by Lisa Suzanne
She nods. “I told them they should choose you.”
I laugh.
“What?” she asks, and she leans up to look at me even though it’s pretty dark and all we can really see are silhouettes and shadows.
“I told them to choose you. I said that you were the better musician. That they should choose you over me.”
She laughs, too, and she presses a kiss to my neck as she settles back into my arms. “It’s like the gift of the magi.”
“The what?”
“You know, that old story where the woman sells her hair to buy a chain for the guy’s watch, and the guy sells his watch to buy combs for her hair. Where they each sacrifice something they love because they love the other person more.”
I let those words settle between us.
They each sacrifice something they love because they love the other person more.
Does she feel that strongly about me? I guess she does since she told them to choose me.
And do I feel that strongly about her? I think the answer’s the same.
“It didn’t matter what either of us said in that room,” I say, and that’s something I adamantly believe. I say the words tenderly, though, and I run my fingers through her silky hair. “They were going to come to their own decision regardless.”
“I agree with you. And just to be crystal clear, I have no hard feelings toward you or them. They found what they were looking for in you.” She draws rings on my chest.
“It’s funny, because I found something I wasn’t looking for in you.”
“Oh?” she asks, sitting up a little again. “And what’s that, exactly?”
I chuckle, and I urge her over so she’s straddling me again. I thrust my hips toward her, and she lets out a little moan, and fuck a man could get used to this.
“I found everything I never knew I was missing.” My voice is soft but passionate. “I found a partner and a teammate. I found a feisty, challenging, beautiful woman who I admire in so many ways.”
“I love you, Gage Hoffman,” she murmurs, and then her mouth crashes down to mine before I pinch her nipple and I slide a finger into her hot, wet cunt.
We’re both spent by the time we’re finished with that round, and I’m about to fall asleep when she flicks on the light sitting on the bedside table. I squint as the little dim light has about the same effect as standing outside in the bright-ass Vegas sun.
“I need to tell you something,” she begins.
I raise a brow.
She clears her throat and takes a deep breath. “I, uh, didn’t exactly walk away the big loser when they announced you as the winner.”
I sit up a little and pull the sheet so it’s covering my dick, which is inexplicably getting hard again. My brows push together. “I never pegged you as a big loser, but what are you talking about?”
“Ashmark wants to branch over into country music, and they want me to be the first artist on their roster in that division.”
“What?” I say dumbly.
“They offered me a recording contract. They said I could bring my band along, or they’d find a band for me, but I’ll be the name on the marquee and I’ll be the voice behind the songs.”
“Holy shit, Lex!” I practically yell. “That’s fucking amazing!”
Her face lights up as she grins. “I know!”
I chuckle, and I grab her into a hug. “Congratulations, Nashville. You deserve it. You’re so goddamn talented and I can’t wait to stand by your side as I watch you soar.”
Her eyes get a little misty. “What does that mean for us, though? We’ll have completely separate careers. We’ll be playing different places at different times and we might not get to see each other very often. I’m getting a place in LA and I assume they’ll want you in San Diego but we’re just at the start of this so I don’t really—”
I cut her off when I lean forward and kiss her to stop her. She’s babbling, and while it’s adorable, it’s also not going to get us anywhere.
I pull back and our eyes lock. “We’ll figure it out. We’ll navigate it together. MFB’s on hold a few more months, so we have time to get to know one another and see where what we’ve started here takes us. And once you’re recording and playing gigs, I’ll be in the crowd as your biggest fan every single night I possibly can be.”
“I’ll be there for every MFB show,” she promises. “Well, as long as they want me there.”
“Those guys love you, Lex. They’ll be thrilled to have you around. But their opinion doesn’t matter. I want you there, and that’s all that matters.”
She smiles at me, and she looks a little relieved. I press a soft kiss to her lips.
“I was nervous to tell you,” she admits.
“Why?” I ask.
She lifts a shoulder. “Because I was worried it would come between what we’re starting. And even though we’ve been through more than some couples go through in years together, it still feels like we’re at the start of something.”
“We are,” I say. I lean my forehead to hers. “We’re at the start of forever.”
CHAPTER 62: LEXI
Three Weeks Later
I stare out over the water, and then I look at the paper on the clipboard on my lap. I cross off the line I just wrote and replace a few words.
That’s better, I think to myself. I toss the clipboard to the side and stretch my legs out on my towel, and then a few seconds later, Gage comes running up, droplets of water shaking off his wet body and onto my legs.
“Hey!” I protest, and he doesn’t care. Instead, he shakes his hair out and gets me even wetter.
Though, to be honest, he’s pretty good at finding ways to make me wet.
Yeah, I said it. He tends to have that effect on me—making me wet, yes, but also making me just a little on the cruder side than usual.
“How was the water?” I ask once he’s done laughing and he’s lying on his towel beside me.
“Freezing,” he says. “Whose idea was it to come to the beach in late September?”
“Uh, yours, genius.” I tug my sweatshirt on over my head since my legs are now covered in goosebumps. It’s in the high eighties, but we’re nearing dusk and there’s a light breeze coming off the water.
He laughs. “Right. Get any work done?” he asks.
I nod. “Not much, but something I think I can work with.” I’ve been working with my rep at the label on music for the album I’ll start recording in a few months. I have a lot of songs already written since it’s something I’ve worked on for many, many years, but I want some fresh options, too. And coming to the beach seemed like a tranquil way to get some new words down.
“Can I see?” he asks.
I shake my head. “Not ‘til it’s done.”
He rolls his eyes, and I giggle.
It’s my quirk. I don’t want to share until I’m happy with the draft.
“Let’s get pizza for dinner,” he says. “And then have lots of sex.”
“Okay. Your place or mine?”
“Yours. Always yours.”
He’s gotten close with Rascal since they’ve been living together, but I live alone.
And the place Shana found me is two blocks over from Gage’s place. It’s made for an incredibly convenient and easy transition for the two of us.
Once his hands are dry, he grabs his phone to place an order for pizza. “Whoa,” he says once he looks at the screen.
“What?”
“Uh, we might have to scratch pizza and sex for tonight.”
“Why?” I ask.
“All the guys are at the hospital. Emily’s in labor. I think I’m supposed to go. They’re all there, so I should be too. Right?”
“Definitely,” I say, and I toss my clipboard and pen into my bag. I stand and start rolling up my towel. “Families come together at times like this, and you’re part of their family now.”
He stands and grabs the extra towel we brought. He runs it over his hair and makes sure his bo
dy is mostly dry, and then he grabs me into his arms. “And you’re part of mine, so I want you there, too.” He plants a kiss square on my mouth.
“Maybe they have pizza at the hospital cafeteria,” I murmur, and he laughs.
“Maybe they have an empty room for sex.”
I wrinkle my nose, and he looks offended.
“You don’t want to have sex?”
“Not in a hospital. And not when someone’s having a baby. I don’t want babies on the brain when I’m doing it.”
He laughs as he folds his towels. “Well, neither do I, and hospitals aren’t my number one choice of sex locations, but beggars can’t be choosers, you know?”
I laugh. I guess that’s one way of putting it. “Oh, but I’ll still make you beg for it.”
He pulls a shirt on over his head. “If it’s with you, I’ll get down on my knees.”
I raise a brow.
“To beg.”
I giggle, and then we head toward the hospital in San Diego where Emily’s having the baby.
On the way there, he shocks me with a question. “How many kids do you want?”
My eyes dart over to him, but he keeps his focus on the road. “Uh...what?”
“Well, we’re on our way to the hospital because a baby is coming into the world, and I was just curious. Have you thought about it?”
“Of course I have,” I say softly. I’ve thought a lot about it, actually. I’ve thought about what a great dad I think Gage would make. He cares so dang much, and he’s so kind and ridiculously protective. But I’ve also thought about what it would be like to raise a kid with our completely separate careers. I suppose that’s a conversation for much later. “I’ve always imagined having two. You?”
He lifts a shoulder. “I always imagined four or five.”
“Really?”
He chuckles. “I was raised with my cousins, and there were six of them. It was a big family, and I loved that there was always someone around. Always someone who had your back, someone who you could rely on.”
“I hated being an only child,” I admit. But four or five? That’s a small herd.
“It’s not like we need to decide right now,” he says.
“We?” I ask, raising a brow, and if I’m not totally mistaken, I think I see Gage Hoffman’s cheeks color with just the slightest tint of red.
The men of MFB (minus Adam) are already in the waiting room with their women, and Kane is there, too, along with Ruby Ray, who I’ve grown close to since Gage is living at Kane’s place and that’s where Ruby Ray practices.
If I was just a casual fan off the streets, I’d die to be in this room. But I’m not just a casual fan.
I’m somehow part of this crew.
Gage and I have only officially been together for three weeks, but we already knew a lot about each other. We’ve settled into an easy routine where we spend nearly all day every day together before we spend the night together—usually at my place, depending on our evening activities, which almost always includes live music of some kind.
He’s incredible. He’s talented, and he’s sexy, and he’s smart and strong.
I never knew I could love someone the way I love him, but more importantly, I never knew I could be loved the way he loves me.
It’s like we were two souls destined to find each other, and through an incredible set of circumstances and a twist of fate...we did.
And neither of us is letting go.
It was a good two hour drive to San Diego, and Adam runs into the waiting room about a half hour after we arrive. “The baby’s here!” he yells, and his cheeks are red and he looks freaking exhausted. “He’s perfect, and Em’s perfect.”
A rousing chorus of gasps and excitement and congratulations run through the room.
“Well?” Dax asks. “Boy or girl? Name?”
“It’s a boy! Joseph David Wilson. He’s...uh...twenty-something inches and weighs nine pounds and some ounces. Holy shit. I need to sit down.” It appears to just be hitting him that he’s a dad now. Dax claps him on a shoulder as he falls into a chair in the waiting room.
“How’d you choose the name?” Dax asks.
Adam takes a deep breath. “My middle name for his first name, and Em’s brother’s name for his middle.”
“It’s perfect,” Kylie says. She holds her and Dax’s baby girl, Violet, in her arms. “They’ll be best friends.”
“Joey and Violet, sitting in a tree,” Rascal starts, and his fiancée, Amber, elbows him in the ribs while some of the others roll their eyes or turn glares on him. “What?” he says, holding up both hands.
“Violet won’t be allowed to date until she’s at least twenty-five,” Dax says.
“Even Joseph?” Adam asks, and everyone laughs.
“Maybe Joseph,” he concedes with a shrug.
I smile as I watch the exchange. I may be here as Gage’s girl, but they’re all so welcoming and lovely and they’ve never once made me feel like I don’t belong. In fact, Kylie has offered to help me choose the best manager from the options Ashmark has lined up for me. Brody has offered to help interview drummers, and all the other guys have expressed similar sentiments.
I never could’ve imagined everything that would follow when I got a random call from Ethan Fuller, but my new life in Los Angeles is more than I could’ve ever dreamed.
At the center of it all is music, and even more importantly, love.
EPILOGUE: GAGE
I slide my fingers through hers as we sit on the couch.
We’ve already seen the first episode of Rock on the Road: The Replacement War at the viewing party at Ashmark, but tonight is the official premiere. The MFB guys are back in San Diego with the exception of Rascal, who’s at our place.
Lexi and I are at her place, just the two of us as we eat pizza and watch the first episode where we say words we both regret saying and where we do things we both wish we could take back.
We’ve been warned.
Mark Ashton, Dax Hunter, and all the other guys have told us what to expect.
They said that once the show starts airing, our lives would change.
They said I’d need to stay away from the MFB guys because there will be eyes on me, watching to see if I’m in contact with them.
I guess I’ll be spending more time at Lexi’s place for the next six weeks.
That’s not a bad thing.
Tonight’s the last night we might be able to go to a bar and just sit and have a drink without someone wanting something from us, whether it’s a signature or a selfie.
But we chose to just be together the two of us, because that’s what matters to us.
Bars and restaurants, grocery stores, gas stations...they’re all important, but tonight and every night I’d rather be here, home alone with the girl I love, than in any of those places.
We both apologize when the show ends even though we’ve already buried it in the past, and then we go to bed, where we don’t just fuck or have sex, but we show each other the love that we both feel in our hearts.
And the guys were right to warn us.
When we wake up, we decide to head out to breakfast.
Our waitress recognizes us.
When we get home, it’s everywhere.
Top enemy contenders in new reality show spotted together in Los Angeles.
Have they buried the past?
Have Gage and Lexi of The Replacement War kissed and made up?
The headlines are all accompanied with photos of us at breakfast.
One Instagram post even comments on my choice of pancakes.
Nobody has ever cared what kind of pancakes I ordered, and suddenly the fact that I ordered the banana split ones is a fucking headline.
I didn’t take the warnings to heart.
I didn’t believe them. I didn’t take them seriously.
The banana split pancake post is the first look into this new world where I suddenly reside.
And it’s honestly a little scary.
But Lexi’s fingers find my jaw before she leans in to kiss me, and with her by my side, life seems just a little less scary. This whole thing feels a whole lot more manageable as I navigate it with her by my side.
It gets worse as the show airs each week—the paparazzi, the headlines, even the finger pointing and the ones that try to paint us in negative ways. Some say that we’re doomed, but they don’t know us. They don’t understand what we’ve been through, and they don’t see how connected we are because of what we’ve already overcome.
We’re stronger than they think.
Each accusation, each new article, each blog post or stolen image of the two of us only pushes us closer together in a bond that no one else could really understand.
When the final episode is upon us six weeks later, Ashmark holds another party.
When I pick up my date, her jaw drops.
“What?” I ask, and I glance down at the suit I’m wearing.
“I’ve, uh...just never seen you in a suit before.” Her eyes roam the length of my body before they return to mine. I shift uncomfortably until she says, “You look good. Like, really good. Do we have time for a quickie?”
I chuckle as I look her up and down. God, she’s smoking hot in a purple dress that hugs every delicious curve of her body. How did I get so damn lucky? “You look really good, too, and no, we don’t have time. But I did manage to secure Tony for our ride, so maybe we can mess around in the back of the car.”
She giggles. “Deal.”
We manage to keep it PG-13-ish in the car, and then we’re at our destination.
But this building has become so much more than just a destination to us both. It’s the place where we’re employed. Our bosses and colleagues are upstairs, and that fact blows my damn mind.
I’m nervous.
This is where it becomes official. This is where the world will know that I’m part of MFB now.
We link hands as we take the elevator up. We walk into the same conference room where we were each interviewed months ago before the start of filming and we had no idea that we’d be reunited just a few hours later.
We mingle with people who have become our friends over the last few months, and we see the other contestants who left before we did.
