Daisy (Pushing Daisies Book 1)

by Heather Young-Nichols

  He groaned. “Having a sister is a lot of work.”

  I chuckled. “I have two.”

  “Then you get me.”

  I nodded. “Sure do, but my sisters don’t get the attention Daisy does.”

  “True.” Mack grew quiet then said, “Sometimes I wish she’d find a guy who loves her, like really loves her, and wants to protect her so he could share some of this shit with me.”

  That hit me right in the gut. I already was sharing some of this shit with him. He just didn’t know it yet. But fuck, I wanted to be the guy who always protected her. For me, it wouldn’t be a hardship or feel like a job the way it did Mack.

  “What about the other brother?” I asked because it was clear they were all really protective of Daisy, but Mack seemed to take it to a personal level.

  “Yeah, they do it too, but I’m the oldest. My responsibility.”

  I shifted my weight and jammed my hands into my pockets. “Why’s that?”

  “When she was three, we were all playing outside and as the oldest, my mom always told me to make sure the others stayed in the yard. We all looked after whoever was younger.”

  “And as the oldest, you looked after them all.”

  He nodded. “I was fucking around with Daltry and when we looked around Daisy was gone.”

  “Shit,” I said under my breath.

  “Gave nine-year-old me a fucking heart attack.” He shook his head. “She’d somehow gotten the gate unlatched and wandered down the street. We found her pretty quickly, but those were the most terrifying minutes of my life.”

  “I’d think they would be.”

  “I promised myself then that I’d never let anything happen to her.” He ran a hand over the back of his head. “Didn’t realize just how big of a job it was going to be.”

  I snorted. “You mean at nine, you didn’t predict that your brothers and Daisy would become one of the hottest up-and-coming bands in the world?”

  He chuckled, too. “I did not.”

  My heart clenched at the idea of anything happening to Daisy. It wasn’t unheard of. Crazed fans did stupid shit all the time. One singer who’d been on a TV singing show had been murdered outside of a show by a fan who’d wanted to be with her. Remembering that was doing nothing for my nerves.

  “Look,” I told him and myself. “Cal is the best. He’ll make sure they all come back in one piece. I’m not worried,” I lied. I always worried about Daisy when she wasn’t where I could keep my eyes on her.

  “Thanks, man.” Mack clapped my back then went back to his loud-as-hell brothers. Not that Courting Chaos was being any quieter.

  “Let’s go,” I told the guys as I walked by.

  The elevator doors closed on the guys and me after Dixon pressed the number for our floor.

  “You seemed awfully concerned about Daisy,” Dixon said with a tone that said he was up to no good. I knew these guys better than almost anyone, including their parents, given I knew a side of them their parents didn’t. And shouldn’t.

  He was up to something.

  “You know what’s going on,” I said without even glancing at him. I’d given the guys the entire story after Daisy had left the dressing room the night that fucker had been on her bus. “You telling me you wanted Paige and Barrett out with her alone knowing some fucker could come up on them?”

  Dixon groaned. “No. No, I did not.”

  “Exactly.” The doors opened and we stepped out. Their bags were headed to their respective rooms, but we were headed to mine. We had a band meeting planned to go over some opportunities that had come up. This was their band, so they got a say in the direction they wanted to go. I advised and managed, but it was ultimately up to them. “You guys know the messages Mack has been getting from their website. Then the guy was on her bus. I don’t want anything to happen to her.”

  I used my card key to get the door open and the guys settled themselves around the room. I dropped my bags near the closet. This room only had the one bed, but it also had a couch and small table with two chairs, which was where the guys decided to situate themselves. Sure, we could’ve had someone at the hotel take my bags too, but we were coming up here right away, so there’d been no need. Actually, we all carried our own bags most of the time.

  “It’s a good thing you were out there that night,” Ransom said. “That you happened to run into her.”

  I didn’t know where he was going with this, so I waited. Ransom and even more so, Dixon, liked to clown around. Harmless pranks or jokes that were mostly funny.

  “Talk about luck,” Dixon said after Ransom gave him an almost imperceptible nod. “I mean under other circumstances, having Daisy run into your arms wouldn’t be so bad.”

  “Knock it off.” Cross sighed.

  Something was going on. I wasn’t sure what, but everything I knew about these guys told me Ransom and Dixon were up to nothing good.

  “What?” Dixon asked, an innocent look on his face. Cross shook his head.

  “Can we get down to business or did you want to be here all day?” I asked.

  “The fuck I do,” Booker said first. “My girl is here and not for long enough. I don’t want to be sitting in this room with you guys when she gets back.”

  “Good point.” I pulled my iPad out of my bag to bring up the notes I’d made on what we needed to talk about.

  “I’m just saying,” Dixon continued, “Daisy is hot as fuck.” He shrugged as rage turned to acid in my stomach. On the outside, I was made of stone. “If I were single, I wouldn’t push her off my dick.”

  I clenched my jaw so hard, I’d probably have to see a dentist to fix my cracked teeth. The only thing that was ensuring Dixon would keep his teeth was the fact that I could control my anger.

  Ransom jumped up as if he’d just won the lottery and exclaimed, “Did you see that? I saw that!” Then he faced the other guys and said, “Pay up! He loves her. I fucking told you.”

  First Dixon pulled out what looked like a five-dollar bill and handed it over to Ransom. Then Cross and Booker did the same.

  “What the actual fuck?” I asked them, my jaw still tight.

  Cross cleared his throat and adjusted himself in his seat. “Ransom kept saying he thinks you have a thing for Daisy. We all called bullshit.” He looked around, then his gaze came back to me. “Apparently, the rest of us were wrong.”

  “Why do you think that?” As I tried to play it off, even I knew I wasn’t convincing.

  “Man,” Booker began with a laugh, “the look on your face when Dixon said that… There’s no way you don’t have feelings for her.”

  “You looked like you were about to pull Dixon’s balls out of his throat,” Cross added through a chuckle.

  That was exactly how I’d felt. Still did to some extent. He’d better watch his fucking step in the next few minutes.

  I closed my eyes to let that rage subside, pinching the bridge of my nose. Once all of my muscles loosened, I could speak. “Look. Daisy wants to be the one to tell her brothers about us, so keep your mouths shut.”

  “He admits it?” Dixon asked as if talking to himself.

  “For the record,” Ransom broke in, “I only bet that you wanted her, not that you’re together. You’re together?”

  I sighed. “Yes, but again, not a fucking word. I know where all of your bodies are buried.” Just a little reminder that I had their secrets, so they could keep this one of mine. “Don’t any of you forget that.” Though, to be fair, I had almost none of Booker’s, but he wouldn’t the one I worried about.

  There was one last thing I needed to do before we could get this day started.

  I moved over to Dixon, who was standing with one hand on the back of Ransom’s chair, and I didn’t stop until our toes slammed into each other’s. Then I clasped his shoulders roughly and looked him dead in the eye.

  “Just for the record,” I said, my voice low, menacing, and serious. “Just so there’s no misunderstanding. You say that shit about her aga
in, or anything remotely like it… You even think about her near any part of you, and I’ll rip your dick off. Barrett will have to learn to live with disappointment.”

  “Shit,” Booker said with a snort.

  “I think he’s serious,” Cross warned Dixon.

  But Dixon held his hands up to his sides. “Hey, man, I only said that to get you to admit you wanted her. I love my girl and don’t actually think about anyone else near my dick.”

  “Good,” I told him as I took a step back. “Now let’s get to work.”

  As much as Booker didn’t want to still be here with us when Paige got back, I didn’t want to be here with them when Daisy got back.

  “First up,” I told them. “Craig thinks that song Cross wrote that we all decided wasn’t right for the last two albums would actually work better as a duet and that this is the time to do it as sort of a bonus.” Craig was one of the producers who’d worked on their last two albums. He was a fucking genius.

  “But we already released the new album,” Ransom told me.

  “Right. Hence the bonus.” I tapped on the iPad to bring up the demo of how he thought the song should go. “But we need the right person.” I hit the song so it’d play from the tablet. Not the best sound quality, but it was good enough for this. I only played a little bit of it to give them the idea then forwarded it to each of them. “What do you think?”

  Booker spoke first. “I like it. I think that would be amazing.”

  “Agreed,” Cross said. It was technically his song—well, his with the help of Booker—so I’d been most interested in his opinion. He hadn’t written it as a duet, but this was how it worked sometimes.

  “What about Daisy?” Dixon asked.

  My jaw tightened and I turned to him with my hands on my hips and a look on my face that hopefully meant I wouldn’t have to speak.

  “No, really,” he said quickly. “I’m being serious here. She’s a fucking badass. You’ve all heard her sing. She’d sound great with Ransom on this.”

  “I agree,” Cross said again. “We’ve heard her range and musically, she’s a fucking genius.”

  “Right,” I said, pulling back my protective instinct. Dixon would’ve had to have a death wish to be fucking with me where she was concerned again. “I’ll talk to Mack then.”

  “You could talk to her. Go right to the source.”

  I shook my head. “Of course I can, but these things are usually manager to manager first.”

  “Ah… ” Ransom nodded, as if he’d finally understood something that had been perplexing him. “Keeping business and pleasure separate. I get it.”

  If these guys didn’t watch themselves, Courting Chaos would need a new guitar player and lead singer. I could end up murdering the both of them.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Daisy

  The day that Barrett, Paige, and I had spent in Harbor Point was exactly what I’d needed. Just some girl time and shopping where I got some new books. Perfect kind of day as far as I was concerned.

  When we got to the third floor of the hotel, the three of us went our separate ways. I assumed they were heading for the rooms that they were sharing with their boyfriends while I made my way to the one I shared with no one but myself.

  I set my bags on the floor beside the door. There were only two of them, but I needed my hands to dig out my key card. As I pushed things around my purse, a presence moved in beside me. I glanced up quickly to find Lawson in jeans and a black T-shirt, leaning a shoulder against the wall. This wasn’t the first time I’d seen him dressed casually, but it didn’t happen often and I fully appreciated every look he wore.

  “Have fun?” he asked.

  “So much.” I glanced down at my bags. “Might’ve bought too many books, but you have all those extra bunks. Maybe one could become my library.”

  “All of them could be.”

  Butterflies flitted their wings through my chest. If all the bunks could become my bookshelves, that meant he had no intention of sleeping in any of them. Given our conversation, that shouldn’t have been a surprise and it wasn’t. But it did still make my knees weak.

  “You got plans tonight?” he asked quietly, still staying enough distance from me that it’d look like every other time we’d had a conversation in public.

  “I thought I might have some with you.” I pushed my door open and looked up at him.

  “Perfect.” He ran his thumb under his bottom lip. “Do what you need to do, then come to my room. We’ll order dinner.”

  “Why your room?”

  “Your brothers would have no reason to come to my room.” He leaned in a little closer. “Can’t say that about your room.”

  “True.” I dragged my bags inside while holding the door open with my foot. “OK, I’ll do a couple of things and be over. Which room?”

  He said the number but then added, “It’s around the corner, last room on the right.”

  I gave him a big grin. “See you soon.” Even though I wanted to jump up, wrap my legs around his waist and kiss him stupid, I just pulled my foot back and let the door shut between us.

  There were things to do.

  First, I set my shopping bags by my overnight bag. Then I did a quick cleanup. We hadn’t gotten dirty on our day out, but it had been pretty warm. A quick washing up took care of all that. Then I changed my tank top and took a few minutes on hair and makeup. This was as close to a date as we were going to get, so I wanted to look the part. For whatever reason, nervousness took me over.

  Lawson and I had been spending more and more time together, but now we were together and I needed to tell my brothers.

  But not tonight. Tonight was just for him and me.

  Before leaving, I snagged my card off the table and dropped it into my purse. I hurried my steps toward Lawson’s room. It felt weird to sneak around because I’d never done that before, but until I had a chance to actually talk to my brothers, this was how we had to do things.

  “Hey,” he said as he pulled the door open and stepped aside for me to slide past him.

  “Hey. Hope I didn’t take too long.”

  His hands settled on my hips. “Any time apart from you is always too long.” He yanked me toward him. As I slammed into his chest, my hands laid on his broad shoulders.

  When his lips touched mine, I slid my hands up until I could wrap my arms around his neck. This was pretty close to what I’d been wanting to do earlier. I’d taken almost an hour to get ready. It hadn’t seemed like that long.

  A knock on the door forced us to separate. Lawson looked through the peephole then turned to me and said, “Room service.”

  I nodded and stepped aside as he let the guy in. It was all very quick. The man dropped the food off and Lawson signed the bill. Then we were alone again.

  Being in close proximity to Lawson had all my nerving endings on fire. I ached to touch him, but even more than that, I yearned for him to touch me. But food first.

  “I ordered what looked best and figured you could pick what you want. If you don’t want either, we’ll place another order.” Lawson moved over to the nearby table and cleared it off then began setting the food up on it. “I figured this would save time.”

  “I’m not a picky eater. I’m sure this will be delicious.”

  When I got to the table, I looked the food over. One dinner was steak and potatoes, the other chicken. I sat down on the chicken side. Both came with a salad and veggie side as well as a dinner roll. He got me a pop, I assumed Diet since that was what I always ordered and water for both of us. Though I noted that one plate remained covered on the tray.

  “What’d you ladies do today?” he asked as he took the other seat.

  “We went to this place called Harbor Point.” I cut into the chicken and took my first bite. The meat melted in my mouth in an explosion of flavor. Whatever this seasoning was, I wanted it for home. “Had some of the best pizza I’ve ever tasted and did a bunch of walking around. Some shopping, but it seems none
of us are big shoppers.”

  “You don’t like shopping?”

  I shrugged. “It’s not that. It’s just not how I’d choose to spend my time right now.”

  He swallowed the food he’d been chewing. The movement of his throat caught my attention. “How would you choose to spend your time?”

  I bit my lips together for a moment. “Well, right now, I’d choose to spend it with you, but if that’s not possible, reading.”

  He nodded. “I’d choose to spend my time with you, too. But I’m so busy, reading isn’t really a thing I do much of. When I did, it was mostly thrillers.” He took another bite. “Why’d you need the tickets for tomorrow?”

  “You know about that?”

  He nodded. “Barrett called and said you needed six tickets. Asked if I could make it happen.”

  “And you did.”

  He shrugged. “She said you needed them.”

  “Oh, it was for a fan. Our waitress at the pizzeria.” My chest felt light at the idea that he’d made something happen just because it had been for me. Sure, in this case, it had been something trivial, like tickets for a show. But my impression was that he’d have done it no matter what it was.

  As we ate, we talked more about our day and as much as I wanted to be with him again, this time, just talking to Lawson was quickly becoming one of my favorite things to do. He reached out and set his hand on mine several times as we laughed more than I had in a long time.

  Once we finished, he brought over the last covered plate and pulled the dome off. Beneath lay the most delicious-looking piece of chocolate cake. Soft looking sponge with thick frosting.

  Lawson and I continued talking about the bands, about the tour, and anything else that came to mind as we picked at that piece of cake. I wasn’t hungry anymore, but that cake melted in my mouth and I didn’t want to stop eating it.

  Still, after one more bite, I set my fork down and noticed Lawson did the same.

  I’d never been one to play meek or wait for the guy to make the first move. I’d been called bold more than once in my life. But something about Lawson… intimidated me. Not in a bad way. But I cared about him so much already that I wanted to please him.