Crude: A Stepbrother Romance (28 page)

“Columbia, yes I’ve heard, and congratulations.” Her voice is warm and yet confident; “Listen, why don’t we say next Monday at 10 a.m.? You could come down to the offices and we could just talk; see what we can do for each other. How does that sound?”

“Fucking
amazing!
” My eyes go wide and I clap my hand over my mouth as soon as I say it and accidentally let the power of Knox flow through me.

Laura just starts laughing over the phone though; “Paige, I think we’re going to get along
just
fine,” She says with a warm laugh; “So, I’ll see you Monday?”

“Absolutely!” I say quickly with that grin splitting my face wide; “And
thank you!
”

“Hey, thank
you
; you really were impressive tonight! Oh, and the whole kiss with your boyfriend?” Laura whistles; “
Perfect
timing; people loved it.”

The grin falters on my face as I stop pacing the room dead in my tracks; “Oh, he’s-”

He’s not my boyfriend, he’s my stepbrother.

“Yeah, he’s great,” I say quietly.
 

“Well, I’m looking forward to meeting him too, then. Monday it is!”

I hang the phone up in a daze. OK, if I was confused and out of my head before, I’m now on on another
planet
.

A record label just called you and wants to talk to you
. It’s too crazy to even
believe
but there it is, and as I just stand there staring at the phone in my hand, a sort of warmth starts to grow inside of me.

Holy shit
. This is real; this is
really
happening next Monday.

And just like that, a crazy sort of manic energy floods into me. I’m jumping in front of my keyboard and starting to reach for my headphones, before I freeze.

No. No headphones; not this time.

Instead, minutes later, I find myself sitting in front of the baby grand in the great room. Because I’m not hushing my words or quietly singing
anything
this time; I’m not going to hide my voice or my words.

Not anymore.

And then I start to play, and when I open my mouth, the words come clear and shining, and it’s
perfect.
And through the whole damn thing, there’s just one face - one cocky, smirking, and totally irresistible face sitting right here in my mind. The one face I can’t be with, the face of the boy who’s leaving tomorrow morning and never coming back.
 

There are tears then, as I’m halfway through the same song I played at the competition. But then something in the window catches my eyes, and I falter, frowning as I lose my place on the keys.

At first, I’m not sure what I’m looking at out the huge floor-to-ceiling windows of the great room. I finally stop playing and peer out at the backyard, dimmed in twilight. I stand and slowly move towards the window before I take a gasp;
is that fire?

It
is
fire, but suddenly, my heart is jumping into my throat as I realize what I’m looking at.

It’s not just a fire, it’s
words
; words written in flame, words seared across the backyard in huge, roaring letters:

ASK ME TO COME

I can hear my dad yelling upstairs about there being a fire in the backyard, but I’m already exploding out the back door and running towards the letters.

And there he is, standing right next to them with his arms crossed over his chest and that damned cocky grin on his face.

I’m breathless as I stop in front of him; “Is- is this?-” I bite my lip, my eyes searching his face.

“For you?”

I nod, swallowing the lump in my throat as he rolls his eyes; “Nah, it’s for that other uptight princess with the killer voice inside.” He laughs, grabbing my hands and pulling me close as I punch him in the arm; “I need to tell you something, Paige.”

“Well, I need to tell you something too,” I say, biting my lip and look up into his eyes; “You go first.”

He winks, a grin teasing his lips; “I’m not going to Alaska, I’m coming to New York.”

I stop suddenly, my eyes growing wide; “Wait,
what?
Knox, my dad’s going to kill you if you-”

“Yeah, well, he still might cause of the lawn and all,” He nods his chin at the burning grass behind me; “He might be more interested in hearing how I just got into Columbia Business School, though.”

My jaw drops as my heart begins to soar out of my chest; “
WHAT?
”

“I finally called them back,” He says, grinning at me; “I need to fit two years of undergraduate courses into three fucking semesters first, but apparently, they still want me.”

“Knox! That’s- thats-!”

“Good?”

“Yes!”

I throw my arms around him, and I’m leaning up towards that perfect mouth of his before he smirks and leans away from me; “Uh-uh, first you. What were you going to tell me?”

The grin spreads quickly across my face; “Well, it’s good that you’re going to business school, because I think I’m going to need a manager.” He raises an eyebrow at me curiously; “A woman from Little House Records
may
have just called me and asked me to come in to talk next week.”

Knox starts to laugh, and I’m falling right into him before he holds a hand out, stopping me; “Hey, not so fast.”

I roll my eyes at him, my body
aching
to be close to him; “
Now
what?”

He shakes his head, an exaggeratedly serious look on his face. He gestures at the burning lawn next to us before he shrugs; “You never asked.” He leans closer, holding me tight against him and looking me right in the eye; “You gotta ask first, Paige.”

I step towards him, the heat of the fire washing over us, and knowing for the first time in my life, I’m going to be the master of my own decisions; “Knox?”

“Yeah?”

“Will you come to New York with me?”

“One condition.”

I drop my jaw and stare at him; “Oh my God you’re
terrible!
There are
conditions?
”
 

I roll my eyes as he laughs and pulls me close; “Only one,” He murmurs into my ear; “You just have to let me say one thing.”

“Yeah?” I wrap my arms around his waist and look up into his eyes; “And what’s that?”

“Just that I love you.”

And I’m falling. I’m melting as I press my lips to his, this boy who’s shattered everything I knew and shown me how to build it back up. And I’m crying as I slip against him, searing my lips to his like words across a summer lawn.

“I love you too.”

There’s a roaring that’s not just the blood in my ears as I stand in the backstage area.

It’s the crowd that I’m hearing; the very,
very
big crowd.
 

This time, I’m not even nervous for it; this time, I’m
excited
. Because after two years of this, I’m finally at the first show of my
first
headline tour.

And it’s
sold out
.

The show is in Dallas, obviously, because where else could I start this next chapter except the place it stated? Plus, I know my dad and Amanda are psyched that we’re back in town for the visit. Oh, not to mention, I think my dad might literally be my biggest fan, and I know he’s loving the VIP seats I got them.

I know what you’re thinking; what, my dad was just suddenly
cool
with the whole Knox thing after everything that happened? Well, it didn’t go down
exactly
like a fairytale, I’ll say that.

I mean here was the boy who broke every rule he laid down for him, and then quit the job he set up for him; the boy who
defiled
his poor virgin daughter.

…The boy who lit his backyard on fire.

Honestly, in the aftermath of that night with all the tensions and tempers and emotions running as high as they were, it was Amanda who’s stepped in and defused everyone; she’s pretty damn awesome, actually.

Really, I think my dad’s biggest worry was me ditching an ivy league education to hit the road like some sort of rock star. But it turns out that Laura and everyone else at Little House Records had the same worry, and actually wrote a graduation and GPA level clause into my contract. Apparently, smart kids dropping out of school to go play rock shows doesn’t look great to them either.  And so I did both. I’m
still
doing both - the school full time and the rock star on the side. Ok, maybe not
star
, but I’m working at

We’re
wrecking at it. Because I couldn’t do this alone, of course. But I’ve got one
hell
of a manger.

And the fact that he’s a demon in the sack doesn’t hurt.

Remember when I said Knox was “kind of a genius”? Yeah, well it turns out he’s
literally
one. He plowed through junior and then senior level classes at Columbia in three straight semesters before I even finished
sophomore
year, before moving up to their business school, where he of course blew people away. Turns out he just needed a little help focusing.
 

I’d like to think I at least had a
teeny bit
to do with that, thank you very much.

And now? Now we’re going to see what happens, because we’re still young and we’re still looking to see where this all goes. My second record just dropped though, and it’s picking up some
really
major coverage, and the tour is almost entirely sold out for the rest of it. And hey, if music doesn’t end up panning out? Well, a certain manager of mine is coaching me through the pre-graduate business school classes at Columbia, so I there’s always that.

Or anything really, because above all else, we’ve got each other. I mean honestly, he’s sort of stuck with me at this point, what with the binding vows and all that.

Oh, right, sorry. I guess I missed that part. We’re got married five hours ago in a small civil ceremony at my dad and Amanda’s house. On a nice little patch of grass that looks
just
a bit greener than the rest of the backyard…

So yeah, I married my stepbrother. And you know who cares?

No one.

“You ready?”

I turn, grinning as I feel Knox come up behind me, wrapping his arms around my waist; “For the show?” I shrug in a very
Mrs. Shepherd
way that I’ve picked up from him; “Of course.”

“Oh, no, I meant for…” His voice trails off in my ear as his hands move up to slide across my belly, and I grin as I snuggle back into him.

Ok, no, we’re not pregnant; not yet. I mean
please
, we’ve both got at least two or three
very
busy years of school and touring to get to first. But after that? It turns out my authority-bucking, bad-boy of a husband can’t
wait
to be the kind of dad his never was.

I start to open my mouth, but he laughs, kissing my neck; “I know, I know; later. For now, you ready for this?” He nods at the steps that’ll take me up to the stage, the roar of the crowd already crescendoing.
 

I turn in his arms, kissing him; “You know it.”

The announcer is shouting my name then, and the crowd just
erupts
. Knox nods at the stage and grins at me; “Then get out there and play the fuckin hits, princess.”