Don't Break My Heart (Straight from the Heart #3) (7 page)

BOOK: Don't Break My Heart (Straight from the Heart #3)
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Me: Oh no, I’m surprised you haven’t gotten lost yet!

Bryn: I know! Cale hasn’t even lost his temper once… well, except when a semi almost rammed into us, but that’s to be expected. Do you need us to grab anything?

Me: It’s okay, Bryn, I think we’ve got everything covered. See you in a bit; I can’t wait!

Bryn: Me, either!

“That was Bryn,” I said to Emily as we got into my car and headed for the cabin. “You’ll really like her. She’s so down to earth and completely chill.”

We were just passing the stop sign near Liam’s restaurant when Emily caught sight of him first.

“Uhm, Lucy?” she nearly whispered. “Did he ever mention having like nieces or nephews?”

I shook my head. He never mentioned anything about kids in his family before. “No, why?”

She pointed over to the parking lot of his place, where I caught sight of Liam kissing some girl who had a car seat dangling from her arm. My mouth instantly dropped. ‘
What the fuck?
’ I said to myself as I came to an abrupt halt at another stop sign.

“That didn’t look like a friendly sibling kiss to me,” my voice sounded bitter. “That makes no sense to me. He has a kid and never mentioned it to me, let alone that he was obviously seeing whoever that woman was.”

“Explains why he hasn’t tried to sleep with you, or has barely even kissed you,” Emily pointed out. She was right. Catching sight of that explained a few of my reservations about Liam, but still, to lie to my face? Not fucking cool. I wanted an explanation from him and why he would lie to me about something that’s pretty fucking serious. How could you not bring up your kid in a conversation?

Or maybe I was just overreacting, and it really was a sister, cousin, someone other than a girlfriend.

As we pulled up to the cabin, I shot Liam a quick text that we needed to talk. I didn’t get a response right away, and I tried to forget about it when I saw a familiar looking van parked in front of us.

“Looks like we’ve got some company!” I squealed, shutting my door as I spotted Bryn grabbing luggage from the back of the van.

“Lucy, oh my gosh, I haven’t seen you in forever!” Technically, it had been a few months. Bryn shouted, dropping the suitcases in her hand and giving me a huge hug. I had gotten to know Bryn over the past year. She had such a kind heart and was still learning more about the business every day, but she’d quickly became one of my best girlfriends.

“How was the rest of the trip up?” I asked her.

“Long as hell. Especially when you have five other guys in the van squished together like sardines who smell. But it was like that on the bus so I guess I shouldn’t complain,” she shrugged her shoulders.

Emily walked up to my side, and I introduced her to Bryn. “Bryn this is Emily Charming, one of my good friends from home and Damon’s cousin. Em, this is Bryn Schaefler, Cale’s new lead guitarist in Everlasting.” They greeted each other and shared a brief hug.

“Cale’s around here somewhere.” Bryn said.

“How is he doing?”

“Oh, you mean after rehab?” she clarified, and I nodded. “Pretty great, actually. It’s only been a few weeks since he got out of the program, but he hasn’t had any crazy mood swings or slip ups.” I watched Bryn’s face light up as she talked about Cale. It was obvious the girl loved him. I knew that look very well having dating him for so long.

“I’m glad he went through it.” I gave Bryn a smile. “It’s because he loves you enough to get better.”

“Well, it was either that or I think we were all about to walk out on him,” Bryn replied. “Can you help me with the rest of this? There’s not much left.”

“Yeah, of course.” I grabbed a bag and we headed toward the front door.

“I can’t believe you guys have this place. Just the property alone is crazy, and it actually goes all the way to the lake!” Bryn exclaimed as we stepped inside and her head darted all around, trying to take everything in. “This is so much nicer than what my parents’ house used to look like.”

I knew the back-story with Bryn; how she’d left her extremely controlling parents’ house after graduation. Both of my parents worked their asses off for their money, and even after they divorced, my dad made sure we had the essential things the three of us kids needed.

“Wait until you see the back, Bryn and the view of the lake. You’ll never want to leave!” I joked, linking arms with her and Emily as we set the luggage down and I gave her a brief tour of the downstairs.

“Lucy’s right, babe, I think we should build another small place on the property and call it home.” I heard Cale shout as he walked downstairs with his band mates. This was the first time I’d seen Cale since the show in Detroit where he told Bryn and everyone else later that night, that he’d registered into a 90-day rehab program for his addiction to painkillers. He didn’t have the dark circles under his eyes anymore. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but he just seemed genuinely happy, and Bryn was part of that.

“Hey, you look good,” I said softly, pulling him into a friendly hug. “How do you feel?”

Cale let go and scratched the top of his head. “The best I’ve ever felt actually. Been over three months completely pill free and it feels completely strange saying that.”

“I don’t even know how to react to his lack of mood swings now,” Tyler teased Cale, punching him in the arm. He gave me a one armed hug and kissed me on the cheek. “Love the hair, by the way.”

“Thanks, Tyler,” I replied. “You guys remember Emily, right?”

The guys each gave Emily a hug, and then me afterwards. They were just another extended family I couldn’t live without since I started dating Cale because of his band mates.

“I’m going to get the grill fired up, you guys want to help?” Damon asked as he approached us from the kitchen, plates full of uncooked meat in his hand.

“Shit dude, we just got here and you’re putting us to work?” Vince joked, taking a plate from Damon. “Just kidding, I’m a grill master.”

“That’s a lie because just the other day you burnt our damn steaks at the house!” Cale shouted, and we all started laughing.

“Hey now, I’m redeeming myself!” Vince responded, with Luke and Raptor following him and Damon out to the grill.

I gave Bryn a complete tour of the upstairs and a spare room where she’d be sleeping, and she was in complete awe the whole time. As we were going out back so I could show her the walkway to the lake, my phone chirped.

Liam: Can we talk?

I immediately rolled my eyes.

“Boy drama,” I said to Bryn, and she nodded like she understood exactly.

Me: I’m busy with BBQ stuff right now. Is it about your wife and kid that you failed to mention to me?

Right after I sent the text, I saw Liam was calling me.

“I’ll get a head start outside,” Bryn whispered as I answered the phone, walking downstairs.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Lucy.”

“So, I think you have some explaining to do. Like why you made me think you were this completely hot single man, when all this time you never mentioned you had a child, or a girlfriend for that matter?” I tried to stay as calm as I could. I didn’t like drama and confronting people about things, so I didn’t want to turn something like this into a full-blown war. He wasn’t worth it.

I heard him take a deep breath as he began to talk. “I take it you saw me outside the restaurant today.” When I didn’t respond, he took the hint that I had. “That’s my ex-wife. Long story short, we got married in college and she became pregnant with our daughter less than a year ago. She was pissed, hated me for it, and took off before she had the baby. She mailed me the divorce papers. Right after I kissed you the other night, she showed up at my doorstep, arm hooked in the car seat, telling me she’s giving me Alexia and she’s never coming back.”

“That doesn’t explain the kiss though…”

“Yeah, I know. She considered it as an ‘I’m never seeing you again’ last kiss. What you didn’t see was right after that, she peeled out of the restaurant parking lot and I’m left with my daughter whom I’ve never seen before.” After hearing his explanation, I couldn’t be pissed at him. My heart broke for him because he’d had such a shitty relationship with his ex-wife and now he was expected to be the sole parent for a daughter he’d never met.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered. “So I’m guessing I won’t be seeing you anymore.”

“Unless you like playing with baby rattles and making baby bottles,” Liam laughed, and I did as well. “I’m sorry, Lucy. I really liked you and I figured after you went back home, we wouldn’t talk anymore, but
this
is completely opposite of what I wanted.”

“I understand. It’s really fine and I wish all the best for you,” I told him. We talked for a few more minutes then said our last goodbyes. I wasn’t sad. In a way, I had known things between him and I wouldn’t be permanent, and I was all right. I had the band to worry about and getting our album out on time.

I stopped in the bathroom for a quick touch up of makeup and as I walked down the hallway, I bumped into none other than Pauly.
Why do I always bump into him when I’m alone?
I thought to myself as I stared at a shirtless Pauly. I let out an involuntary gasp and backed up a few feet.

Pauly chuckled. “I think your brother and his family are here.” He ran a hand through his wet black hair and shook his head.

“Thanks,” I smiled, trying to move past him. “Is the water nice?”

“I only went in for a minute, but it feels like you’re taking a warm bath, especially with the sun hitting the water just right.” Pauly studied my face. He took a strand of my freshly cut hair and said “Loving the short hair, by the way. I’ve never seen you wear it short.”

I took it as a compliment. “It doesn’t look bad?”

“Fuck no, tommy girl. You could be naked in a garbage bag, and I would still think you’re stunning.” I felt butterflies in my stomach after he said those words. “So what happened with that prissy Liam guy?”

“That’s history,” I replied. “Long story short, he has family issues he needs to sort out.”

Pauly stayed silent, holding my gaze. Damn his honey colored eyes. Why did it feel like I could get lost in those fuckers? I couldn’t even look down at his tattooed, shirtless body or else I’d melt into a puddle right in front of him.

“That’s a shame. He’s missing out.” Pauly leaned down to whisper in my ear. “Don’t let it get you down; it’s going to be a fun day.” Squeezing my hand, we headed downstairs where the place was abuzz. Damon’s brother Abel and his band arrived and were already drinking some beers, but when I caught sight of my brother Lucas and his wife Abby, I was practically running down the stairs.

“Aunt Luffie! Aunt Luffie!” Shouted my three-year-old twin nephews Lucas Jr. and Max as they ran toward me and engulfed me into a huge hug.

“Hey boys, I missed you,” I said softly as I kissed each one of them on the forehead. “Were you boys good for mommy and daddy on the drive up?”

They both nodded in unison.

“All we kept hearing was how they wanted to go swimming with the fish in the lake and make s’mores,” Lucas joked, embracing me before Abby followed.

“I’m glad we could get the time to come up here,” Abby said sweetly. “I made a green bean casserole, which I hope is okay since it’s probably cold by now because of the drive.”

I laughed and told her, “It’s okay, we can just heat it up in the oven before we eat. Now let’s get these boys ready so they can swim with the fishes!”

Chapter 7: Kissing Her
Pauly

I’m kissing Lucy tonight.

I made that decision as soon as I overheard her phone call with that fucking Liam. He was never a problem, but now that he is out of the picture and won’t be bothering Lucy anymore, that just makes it easier to win Lucy’s trust back and maybe start something more than our friendship. Something inside of me shifted, and it took a nice long talk with my other band mates to realize that I needed to get past this “We couldn’t work” shit and now here I am thinking about my lips on Lucy’s once again.

I have never been more certain of anything in my life.

First, I had to get through the day and entertain all of our friends that were coming up. Damon’s younger brother came up with a few of his bandmates, and we were already in talks of putting together a mini-concert for everyone, including some kid friendly songs for Lucy’s niece and nephews, Lucy’s idea, of course.

“When are you going to go after her, dude?” Cale, Lucy’s ex-boyfriend walked up beside me as I stared off into the distance.

It felt a little awkward hearing that from someone she had been with for a long time. For cheating on him and breaking his heart, Cale seemed pretty calm and collected.

“It’s too complicated,” was all I managed to say. “With the new album and trying to fit writing in…”

“Bullshit,” Cale interjected. “If there was one thing I learned while I was in rehab, it’s that life is way too fucking short. If I’d had kept abusing painkillers at the rate I was going, they told me I would have overdosed soon. If you really care about her, you just need to be upfront about it and tell her what you want. Being in the same band shouldn’t deter you from being with her.”

“I’ve already broken her heart once, dude, I don’t think she’ll want anything to do with me now if I asked her upfront, ‘Hey you wanna be my girlfriend?’”

“Girls can be surprising.” He patted me on the shoulder. “I didn’t think Bryn would take me back after she found out about my addiction, but she was waiting for me the day I got out, with a brand new house.”

“Well, you better keep her, Pelton,” I told him, and he laughed. “When are you going to put a ring on her finger?”

“Ah, I’m giving it some time. I want it to be the right moment, and I want the proposal to be something over the top,” Cale replied, and we continued to watch as Lucy played in the water with her niece and nephews. She had on a one-piece suit that showed off her tiny curves and a frame that I wanted to hold in my arms so badly. She seemed happy out there with the kids as they splashed her and tried to climb all over her.

“Hey, Pelton, you wanna help me grab some equipment from the studio downstairs?” Damon asked and Cale nodded. I made my round of hellos to the people that were outside that I hadn’t seen yet. I slowly made my way to Lucy who was trailing behind the kids who were fussing that they didn’t want to come out of the water from the looks of it.

“It looks like that was fun,” I said to Lucy when I got down to the lake.

The kids ran over to their parents squealing as Lucy started to dry herself off.

“Oh yeah, they didn’t want to get out of the water,” Lucy groaned, drying off her hair. “I told them later I’d make them s’mores with extra chocolate if they’d get out and eat some hot dogs for their parents.”

“Damn, look at you Auntie Lucy, spoiling them. Are you going to bribe your own kids like that someday?” I let out a hearty laugh.

She swatted me on the arm. “Of course, I have a weak spot for kids and those cute little innocent smiles,” she replied, a huge smile on her face. I had always known she wanted a huge family with like five kids, a nice sized house with a huge backyard for them to play in. In the back of my mind, I wanted to be the guy that gave her that life. I mean, after we’ve made some more fun memories making music of course.

We shared a moment, neither one of us really saying anything, until Damon told us to get our asses out to the patio, so we could grab some food.

“Excited about the fireworks later?” Lucy asked as we slowly made our way toward the patio. She’d been inching closer and closer to me every step we took. Our hands lightly grazed each other’s as the smell of food finally filled our noses. I was fucking starving and couldn’t wait to eat.

“As long as one doesn’t fall on my head or some crazy shit like that, I’ll be good,” I lied. I made it my goal that tonight I was going to roll out a blanket on the grass, hold Lucy next to me, and kiss her under the fireworks. She just didn’t know that yet.

But everyone else surely did. Usually I’m one to help Damon out with setting off the fireworks, but he told me not to worry about it, and to make sure there were no funny noises coming from my bedroom tonight. Idiot.

“You’re not going out on the boat to light them?”

I shook my head. “I got off easy this year, I guess. Much better view from the grass anyway.”

“Well, you can sit with the munchkins and me. I’ll save you a seat on my blanket,” Lucy winked, giving me a slight bit of hope.

After grabbing two heaping plates of meat and other shit, my mouth watered at the food I was about to eat. I liked to eat, that was no secret. I would eat everything on the damn tour bus and then some, which obviously pissed everyone off. Especially Lucy, since I got into her mint chocolate cookies.

You never mess with a girl and her damn cookies.

I sat with Cale and Bryn, and I asked him about his time at rehab. He’d had a painkiller addiction for years. We all knew it. I could fuckin’ see it when he and Lucy dated and the band first met the guy. He was troubled, but we all had some sort of trouble inside us.

“So how did he react when you drove him to the new house?” I asked Bryn as we sat in a couple of lounge chairs over by the equipment where we were going to play a few songs later.

“The look on his face was priceless. He seriously had no clue that all of his things were out of the old apartment and set up in the house,” Bryn grinned, squeezing Cale’s hand.

“I thought the guys had kicked me out and sold all of my things. It wouldn’t have surprised me if they had.” Cale remarked, tossing me a beer from the cooler next to him. “But they’re sure as hell not moving in.”

Bryn snorted. “I’ve already had to shoot Tyler and Vince down once about that!”

I laughed as they updated me on how the band was taking a break the rest of the summer and planning to go on tour in the fall. The backyard was abuzz with even more people flooding in every few minutes. This was the most fun I’d had in a long time, being able to just hang out with family and friends in a laid back environment without any crazy hard core partying shit going on. I’d had to remind the guys of that when we planned it out. I knew Lucy’s siblings were coming with the kids and that we had to keep what we said PG at the most.

It was getting darker out and I had Lucy’s nephew Lucas Jr. begging me to play my guitar.

“Pwease. Pwease,” he said in his cute little toddler voice. “Can you play that, pwease?” He kept pointing to my shiny black six-string that I’d decided to pull out last minute to use.

I knelt down so I was eye level with Lucas Jr., and I ruffled his black hair. “Of course, little man.” I pointed to his brother Max. “You two can be front and center. Make some funny faces at your Aunt Lucy.”

“I heard that!” she yelled, strapping on her bass guitar. “You kids can make funny faces all you want. I’ll make them right back,” and she stuck her tongue out at us.

We were originally going to do an all-acoustic mini set, but why not go all out since it is Fourth of July and what not.

“Since we’ve got kids around, we have to choose carefully what we play,” Damon said to us as we huddled together in the corner.

“How about Bon Jovi?” Lucy suggested. “Or Poison?”

“You really think
Talk Dirty to Me
is appropriate for them to hear?” I looked at Lucy, meeting her eyes. I was getting her riled up now for the hell of it and I could see in her eyes that I was getting to her. Just a little.

“Har har, very funny,” Lucy retorted as we decided on a couple of songs and started playing for our little audience. The kids were up front dancing along like crazy, bumping into each other, and being scolded by their parents more than once for acting crazy.

After we sang a few songs, I let Bryn play my guitar and she and Cale got up to sing
Whole Lotta Love
by Zeppelin and a few other choices of our friends.

An hour went by and it was dusk, which meant it was time for the fireworks. We left the equipment up on the patio and Damon and Tyler started walking down to the boat where the fireworks were sitting, waiting to be lit. I got out blankets and more chairs for people to sit on the lawn, saving a spot by the big willow tree for Lucy and me.

“Still haven’t made a move?” Alex teased me as he laid down a blanket next to mine. Emily plopped right down and laid her head onto the grass. “She kept looking over her shoulder at you while she was talking to Bryn and Tyler about something and it’s like she was saying ‘MAKE YOUR MOVE, DAMMIT!’”

I groaned. “Stop with that shit; I’m working on it. You people are ruthless sometimes, I swear…”

“Because otherwise you’ll sit back and look like a little lost puppy,” Emily replied, and they both started to laugh. “That’s why we’re sitting next to you so we know you’ll actually
try.
” My friends were going to drive me crazy. A lost puppy, really? I was a fucking giant covered in tattoos. I could nail a fucking girl anytime I wanted to. I’m far from a lost puppy.

But as soon as Lucy plopped down next to me, smelling like a mix of lilacs and water, I found my tongue wagging and the tail between my legs throbbing through my jeans.

“The kids wanted to sit with Lucas and Lizzy,” she whispered at me, pointing over at where her nephews were fighting over something from the looks of it. “So looks like it’s just us.” She sounded so calm and collected, but how else would she be? I’d chased her away after telling her we needed to stay friends. Lucy wasn’t the kind of person to back down, but we’ve been slowly but surely returning to the playful way we used to act around each other.

I wrapped my arm around her shoulders, scooting closer to her. Just feeling the bare skin on her legs next to mine made me nervous inside. I felt her shudder as a cool breeze from the water hit us. “Are you cold? I can go get another blanket,” I said to her.

Lucy shook her head. “I’m good. I’ve got you sitting next to me so that helps.” She leaned in closer, laying her head on my shoulder. I glanced over at Alex and Emily, who were pretending to be in a heated conversation, but Alex winked at me and mouthed something to me I couldn’t understand. I mouthed
fuck you
and enjoyed the fact I had my dream girl, who was also my best friend, in my grasp. I nestled my nose into her hair, taking in her scent. She moved her head away from me and wrinkled her eyebrows at me. “Are you
sniffing
my hair?”

I chuckled. “You smell good, that’s all. I can sniff my favorite girl, can’t I?”

She shrugged while still in my hold. “If you say so, you creep.” She replied sarcastically. “First, it’s the bathroom while I was in a towel, and now you’re sniffing my hair. That’s a little weird.”

“Maybe it means something,” I whispered into her ear so Emily and Alex wouldn’t hear me. Lucy stiffened up, but relaxed when we saw a spark coming from the middle of the lake.

Fireworks time.

We all sat on the lawn and waited as Damon lit off the first firework, sending it into the sky, causing a loud boom. I heard the kids scream and saw Lucy’s pained expression as she looked up at the fireworks. Damn, she was beautiful. My hands longed to run along her cheeks, her lips, through her hair. Her expression softened, and I saw a smile form across her lips as more colors lit up the sky. Another loud cracking sound and she jumped a little.

She willingly scooted closer to me, almost to the point that she was on my lap. Her arm was around my waist, holding onto me with a death grip.

“Sure you’re okay?” I asked her loudly, and she looked at me smiling wide.

“Mhmm,” she said with satisfaction and we stayed in that position for the duration of the fireworks. During the grand finale, she quickly glanced at me as if knowing I had been watching her the whole time instead of the actual fireworks. By the time the grand finale lit up the sky, she had taken the liberty of spinning herself aroundand kissed me.

My hands rested on the small of her back as I kissed her back with as much feeling and passion as she gave me. Lucy gripped onto me for dear life and kissed me as if we’d never have the chance again; this was my forever moment.

I loved Lucy Tomlinson.

Our lips separated as everyone started packing up their chairs and blankets, heading inside or onto the patio. I, on the other hand, I had much better plans for Lucy and me in my bedroom. I wanted to have our movie and wine night like the one we tried that night we had sex, which I’d screwed up. The rest of the night was just going to be her and I, no sex, cuddled up together as she fell asleep in my arms.

I would die a happy man.

“Are you day dreaming dude?” Damon snapped his fingers in front of my face, snapping me out of my Lucy thoughts.

BOOK: Don't Break My Heart (Straight from the Heart #3)
11.21Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
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