“Yeah, the place is small, but the view is to die for.” I was going to love having a gorgeous view of the water, so peaceful.
“Can we order pizza and watch some TV?” Zoey flipped on the big-screen TV that came with the condo. “I never do that anymore.”
“I haven’t watched TV in years.” I laughed, plopping down next to her. “Why not?”
After ordering a large Pagliacci AGOG pizza, we settled into the oversize double chairs and started flipping channels. We struggled to find something to watch and laughed at the fact that I had over 600 channels, but “nothing” was on.
Finally, we settled on an entertainment show that was featuring Emmy nominees. As they were reporting on the best actress category, Ty’s gorgeous face filled the screen and the shot panned back to reveal a full shot of him wearing a black-and-green-plaid suit, his hair flowing wild around his shoulders. He was holding the delicate hand of the beautiful actress Ronni Miller, who gazed up at him lovingly through a cascade of chestnut curls.
“Tyson Rainier, the sexy singer of LTZ and Ronni Miller, who is nominated for an Emmy this weekend make a gorgeous couple. Hearts are breaking all over the world now that Ty has finally coupled up. Does this mean he is finally over the mysterious Z? She’s no doubt crying in her pillow tonight . . .”
Zooming in on Ronni’s big, soulful brown eyes, even I had to admit that she was stunning. Peaches-and-cream skin, full, pouty lips, and a smile that would make the saddest person happy. Her toned body was the perfect canvas for the understated black Versace dress. Black Louboutin pumps made her legs look like they were miles long.
As the cameras on the red carpet flashed, Ty and Ronni looked at each other with huge smiles on their faces, almost like they shared a secret.
I shut off the TV quickly and looked over at Zoey. Her face was, at first, impassive. Then she looked at me and tears pooled in her eyes and then spilled.
“I can’t handle it,” she could barely get the words out. “Even now. I’ll never get over him, Alex.”
“I don’t know what to say.” I leaned over to her and rested my head on her shoulder.
“I actually didn’t mind as much when he was a slutty whore-man. Those girls didn’t mean anything.” She buried her face in her hands and wept.
I let her get it all out for a few minutes.
Zoey’s voice was raw, anguished. “Now he’s settling down with someone. It could have been me, but I threw him away. How pathetic am I that I’m still in love with a guy who doesn’t even give me a second thought.”
“That’s not true.” I stared out the window and tried to give her some of the insight I had without overstepping the boundaries she’d always set. “He wrote an entire album about you.”
“A hate album.” She cried harder.
“It’s also a love letter to the only woman I think he’ll ever love. Focus on the positive.” I gripped her hand. “Sometimes I wish we had never gone to that show.”
“I don’t. I don’t regret any of my time with Ty.” Zoey looked up at me and absently touched the butterfly necklace she never took off. “I know it seems that way, and I know that I’m a fucking mess. I’ll probably end up a crazy cat lady. I do know what we had was real. How I felt was real. I’m glad that I knew, at least once, what true love really is.”
“I am too.” I squeezed her hand.
“I mean, you knew love like that with Sam, right?” Zoey squeezed back.
“Sure,” I assured her, annoyed at myself that I was not able to tell her that I did know that kind of love, but it was with Jace.
“I really hope that one day we will meet our forever guys and all of us will hang out together.” Zoey sniffed. “I missed you, I’ve been a bad friend.”
“You’re my best friend.” The type of friendship we shared was unconditional. “You’ve never been a bad friend.”
“Even when I disappeared?” Zoey sounded unsure, almost insecure.
“So did I.”
“I feel more grown-up than I should at my age.” Zoey shifted her position to look at me. She reached out and held a big clump of her hair out. ‘I’m pretty sure I’m going gray.”
Mock-scoffing, I got up and put the pizza box on the counter. “I’m just glad we’re back in the same city. We can live in a retirement community together with three dogs and ten cats since we clearly are never going to be able to get over these stupid boys.”
“Fuck Ty and fuck Sam! Zoey thrust her fist in the air.
“Yeah!” I put my fist in the air, figuring there was no need to correct the name.
“And I’m not watching the fucking Emmys.” Zoey flipped the channel and joined me in the kitchen to get dessert snacks. Or, in other words, M&M’s, brownie bites, and Sour Patch worms.
“Me either!” I helped her gather the treats.
Giggling, we sat back down and decided that the safer viewing decision would be the latest season of Ozark. No chance of LTZ landmines with that show.
Until, of course, one of their goddamn songs played in the background.
Glancing over at my best friend when it started, she caught my eye immediately. We both laughed until tears streamed out of our eyes. Sure, our emotions might be all over the place, but we had each other.
The funny thing about having someone like Zoey in your life, it didn’t matter how many minutes, hours, days, or years went by without seeing each other, we’d always have each other’s backs.
We’d always be the first one in each other’s corner.
For that, we were lucky.
Chapter 15
JACE
Scrubbing the sleep out of my eyes after the alarm went off at 6 a.m., I jumped up, threw open the curtains, and surveyed the view of the Hollywood Hills from my hotel suite. Yawning, I put on my gym clothes, had a piss, and brushed my teeth.
Ty and I had both stopped drinking in South America a couple of years ago and had replaced our late-night partying with early-morning workouts. It was awesome to feel healthy and physically fit, it helped our stamina onstage and off.
Not that I needed it off stage much anymore.
Reluctantly, I’d gone along with Sienna and Andrew’s ridiculous plan for Ty to pretend that he had a serious relationship with Ronni Miller. The embarrassing pictures and videos of Ty fucked-up beyond repair, making out with random chicks, and acting like an asshole was all behind us. We’d finally followed through on the plan I’d first hatched in Belfast.
Clean living. Sober living. And for Ty, therapy.
When I heard him knock on the door to my hotel suite, I was ready to burn some calories.
“My dude.” I nodded and let him in.
Ty grinned at me; his long hair was tied up in a top knot. “Weights today?”
“Why not?” I socked him in the arm.
After a grueling two-hour workout, we returned to my suite and ordered healthy egg-white omelets and bacon, because—bacon. He popped back over to his room for a shower and I did the same. Ten minutes later, he returned with his Breedlove acoustic guitar right before breakfast arrived. After we finished eating, we sat down to write.
“How were the Emmys?” I asked. We were in LA to record, which enabled Ty to make another red-carpet appearance with Ronni.
“Meh.” Ty wrinkled his lips. “At least the Grammys have performances. The Emmys are really boring. I felt like a dick, people knew me, but I had no idea—”
“How’s Ronni?” I waggled my eyebrows, hoping that Ty was really moving on. Maybe if he did, then I could.
“She’s cool.” He shrugged indifferently. “We’re becoming good friends, but as you know we aren’t really together. It’s just for show.”
“Why not just get with her?” I asked. “I mean, she’s easy on the eyes. Plus, it gets people off your case for a while.”
“I’m really not into lying. But she needs to dirty up her image as much as Andrew and Sienna think that I need to clean up mine, so—”
“I get it.” I pulled out
my reading glasses and the small keyboard I used when I wanted to write music, something I’d been doing a lot more of. Since Alex.
“Do you ever get sick of the travel?” Ty sat back on the cream sofa and crossed his arms. “It’s really wearing on me.”
“Yeah. I’ve spent a grand total of two weeks in Seattle this entire year.” I had been having similar thoughts since Alex and I broke up. “Yet, I’m not quite ready for the ride to end.”
“Me either.” Ty looked off into space and muttered, “I’m not sure if I could handle living in Seattle again.”
“I get that.” I did. Living in Seattle meant possibly running into Alex. I certainly wasn’t sure if I could handle that.
“I’m buying a place here in LA.” Ty sat forward, his elbows resting on his knees. “I put an offer in a couple of days ago.”
“Wow,” I exclaimed. “You’re going to be a land mogul. You’ve come a long way, grasshopper.”
“I have.” Ty beamed. “I still have a long way to go.”
Bonding time over, we began jamming and writing lyrics. Ideas for songs were flowing. A knock on the door interrupted our rhythm when Zane and Connor came in to join us. Together we worked through the rest of one song and came up with the beginnings of another as a group. Aside from Connor, who had a bug up his ass, the chemistry was incredible. It felt like old times.
“My dudes.” Zane put his arm around Ty and Connor. “I wanted to run something past you.”
“Shoot,” I said pointing a finger gun at him.
“Dude! Not very PC,” Zane chastised and then continued. “Fiona’s in a real bind. The owner of the Mission’s building is threatening to sell it.”
“I thought her dad owned it.” Ty scrunched his eyebrows together.
“I did too, but no.” Zane shrugged. “When Gus passed away, she inherited a real mess. Dad has tried to help, but Seattle’s changing so much. Anyway, it’s part of history. I don’t want to lose it as a venue. Would any of you want to go in on it and buy the building?”
“I’d do it, but I just put an offer on a house here in LA.” Ty frowned. “Sorry.”
“What the fuck?” Connor shot him a dirty look. “Why would you move down here? Oh, right. Ronni.”
“Not the reason, dude. You know that. It’s just that we’re here all the time. Did you see the band’s hotel bill last year?” Ty was decisive and firm. “It’s bad financial decision making.”
“Uh-huh.” Connor didn’t seem convinced. He sounded pissed. At Ty.
“Is everything cool, Connor?” I nudged him.
“Fucking great,” he muttered.
“Uh, guys?” Zane glared at all of us with his arms crossed. “Can we stay on track?”
“Connor, did I do something to piss you off?” Ty was pained, he hated when any of us were mad at each other.
“Of course not, Saint Ty,” Connor said in a mocking voice.
Ty’s face scrunched up with hurt. Clearly, he had no idea what was going on. I gripped his shoulder and squeezed my support and shot Connor a stern look. He narrowed his eyes and looked away.
It made me sad that Connor and I had drifted apart year by year after he and Jen broke up. We were still tight as bandmates and the rhythm section, but our lifestyles were just different. He tended to either keep to himself or go out doing God knows what with Zane. Zane rarely drank because he was such a natural extrovert, but Connor needed liquid courage to be social.
Over the years the crew whispered a lot about their weird dynamic of picking up and sharing chicks. I’d not seen any evidence of it myself, but I’d gotten off the merry-go-round.
“Connor, stop being so pissy.” Zane elbowed him. “The focus right now is on the Mission.”
“I’ll chip in,” I said. “My condo’s paid off and so is the house I bought my parents.”
“Fuck it,” Connor growled. “I’ll chip in something.”
“Great!” Zane fist-bumped the two of us. “Carter’s in too. He’s figuring out what needs to be done, I’ll let you know.”
“I’m outta here.” Connor got up and gave Ty a pointed look and stalked out.
“My dudes, we’ll see ya in a few hours.” Zane followed him.
“What the fuck did I do to Connor? He’s being so weird.” Ty looked at me, confused.
“You’re right, he totally seems mad at you.” I didn’t know what was going on either, it was unlike Connor to be so overt with his feelings.
“I can’t figure it out.” Ty shrugged. “I’ll talk to him later about it.”
We got back to work on the song. Ty was working out a beautiful melody on his acoustic. Grabbing my phone, I began filming him playing. Although there were no lyrics, Ty’s head was bouncing to the melody, his eyes squeezed shut as he hummed out a vocal line. After a while, he sighed and put down his guitar. Slowly opening his eyes, he looked like he was far away.
“Do you still miss her?” I knew without a shadow of a doubt the song was not about Ronni.
“Zoey?” Ty smiled when he said her name.
“Yeah.” I looked at him directly. “That’s who you were thinking about in that song, right?”
“Every day.” Ty looked down at the worn leather bracelet he wore and rubbed it with his fingers. “Every day.”
“Time doesn’t make it better?”
“Do you want me to say yes?” He cocked his head.
“I want you to tell me the truth.” I leaned back and crossed my arms behind my head.
“Why do you want to know?” Ty stared me down, a challenge to tell him what was really on my mind.
“No reason.”
“Tell me the truth.”
“I miss Alex.” I couldn’t stop myself. “We only had a few good weeks together. I wanted it to be more. She didn’t. Now I can’t stop thinking about her.”
“Hmm. Sounds familiar.” Ty looked pensive. “Are you in love with her?”
“Um.”
“Well—” Ty shook his head. “I guess you just have to have hope.”
“Hope for what?”
“Hope that the timing will be right someday.” Ty sat back and considered his own words. Then nodded to himself as if acquiescing to that possibility.
“Do you still hope that?” I was shocked. That ship had sailed long ago.
“Every day.” Ty clapped me on the back. “Every day.”
Chapter 16
ALEX
A few weeks after I moved, I was on my way to Palm Desert. Gratefully, I took the small bottle of water the flight attendant offered me when I plopped down in my seat. I’d only been to Coachella once before, it wasn’t really my scene.
Especially now.
Under normal circumstances, I wouldn’t have gone, but the money was too big to pass up. In addition to my condo, I’d saved up enough to buy property on the Olympic Peninsula outright. Now I was socking away the funds so when I found the right location, I could finally start a horse rescue and run it for many years without other donations.
In another year or so, my influencer lifestyle would be a thing of my past. My future was saving horses.
Until then, a high-end shopping platform aimed at millennials was paying me six figures to exclusively endorse some featured jewelry. It wasn’t so bad. The pieces were cool. And, I got to keep them.
Around my neck, I wore a stunning sterling silver necklace of moons, stars, and planets encrusted with tiny diamonds. Angling my phone like a pro, I took several shots and then uploaded the best one to Instagram, tagging the designer and adding in a fun description and some hashtags.
One down, fifty more posts to go.
When the plane began its descent, my nerves began to fire. LTZ was headlining the third night of the festival. I was expected to be backstage and at all of the parties to post pictures of the jewelry and make sure that celebrities would see the pieces. It meant I’d likely run into Jace, and it had been nearly two years since we’d had any contact.
Sadly, I was on my own for t
he entire lonely weekend.
A car service picked me up and took me to the JW Marriott, an enormous luxury resort in the desert where talent who weren’t put up in private mansions often stayed. My room was basic but had a nice view of the pool and their resort’s flamingo pond. With a couple of hours to spare, I decided to get some Vitamin D. After donning my American flag bikini, a white, gauzy cover-up, a floppy hat, and sunglasses, I was ready and headed for the pool.
Luckily, I found a great spot right at the edge of the adult area, sprayed myself down with sunscreen, and lay back to soak up the sun. The winters and spring in Seattle were not warm, so feeling the rays permeate my body with heat and Vitamin D was relaxing.
I dozed off.
Vaguely, I heard someone get settled in the chair to my right, but I was enjoying my peaceful afternoon, so I didn’t even open my eyes. Soon, I began to drift off again.
“Alex.” I heard my name spoken softly; the familiar raspy voice made all the hairs on my arm stand up.
Sitting up suddenly caused my boob to pop out of my bikini top. Quickly, I adjusted myself and looked over.
“Jace.” My heart began beating a million miles a minute.
“I like how you say hello.” Jace sat upright on the lounge chair in all his shirtless glory, wearing the same black-and-white board shorts he wore in Italy. His dark-blond hair was shorter—almost a long bob, which accentuated his cleft chin.
The man was ridiculous.
He lowered his mirrored aviator shades, and his piercing green eyes assessed my cleavage. His grin spread across his face, causing his goddamn lickable dimples to sink into irresistible craters.
“Well, it’s nothing you haven’t seen before.” I shrugged, trying to act nonchalant while adjusting my top to make sure that things were where they were supposed to be.
“Alex, you are fucking stunning.” Jace leaned back on his muscled arms, regarding me. I couldn’t help but stare at the striking poppy art on his shoulder, the bright reds seemed to burst from the Viking compass winding around his biceps and shoulder. My heart raced. Somehow, I’d forgotten all about the tattoo. Blocked it from my mind, more likely.
LIMITLESS: A Less Than Zero Rockstar Romance: Book 2: Jace & Alex Page 17
