Always Enough (4 page)

“That’s great news.” He sounded like he genuinely meant it. “Are Em and Finn doing alright?”

“Everyone is doing well. I was just heading down to the cafeteria to get some coffee and to give them some time alone. Would you mind if I call you back when I get settled in to my hotel room later this evening?” I started to yawn, not realizing just how tired I was. I hadn’t had any rest since the day before when I’d got the call from Finn.

“Absolutely, beautiful, I’ll be waiting for your call.”

Saying goodbye, I took a deep breath and turned around, ready to face Ky and tell him that I needed some time alone and maybe we’d talk later. But when I did, the hallway was empty and Ky was nowhere to be seen. Glancing around, thinking maybe he’d stepped away to give me some privacy, my stomach dropped. He’d left and hadn’t said goodbye. Not that I blamed him. I was however, disappointed. “Great. Just fucking great, Harper,” I whispered under my breath. I turned and walked towards the cafeteria.

I couldn’t stand there and listen to Harper,
my Harper
, talk to Michael. That girl has been mine since I first laid eyes on her in high school. When I looked over and saw his name on her phone I saw red. I had to walk away or I would have pounded a fucking hole in the wall, and then I’d get my ass thrown out for sure. I had to wonder if he was the reason that she hadn’t been emailing me back. I knew they had a ‘thing’ a while ago, but had they started seeing each other again since I’d been gone? If they had, I’d have no problem putting on my game face and showing her who was better. There’s no way that dick-fluffer was better than me. I could treat her better and I knew I was better in bed—everything boils down to sex, I don’t care who you are. And not in gay way, but in high school I’d heard the stories about him being a premature ejaculator. Sorry man, but if you’re losing your spunk at first touch, you might want to get that looked at.

He must be doing something that she likes, though, if she was still messing around with him. Harper was the type of woman to kick you to the curb if you weren’t giving her what she wanted. I just needed to figure out what it was, so I could do it better. And I needed to come up with a plan to get her to talk to me, without any interruptions. I knew I could be an egotistical ass sometimes, but once I put my hands on her I knew she wouldn’t be able to say no. She’d always reacted to me in the hottest way. I’d seen her shiver when I stood close. I’d seen her hazel eyes roll back while she screamed my name. I’d caught her looking at me when she thought I wasn’t looking. That girl was definitely mine, and now that she was here, I needed to remind her of it.

When I walked back around the corner to the waiting room, Finn almost ran into me. He had the biggest fucking grin on his face. I didn’t think I’d seen the bastard any happier than he was right then.

“Hey, I was just coming to find you. My little girl is finally here.”

Despite my mood, I couldn’t help but smile with him. Clapping him on the back in a hug, I said, “congrats, man. Harper said Allie finally made it into the world. So what should she call me, ‘Uncle Rock God’, ‘Uncle Badass’, or ‘Uncle Touch Her Wrong and I’ll Break Your Hand?’”

Laughing, Finn said, “Definitely not the first two. Taking on a protective role for my Allie girl, huh? Want to go see her?”

“You bet, but I’m telling you now, I’m not changing any diapers.”

We exchanged a few laughs before we walked into the room where Em and Allie were. Finn walked up to them and reached down, picking up a tiny pink bundle. He walked over to me and held his hands out to pass me the baby.

“Just make sure you support her head.”

When Allie was cradled in my arms, I was a fucking puddle of mush. This little girl could ask me for the moon and I’d make it happen. Looking down at her little round face, and dark dirty-blonde hair, I loved her, and she wasn’t even mine. I couldn’t help but wonder in that moment, if I felt so strongly about my niece, how I would feel when I had my own children? Just then, while peacefully sleeping, her tiny mouth quirked up in a grin.

“Hey, she’s smiling.” I looked over at a beaming Em.

She giggled and Finn said, “It’s probably gas.”

“Sweet. I do the same thing, Allie girl.”

We all laughed. Em looked behind me towards the door.

“Where’s Harper?”

Shrugging my shoulders I said, “I’m assuming she went to her hotel. She got a phone call from Michael and I left her to talk.” My voice didn’t exactly sound friendly when mentioning Michael’s name.

“I wonder why she left? She didn’t even get to hold Allie.” Em sounded a little sad.

“She told me that she wanted to give you two sometime alone with the baby.”

“Hmmm … I wish she would’ve told me. I didn’t mean to make her feel like she needed to leave.”

“Don’t worry about it, Shorty.” I gently handed Allie back to Finn. “She seemed tired, so I’m sure she just went to get some rest and will be back later.”

“I guess so.” She looked like she was pondering something before she spoke again. “So is everything between you and her okay? I mean, she hasn’t talked much about what went down. Maybe you can tell me.”

Okay, that was where most men would’ve shut their traps and not said a word, simply because we didn’t involve ourselves in all of that gossipy shit. But I thought I might actually be able to use it to my advantage.

“Why don’t you tell me what you know?” I asked her.

“I really don’t know much. Harper said you both decided it was best to take a break while you’re on tour. Other than that, she always changes the subject when I bring it up.”

My mouth tipped up in a slight grin. “We both decided, huh?”

Very interesting. Why would she lie to her best friend about the breakup? It certainly wasn’t something that I’d wanted, so there was no ‘both’ about it. Although Shorty could be lying to me as well … except I don’t think she would have asked if she truly didn’t know anything. She may be Harper’s best friend, but Em and I used to be pretty tight. I knew exactly what I was going to do to get Harper to talk to me.

“I wouldn’t say that it was my idea. In fact, I didn’t want the breakup to happen at all.”

Finn and Em both wore looks of confusion.

“Then why would she say that you were okay with it?” Em asked.

I shrugged my shoulders. “My best guess is because Harper didn’t want you up her ass, asking her questions. I mean let’s face it, you love me as much as you love her and you would have grilled her about the details.”

Finn chuckled. “You’re a cocky son of a bitch.”

“I am just calling a spade a spade.”

Em shook her head back and forth. “Shut up, both of you. And you,” she said, pointing a finger at me, “you’re cocky and I love you dearly, but never more than Harper.”

I gave her puppy dog eyes and poked out my lip. “That hurts, but I forgive you.”

“Shut up.” Em rolled her eyes. “I don’t understand. Harper tells me everything. Why would she lie to me about this?”

I dropped the bomb that I knew would bait Em and get Harper right where I wanted her.

“So when you’ve mentioned me, she didn’t even tell you about all of the phone calls, texts, and emails she ignores?”

I sat back and watched the wheels turning. I glanced over at Finn, who was adjusting Allie’s blanket, excluding himself from the turn this conversation was taking.

“What? She said she hadn’t heard from you. How often do you try to get a hold of her?”

“I email her every day.”

That was it. I’d planted the seed, and I knew damn well that Em would give Harper an earful. I also knew that Harper would be so pissed off that I’d ratted her out that she would hunt me down like a blood hound.

I’d ended up sleeping longer than planned. It was already almost one o’clock the following day before I rolled out of my hotel room bed with a massive headache, and feeling like I was hung-over.
What the hell?
I walked to the bathroom sink and put toothpaste on my toothbrush to scrub out whatever nastiness was in my mouth. I knew I’d had a rough night last night but give me a break, I’d had worse.

My reflection in the mirror was atrocious. My mascara was smeared underneath my eyes, and my hair looked like a tornado had blown through it. I paused with my toothbrush in my mouth and wetted down a washcloth to wipe the smudges under my eyes. I needed to get myself together and head out to take care of some things before I went to Em and Finn’s house to see baby Allie. They were being released that afternoon sometime and I wanted to cook them dinner.

First order of business: stopping at the sports store to buy a baseball bat—had I been at home this wouldn’t have been necessary because I already owned three of them. Second order of business, hunting down that tattle-telling, conniving-piece-of-shit-rat-bastard-asshat, Kyler, who’d decided to tell Em every detail of our breakup. Third order of business was beating him with the baseball bat until he died a bloody death.

I was still brushing my teeth when there was a knock on the door.

“I don’t need any new towels, but thank you,” I called from the bathroom, thinking it was the maid.

Another knock sounded. Seriously, did they not speak English? Growling, I spat into the sink and marched over to the door, throwing it open. My breath caught in my throat as a whoosh of air that smelled like men’s body wash, and something that was strictly Kyler, hit me in the face. The sight before me was as delicious as the smell. Ky wore a pair of dark wash, low slung jeans, and a plain gray v-neck t-shirt. His hair was still wet from the shower and he was holding a cup of coffee out to me. I leaned in to the smell as if my body was drawn to it, and I had to fight back a moan.

“Good morning, gorgeous. Sleep okay?” His deep voice traveled right through me, straight to my lower half.

No fucking way! I wasn’t going to allow this man to affect me like this, and certainly not when I was supposed to be pissed at him. Scowling, I started to close the door, but he shoved his foot inside before I got a chance to totally close it.

“Move out of the way, asshat. I’m not letting you in!” I tried to push his foot out of the door with my foot, but I didn’t have shoes on and I was hurting my toes. Did his boots have steel toes?

“Aww come on, Harper, don’t be like that. I have coffee … your favorite,” he taunted.

I paused. I really could go for some coffee right about now. “A tall white mocha, with extra whipped cream, and extra hot?”

He chuckled. “It’s a grande, and I know you want it, so let me in.”

Bastard. He knew I’d open the door for my favorite coffee. I held my hand out for it before I let him in.

“Huh-uh, Harper, door first
then
you can have the coffee.”

Reluctantly, I opened the door and put my hand back out, silently demanding the steaming cup of goodness. Another wave of Ky-smelling air assaulted me. I snatched the coffee and turned away quickly before he could see me inhaling deeply.

I walked as far away from him as I could and sat on the unmade bed. Pinning him with a glare I asked, “To what do I owe the pleasure, traitor?”

“Traitor?” He actually looked shocked.

“Well, I could actually come up with a few other choice words. In fact maybe it’s a good thing that you came here. It’ll save me the trip of finding you.” I brought the cup to my mouth and took a slow sip.

His mouth quirked up in a slow, sexy grin. “You were coming to look for me?”

I leveled a glare at him. “I know what you did, and you have some serious explaining and groveling to do.”

“And what is it you think I did?”

“Don’t play games with me, Kyler. You told Em everything.”

He shrugged. “And?”

I was getting more and more pissed off by his nonchalance and ‘whatever’ attitude.

“What was your reasoning? Besides you thinking that if you told my best friend everything maybe I would see the error of my ways and come back to you?”

The smirk that was on his face slowly faded into a frown.

“I never assumed anything. In fact, I’d have to be the dumbest man on earth to assume
anything
when it comes to you.”

What did he mean by that? Before I got a chance to think more about it, he started to stalk slowly toward me. With every step, my heartbeat picked up. His gaze was unyielding and I felt my anger going away, and desire mixed with nervousness crept in. I wanted to pinch myself to remind me why I was angry, and to hold on to that anger. It was the only emotion I wanted to feel right now. Lust was an unwelcome sensation, and I hated that I felt nervous about his advancement.