Goode To Be Bad

by Jasinda Wilder

  She was feeling herself, she claimed. Whatever that meant, I wasn’t sure, but I did know that she seemed looser, more relaxed, and more comfortable with herself. I also knew she looked hot as fuck, and despite having spent the whole past month screwing until our privates ached, I still wanted to bend her over the railing and fuck her through the fishnets, under which I knew for a fact she wasn’t wearing anything. Probably to tempt me to do exactly what I was considering.

  “Down boy,” Lexie murmured.

  I chuckled. “How’d you know what I was thinking?” She glanced pointedly downward, and I realized I’d sprung a half-stiffie, tenting the front of my jeans. “Oh. Well, shit, woman, you can’t blame me, when you’re wearin’ that.”

  “Excuse me?” A little girl’s voice. I turned my body away and glanced down at the owner of the voice—a little girl of eight or so, with an eager but shy smile, and a CD copy of my very first album. “Are you Myles and Lexie?”

  I grinned, and knelt to be level with her. “Sure are, darlin’.”

  Lexie knelt with me, keeping her knees pressed tight together and balancing precariously on her heeled boots. “Hi, sweetheart. Are you a fan of Myles?”

  She held up the album. “Uh-huh. Big time. And you, too.” She pointed back at her mom and dad and brother, watching from a distance, smiling. “We’re on vacation, and this was in my backpack by accident, and then I saw you guys and I was hoping you could both sign it for me.”

  I pulled the fat black Sharpie I always carried in my back pocket, handed it to Lexie. “You first, babe.”

  Lexie signed carefully, hesitantly, as if she wasn’t quite sure she was supposed to be signing an autograph. “Here.” She pulled it back. “Wait, what’s your name?”

  The girl’s grin was ecstatic. “Alexandra.”

  Lexie laughed, a bright happy sound. “No way! Mine too!”

  “Really? I thought your name was just Lexie.”

  “Nope, Lexie is short for Alexandra.” Lex added the girl’s name, and an inscription: From one Alexandra to another. Follow your dreams!

  “Can I tell everyone to call me Lexie, too?”

  Lex laughed. “You sure can. I mean, I think it’s a pretty cool name.”

  Alexandra turned to me, her eyes big. “I’ve listened to this CD so many times it has scratches on it and my mom says she’s sick of it which she didn’t think was possible because it’s so good.”

  “You know, I think I have something very, very special I’d like to give you.” I grabbed my duffel bag and dug inside, found what I was looking for and showed it to her. “This is something no one on the whole planet has ever seen or heard, because this CD is one of only three ever printed. It’s all the songs Lexie and I have ever sung together, all in one place.” I opened it, wrote her name on the inside of the liner, and then signed it. Closed it, gave it to her. “That, my dear, is going to be worth a lot of money someday, because we’re not making it publicly available, like ever.”

  Alexandra’s eyes were wider than ever. “Really?”

  I showed her the other two copies. “These three are it. I’m keeping one, Lexie’s keeping the other, and you have that one. That’s it. Forever and ever.”

  She frowned. “You’re not making a CD together?”

  “Oh, we will, and someday soon, I hope,” I said. “But that’s not a real CD, it’s just recordings of the different times we’ve performed together. It’s kind of like if you recorded yourself singing your favorite song on your mom and dad’s computer, and then made a CD out of it. And that’s why it’s so special.”

  She couldn’t believe it. She didn’t seem to know whether to want to jump up and down out of sheer excitement, or to be overwhelmed. So she settled for clutching it to her chest. “Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you!” She looked at Lexie and then me. “Are you guys in love?”

  Lexie was the first to answer. “We sure are.”

  “Are you gonna get married?”

  I met Lexie’s eyes. “Yeah, I do believe we will.”

  Lexie’s turn to go wide-eyed. “We will?”

  I reached into my duffel bag again, pulled out something I’d bought while we’d been on tour. I turned to Alexandra and showed it to her without letting Lexie see. “Wanna help me?”

  Her eyes were so wide I thought they’d pop out. “Uh-huh.”

  “When I get to one knee, you show it to her. Okay?”

  “Okay.”

  “Ready?”

  “Ready.”

  “One…two…three.” I turned to face Lexie, fell one to knee, and Alexandra held up the opened ring box. “Marry me, Lex.”

  Lexie shook her head, hands on her mouth. I heard awwws and sighs from the rest of the ferry, and knew this was being recorded and photographed. She nodded, eyes wet. “Yes, Myles. Yes. Of course, yes.”

  “I know it’s soon and it’s crazy, but I love you and I know this is what I want for my life. You, always and only you, every day for the rest of my life. We can be engaged as long as you want. Just marry me.”

  She laughed. “I already said yes, Myles.”

  I took the ring and slid it on Lexie’s finger. Turned to wink at little Alexandra, eyes wide and starry with romance. “Thanks for helping me propose, Alexandra. It was perfect.”

  “Did you know?” she asked Lexie.

  I laughed and said, “I didn’t even know until this moment.”

  Alexandra tried to give Lexie the ring box, but Lexie shook her head and pressed it into Alexandra’s hands. “Keep it. And when you get older and someone breaks your heart, look at this box and remember that true love is real. Okay?”

  We stood up, and Alexandra held the ring box and the CD in shaky hands. She smiled at us. “Thank you so much.”

  “Of course, honey,” Lexie said. “And thank you. You helped make this the best day of my life.”

  The girl ran back to her family, chattering a mile a minute in a high-pitched squeal of disbelieving excitement.

  Lexie turned to me, turning her hand this way and that to look at the sparkle on the diamond. “Holy shit, Myles. This thing is huge.”

  I admired the ring on her hand; it had been breathtaking in the store but was even more so on her hand. “Four carat central diamond, with another carat and a half of stones around the setting.”

  She gasped. “Dear lord, Myles. It must have cost a fortune.”

  I just shrugged. “Don’t you know, babe? I’m flush. Besides…I’d go broke giving you everything you want and deserve.”

  She leaned against me. “I can’t believe you just proposed spur of the moment, on a ferry, with a fan.”

  I laughed. “Me either. But that thing was burning a hole in my bag, and it just seemed…right.”

  “It was perfect.” She held up her hand again. “Wow. Just…wow.” She turned in my arms to gaze up at me. “When did you know you’d propose?”

  “The moment I heard you say the words ‘I love you,’” I said. “It was just a matter of when, at that point.”

  She was quiet a while. “I’m one of those odd girls who didn’t spend her whole life dreaming of a wedding. I suppose you can imagine why.”

  “We have all the time in the world for you start dreaming, Lex.”

  She shook her head. “That’s just the thing. I don’t need all the time in the world. I don’t want a big production with, like, swans and a castle reception and all that shit.” She gazed up at me. “I can tell you what I what want right now.”

  “Okay. I’m listening.”

  “Get the guys here—in Ketchikan, as soon as possible. I’ll get Torie and Poppy here, and we’ll have it on the roof of Badd Kitty. I just want to say I do and become Lexie North as soon as possible. We just had our honeymoon, so we’re just doing it backward, right?”

  “You want to take my name.” I said it as a statement but meant it as a question.

  She laughed. “Surprising to me, too. I wrote a paper for a women’s studies class at Sarah Lawrence about how w
omen taking men’s names is an archaic and outmoded tradition that should be ended.” She sighed. “And here I am, madly in love with you, and I can’t wait to take your name so the world knows I’m your wife.” She cackled. “Wife. My god. A word I never, ever thought would apply to me.”

  “That’s really how you want to be married? As soon as possible, here in Ketchikan? Just family and friends and a little ceremony on the roof?”

  She leaned against my chest, watching the waves clap against the bow of the ferry as we came around to dock. “Yeah. And then we can go on tour together.”

  “The guys have been talking about how cool it would be to redo some of our songs as a male-female duet. Write new ones as a five-piece, you on guitar and uke, us singing together. Some with me on lead vocals, some with you on lead vocals.”

  “I never wanted to insert myself into your career, Myles.”

  I laughed. “Did you not hear what I said?” I touched her chin. “The guys suggested it—not me. They want to expand. They want to update our sound. They want you.”

  “You’re telling the whole real truth? I can’t believe they want me in the band, especially after all the drama I put you guys through on tour.”

  I sighed. Tugged out my phone and brought up a four-way FaceTime. The boat docked and we disembarked as the lines rang and the guys popped on one by one. I moved us to the side of the pier. “Hey, fellas.”

  A chorus of hellos.

  “Once again, you’re calling all four of us at once. Means you’ve got something to announce,” Jupiter said.

  I pulled the phone back to bring Lexie into the picture, and she held up her left hand.

  “Surprise!” she said, grinning ear to ear.

  “No fuckin’ way!” Brand said. “That’s wicked cool, guys. Congrats.”

  Lexie took the phone from me. “That’s not the real reason we’re calling, though. And by the way, you’re the first to know. It literally just happened minutes ago.”

  “So what’s the real reason?” Zan asked.

  “Myles was just telling me you guys want me to officially join the band. And I need to hear it from you, because I don’t quite believe him.”

  “Better believe it,” Jupiter said. “We’ve been talking about it ever since the UK shows were canceled. As a band, we’ve sort of gotten stagnant with our sound, and it’s time to change it up anyway. I’m bored as fuck of hearing Myles sing all the damn time. Plus, having a pretty lady on tour would be nice, and goddamn but you’re easy on the eyes, you know? Plus, you’re talented as hell. So yes, Lexie, we as a band have collectively decided we want you to join.”

  “We’ve even decided on a name,” Brand said. “The North Band.”

  Lexie, newly in tune with her emotions, got all misty. “I don’t know what to say.”

  “You say yes, that’s what,” Zan said. “Duh.”

  She nodded, giddy, grinning ear to ear. “Yes! We’re The North Band.”

  They all howled and cheered, and even I felt a little choked up. “You guys are the best, you know it?” I said, taking the phone back. “All right, we gotta go. We’ve got to family to see and lots of news to share.”

  “Wait!” Lexie snatched my phone from me. “You guys have to get the next flight you can up to Ketchikan. We’re having a small informal wedding as soon as possible.”

  “Holy shit,” Jupiter said. “All right. We’re all in LA at the moment, so we’ll catch a flight up.”

  I took my phone back. “Cancel that—I’ll call Callahan and Murphy and reroute them to LAX. They’ll pick you up.”

  “Sweet. The private jet. I love that thing,” Brand sighed.

  “All right, see you guys soon.” I waved, there were goodbyes, and the call ended. I smirked at Lexie. “There. See?”

  She palmed my cheek. “You’ve changed my life in every possible way, you know that?”

  “No more than you have mine.” I glanced up and saw a huge pickup truck with knobby off-road tires, a lift kit, and a thick black bull bar slide into a parking lot nearby. “There’s our ride—time to go.”

  She was suddenly nervous as she realized it was Lucas and her mom.

  I squeezed her hand. “Lex, relax. The conversation will happen when you’re ready. And I promise you, it will be okay.”

  She nodded. “I’m just scared to tell her.”

  “You felt better after telling me, right?”

  “Yeah, but that was different. She’s going to take it personally, and I…shit, I can’t think about it right now or I’ll fall apart. Let’s just focus on the good news—we’re engaged and I’m in the band.”

  I hugged her one-armed as I guided us over to Lucas’s truck. “It’s good news all around, babe.”

  Lucas and Liv met us on the sidewalk, and I tossed Lexie’s and my bags into the truck bed, shaking Lucas’s hand while Lexie hugged her mom, and then we traded.

  Lexie was keeping her left hand down, hiding it.

  Liv didn’t want to let go of Lexie. “I’m so glad to see you,” she said. “I didn’t think we’d see you again for a long time. And then the tour got canceled and no one knew what was going on, and I was so worried.”

  Lexie brushed her mom’s cheeks. “We just needed time away from everything to work things out. I had some things to deal with so we could figure out our relationship.”

  Liv searched her daughter’s face, eyes sharp, insightful. “So, you’re…you’re okay? You guys figured it out?”

  Lexie let a grin break over her face as she held up her hand to show her mother. “I’d say so, yes.”

  Liv gasped, hand over her mouth. “No!” She took Lexie’s hand and examined the diamond, eyes wide. “Really?”

  “Just happened on the ferry here, actually,” Lexie said. “It was so sweet. I’ll tell you all about it later.”

  Liv hugged Lexie again, crying. “I’m so happy for you. You don’t know how happy. I wanted this for you so bad.”

  “We’re getting married while we’re here,” Lexie said. “Like, in the next few days. Just a little family thing.”

  “Ya’ll ain’t messin’ around, are you?” Lucas rumbled. “Congrats, you two. Happy for ya.”

  Liv’s eyes were searching Lexie. “There’s something else, isn’t there?”

  Lexie shielded her emotions—I watched her do it. “There are two things. One I can say now, the other is for later. Myles and his band have officially invited me to join them, so now we’re The North Band.”

  Liv looked even more thrilled. “Oh my god, that’s amazing!” She looked at me. “Thank you, Myles. More than I can say, thank you.”

  I shook my head. “That part was the guys. I wanted Lex to have her own thing, but the guys overruled me. They want her with us. And honestly, it’s the most logical evolution of our band and our sound. She’s joined us on tour, we’ve sampled our sound a few times, and this is the right thing. It’s gonna be amazing. And it’s all her. I just helped her see that it was what she needed to do.”

  “What’s the other thing?” Liv asked.

  Lexie shook her head. “That’s a conversation for another time. Soon, but in private.”

  Liv looked worried. “I don’t like the sound of that.”

  Lexie shrugged, holding back nerves and tears. “Later, Mom, okay? Please?”

  Liv nodded. “Okay, whatever you want.”

  The next day we spent the time making the rounds with the ring and the news of the band, meeting up with everyone. Liv had a client to meet with early and Lucas had a local hike he was guiding, so we slept in and had a leisurely breakfast.

  Lexie was quiet as we ate.

  “What’s on your mind? I asked.

  “A lot.” She shrugged. “Talking to mom when she gets back.”

  “What else? I can see you’re chewing on somethin’.”

  She nodded. “I was thinking. I know you’ve got the buildings you own in Dallas, but…” She sighed, tried again. “It’s hard for me to do this—to ask you for som
ething.”

  “Anything. You know that.”

  “I know, but I’ve never asked anyone for anything in my life. So this is just…hard.” She swirled coffee in her mug. “Can we, or I, or something…get a little apartment here in Ketchikan? Just so I can visit my family?”

  I took her hand. “I’ve already been texting with Zane and Dru. And in fact, your mom’s client this morning is actually me. All those emails I was working on, on the way here? It was with your mom, Zane, and Dru, looking for a place for us up here.”

  She blinked. “Wait. Really?” A frown. “Mom and Dru as realtors, but why Zane?”

  “Because him and Rome have a side hustle as builders and renovators, with Lucas helping out as needed. Your mom and Dru found a place, but it’s gonna need some TLC, and so she and Zane and Rome are checking it out today, going over plans. They’re coming here afterwards and they’re gonna show us their ideas.” I grinned. “It was gonna be another surprise, but this works, too.”

  “I know you love Texas, Myles. I don’t want to keep you away, I just…”

  I snorted. “I grew up there, sure, and it’ll always have a special place in my heart because of that, but there’s really no one there for me anymore. It was just my home base out of convenience, because it was what I knew. Here? Your family is here. Crow is here.” I held both of her hands. “Of course this is where I’d want us to make our…” I held my breath. “Our home.”

  She swallowed, tearing up. “Damn you, Myles North, you’re making me so fucking emotional all the time. Thank you.”

  “You really think I’d settle for a shitty little apartment? Hell no. We’re doing this right. This is your home, my home—our home. So it’s gonna be fuckin’ pimp. And you’re gonna make it ours. Okay?”

  A few hours later, Zane, Rome, and Dru left Liv’s condo with sketches and plans in hand, our new home taking shape—a warehouse conversion like Zane and Mara had. Just…on steroids.

  And then it was just Liv, Lexie, and me.

  And we all knew what was next. Liv sensed there was something, but she didn’t know what.

  Liv eyed Lex, sighing. “So. Is this a good time for the other thing you had to tell me?”