by Cari Quinn
Oh yeah, already did the whole table thing. He was a lucky bastard.
“Are you mumbling about being my boss?” Laughing softly, she nudged his chin back. “Are you feverish?”
“Love drunk, baby.” Actually, maybe he did feel a bit loopy. Afterglow did have a tendency to make him a little wacky, but usually he didn’t get the shakes too.
Following through on the question, she touched her fingers to his forehead and widened her eyes. “Oh my God. You are. Did he rupture something? That bastard. He better run from me if he hurt you seriously.”
Before he could reassure her, she leaped off the bed and streaked to the closet to put on a thick terrycloth robe. “Lay back. Let me examine you.”
Waggling his brows took more effort than it should have. He hadn’t even known eyebrows could get tired.
The things you learned after you got the shit kicked out of you.
“He’s a model. He shouldn’t be able to fuck me up.”
“He knows your weak spots, and I bet he looks as bad as you.”
“He took the first punch. I was a sucker. I thought we were talking. Asshole.” He rolled over when she pushed at his shoulder. “Damn. Right into the wet spot.”
“Hush. You like that wet spot.”
“Hmm. Yeah. But I’ll probably need a shower.” He pressed his face into a pillow that smelled comfortingly of lavender. “Someday.”
“There’s a Jacuzzi tub. I’ll wash your back.”
“You might not want to get in there until we clean out the fur.”
“What?”
He lifted his head and looked around blearily. “Where’s Klepto? I brought the dogs back up here after I went down to the open house and talked to that rat Simon. Hope he didn’t get out again. Klepto, not Simon. The other dogs will laugh at him in that collar.”
“Whose collar? What are you talking about?” She shifted him again and a breath gusted out against his back. “Oh God. You’re all bruised. He kicked you.”
Nick let his eyelids close. So heavy. “A few times. I kicked him too, but he wears those fucking steel-toeds. Jesus, I need the gym. Shouldn’t hurt this much.”
She ran her hand up his side and he nearly curled into a ball and wept. So much for being manly.
“I think you have a broken rib, you jackass. At least fractured.”
He started to laugh it off. “That’s ridiculous. We’ve done this a million times.”
“And all it takes is one stupid move to take it to the next level. How the hell did you carry me up that hill?”
He honestly didn’t know. He couldn’t have supported her finger on his chest at that point. “Spurred on by the promise of sex?”
Now he was slurring his words. Damn, he was a sorry case.
“I’m going to kill him. Going into the studio and he does this?” He heard her bustling around the room and briefly thought about lifting his head to watch her. Too bad she wasn’t still naked.
A moment later, she was back and pressing a small cup of blessed water to his mouth. “Drink, then swallow these pills.”
He did as she said and went back for more water. Gulping it down didn’t sate the thirst, but she soon reappeared with more.
“I love you.” Banging echoed in his head and he fought to speak above it. “Will you marry me?”
She went stock still. “Figures you ask when you’re delirious,” she muttered, running a hand over his hair. “Lay down and sleep. I’ll deal with the police.”
Police? What police? He tried to formulate questions as the pounding on the door intensified.
“I don’t look good in cuffs,” he muttered before he passed out.
15
Lila
Lila woke up tucked between a heavy, hard body and the nightstand beside the bed. Now she was half dangling out thanks to Nick-on-drugs taking up approximately seventy-two percent of the bed and forcing her off the side.
She’d spoken to the police and her worried parents the night before. They’d been understandably concerned about cars blocking the access road, as well as the fact that some helpful open house goer had spotted a “zombie-like man” carrying a screaming blond up the hill against her will. They’d been pretty sure it was Lila, but the screaming had seemed atypical. Still, people did atypical things when attacked and carried off, so was the zombie Nick or had she been abducted and somehow found her way home?
After answering that pertinent question plus addressing several other comments about public safety as well as the importance of using flares during motor vehicle breakdowns, she’d come back to the room to find Nick snoring loudly enough to wake the zombie crew he was allegedly in league with. Since he was very much alive, she’d dressed him while he still mostly slept and half carried, half dragged him to the door and out to the rental vehicle her father had very kindly retrieved so that all the many brassed off open house goers could, you know, finally go home.
Once she’d poured Nick into the passenger side, she’d ignored his semi-lucid ramblings and delivered him to the tiny hospital in nearby Farmdale. They’d waited an hour to see a doctor, who’d examined Nick and proclaimed him to have no broken limbs or ribs, but severe bone bruising. She could’ve diagnosed that herself and saved the exorbitant bill, but hey, who didn’t like to swarm around ERs in the middle of the night? Even backwoods country ones in the middle of a snowstorm, which cut down on the foot traffic exponentially.
The plus was the painkillers the doctor had prescribed. They meant Nick would probably sleep through part of the first chunk of their old-fashioned family Christmas, but considering the things he announced while awake—like “drugs are for pussies”—she wasn’t sure having him out of it was a bad thing. They hadn’t gotten back until super late, nearly dawn, and instead of the idiot wanting to med up and go to sleep, he’d tried to grope her into more sex. She’d threatened him with bodily harm and pushed a big blue pill in his mouth that he’d joked couldn’t be Viagra—because “he’d surely never need that”—and dozed off.
Now it was morning, and she’d probably dislocated her shoulder from trying not to disturb his rest. And someone, or possibly a whole fleet of someones from the sounds of things, was knocking on the door.
She tried to right herself by bracing a hand on the nightstand and only succeeded in pushing it farther away from the bed. The lamp on top of it teetered and would’ve fallen if she hadn’t made a heroic leap and nearly crushed her right boob on the corner of the stand.
Silently screaming, she rolled to her feet, lamp in hand, and blew out a breath. A quick glance down verified she’d fallen into bed with her broken boyfriend in a pair of panties and the shirt she’d worn yesterday.
Whomever it was would be politely dispatched until she could find proper attire.
And coffee. Approximately six quarts of it. She might even take a shower in it, just to make sure her pores were thoroughly saturated.
She hurried to the door as the pounding begun anew. Breakfast. She needed breakfast too. Her stomach felt like a vast bottomless pit. In a minute, she’d start chewing on the woodwork.
“Yes, yes, hang on. We’re coming. Sorry, but we—” She flung open the door and fell silent at what awaited her.
Only all of Oblivion and their assorted spouses, crowded into the hallway.
“Hi!” Jazz spoke first as always, flinging herself at Lila with all her usual abandon. This time her rounded belly went first, and bumped into Lila’s in a way that stole her breath. She was a solid little thing. “Missed you!” She gave Lila an enthusiastic belly-to-belly hug. “So glad we can spend Christmas with you!”
“Oh yay!” Behind Jazz’s head, Lila tried to affix a smile to her face rather than a frown. Christmas? Spending it with them? When had that happened?
“And everyone’s here,” Jazz added somewhat unnecessarily, sweeping her arm at the assemblage behind her. “Manster and Harp, and Molly and Juliet are downstairs, and Dyl and Lexi are with your mother, who is just the sweetest woman an
d oh my gosh, she loves the babies so much. She’s so excited and she asked me when you were going to—”
“Take a breath, J,” Gray advised, easing Jazz back. “Lila clearly just woke up and you’re about to make her brain explode.”
“Just woke up? You?” Jazz looked her up and down as if this fact could not be true. “At this time? Are you sick?”
“Well, it is morning. We are on vacation.” Lila glanced at her watch and gasped. “Oh my God, it’s after five pm!”
“Not morning anymore.” Simon flashed her his usual cocky smile, moving forward as if he thought to embrace her. That he didn’t look much better than Nick was gratifying in one sense and rage-provoking in another. These morons truly had no clue what they were on the verge of throwing away.
She let him take one step.
“You.”
His eyebrow winged up. “Me?”
“You.” She forgot all about the crowd and her current state of undress in favor of getting up in Simon’s face. He had a full complement of scrapes and bruises and she might’ve felt bad for that fact if he hadn’t caused her more PR issues. That wasn’t even taking into account the issues he’d stirred up personally. “You’re the reason we didn’t fall asleep until past five this morning.”
His mouth ticked upward. “Now, Lila, I can’t help it if you were kept up all night thinking of me in comparison to the man you’ve shacked up with. Nor can I blame you.”
Lila glanced over at his shoulder at Margo. “Should I hit him or would you prefer it?” She leaned in and kissed her friend on the cheek. “By the way, hi. I’m sorry we missed each other yesterday. So glad you’re here. You, on the other hand…” She moved back to stare hard at Simon. “We were in the hospital until five a.m. this morning. Because of you. Because you acted like a complete jackass and came here to cause more harm.”
“Is that what I did? Funny. I thought I came here to talk to your dickwad of a boyfriend, to actually try to become a band again.” Simon delivered an equally icy glare of his own. “But I guess you’d know best, having been in his life for how long now? Two years? One of which he couldn’t stand you?”
“Yeah, and now I can’t stand you. So you better watch your fucking mouth and how you speak to her.” Nick’s voice cut through the buzz of annoyance in Lila’s ears, though she held Simon’s gaze for an extra beat. Which was why she belatedly saw Margo’s shocked face and turned to see why, only to discover that not only had Nick leaped to her defense, he’d chosen to do so buck ass naked.
In the upstairs hallway of her parents’ store.
“What?” Nick asked, glaring at all of them. “You’ve all seen me naked anyway, except Harper and maybe Margo. Tell me, Mrs. Not Quite Kagan. Did you ever sneak any peeks when the three of us were living together on the bus? Maybe come into the bathroom while I was taking a shower and press your nose to the steamy glass to try to get a glimpse of all you aren’t getting at home?”
Margo inclined her head at Lila. “Your turn. You want to hit him or shall I?”
Lila rolled her eyes. Her stomach was roaring, her head was spinning from her crazy sleep and she might as well have been dealing with a horde of angry toddlers. “They’re both beyond help. Though now I see why they’ve been best friends for all these years.”
“Were,” Nick said tersely. “Were.”
Simon loomed over Nick. They weren’t far apart in height, but Simon was wearing the trusty boots that were still imprinted on Nick’s ribcage. “Fuck off. Seriously fuck off.”
“Oh my God. I have had enough of both of you.” Margo pushed past Simon and strode down the hall, brushing off Jazz’s attempt to placate with a quick smile. “I’ll be in my room when you grow up, Simon. If you ever do.”
“Me? He’s the one who fucking just insinuated you were hot for his dick.” Simon jerked a thumb at Nick’s obvious nakedness. “While demonstrating all the reasons no one would be.”
Gray leered. “Oh, I am. So much.”
Nick shoved him and Gray laughed, but Nick’s gaze never left Simon. “You’re not welcome here. I’m not sure if you’ve gotten that memo, but let me hand deliver it. If you think you can waltz in here and fix the year’s worth of mess you made, you’re sorely mistaken.”
Lila stepped to Nick’s side and placed her fingertips on his tensed forearm. “Margo is my friend,” she said quietly. “Where she’s welcome, Simon goes. I can’t say I’m happy about any of this—the fight yesterday, the ER trip, the fact I’m standing with a band I manage in my underwear. But we all have to deal.”
“I wish he was standing in his underwear,” Simon muttered. “The whiteness of his dick is blinding.”
For the first time, Deacon stepped forward. His bulk wasn’t easy to miss, but he wasn’t one to cause a spectacle, unlike some of the other members of his band. He also picked his moment, rather than just charging into the center of the melee and causing more chaos.
“Let’s talk for a couple minutes.” He gripped Nick’s shoulder and Simon’s. It wasn’t a big stretch for him to reach both, because Simon had remained toe-to-toe with Nick. Deacon also had the wingspan of a NBA seven-footer. “Just us, if that’s okay.” He glanced at Harper, then at Jazz, and Gray, who lifted his hands palms out.
“All you.” Gray linked arms with his wife and Harper, who looked about as pleased with recent events as the rest of them. Lila almost wished Harper had brought her rolling pin to use as a weapon. “We’ll just go downstairs. I’m sure the kids are running wild anyway. They were going crazy over the dogs. Lexi wanted to ride the golden one.”
Lila nearly asked what dogs until she remembered Nick had picked up a stray. Why not, the rest of this vacation was running right on track. Might as well add a dog too, since they’d already added a Simon, a Margo and an entire fleet of Oblivion members. “Lola wouldn’t mind. She loves kids.”
“Yeah, but Molly encourages the babies to act out.”
Jazz slugged Gray lightly in the stomach. “Stop blaming my sister for everything.”
“Juliet’s no better. Talk about a set of terror twins. Margo’s sister,” Gray explained at Lila’s blank look.
“Juliet and Molly are here too?” On second thought, Jazz had mentioned that already.
Yes, she definitely needed coffee. Stat.
“Sure thing. They didn’t want to be left out of the festivities. Besides, Nick told us to bring everyone. Luckily Donovan’s jet was available.”
Lila smiled faintly. “Yes, lucky thing.”
“The only one who couldn’t make it was your stepson. Former stepson,” Gray said after a glance at Nick. “He’s on his way though. Gonna catch commercial today or tomorrow. Some band drama.”
Band drama. Yippee. Just what she wanted to hear.
Deacon smiled. “Thanks, man. We won’t be long.” Then he glanced at Lila. “I’m sorry. Mind?”
“No. I’m actually relieved someone else has taken on skull-crushing duty for once.” She rubbed her temple. A headache was brewing but she was determined to not let it take her under. “Just give me two minutes to get dressed and brush and all that happy stuff, and the room is yours for as long as you need it.”
“Sure. Take your time.”
She gave them a thin smile and went back into the bedroom. Her first task wasn’t to find her own clothes. It was to grab Nick’s jeans and present them to him with a raised eyebrow.
Saying nothing, he tugged them on and went back to his pose lounging against the wall.
She very nearly rolled her eyes at his faked cool but let it go. He needed to do his bravado thing when it came to Simon, and she wouldn’t call him on it.
Until they were alone. Then he would get called on all of the things, including his rude insinuations toward Margo.
Spying on his dick. He wished. Idiot male.
Once she was in the bedroom, she dressed quickly then headed into the bathroom to brush her teeth and her hair and take care of business. A shower would’ve been glorious, but th
ere was no time. She had to get downstairs and rescue her poor parents from the horde known as Oblivion, with special guests from Warning Sign.
While she was in the bathroom, her cell went off. She snatched it off the table and read Ricki’s name on the readout.
One more country heard from.
“Hi,” Lila said. “He’s not answering his phone because he’s pissing and moaning at Simon right now. But I’ll tell him you called.”
“Oh, I didn’t want him. I wanted you. I’m on way to the orchard. I was able to make it for Christmas after all. I told Nick I wasn’t sure, I was going to try, but shh, I’ve been working with this new coach and they cleared me to take the holiday off. I’m trying to step it up a notch. Anyway, so surprise, I’m going to spend Christmas with you guys!”
“That’s fabulous, Ricki. So glad you were able to come.” Lila shut her eyes and hoped she managed to not start crying before the end of the phone call.
She loved Ricki. Truly she did. She loved everyone who’d made an appearance so far, or at least had a strong affection for them in certain cases. But there were just so many of them.
So many. And she had a half done engagement she wasn’t sure she even wanted to deal with now.
She still wanted to marry the dolt, in spite of the events of the last couple of days. But his lack of response hurt, no matter which way she cut it. The fact that he’d then thrown out his fake proposal while he’d been loopy from pain had just dumped a bucket of salt in the hole.
Timing was important, in music and in life. If theirs was off, then so be it. She’d take back the ring she’d given him—if he hadn’t lost it while carting her up the hill—and just tell him she was tabling the whole discussion until they were in a more rational place.
Like their own home without every one of their family and friends swarming like a bunch of drunken locusts.
There. Decision made. See, she could still be completely clear-headed when she was one step away from losing her mind. It was comforting, really.
