanted to leave the house.
“Just take it,” he told me. Lawson would’ve known what my situation was. “Pay for hers too.” He nodded toward Daisy.
She turned and started down the hallway toward their bedroom. “I make my own money.”
“I know you do,” he called back. “But you’ll let me treat the two of you.”
“Then it’s manis and pedis,” she said, loud enough for both of us to hear.
He gave me a pointed look but then followed Daisy to the bedroom.
I quickly grabbed some sandals and shoved Lawson’s card into my purse. Before we left, I sent off a quick message to Van so he’d know not to look for me.
On our way to the car Daisy had ordered, we found Indie and Bellamy and convinced them to come with us. Their boyfriends protested, but they got our friends every night. Indie just waved and didn’t look back. She might’ve been the coolest woman I knew.
None of us asked where we were going, having assumed Daisy had it figured out. She’d been the one to want to do this in the first place.
At the salon, a modern-looking place with white on white décor and silver accents, they set us up in a row of chairs. Daisy was on one side of me, Indie on the other, and Bellamy next to Indie. The techs got to work and honestly, the soaking our feet were getting right now felt so good, I could’ve had an orgasm right there.
“So,” Daisy began once we’d gotten the idle chitchat out of the way. “What are your intentions with my brother?”
I spun my head around to her. Indie and Bellamy were with us and I had no idea what they knew.
“Oh, please.” Daisy waved me off. “There are no secrets on tour. Everyone finds out eventually.”
“Even when you don’t want to,” Indie told us. “I spent summers touring with my dad.” She made these awful gagging sounds that had us all cracking up. Even the women working on our feet.
“But also, Van has never once dated anyone, let alone had a girlfriend, so please tell me you get to be his first.”
“His first?” Bellamy and Indie asked at the same time.
She rolled her eyes. “First girlfriend. Please. I think Van has had more sex than anybody else I know.”
The women giggled, though I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. On the one hand, he was a single guy and could do whatever he wanted. On the other, seeing him with that woman the other day still nagged at the corner of my mind.
“When he was fifteen…” She leaned over, as if giving us top secret information, though she wasn’t talking quietly. “He was dicking around with his friends and ended up somehow stepping on a broken bottle. He was barefoot for some reason.”
“Because boys are dumb,” Bellamy offered.
“True,” I agreed.
“Anyway, he ended up with this massive cut on the bottom of his foot. Like from the toes to the heel. And every single girl in the high school stopped at our house to offer to take care of him.”
“Everyone?” I asked with skepticism.
“Yes. Probably a few from the middle school, too. I don’t remember exactly. The teachers didn’t come, of course, but even the senior girls who didn’t have boyfriends wanted to be the girl to nurse Van back to health.”
“Jesus.”
“Yeah. He was on crutches and milked it hard with our mom, but he never let a single one of the girls in the house.”
“Why?” I asked.
“He had like thirty stitches in the bottom of his foot and people were always home,” she explained. “It wasn’t like he could have sex with them and he was so annoyed when they stopped by because he’d never brought a girl to the house before.”
I snorted in disgust. “Nice.”
“But with you, I see him watching you. Wanting
to hang out with you when I assume sex isn’t always involved. And I saw him holding your hand. Swear to God, I’ve never seen him holding hands once.”
“That’s a lot of pressure,” I muttered.
She shrugged. “Not really. It’s not like you can let him down. He has no experience to compare it to.” That was true. “But you could hurt him, which is why I asked what you want out of this.”
I cleared my throat before trying to speak. “I like Van. Probably more than I should and despite what my brother says, I believe him when he says he likes me too.” I wet my lips. Indie and Bellamy were listening intently, leaning over slightly to make sure they didn’t miss anything. “The day after we all saw Lawson and Van butting heads in the hallway, I went to his room so we could spend some time together.”
“I know what that means,” Bellamy said, which made us all giggle.
“But there was a woman there who had apparently talked her way into the room through a maid or something and he said she’d been naked on the bed.”
“I fucking hate it when they do that,” Indie told us. Of all of us, she’d seen the most on tours, given who her dad was and had seen the most.
“But he said all he could think about was getting her out of there before I showed up.” I shrugged. “I believe him.”
“I do too,” Daisy agreed. “Van doesn’t lie normally, but he’d definitely have no reason to lie to you about that. If he’d wanted that woman, he would’ve made it clear that you and he were just hooking up. I always knew when Van found the right person, he’d fall like a brick.” She smiled over at me. “My mom is going to be so excited. She always worried he’d become one of those guys who refuses to commit and became a walking STD.” Her gaze flew up to mine. “Though, for the record, I have no knowledge of him ever having one. Our dad is a doctor, so every one of us got a detailed safe sex talk.” She cringed, probably remembering her own talk. “Lawson will get there. I assume. Or he’ll have to live his life with disappointment because I won’t stand by and let him ruin things for the two of you because he’s being hardheaded.”
I chuckled. “I’m glad I have you on my side.” She nodded enthusiastically. “How did you make it growing up with four of them? I have the one and it’s too much sometimes.”
“They’re just protective of us is all.”
“My brother’s that way,” Bellamy said. “But I had the benefit of not always living with him. Or maybe that wasn’t a benefit because he would’ve stopped me from doing some seriously stupid things.”
Another round of laughter died down before I could continue.
“I’ve wondered how in the hell Lawson tricked you into dating him,” I told her. “He doesn’t really scream, I can snag a rock star.”
Daisy cocked her head to the side and pursed her lips. “I don’t think you know all of your brother’s talents.”
I snorted again. She wasn’t wrong. And honestly, I didn’t want to know all of them. “Think this through,” I told her. “Do you honestly want to compare notes?”
She visibly gagged. “No. No, I do not.”
“I kind of do,” Bellamy said with her hand in the air, like she was waiting on the teacher to call her name.
Nodding, Indie agreed. “Yeah. I have this weird curiosity about these things. And I’ve wondered about Lawson since I met him.”
Daisy’s head snapped around in her direction.
“Never enough to find out myself,” Indie assured her. “I just wouldn’t mind a report. It just seems like he could get…nasty.”
“OMG,” I said loudly while choking on my own saliva. “I can’t believe you just said that.”
“I think you can.” Indie thought about it for a second. “Like when the guys, Ransom I think, had that sex harness installed on Lawson’s bus. I really wanted to know if he used it.”
I choked on nothing in particular, but I never knew Lawson had a sex harness and I’d never wanted to know that.
“What?” I eeked out. “There’s a sex harness on our bus?”
Daisy giggled as her face blushed. “No. Not anymore but there was.”
“Yeah.” Bellamy was laughing as well. “They had it put in as a joke because Lawson had…friends he’d see in certain cities. Or so I was told. It was a joke but he didn’t take it all that well then he couldn’t get it down because he didn’t have the right tools, Ransom said.”
I slapped a hand over my face. These weren’t the stories that my brother told me and clearly I’d been missing out.
“So did he use it?” Indie watched Daisy with a raised eyebrow as she bit back the excitement.
Daisy looked at each one of us then shook her head. “Once. I wanted to try it once but he didn’t like my hands being tied up and it wasn’t my favorite thing either.”
The salon was probably going to kick us out for the noise based on how loud we were all laughing.
“Guys he’ll be pissed that you know about this,” she admitted. “He’s very protective of me and he’d hate for anyone to think he made me do that. It was my idea.”
“Your secret is safe with us,” I assured her.
None of us offered anything juicy up after that, but we did talk about it.
Daisy and I walked a very clear edge to keep from saying too much about the other’s brother. Then we took the time to get manicures and I had to say that this was the most fun I’d had with other women in much longer than I cared to remember.
In the end, we all decided to go to the show tonight. Well, Daisy didn’t really have a choice.
When we were done, I grabbed my phone to let Van know I was going to be in the audience tonight, he’d already sent several very sweet texts. And a couple of truly dirty ones.
It took everything I had to wipe the stupid smile off my face and focus on my friends.
14
Van
Getting the text from Lexi that she was going out for a girls’ day with Daisy, Indie, and Bellamy, I couldn’t deny the disappointment I felt. I wanted Lexi to get close to Daisy and hang out with friends, but I also wanted every minute with her that I could get.
With nothing else to do, I headed into the venue, only to find our dressing room completely empty.
“What the fuck?” I muttered as I pulled my phone from my pocket and sent a message to our group chat. Then I waited for a response from one of my brothers.
Mack said that he was working on some promo for us, so he was busy. Finally, Bonham replied, saying they were in the big room grabbing food with Courting Chaos. I could eat, so I headed that way.
The room wasn’t overly loud with the entire group chatting away. There was still food on the one counter, so when I caught Bonham’s eye, I pointed to it. He nodded, which meant it was free to be eaten. It wasn’t the regular food that was brought in for us a lot of the time, so I’d wanted to be sure.
Once I had a burger and fries, I slid into a chair next to Bonham. I had no idea what they’d been talking about, but whatever it was, it’d come to a natural end, I hoped. Otherwise, they’d been talking about me and that was never good.
“So, Van,” Ransom began. He was the one I’d heard was the one to give the most shit. And I’d overheard Bellamy say he didn’t get embarrassed and that was annoying to her. I wouldn’t have said I never got embarrassed, but it wasn’t an easy task to get me there. “I heard some tea alleging that you are courting the beautiful Lexi.”
“Why the fuck are you talking like that?” Dixon asked him as I glanced around the room to see if Lawson was waiting to strike, but he wasn’t anywhere I could see.
The guys chuckled.
“I’m trying to sound like an appropriate older brother.” Ransom tossed a napkin at Dixon, who dodged it, even though it wouldn’t have hurt.
“If you were going for that,” I told him, “you would’ve already threatened my balls in some way.”
The table roared because they knew I was right. Bonham, Daltrey, and I had said as much to anyone Daisy had been inter
ested in or who’d had an interest in her.
“Lawson already do that?” Cross asked.
I shook my head. “I figure it’s coming. But the guys and I have done that and more with Daisy.”
“No, but really,” Dixon said next. “What’s up with you two?”
“Seriously,” Cross added. “Aside from Booker, we’ve all known Lexi for almost ten years. She’s like our sister too.”
I chewed slowly then swallowed my bite of burger. “I suddenly feel bad for every guy Daisy has dated.” Again, the room erupted, but I hadn’t been kidding. Being in the position we’d put those guys in sucked ass. “What do you want to hear?”
“That you’re not fucking with her,” Dixon told me honestly. “Lexi is a sweet girl.”
“I know she is,” I told him seriously as I looked him in the eye so he’d see that I was speaking the truth. “I’m not fucking with her. I’m totally serious about her.”
After a tense moment, he went back to his food and said, “Good.”
“Now that that’s out of the way…” Booker finally spoke. He seemed to be the quietest one of the group, though honestly, none of them or us were quiet. We finished eating and were just sitting around. “We’re all in relationships on our side, so we can offer some advice.”
“Like what?” I tried not to laugh because the idea that these guys wanted to tell me anything that would’ve helped me with Lexi just hit me as funny.
“Always get her a snack if you go to the store,” Cross offered.
I snorted. “Seriously?”
“Absolutely. Indie always wants something she didn’t know she wanted and I come out looking incredibly thoughtful just for grabbing something I know she’ll eat eventually.”
“And if I don’t know what she likes yet?” I asked.
“Duh. Chocolate. You can never go wrong with chocolate.”
“That’s true,” Booker agreed. “My girl eats pretty healthily, but even she can’t say no to a little chocolate.”
Van (Pushing Daisies Book 2) Page 11
