by Selena Kitt
“Like… puppies?”
“Yeah.” He glowered at the view. “And babies. And trips to Aruba. Oh, and the rights to our songs.”
“The… what now?”
“Catherine—Rob credited her on several of our big hits, in the very beginning. She asked him to, I think, but I know he wanted to. It was a big thing. Arnie was adamantly against it. So was I, to be honest. But Rob won. He got what he wanted. He usually does.”
“So that means…” The realization dawned on me slowly, making me feel cold even in the early California morning heat. “If they get divorced…”
“Catherine holds the rights to a lot of our biggest hits.”
Leverage?
That was an understatement. Catherine had Rob by the balls. And, if the tabloid stories I was flipping through were correct, she was milking this for all it was worth. Catherine was telling everyone how some slutty fan had seduced Rob, that he’d cheated on her and left her for this other woman. Sabrina being the other—now pregnant—woman.
And Catherine was playing the woman scorned.
“No wonder you hate Sabrina,” I breathed.
“I don’t hate her.” Tyler now scowled at me. “Catherine and Rob were falling apart before she came along, anyway.”
I sighed. “It’s really not Sabrina’s fault.”
“I know. I get that.” He ran a hand through his hair, looking off into the distance. “I just… it feels like everything is falling apart. My life, my career, my band, my body…”
“I’m sorry…” I pushed away from the table, getting up so I could climb into his lap. His arms encircled me, and he took a deep breath, like he was breathing me in.
“You know, for a while there…” His lips brushed my temple. “I thought I was even going to lose you…”
“No, baby.” I wrapped my arms around his neck. “You can’t get rid of me that easy.”
We’d talked about it, during the time we were separated, while he was on tour, and I stayed back in Michigan. I knew it would feel like a rejection to him, walking off the tour and telling Rob that, once again, the lead guitarist of Trouble was hooked on heroin. But after Tyler had nearly overdosed and choked on his own vomit, I couldn’t think of any other way to help him, except to call in the cavalry.
He tilted his head at me. “You sure?”
“More than sure.” I feathered kisses on his cheek—he was getting a little stubble and it tickled my lips.
“Because sometimes I think you would have been better off with Mr. Responsible,” he mused softly.
“Alex?” I snorted when he mentioned my ex-fiancé. “No way.”
He smiled at my reaction. “Did he ever come after that ring?”
“Nope.” I shook my head, remembering how Tyler had made me drop my engagement ring off the balcony that night, the first night we’d been together. Alex had broken it off with me weeks before that. He’d also fired me from my dental assistant job at the same time. Double whammy. But I’d still been wearing that stupid ring, and I hadn’t told anyone yet that I’d been fired. Or dumped.
Meeting Tyler had made all of that not matter anymore.
“You were right.” I beamed at him, holding out my hand and admiring my completely bare hand. “It was totally fake. I’m surprised my finger didn’t turn green.”
Tyler caught my hand in his and kissed it. “I’m gonna have to put a ring on it.”
“One thing at a time.” I smirked, hopping off his lap and climbing back into my chair to eat the rest of my breakfast before it got too cold.
“Oh, you don’t have to do things in order. Look at Rob and Sabrina.” He gave a snort, getting up and opening the sliding door. “Babies, puppies. Next thing you know, he’ll want her in the band.”
I watched him reach into his room, and he brought out an acoustic guitar. I nibbled the crust off my toast as he sat beside me again, strumming and tuning.
“She sang with us in Europe,” Tyler said with a shake of his head. “Did I tell you?”
“Uh-huh.” I nodded.
Tyler had told me, but so had Sabrina. She was so excited about performing with Trouble—and nervous. Sabrina had a beautiful voice. She’d pretty much been wasting it as an elementary school music teacher—I always told her she should pursue some sort of career singing for a living—but Sabrina was very practical. Teaching was a smart, safe profession with excellent job security in a time when that was pretty scarce.
Meeting Rob had changed her. In so many ways. Sabrina was being forced to push her boundaries. Her relationship with Rob had made her almost as careless—and carefree—as I usually was. And Rob was really encouraging her to take big steps. Sabrina told me that Rob was already talking about her joining Trouble. He’d hinted as much to Tyler, who could clearly read between the lines.
“And you know, Rob always gets what he wants…” Tyler strummed his guitar, humming. Tyler hadn’t objected to the idea of Sabrina joining the band, although he was a little skeptical about how the fans might take it. Not that I could blame him. If I was still just a Trouble fan—and not the girlfriend of the lead guitarist—I would be more than a little annoyed about the addition of some strange woman to my favorite band.
“Well, what about what Tyler wants?” I asked, nudging him with my toe. I’d had a manicure and pedicure before we’d left Michigan.
“You.” Tyler smiled, strumming idly, playing chords now.
“You got me, baby.” I winked when he looked up at me, loving that smile that played at the corners of his mouth. It made me want to kiss that full, kissable mouth. I could have spent hours just kissing him. “What else?”
“My hands back.” Tyler made a face and stopped playing for a moment, flexing his left hand before gripping the neck of the guitar again.
“Are you due for more shots?” I asked, frowning at the slight look of pain that came over his face as he played. The pain in his hands had been so bad when we were on the road, he’d broken down and confessed his condition to me. Celeste had helped me find a doctor to help him, and the shots had worked.
“I’ve got an appointment next week.” Tyler played, a real song now, a lilting melody that transfixed me.
“God, that’s beautiful,” I murmured.
“That’s for you.” He gave me a shy smile before he began to sing the words.
When you sleep, and I keep
My vigilant gaze into the night
Where the light can’t penetrate
In the cold, in the dark
You are the star fire burning bright
To where I navigate
Then the morning rise
And I feel it
In your waking eyes
And I see it
My eyes claiming yours
And you feel it
There are stars, that never part
Split halves that are fused into one whole heart
That spin into infinity
How it burns, generates
A force unmatched among the stars
It’s a love like gravity
Then the morning rise
And I feel it
In your waking eyes
And I see it
My eyes claiming yours
And you feel it
Put your hand, in my hand
Our hearts surrendered to love’s demands
The only bonds that make us free
In the dark, in the night
What we are ignites a forever light
Where we will always be
“Oh Ty…” I breathed, feeling my heart swell. There weren’t words to say how amazing it was to hear the man you loved singing a song he had written just for you.
“We’re getting ready to go into the studio,” he told me. “And I want to record it.”
“You mean, with Trouble?” I blinked in surprise. Rob was the lead vocalist—none of the other band members had ever recorded a song on one of their albums.
“With, without.” He shrugge
d, setting his guitar aside. “I don’t know.”
My jaw dropped. “Are you saying you want to leave the band?”
“I don’t know. I feel restless. I want something else. Something more.”
“I think you should do it,” I said. “Record it. Why not?”
His gaze swept over the water in the distance. “Trouble is Rob Burns, not Tyler Cook.”
“I beg to differ,” I said, leaning over to poke him in the ribs. “You know, you don’t have to live in your brother’s shadow.”
“Or his house?” He grinned over at me. “Or be in his band?”
“Any of those things.” I nodded. “I mean, Ty… you are so good. So good.”
“Maybe Sabrina can take my place,” he mused. “She will anyway, if Rob gets his way.”
“She can’t play like you.”
He grimaced, flexing his left hand. “I can’t play like me anymore.”
“Ty, goddamnit.” I got up and grabbed his hand, pulling him out of his chair. “How can you say that about yourself?”
“My hands hurt,” he confessed, but they reached around to grab my ass anyway. “And my joints ache. I feel fifty, and I’m not even close to that.”
“So, go see a doctor.” My hands moved through his hair. “There has to be more we can do.”
“Trust me, I’ve seen them. They all say the same thing.” He shook his head. “I’m just tired, I guess.”
“Well, then I guess we should go back to bed.” I slid my thigh between his, giving him a coy little smile. “So you can… rest…”
“Ya think?” His eyes lit up.
“Race ya, old man.”
~*~
I said I could have blamed Tyler for what happened—but really, it was my own fault we ended up sneaking off after lunch to have sex on the pool table. I told him I’d never done it on a pool table, and one thing led to another, and before we knew it, my legs were over his shoulders and I had felt-burns on my ass—and then my belly—and I swear I almost crushed the eight-ball in my fist when I climaxed.
We both heard the sound of Rob and Sabrina coming home. Sarah squealed, and Daisy exclaimed, right about the time Tyler had his hand over my mouth to keep me from screaming when I orgasmed. We grinned at each other as Tyler tucked and straightened while I pulled my jeans back on and zipped them up, trying to regain both my balance and my composure.
We snuck out of the game room together—the hallway was, thankfully, empty—holding hands and hurrying toward the front door. I heard Sabrina talking to Daisy, who was telling them she’d made pork roast for dinner. The whole house smelled like it, making my mouth water. I glimpsed Sabrina as I came down the hall, heard her laugh, and that made me smile. It had been a long time since we’d seen each other.
“Where’s Katie?” Sabrina asked, glancing around.
“Right here!” Then we were hugging and laughing, and I was exclaiming over the size of her belly. She was huge! Tyler had shown me the tabloid photos but seeing it for myself was just shocking. Sabrina had way more curves than I did, but she was all soft and round now. Her face, her belly—and the girl had to have increased by at least one bra size, if not two, and she wasn’t small-chested to begin with.
Rob was there, too, and he and Tyler did that one-armed guy-hug thing before Rob turned to me and I remembered what I’d forgotten.
“Did you run that errand for me, Katie?”
Crap.
I met Tyler’s gaze, giving a one-shouldered shrug when he raised his eyebrows. He’d actually reminded me, before we ended up in the game room on the pool table, and I said I’d already asked Sarah if I could borrow her car, so I could go pick up the puppy. That much was true, anyway. Rob wasn’t happy that I hadn’t done it already, so I had Sarah give me her car keys right on the spot. I was kind of stoked to drive her car—it had been a gift from Rob, she told me, and it was a gorgeous, electric blue Mustang convertible.
Tyler wanted to come with me, but Rob said he needed to talk to him. Ty grumbled about it, but when Rob said he wanted to talk to Sarah, too, Tyler’s expression and attitude changed. I knew something was up, but whatever it was had to be “family business,” so I didn’t say anything.
I knew I was on my own, then, a woman on a mission.
The first thing I did, once I got into Sarah’s Mustang, was call the number of the breeder Rob had given me. He said she’d be expecting me this afternoon, just to give her house a call before I left.
“Hello?” A woman’s voice answered, and she sounded rather annoyed. Was that my fault? I was a little late.
“Hi, Vanessa?” I asked. “I’m sorry, this is Katie. Rob asked me to come pick up the puppy. I’m on my way. Sorry I’m late!”
“Vanessa isn’t here.” The woman sighed, sounding even more annoyed than she had just a moment ago. “This is… her friend, Jennifer. She left the puppy here for Rob. He’s not coming to get it?”
“Uhhh…” I cleared my throat. “He’s kind of busy. He asked me to do it.”
Another sigh. “You’re coming to get it now?”
“Yes.” I worried my lower lip between my teeth. If I couldn’t pick up Sabrina’s surprise puppy, I knew Rob was going to be mad. And no one wanted that. “Is it okay? Is now good?”
“I… yes. It’s fine.” The woman sighed again, sounding very put out. “How long?”
“Oh, uh…” I pulled my iPhone away from my cheek and checked the address I’d mapped. It said it would take me twenty-two minutes. “About half an hour?”
“Ring the buzzer when you get here.”
The line went dead.
I knew I had to hurry. I put the top down on Sarah’s Mustang convertible, of course, and let my GPS voice guide the way. It felt so good to have Sabrina and Rob back, even if our little private oasis was kind of disrupted by their presence. I knew Sabrina was going to just die when she saw Rob’s surprise.
She’d always wanted a big dog, but her parents had never wanted to be bothered. Kind of like my mother. Pets required too much time and work. That was probably true. Now that I was an adult, I’d never even bothered to get a cat or even a fish, because I had a hard enough time remembering to take care of myself, let alone another living thing.
But when you had a house and staff like Rob’s, and a seemingly endless supply of money, taking care of a dog wasn’t such a daunting prospect. I’d discovered, just spending time on tour with Trouble, that money might not buy happiness, but it sure made life a hell of a lot easier.
I had time to wonder, on the drive in L.A. afternoon traffic, what Rob had pulled Sarah and Tyler aside to talk to them about. Something obviously sibling-related, I thought. I wondered if Tyler would tell me about it later. Since he’d confessed his big secret, he hadn’t seemed to hesitate to tell or show me things, which made me feel better about us.
It had to be better, not having something unsaid like that between us, even if it meant that I, too, had to learn to keep a secret. Already, I was checking myself, making sure I didn’t act differently around Sarah or Rob. Knowing who they really were to Tyler made me look and think of them differently, I had to admit.
The house was a lot further out than I expected, far up in the hills—my ears were actually popping—and I stopped at the address, double-checking. They had a gate similar to Rob’s and I had to push a button to be let in. Did everyone out here live behind gates?
The lawn was lush and green, and the house was big, although not as big as Rob’s. The woman who greeted me at the door was dressed like a model, a tight black dress and strappy heels, her dark hair cut into a short bob.
“Hi.” She offered me a smile, which was more than I expected, after the way she’d sounded on the phone. “Are you here for the puppy?”
“Yes, thanks.” I checked the time on my phone, wanting to hurry back.
“Come on in.” She swung the door wider. “Vanessa told me to apologize. I know she wanted to be here, but she had a meeting with Michael Kors. She just couldn’t mi
ss it.”
“Oh.” I blinked at her. “Michael Kors… as in, the Michael Kors?”
“Vanessa’s a model.” The woman smiled at my stunned expression. “Could be a big break for her. Here’s the puppy.”
She pointed at a plastic crate with the handle on top and my heart melted when I saw that little puppy face looking up at me through the screen.
“She’s going to be big,” the woman informed me. “Mastiffs always are.”
“Do you know a lot about dogs?” I knelt by the crate, putting my fingers through so the puppy could lick them.
“Oh yes, I train all of Vanessa’s dogs,” she replied. “I’m Jennifer, by the way. You’re… Katie?”
“Oh right.” Embarrassed, I stood, wiping puppy-spit on my jeans before holding out my hand to shake hers. “Yes, I’m Katie.”
“And… who are you to Rob?” She cocked her head, looking puzzled.
“I’m…” Jeez, that was complicated. “Uh… he’s buying the puppy for my friend, Sabrina.”
“Oh, so you’re Sabrina’s friend?”
“Uh-huh.” I glanced down at the puppy, whose whole back end wagged with her tail in the little crate. “He wants to surprise her.”
“A puppy is a big responsibility.” Jennifer looked at me with narrowed eyes. “They know that, right?”
“Well sure,” I agreed, reaching for the handle on the crate. “I really should go…”
I didn’t want to get into a discussion with her about the care and feeding of puppies, especially since he wasn’t my responsibility. People who trained and bred animals could get kind of weird and protective about them.
“Oh, you don’t have a crate?” Jennifer asked, sounding surprised. “That’s Vanessa’s.”
“Uhhh.” I frowned from her to the puppy. I had nothing to take the puppy home in, and I had a sudden vision of the lively little puppy running all over Sarah’s brand-new Mustang convertible. It would be impossible to drive with a puppy loose in the car, I thought. Not to mention any accidents the animal might have on the upholstery along the way.
“Tell you what. Mastiffs require quite a bit of training right away,” Jennifer said, reaching for a purse sitting on a table in the foyer. “I should probably come with you, just so I can give them some pointers. Then I can bring the crate back with me.”
