Something to Believe In (The Renegade Saints Book 4) (10 page)

She shrugged. “Yep. Believe it or not it’s really relaxing.”

“Huh,” I said thoughtfully. “I never would’ve guessed.”

I had the crazy urge to ask if I could color with her. Even though I wanted to stay, I quickly squashed the idea. She needed to see I was being sincere. If I asked to hang with her in her room right then, she’d have thought I just wanted to fuck. Which, honestly, I did. But I also wanted something more.

“I’ll leave you to it then,” I said as I stepped back. “We’re going to have fun together like normal people. Get excited because I’m pretty fucking awesome,” I boasted.

She arched her eyebrow and cocked her head. “You’ve got your work cut out for you since to this point you’ve been awesomely awful. I’m looking forward to seeing the other side of you. Every person who’s part of this tour raves about what a great guy you are. It’ll be nice to see that.”

“Oh, you’ll be seeing it,” I teased.

I damn near groaned when she smiled up at me hopefully. She was stunning.

“I’m counting on it,” she murmured.

Knowing I’d dodged a major bullet by getting her to forgive me, I decided to leave while I was ahead.

“Cool. I’m going to head up to my room then. I’ll see you… soon.”

“No,” she disagreed.

I cocked my head to the side, confused.

“You won’t just see me soon,” she chided. “You’ll see me
tomorrow
when I knock on the door with the daily brief and you
will
be happy to see me.”

I laughed as I stared down at her. “I’ll be more than happy to see you,” I assured her.

She grinned. “See you tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow,” I confirmed. “Have a good night.”

I
barely slept a wink. I couldn’t believe Tyson had admitted to liking me and had opened the door to something happening between us. Half of me was giddy, while the other half was scared shitless he’d revert to form at some point. I lit up inside when he was around and I wanted nothing more than for him to thaw around me permanently. I kept my fingers crossed but repeatedly told myself to hope for the best, while being prepared for the worst.

My first order of business upon closing the door when he left was to open my laptop to write a long email to Violet. I told her everything—from the bathroom to his apology and everything in between. I knew she’d give it to me straight, and I was very interested in her take.

When I got up the next morning, I had a response email from her. It was full of exclamation points because she was so excited.

“I so totally knew you liked him,” she wrote.

I grinned like a fool as I wrote her back and told her I more than liked him, but I was scared to hope he’d really turned the corner. She texted me and said to have a little faith, but to keep my guard up until I felt confident.

True to his word when I knocked on his door he opened it with a welcoming smile.

“Good afternoon, Daisy,” he said cheerfully as he took the brief from me.

Like a fool, I focused on his mouth as he spoke. The man had lips to die for and staring at them set me back to the bathroom incident. The sensory memory hit me like a wave. He’d kissed me so stupid I was still reacting.

“Daisy?”

I knew my face was beet red as my eyes darted up and met his. I shifted nervously as I stared at him.

“Sorry,” I mumbled. “I just remembered I have a call to make about…”

I trailed off, unable to pull something out of my brain. Dammit, I needed to learn to come up with stuff on the fly. I desperately tried to think of a call I needed to make. Certainly I knew I had things to do, but in the moment I couldn’t remember even one.

“About?”

“Drumsticks,” I blurted. “Gavin doesn’t like the weight of the sticks from his new shipment so I need to call the company and have them replaced. I was just working out in my head how to explain it all to the manufacturer. You know how it is.”

The corner of his mouth quirked into a half grin. “Yep, I know what’s up.”

I was positive he didn’t buy my excuse, which meant he probably suspected I’d been staring at his lips remembering. We’d agreed to take things slowly and see if
maybe
something might develop, which meant I needed to chill and act normal.

“Well,” I said breezily, “you’ve got your daily brief and I’ve got calls to make. Smell ya later.”

Spinning away, I rolled my eyes as I mouthed the last words I’d said to him in disbelief.
Smell ya later
? Wow. How cool was I? Answer: not even a little bit. I cringed when I heard his chuckle.

“Have a good day,” he called out from behind me.

I raised my hand in acknowledgement and called out, “You too,” over my shoulder.

Once I was in the elevator and I knew he couldn’t see me, I sagged against the wall and put my hand against my chest. My heart hammered and I let out a hoarse sounding laugh. I was definitely going to need to work on being cool because Ty was way too damn sexy for my own good. He completely addled my brain.

I looked for Gabrielle, or Bree as I now knew she was called, throughout the day but never ran across her. I wasn’t sure who knew anything about the group she attended so it wasn’t like I could flat-out ask Gavin where she was when I handed him the daily brief. Turned out I didn’t need to ask because he volunteered that Bree and Leah were shopping. I never came across either of them for the rest of the day.

I’d been pretty good at avoiding band dinners for the majority of my time on the tour, but with no more angst between me and Tyson, I was in the clear. And, because I love soup the way some people love pastries, I was super-psyched about dinner. There was a massive salad bar and ten different kinds of homemade soup set out for us in a buffet style. Since I’d seen the contracts and talked to the vendors, I knew what the food choices were which means I was one of the first people to get there. Yeah, I was the equivalent of a retiree strolling in for the early bird special, but I didn’t care. I planned to try at least four or five of the soups so getting there early was essential.

A handful of the sound crew were arriving just as I was, so we went through the salad line together making small talk. After they took their seats I made my way to the soup line to make the first two of my soup choices. As I was waiting for the soups to be added to my tray, I felt a tap on my shoulder.

“Daisy? Is it really you?”

Turning around, I found myself face to face with Gabrielle. After making sure my tray was secure on the counter, I looked back at her and smiled.

“Hey! It is me,” I laughed. “I’m Lacey’s new assistant. I had no idea you and Gavin were related! I saw you last night and wanted to talk to you but I was sick. I looked for you today but you were out. If you don’t like people knowing about group, no one needs to realize we know each other—”

“Are you kidding? I’m so excited to have a friend here! This is like the cherry on top of my sundae,” she assured me. “You’ll have to start calling me Bree, though. I used my full name at group because I’ve found it helps cut down on the amount of people who realize who my brother is. He tells stories about Bree, not Gabrielle, which is a help. I’ve had some issues in the past with people trying to use me to get to the band. It’s easier to avoid all of that. I hope you understand why I never said anything.”

“I totally get it,” I assured her. “It’s not like we were super close and there were always other people with us.”

“Thanks, Dais,” she said with a smile. “How about I make my soup order and we grab some seats and catch up?”

I agreed and stood with her while she got her food. Once we both had our trays in hand, we headed to a table and sat down across from each other. I let out a happy sigh after I took my first mouthful of the cheddar and cauliflower soup.

“So, tell me,” she chuckled, “how do you like tour life? Not as glamorous as one might think, am I right?”

I dabbed at my lips with a napkin and nodded. “It’s an amazing job, but you’re right, it’s far from glamorous. I think it would be more so if we were stationary but all the moving around is brutal. I’ve only been here a few weeks but I’ve already forgotten where I was in the country twice. And don’t even get me started on the time changes. My body is all over the place with that.”

She nodded her agreement as she finished chewing a piece of her French roll. “It’s really something. By the time it’s over everyone will be completely fried. Gavin normally comes home and refuses to leave the house for at least a week. He says he needs the transition time to get his head around being normal again. It’s part of why I’ve always chosen to do a week or two here and there instead of prolonged periods. At least until now. I’m staying indefinitely.”

I swallowed my spoonful of French onion soup and raised a brow in confusion. “What about your job?”

I didn’t know her well enough to detail exactly what she did, but I knew she loved the office she worked in. I couldn’t believe she would just up and leave it, so I assumed she’d been let go.

Her eyes darted away before she looked down at her soup, stirring it mindlessly. After a lengthy pause, she looked back up. “I quit.”

The way she said it was almost robotic. Had I not seen the sheen of tears in her eyes, I might’ve assumed she didn’t care at all.

“Gab—erm, I mean Bree,” I murmured, “are you okay?”

Taking a deep breath, she sat up straight. “I’ve had a rough few months, but I’m not ready to talk about it just yet,” she explained. “For now, let’s just pretend this is an extended vacation for me.”

“Of course,” I assured her. “Whatever you want.”

Looking up at me, she smiled. “You really are the sweetest,” she said softly. “I’m so glad you’re here. It’s like fate knew I needed someone who would understand.”

Reaching across the table, I squeezed her hand. “I’m here whenever you want to talk.”

“Do you two
know
each other?”

My eyes widened as I looked up and found myself staring into Tyson’s eyes.