by Ava Stone
I nodded. “You need me to call her about something?”
“No, no.” Abby scrubbed a hand down her face. “You haven’t seen Paul come this way have you?”
The stressed out medical intern with a pack a day habit? I shook my head. “But I haven’t been here very long.”
She glanced at her watch and I got the feeling she was checking to see how long I had been there, trying to figure out if she could nail me for being late. She could look all she wanted. I’d been on time. I’d been five minutes early, actually. “All right.” And then she disappeared again into the back.
Whew! Thank God she hadn’t seen me texting. I sat back in my chair and breathed a sigh of relief. I glanced toward the mother filling out the intake forms then down at the computer in front of me. I’d only been here fifteen minutes. It was going to be a very long time before I could leave and head over to Brody’s and...Well, it was going to be the longest shift of my life.
Subject line: You are golden, Campbell!
I read the Johnny Staub’s email over and over and could barely sit still in my cushy chair at the coffeehouse. He liked the songs I’d sent him and he’d even played them for Hayley Byrne who wanted to meet me. And if all went well, the reigning Queen of Pop wanted me to tour with her early next year.
Me.
I was gonna tour with the Hayley Byrne, and everything I ever wanted was about to come true. I couldn’t help but smile like I’d won the fucking lottery. Seriously, the odds of winning a lottery had to be better than Hayley fucking Byrne picking me to open for her.
I swear to God my heart expanded and I felt like I could run a marathon in about five seconds. It was the best fucking news ever! Ever!
But I was smiling like an idiot and people were starting to notice. So I tried to look serious, which I failed at miserably. Shit, I had to pull it together some. I couldn’t go back to the apartment with my head in the fucking clouds, even Cade would notice that. And nothing was set in stone yet. I still had to meet Hayley. So I forced myself to think unhappy thoughts as I packed up my laptop and started for home. War. Famine. Pestilence. Voter ID laws. Anything that would wipe the shit-eating grin off my face.
And then my phone rang. My mom. Shit. I hadn’t called her back from the other day. I was usually better about that.
I’d love to tell her about Hayley Byrne, but it would be better to wait until I knew if I got the spot for sure or not. I might get over the disappointment if the deal fell through, but Mom wouldn’t. I answered the phone as I opened my car door. “Hey, Mom. What’s up?”
“Hi, Pumpkin.”
“Mom,” I grumbled. She knew I hated being called that. I’d hated it all my life.
“I tried to call you the other day.”
“Sorry.” I turned the key in the ignition, balancing my phone next to my ear in the process. “I was playing when you called.”
“You’re always playing, Brody.”
Most of the time that was true. “What’s going on?” I asked as I pulled onto King’s Road.
“I just wanted to let you know Bryce is getting out of the hospital today.”
What the hell? “Bryce is in the hospital?”
“His appendix ruptured. That’s what I called to tell you the other day. I’m guessing you didn’t listen to my voicemail.”
She guessed right. “Sorry. I’ve been a little distracted lately.”
“Yeah, Braden said it looked like there was a new girl in your life.”
Fucking Braden and his big mouth. I’d have never told Mom that, not yet anyway. She’d press me for every last detail and still want more when I was done. “We’ve just gone out a few times, Mom. There’s really nothing to tell.” At least nothing I was ready to talk to my mom about.
“Oh, sure there is. What’s her name, Brody? What’s she like? Tell me everything.” She sounded so happy it was hard to be annoyed with her. That was the thing about my mom, she always wanted me to be happy, probably because she’d let happiness pass her by when she married my father all those years ago. And I never had the heart to make her more miserable than she already was.
“Her name’s Leah. She’s a nursing student. And she’s…sweet. You’d like her.” I smiled just thinking about her.
“Bray said she’s really pretty.”
“Yeah, well, Braden can keep his distance,” I grumbled.
Mom laughed. “Oh, you do like this one. I can hear it.”
I did. I liked Leah better than any other girl I’d gone out with before. At least so far. Time would tell, I supposed. “I’d like it better if Braden wasn’t spying on me.” Evil little prick.
“He just mentioned it in passing the other day when I called to tell him about Bryce.” She cleared her throat. “So tell me more, Brody. Has she heard you play? Is that where you met her? At one of your concerts?”
“It’s a gig, Mom, not a concert. But no, I met her—” in the emergency room. Shit, Mom would freak if she knew I’d gone to the emergency room with a fucked up hand. “—through one of the guys in Desolate Sun. Jason.”
I spent the rest of the ride home trying to give my Mom enough details about Leah, but nothing that would set off her alarm bells - like mentioning her son or that I was going to her family’s brunch. As soon as I pulled into the parking lot, I told her goodbye and then fired off a quick text to my older brother. Hey man. Hope ur doing ok. A ruptured appendix. Shit. Just the idea made me cringe. Then I fired off another text to my younger brother. Mind ur own fucking business, jackass.
As I started down the walk toward my apartment, I spotted Sean leaving his. I nodded curtly, not that I wanted to have any sort of conversation with the guy. There was nothing really to say. Sorry my friend is banging your ex right next door to you, really didn’t seem like a good idea, not if I didn’t want a black eye to match Cade’s.
“Fuck you, Campbell,” he grumbled as he passed me.
Yeah, so he was still pretty pissed about the whole Cade and Kelly thing. Noted.
I shook my head as I unlocked the door and stepped inside my apartment.
“Dude,” Cade said from the couch. “I thought Jason was gonna kick your ass today.”
Because of Leah. Like I gave two shits about Jason Cole. “I thought I was gonna kick yours. You were a dick the whole practice.”
Cade shrugged. “Well, you could’ve warned me she was gonna be there. I don’t know why you’d tell Daniel but not me.”
I snorted. “I have to get your blessing for shit these days?”
“Just would’ve been nice to know. I could’ve brought Kelsey if I’d known.”
I glanced back toward his bedroom wondering where Kelly was and if she’d overheard him. “You did it again.”
“What?” He sat a little straighter.
I gestured toward his room and mouthed the name Kelly.
Cade just stared at me like an idiot. Clearly, not a lip reader.
If there was an idiot in the room it was definitely him. “Kelly,” I hissed low enough only for him to hear. “Not Kelsey, dipshit.”
“That’s what I said.” He glared at me like I was messing with him. But what would even be the point in doing that? Damn idiot.
“Whatever, man.” I lifted up both hands in surrender. If he didn’t want to listen to me, I couldn’t make him, and I had other things on my mind. So I started for my bedroom, which was idiot free.
Shit. My room could be a little cleaner. I should have thought of that before I suggested Leah come over. Not that I did a lot of thinking when she was around. She had that effect on me. But now, she’d be here in a few hours. Barring some natural disaster or act of terrorism, I was finally gonna have her all to myself once she got here. Naked, in my bed, legs spread wide. Finally.
God, it had been a while. I might come just thinking about it. I mean, I’d never had to schedule sex before. It always just sorta… happened. But with Leah, there really wasn’t another option, not between school, her job, and her son. So schedule
d sex it would have to be. It felt like something some married guy in his 40s would have to do. Not that I was complaining. I’d wanted Leah Willett since the first moment I saw her in that ER, and every moment since then, I’d wanted her even more. I’d take her anyway I could get her, scheduled or otherwise.
Not that I imagined she’d be happy to climb into dirty sheets. They weren’t that dirty, but…Well, if I was scheduling sex, it was going to be perfect sex. Leah was perfect and she deserved nothing less. So I tidied everything up in my room, stripped off the sheets from my bed, and started back down the hallway for the washing machine.
Cade spotted me from the couch and he smirked. “Laundry at this hour?”
Just because he rarely did any these days… “Yeah, Leah’s coming by after work.” And with the way Cade had acted at practice, he clearly needed to be warned that a repeat of that performance would get his ass kicked. I mean, I was already down to scheduling sex, for God’s sake. If Cade Bishop somehow fucked that up for me. “And I swear to God, if you’re a dick to her—”
“Yeah, no problem.” He nodded. “She seems nice.”
She seems nice? After the way he’d acted that afternoon? I narrowed my eyes on the jackass. What was with his change in attitude all of a sudden?
And then I smelled popcorn just as Kelly stepped out of the kitchen wearing yoga pants and a barely there tank top, holding a microwave bag in her hands. She smiled up at me. “Did you say Leah was coming over?”
“Yeah, in a few hours.”
“Great!” She brushed past me into the living room with her bag of popcorn. “Can’t wait to meet her.” She dropped onto the couch next to Cade and leaned against him.
Fuck. Somehow I had a feeling it wouldn’t be Cade fucking up my scheduled sex all of a sudden, but Kelly with some kind of girls’ thing. “She’s coming to see me, not meet you.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Kelly’s smile only grew as Cade reached into her bag for a handful of popcorn. “Throw your sheets in the wash and then come watch The Walking Dead marathon with us.”
I did like The Walking Dead, and not only because it was shot in Georgia. It was just an awesome show. One of my favorites. It didn’t matter how many times I’d seen an episode, I could watch them all over again a hundred times and never get tired.
“Yeah, all right. I gotta pick up a little in my room then I’ll be right out.”
As fucked up as the whole thing with Kelly and Cade was, I did like her despite myself. She was almost like one of the guys. Well, one of the guys, but with tits and barely there tank tops.
I threw my sheets into the washer and then collapsed onto the love seat in time to hear the haunting opening theme as the Too Far Gone episode began.
You don’t realize how much time has gone by as you watch one zombie after another get hit in the eye with a crossbow arrow or have their head sliced off with a samurai sword. But when the dryer buzzed, it shook me back into reality. Fuck, it was already after midnight. Leah was going to be there any minute. The sheets were in the dryer, but I hadn’t put them back on the bed yet.
“Shit. I gotta get ready.” I pushed off the love seat and started for the dryer, leaving Cade and Kelly to watch the Claimed episode by themselves.
My hands were shaking. They were literally shaking. I don’t think I’d ever been so nervous in my life, not even when I’d had to tell mom I was pregnant at seventeen. I’d made my way up the walk to Brody’s apartment, and I’d stood there for a minute, silently willing my hands to stop shaking before I could knock.
I didn’t have the best track record with guys. Clearly. And for the first time in a million years, I felt like myself again. I didn’t want to mess that up. I didn’t look like I used to. I had a few stretch marks that I was stuck with for life. And it had been so long since I’d had sex…
Before I could finish that thought, the door opened and a beautiful blonde stood right in front of me. She looked like a Sports Illustrated swimsuit model and her tank top left nothing to the imagination. “Oh, shit,” she said on a laugh. “I thought you were the Mormons or the Jehovah Witnesses or something.” Then she thrust her hand towards me. “You must be Leah. “
Because the Mormons and the Jehovah Witnesses were knocking on doors in the middle of the night these days? “Uh, yeah.” I somehow managed to find my voice as I shook her hand.
“Kelly,” she said with a big grin.
Kelly. The girl Brody had complained about, the one who had moved into Cade’s room. “Oh, hi.” Shit. That girl was living with Brody, with her perfect figure and her long blonde hair. A fresh wave of self-doubt washed over me. Was it too late to run back outside and race home?
“Brody’s in his room. Come on in.” And then she started for the couch where Cade was sitting. “You want a beer?”
“No, thanks,” I said as I closed the door behind me.
Kelly dropped onto the couch beside Cade and he draped his arm around her shoulders. Then he nodded in my direction. “Oh, hi, Leah.”
Geez. Had I stumbled into an alternate universe? Cade was actually being pleasant after he’d scowled at me all during the band’s practice? “Hi,” I said a little warily.
“You like The Walking Dead?” Cade asked, his brow raised.
“I haven’t really seen it.” I didn’t have a lot of spare time these days.
“Turn it off, Cade,” Kelly said.
He gestured to the TV. “But the marauders…”
She shot him a look that had him scrambling for the remote.
“Yeah, all right,” he grumbled.
Kelly grinned at me. “Brody’ll be out in a sec. Go on, sit down.”
I didn’t really have much of a choice. So I stepped into the living room and sat on the edge of the love seat, wishing I was nearly anywhere else in the world.
“I’ve heard so much about you,” Kelly began. “It’s so good to put a face with a name.”
The swimsuit model had heard a lot about me? What had she heard? “Thanks. I’ve, um, heard a lot about you too.”
Kelly laughed and brushed her hair over one shoulder. “Oh, I can just imagine what he’s said about me.”
What did that mean?
“There you are.” Kelly said, looking over my shoulder. “Cade and I were just keeping Leah company for you.”
And then Brody’s hands landed on my shoulders and he gently squeezed, making tingles race across my skin. “Hey, babe.” His voice washed over me and settled somewhere near my heart.
I looked up at him and couldn’t help but smile. God, he was sexy and the way he looked at me could set me right on fire. “Hey,” I breathed out.
He tilted his head to the right. “Come on. No zombies in my room.”
I stood back up, smiled briefly at Kelly and Cade, and then slid my hand into Brody’s as he led me down the hallway to his bedroom. “You don’t want to give me the grand tour?” I asked nervously. And I was nervous. I’d been nervous ever since I’d agreed to come here tonight. That was probably stupid of me.
Brody looked confused as he opened his door. “The grand tour?”
“Uh—” I tried to find something to say that wouldn’t make me sound like an idiot. “You offered to give me the grand tour when I brought your license back to you.”
A slow smile spread across his face as he tugged me into his room. “Yeah, well, I was all alone then.” He shut the door behind us and grasped my waist. “I think I also offered to let you use my bed that day too.” Then he dipped his head down and pressed his lips against mine. “That offer still stands.”
My eyes fluttered closed and I drank in the scent of him. Dolce & Gabbana, a hint of buttered popcorn, and bad boy musician all rolled into one.
Brody pulled back slightly from me and frowned. “You ok, babe?”
A staggering breath escaped me and I shrugged. “Just a little nervous.”
He tugged me toward his bed. “Hey, you know, if you’re not ready, we don’t have to do anything.”
But I wanted to be ready. I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t want to be ready. I just didn’t want to be nervous.
Shit. She was actually trembling. So I pulled her into my arms and just held her. What could she possibly be afraid of?
“Hey,” I whispered. “You ok?”
She nodded, not that I believed her. Nervous. She said she was nervous. I hadn’t been anything but gentle so far. But I didn’t want her to be nervous or uncomfortable.
“I wrote a song about you,” I said, and I had no idea why I admitted that.
Her fingers pressed slightly at my chest and she looked up at me, her gray eyes wide. “You wrote a song about me?”
Too late to take it back. “Yeah.” I smiled. “You wanna hear it?”
She nodded quickly.
Yeah, ok. Nothing like baring my soul. Some songs are easy to sing for groups of people and some are harder. This song I’d written just for me because I couldn’t not write it. I couldn’t believe I was going to sing it for her. My hands shook a little. I guess I’d leveled the playing field.
I gestured to my bed. “You wanna sit down?”
Then I turned back to my desk to grab my old beat up acoustic guitar from its case. As I flipped the locks open, I glanced back over my shoulder at Leah. She’d kicked off her shoes and was sitting on the corner of my bed, her hands holding onto the edge of the mattress as though to steady them.
“It’s kind of rough,” I said, feeling pretty vulnerable all of a sudden.
“That’s ok.” Her sweet smile lit up the room and I sucked up my courage and turned around with my guitar.
“Yeah, you say that now.” I handed her my guitar and then dragged a stool closer to the bed so I’d be across from her. Then I sat down as she handed me my guitar.
I took a deep breath, adjusted my guitar and then plucked the first notes. Then the first chords poured through me. Leah’s gaze was focused on me and I couldn’t tear mine from her.
And then I sang the words I’d written that night after she’d left me at the grill…
I know what you heard about me, girl
