“It’s not that crazy,” he said, his green eyes suddenly sparkling with mischief.
I sat up and looked at him like he was insane, because he might have been. Vegas did crazy things to people, and I knew how spontaneous Cam could be, but there was no way in hell I was going to let him be spontaneous about this. I was not marrying him – at least not right now.
“Camden Baylor, just because I told you I loved you, and we’re all blissed out right now, does not mean we’re getting married. Keep in mind that we’ve only been dating for six weeks, and for one of those weeks, we weren’t even speaking. And you’re only twenty-one years old. You’re way too young to get married.”
Cam rolled his eyes at me. “Again with the age difference. Four years is not that big of a deal, Andi!”
“I know it’s not, but marriage is!”
Cam looked hurt as he said, “You don’t want to marry me?”
“Not right now,” I said, choosing my words very carefully. “I mean, someday, sure, but it’s too soon.”
Cam nodded solemnly as I silently freaked out, afraid to say anything else that might hurt him. He was serious about this. Then he suddenly burst out laughing, and I looked at him in confusion, not sure what to think.
“I’m totally kidding,” he said, rolling into me, his head buried in my lap as he continued to laugh. “I’m so not ready to get married. Not even close.” Then he looked up at me. “But at least now I know how to freak you out.”
I smacked him on the shoulder as my mouth twisted into an angry pout that was mostly for show. “You’re a jerk.”
His laughter died out and his expression shifted into a sad little pout that I figured he was also faking. “But you still love me,” he said in a tone that was just begging for sympathy.
I rolled my eyes. “Yes, I still love you,” I said, shaking my head at his adorableness. He completely knew how to get under my skin.
He smiled. “Good, because I have a legitimate question for you. This is me being totally serious, so please respond accordingly. And please also know that this comes from the most selfish of places, but I can’t even hate myself for it because I’m just that selfish.”
“Okay,” I said, not sure what he was getting at.
“Being away from you sucks.”
“I agree.”
He nodded. “Okay, so we’re on the same page. Here’s what I’m thinking, and I need you to hear me out before you say no, because I know that’s what you’re going to say, but just let me say this and then I want you to take a minute to think about it. And for the record, I was thinking about this when we were in Detroit, so it’s not some love-shrouded whim that I’m going off of. This is a legitimate idea that I have in fact done research into.”
I looked at him in confusion. “Okay, so what is it?” I asked, sort of afraid to know.
He took a deep breath. “We have PR people who come on tour with us. They handle our publicity and our meet and greets and any events we do with radio stations, including interviews. It’s a lot of work, and the hours suck, and the only redeeming factor is that it pays a little more than what you make now. And you’d get to see me perform every night.”
He grinned at me, apparently feeling triumphant after that little speech that made absolutely no sense to me.
“What are you talking about, Cam?”
He sighed, his grin slipping from his face. “I made some calls. I talked to Katherine, and I got you a spot on our PR team – if you want it.”
“What?” I asked, not sure I was hearing him correctly.
He grinned sheepishly at me. “Is that a surprised but happy ‘what?’ or an I’m going to kill you, Cam, ‘what?’?”
“Um, well, I’m not sure,” I said, trying to process everything he was saying.
Cam sighed. “Look, here’s the deal. I hate that you live in New York, and I live in L.A., and if our lives were simple, I’d just pick up and move to the city to be with you. But things aren’t that easy, because I have to be in L.A. for rehearsals for the next few months and then I’m around the world for the tour, and yes, I know we can visit each other, but I’d be so much happier if we didn’t have to do that. If you were on tour with me, that would be the best solution, because then we could be together all the time.”
Wow. He wanted me to go on tour with him. I was a little overwhelmed to say the least, but at the same time, I was really, really freaking happy.
“Okay, so let me get this straight. You asked your PR people to give your girlfriend a job?”
“Yeah, kind of. I sort of made a phone call two weeks ago when we were in Detroit and the idea first came to me. I was already dreading saying goodbye to you, and this seemed like the perfect solution to my problem. And one of the PR people who work for Katherine had just resigned, so I knew she was going to hire someone new. I figured you’d be perfect for the job. You just have to interview, but I figure you’ll have an edge because of me.”
Oh no, that was the last thing I wanted to hear. He was being so sweet, and we both knew that what he said was true, but I didn’t want to get a job based on who I was dating. That wasn’t right, and if I wasn’t the right person for the job, I’d feel bad about it. Plus, I’d probably be resented by every other person on the team who wasn’t sleeping with a member of Westside. Cam just didn’t realize any of this, and I couldn’t even get upset with him for it.
“Oh, Cam, I love you for that, but are you crazy?”
“No, I’m not crazy. I’m resourceful.”
That made me laugh. “You’re adorable, and I love it, but seriously, I can’t take the job.”
“Why not? You work in PR. It’s a PR job.”
“Because I have no experience in entertainment PR. I work in the tech industry. It’s very different.”
I figured I’d leave out my fear of nepotism, because it would only upset him.
“I thought PR was PR?” he questioned.
I shook my head. “It’s really not.”
“But couldn’t you learn? Andi, think about how long we’re going to be apart.”
“I know, but we’ll have to make it work another way. It’s what Meredith and Dillon do, and they’re really happy.”
He sighed. “Yeah, I guess.”
I wrapped my arms around him, because I could tell he was really deflated. “Cam, I love you, and that’s not going to change. Time, distance, boy band world tours – nothing is going to keep us apart. I promise.”
“You swear?”
“I swear,” I told him, hoping I was right.
Long distance was tough, but our situation was even tougher. I loved him enough to make it work, though, and I hoped like hell we could.
Epilogue
Cam
I was a sweaty mess, and my adrenaline was still pumping wildly when I literally bounced off the stage after our last song and handed my guitar to a roadie. We’d ended the encore with one of our acoustic songs, and it had morphed into our most popular radio hit of the year, where Dillon and I played guitar. It was a great way to end each night.
We’d been on tour for a month, and in two more days I was headed to New York for a break. One week I was going to get to spend with Andi, and I was literally counting the minutes. The tour was amazing, but it didn’t compare to the girl I loved.
“Great show,” I heard as I had my head buried in a towel.
I froze. I knew that voice.
When I dropped the towel, my jaw dropped along with it. Andi was backstage, grinning at me, and looking hotter than I remembered.
“What are you doing here?” I asked, feeling my face light up as I crossed the space between us and sidestepped roadies who were trying to get to the stage to break it down. I wrapped my arms around Andi and buried my face in her neck, not sure if I was seeing things or not.
She giggled and tried to push me away, so I knew she was completely real, but I wasn’t having it. I wasn’t letting her go.
“You’re all gross, Cam,” she said t
hrough her laughter, but I just held her tighter.
“Deal with it. I haven’t seen you in a month. This is the best surprise. I’m going to savor it.”
“Okay, fine,” she said as she relaxed and I pulled back to look at her for a few brief seconds before crushing my lips to hers. It had been too long since I’d been able to do that, and her lips had been on my mind for weeks.
We kissed until neither of us had any air left, and I finally had to pull back, but I refused to let her go. She could shower with me if she wanted to get clean. I wouldn’t stop her. And truth be told, we’d probably do just that. I was officially skipping the after party now.
“God, I missed you,” I told her. “How did you get away?”
I watched Andi torture me as she bit her lip.
“Well, I sort of got laid off from my job,” she said sheepishly.
“What? Why? What happened?” I asked, instantly thinking it was indirectly my fault.
I was afraid the media attention surrounding our relationship and my very public declaration on New Year’s Eve might have a negative effect on her career. It had been on my mind as we’d ventured into being a couple in the spotlight, but so far her company hadn’t seemed to mind that sometimes reporters called her at work and once and a while they were waiting for her outside her office building – mostly because I was there too, waiting to pick her up after having just flown into town.
But so far her company had been great. They’d even given her all the time off that she’d asked for so she could come visit me on tour. Personally, I thought she had a pretty good gig with them. I would have preferred her doing PR for Westside, but she’d continued to shoot down that idea, so I figured this was almost as good.
“Nothing happened exactly,” she said. “At least nothing I did. My company was actually bought out by this large conglomerate, and they decided to downsize. It went public yesterday, and we were all let go by the end of the day.”
“Why didn’t you call me?” I asked her, worried that she’d kept something so huge from me.
She just smiled. “Because I wasn’t upset, and I figured I could just tell you in person.”
“You’re not upset?”
That was weird.
She smiled even wider, shaking her head. “Nope. I got six months of severance pay out of the deal, so I’m actually great.”
“Six months?” I questioned, doing the math in my head.
Andi nodded. “Yup. You get your wish.”
I felt my face break into a grin. “Seriously?”
“I packed as much as I could into a suitcase. I can stay as long as you want.”
“Holy shit!” I picked her up and spun her around, making her laugh. “Are you serious?”
She nodded as I set her down. “Completely. You’ve been begging me for months to come on tour with you, and now I can.”
She was right. I’d told her multiple times to quit her job and come with me. I could pay for everything, but she wouldn’t hear of it. I actually wasn’t surprised since she was so independent, but this was a win-win for both of us. Andi could stay with me, and she wouldn’t feel guilty about not paying her way, even though I’d never let her pay for a thing. She didn’t need to know that right now, though.
“And,” she said, taking a deep breath, “Hannah is going to move in with Henry when our lease is up in July, so I was thinking that I’d just put my stuff in storage and then figure out what’s next once the tour is over.”
My heart leapt at what she was subtly saying. I’d already given that idea more thought than was probably necessary. I was just trying to work up the nerve to ask Andi to move in with me. Now it felt like she was doing that.
“You want to live together?” I asked her eagerly.
“Only if you want to. I get it if you think it’s too soon, but I figured I’d throw the idea out there.”
“Done. I’m in,” I said quickly, loving the way her face lit up.
“Really?”
“Please, like I’d say no, but I’ll only do it on one condition.”
“What’s that?” she asked, frowning slightly.
“We cannot live in your shoebox of an apartment. I want to buy a place that can fit actual furniture and more than two people and that has a separate kitchen and living room.”
Andi laughed. “My apartment is so small. It’s so sad.”
“It’s yours, and I love it, but I’m going to be selfish here. You’ve seen how big my house is. I’m used to a lot of space.”
“I know. My whole apartment could fit in your bathroom.”
“This is true.”
“So, then I’ll just move in with you,” she offered.
I felt my eyebrows rise. “In L.A.?”
Andi shrugged. “Sure. Why not.”
“But you love New York.”
“I like L.A. too, and the weather is amazing. And you live on the beach. And I’ll be farther away from my parents, which is still preferable at this juncture.”
“Andi, don’t do this to get back at them.”
Things had been tense between her and her parents since she’d confronted them about how they’d treated me. I knew they didn’t like that we were dating, and because of that, Andi had barely spoken to them since New Year’s Day when she’d called to ask them to be honest about what they’d said to me. I wasn’t sure if she’d ever patch things up with them, and it bothered me. Yes, they weren’t my biggest fans, but they were her parents. I didn’t want to be the thing that came between them. Although Andi assured me that it wasn’t me, it was them, I still absorbed a lot of the blame.
“I’m not doing anything to get back at them. I’m doing what makes me happy, and if they don’t like it, then too bad. Besides, there are PR jobs in L.A., so that’s good, and Tory’s probably going to be moving there. Some friend of hers is going to hook her up with a job, so I’ll have a friend. And with Meredith moving out there this summer, I’ll have two friends.”
That made me smile. Meredith and Andi had bonded over New Year’s, and they’d kept in touch. I liked that my girlfriend was friends with Dillon’s girlfriend. It was cool.
“Oh, and Chris lives there too, so that’s three friends. Four if you count Dillon. Man, I’m on a roll.”
“Chris, huh? Is he the one who snuck you back here without me knowing?”
Ever since Chris and Andi had conspired to get us back together on New Year’s Eve, they’d become coconspirators anytime Andi wanted to surprise me, which I’d learned she really liked to do. Valentine’s Day was her most epic surprise until tonight. I was fairly sure nothing was topping this surprise.
Andi grinned. “Of course Chris was the one who helped me. We’re buds. He looks out for me, but I also got help from this really sweet girl on Katherine’s team. Elisa, I think she said her name was.”
“Uh-oh. Don’t tell Van that she helped you.”
“Why not?”
I sighed at the internal drama we’d all been living with for the past month.
“Oh,” Andi said, realizing who Elisa was. I’d told her about most of the crazy stuff, which had pretty much involved Van acting like a lunatic since the tour had started and then denying he had feelings for the girl he’d dated once upon a time and then unceremoniously dumped. Andi nodded. “She’s the girl Van used to date. The one who keeps ignoring him. Got it.”
“Yeah, she’s dead-set on only speaking to him if necessary, and it’s pissing him off. I guess she doesn’t forgive easily, and she’s still pissed about how he treated her when they dated two years ago. There was a lot of drama when it all went down. I think it was ballsy for her to come on our tour in the first place, but she swears it had nothing to do with him. She says it was a professional decision.”
Andi shrugged. “That’s too bad. I liked her.”
“I think Van likes her too. He just won’t admit it. So what did she help you with?”
“She walked me back here and told me where to stand so you wouldn’t s
ee me watching. And then she gave me a bottle of water and a tour t-shirt. She was sweet.”
“How long were you back here?”
“The whole show,” Andi said proudly. “And you’ll be happy to know that I didn’t text Gabe once. And I sang along to every word of every song.”
I grinned. “My how things have changed.”
“I’m a true Westside groupie now,” she informed me, which only made me love her more.
“You’re our hottest one,” I said before I kissed her. When I pulled back, I took her hand in mine. “Come on. Let’s head back to the hotel. There’s an after party, but we don’t have to go. We can just head to our suite.”
“No parties. Not tonight,” she said, squeezing my hand. “Tonight I just want to be with you.”
“That’s what I want every night,” I told her.
“Well, that’s the plan. Unless you get sick of me.”
“I won’t,” I assured her, knowing that wouldn’t happen. “I promise.”
Truth be told, I was going to be hard pressed to not want everything with her and be patient about getting it. I had to remind myself that we’d only been together for five months. It always felt longer, and I had no qualms about the fact that I was going to be with Andi forever. I knew I didn’t need to rush it. I loved her, and she loved me, and that was enough.
For now, at least. I knew the future would tell a different story, and now that I knew time and distance would no longer be a factor, I didn’t have to rush anything. We had the rest of our lives, and all the time in the world to get lost together. And that’s just what I planned to do with her.
Playlist
I listen to music constantly, so inevitably songs have a way of working themselves into my stories. Below is a playlist of the songs I hear when I read this book. Some songs I referenced in the book itself, and others are just ones that I felt fit in nicely with the story. Enjoy!
Drones – Rise Against
Coffee’s for Closers – Fall Out Boy
New Romantics – Taylor Swift
Cool Kids – Echosmith
The Element – O.A.R.
Westside Series Box Set Page 41
