No Going Back (22 page)

“You came,” she says into my neck.

“Yeah, I wanted to surprise you.”

“You succeeded,” she says as she pulls back to look up at me. I can see tears of happiness in her eyes. “I’m so happy you are here. I don’t ever want to be apart like that again. Deal?” She sticks out her pinky and I gladly loop mine in and pinky promise her.

“Deal.”

The next morning I lie in bed and listen to Mallory as she sings in the shower. I haven’t heard her voice since that night Derek and I had shown up at the bar and caught Mal and Jes singing karaoke. I was blown away that night listening to her. She’s breathtaking, but she rarely shows it. The only reason I even heard her that night was because she was drunk and the only reason I’m hearing her now is because she probably thinks I can’t.

Mallory opens the door and I watch as the steam escapes the small bathroom as she walks out wrapped up in a short white towel. As much as the head between my legs is chanting
drop the towel, drop the towel
, my rational head is thinking about other things besides sex. Better write that one down, because this shit rarely happens.

“Why don’t you ever sing where people can hear you?” I catch her off guard with that question. I watch her through the mirror on her dresser as she towel dries her hair. She’s deep in thought as if she has to truly think about how to best answer my question. I watch as she slowly walks towards the bed with her towel still tightly tucked in and feel the bed dip as she sits down on the edge.

“I don’t know really. I’ve never thought about it. I guess it’s been an internal thing that I never realized I did. When I’m drunk I don’t give a shit about anything, so it’s easier for me to let loose. But when I was a kid my parents use to tell me to shut up anytime I sang. My grandmother was the only person who encouraged it and told me how good of a voice I had. ‘You should be on Star Search’ is something she told me often when I was younger. As I got older I pushed away the foolish dreams and statements of me actually being any kind of singer.” She shrugs.

“I want you to sing with me sometime,” I admit. How wicked would it be to have her singing by my side on tour or at least have a song on our album.

“You’re fucking crazy. No way.” She shakes her head at me.

“Please, just at least maybe record a song with me sometime. Your voice is amazing Mal and it’d be so rad if you’d sing a song with me. It could be like our song.” I throw that last bit out there because, well, it’s true and also girls like shit like that. I continue with my plea to win her over with the idea. “Come on, I have the perfect song. It’s a song I wrote a while back. It was before all the bull shit happened…it was when I was on tour and realized how huge of a mistake I had made. I was planning on fixing everything with us at Derek’s wedding, and well, we both know what happened there. Anyways, I always knew the song was missing something — never realized it was you.” She scoots more up on the bed so that she’s sitting right beside me.

“What’s the song about?” she asks. Fuck yeah, her showing interest is definitely a kick in the right direction.

I grab her hand. “Well, it’s about never thinking you’re good enough for someone. It’s about never showing who you truly are because you’re afraid that they won’t like the real you…or that if you actually let someone in you’ll end up getting hurt like you have in the past. It’s about throwing caution to the wind and finally saying fuck it all, I don’t care and just going for what you really want in life.”

“I’ll think about it,” she says as she lets her towel slowly fall down around her and then pulls the blanket back and straddles me. “But right now I want this hard cock of yours…” she grinds herself into me, “in me. I need you one last time before we hit the road today.”

Chapter Twenty-Seven

*MALLORY*

I’ve never been away from home. So being on the road with Seth is a crazy ass adventure in so many ways. I’m trying my damnedest to stay on top of my online school work, but all these cool new places he’s been dying to show me makes it extremely hard.

“Hey baby, wanna see something really cool?” Seth pulls me onto his lap. He turns his laptop towards me and I really have no clue what I’m looking at.

“What is it?”

“It’s our house.” I feel the smile from his lips as he says it into my ear. My face lights up and I really try to focus on what I’m looking at since I now know I’m looking at our home.

“Our house,” I let the words slowly roll from my tongue, taking in how good it sounds.

“Yes baby, ours. Right out on Granny’s Nook just like you had wanted. We’ll be just far enough from Derek and Jes that we all have privacy, but close enough that we are still neighbors. It’s going to be perfect.” I can hear the excitement in his voice.

“You’re perfect.” I caress his lips with mine. “So, explain to me what I’m seeing.”

“Well, this here is the first floor. It has the big open plan with the double-sided fireplace between the living room and kitchen area. The laundry room is on the other side of the kitchen near the garage. There are two guest rooms and a bathroom on the other side of the living room. Upstairs it’s split with our huge master at the end of the hall with your huge bathroom and closet. Then there are the three bedrooms for the three kids we will have one day.”

“Put the brakes on right there buddy. Three kids? I don’t think my hoo-ha can handle popping out three kids. It can barely handle your huge dick. The one that’s freaking trying to molest my ass at the moment.

“Let me finish showing you the plans and I’ll show you the difference between trying and doing.”

I point my finger at him. “You are not touching my ass with your dick. You got that mister? It’s a no-go zone. I will karate chop your dick off if you try to break my sphincter.”

Seth just laughs at me shaking his head. “Karate chop.” He makes the Hi-Yah sound while making the movement with his hands.

“Laugh it up big boy. You won’t be laughing when it happens.” I glare at him.

“Fine.” He holds his hands in surrender. “I’ll just have to get you really drunk,” he says under his breath.

“Hey! I heard that.” I slap his chest, which just causes him to laugh.

“I talked to Doug earlier today,” he says which instantly has my full attention knowing there aren’t too many reasons for why he’d talk to him.

“Oh yeah? What did he have to say?” I look at him trying to get an idea from his features but I can’t.

“He said that they are getting real close to finding Allison.”

“Is she swimming with the fishes? Please tell me she is.” I beg in a sarcastic tone, but almost not caring if it was actually true.

“She’s not swimming with them yet. I know Doug has his ways, like most high scale people do, but I told him that I want this dealt with legit. I don’t want either of us having a conscience about something that we could have put into play. I don’t want to stoop to her level and plus I want her to pay for what she did to you…to us.” He pulls me in closer where I gladly snuggle up to him. “He said she’s getting sloppy and she’s running out of options, so it’ll only be a matter of time before they catch up to wherever she is and then turn her into the police.” I’m relieved to know that this whole time people have been keeping a look out for her. It actually makes me feel a bit safer. Being with Seth makes me feel safe period.

We’re on our way to Florida right now and I cannot wait to lie on the beach and get my tan on. It’s not like I can really get much of one with my almost porcelain white skin, but doesn’t mean I don’t try, or even get a wee bit red in the process. There’s just something about lying out on the warm sand and just soaking in the rays while listening to the waves flap on the shore in the distance. Lying out at the lake is close because some places do actually have a sandy shore, but the sounds you hear are actually boat induced waves. So it’s not as calming as the real deal.

When Seth told me that he was flying Derek and Jes out to meet us while we were there I about lost my wig. I was so flipping excited. I’ve been missing Jesika the last two months I’ve been away. I miss not just being able to drive over to her house and hang with her and the kids. Now, the fact that we will be neighbors soon, well when we are actually home that is, is a freaking dream come true. I couldn’t ask for anything better. My life is so absolutely perfect right now, it’s unreal. No, seriously, it really feels like I’m living in a fantasy and at any moment I will wake up.

“How much longer until we are there?” I ask Seth who is now intently playing some damn basketball game on the Xbox with Connor. “Yoohoo. Hello!”

“What babe?” Seth asks without looking my way. Heaven forbid he take his focus off the stupid game for ten seconds.

“Nevermind.” I say as I walk past the boys, yes freaking boys, and make my way up to the driver to ask him.

“Hey Ted. How much longer until we’re there?” I take a seat in the passenger seat and buckle up.

“Oh hey Mallory. The last sign I saw said we’re about 100 miles away and that was thirty minutes ago, so I’d say about another thirty and we should be there.” I’d like to believe Ted is short for Teddy, because to me he looks like a big ole teddy bear. Ted is a short, sweet, black man who is more on the round side. He’s funny as shit too. Anytime I’m feeling bored, when Seth and the boys are practicing or like now playing games, I come hang out up front. He helps the time pass and keeps my spirits lifted. He’s also been on my ass as well about finishing up school so I can be The Rifters manager. “So, have you thought any more about our last conversation?”

“As a matter of fact I have,” I say proudly. “I already enrolled in the classes that I need to make that happen. I haven’t told Seth yet. It’s kind of a surprise.”

He flashes me a wicked grin, “Oh Mallory, you have no clue how good I am at keeping surprises on the hush hush.”

Seth walks up and rest his hands on my shoulders, “What are you two talking about?”

“Oh nothing,” I say as I unbuckle my seatbelt and turn to go towards the back. “It was good chatting with you Ted. I’m glad we’ll be there soon. I can’t wait to hit the beach.” He just smiles and does the ‘my lips are sealed’ motion before pretending to toss the key. I just laugh at him.

Seth leads us to the very back of the bus and sits down on the bed and pats the spot next to him for me to sit down.

“I have a huge favor to ask you. The concert that’s in a couple days is really different than anything we’ve ever done. Ever. It’s going to be pretty small and intimate. I want to do something extremely special that night and I want you to be included.” I just eye him with suspicion.

“Okay, what is that?” I hesitantly ask.

“I really want you to sing one song with me…our song.” The look he has in his eyes is begging me to agree. We’ve practiced the song a couple times since I’ve been on the road with him. I have to admit there is something really magical about singing with the person who owns your heart. It’s hard to explain exactly how it feels, but incredible is one of the many ways. What Seth doesn’t know is that I’ve been practicing it some without him knowing. I’m sneaky like that. Looks like my sneakiness is about to pay off.

“Yes. Yes I will sing with you.” I’d say yes a million times over to get the smile from him I was just rewarded with. Why wouldn’t I agree to something that obviously means so much to him and makes him happy? That’d be dumb on my part. Being in love means you do things that are important and will bring joy to each other. And I know this man that won my heart over so long ago would do anything and everything in his power to make sure I’m the happiest girl in the world.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

*SETH*

I’m fucking nervous as shit. I could literally vomit nervousness. My plan is fucking epic and I can’t wait to see the look on Mal’s face. I don’t know why I’m wigging out about it. It’s not like I’m having second thoughts or that I’m not 100 percent balls to the wall sure this is what I want. I know without a fucking doubt it’s what I want, but is it what she wants that worries me. I mean, we have been back together for six months. That’s long enough, right?

Who am I kidding? I know she wants this. Her best friend reassured me of it when I called her up and told her my whole plan. For that reason I made sure to fly Derek and Jes out here to where we are playing tonight. I wanted them to be front and center. Plus, since we are back on the east coast and happen to be in Florida, minutes away from the beach, I knew they’d enjoy the mini vacation. It was also another excuse to get Derek to play a show with us.

I had arranged for Jesika and Mallory to spend most of the day at the beach and then shopping. Or vice versa. As long as they weren’t anywhere near this venue while we’re getting set up for this gig. This is a special closed set event we are doing tonight. It’s a small crowd. Kind of like one of those MTV Unplugged sets. Up close and personal. It’s big enough that we won’t be doing an acoustic set, which Derek is thankful for. There would be only minimal drumming if that was the case and it’d pretty much defeat the purpose of him even playing.

Roger set up a few smaller gigs like this to promote our album dropping next week. For the most part I agree with the stuff he does, but sometimes I wish we didn’t have to deal with him. He somewhat reminds me of one of those slime ball cheap car lot salesmen.