Sound Proof (Save Me #5) (3 page)

Willow grabs my arm, dragging me back to where there’s a bit of light. The smile on her face tells me nothing could have beat this as a gift this year. Her lips are moving a mile a minute without signing and I wonder for a second if she has forgotten who she is talking to. I grab her chin, forcing her to look at me and when she finally does, everything seems to sink in.

She slaps herself in the forehead and apologizes.

“You’re the best,” she signs. “I love you.”

I pull her in close to me, kissing her cheek. “I love you too, now do me a favor and call your grandmother to check on Sage. She’s not texting me back,” I speak, signing at the same time to make it easier on her.

I hand her my phone and watch as she dials, waits and then has a conversation with my mother. Sage, my five-year-old daughter, is completely pissed off that she was not only not allowed to come to the concert tonight, but she couldn’t spend the night hanging out with her dad because he was working late.

Like there’s anything new there…

Willow hands my phone back to me, practically bouncing to get back to Izzy before it’s time to go hang out with the bands.

“Sage is fine, still mad at you for making her stay home though.”

I toss my arm around her shoulders, pulling her back to where Izzy is standing. When the show is finally done, we follow Izzy through the halls and I drop back onto the sofa in the corner. The good thing about being friends with the people in the bands is I know that they aren’t going to party like normal rock stars. They have families and kids with them on this tour and none of them would let anything bad happen to the kids.

As I sit here watching the girls have a good time, I feel eyes on me. I turn, searching for who it is, and find AJ staring at me again. I smile and nod at him, trying not to laugh at the fact that he still looks like he has no idea who I am. My gaze flicks to the girls as Willow wraps her arms around Trent, Vanessa’s drummer, and if I didn’t know him like I do I would be worried.

The couch sinks down beside me and an arm wraps around my shoulders. I turn enough to see that it’s AJ so I don’t completely freak out about being touched.

“Hi.”

My eyes fall to his lips as he talks and the smile the curves up on his lips tells me he thinks it’s for totally different reasons. Lifting his hand he draws his finger across my cheek. I bat it away.

“Seriously, AJ,” I deadpan.

“Seriously what, beautiful?” He attempts to touch me again so I grab his hand. “Feisty. I like it even though you ignored me earlier. How about we get out of here and find something more fun to do?”

I tilt my head to the side and smile while tightening my grip. “How about I take your dick and tie it around your balls before stretching it out and shoving it up your ass?” His eyes narrow as he tugs his hand away but he doesn’t move any more than that. “Yeah.” I laugh. “I like my plan a hell of a lot better. I think my husband would too.”

“Husband?”

“Yeah. I also don’t think that mixing work and what you seem to think would be pleasure, would be a good thing.”

“Shit,” he says with a laugh. “That fucker wasn’t lying to me.”

He finally shifts away from me, putting a few inches between us. He still doesn’t leave, even though he knows he’s not getting anywhere with me and continues talking to me while he ignores everyone else around us. For the first time in a long time I feel like I’m more than just a lawyer or a mother or a maid and I’m not sure if AJ making me feel that way is a good thing.

There comes a time in every man’s life, when he needs to make a choice. Either man up and do what’s needed for the one you love, or sit the fuck down so the right man can see what has to be done. I haven’t hit that point yet, at least not with the right person. Honestly, I’m not sure when it will happen, but when it does, I plan on standing up. If anything my father taught me growing up sunk in, it was to treat the woman you love like you would want any man to treat your daughter.

I know that sounds like a load of shit coming out of my mouth, but it’s the truth. I’ve had groupies hanging off my kit for as long as I can remember, but I’ve never wanted a woman for longer than needed to get my dick wet and rocks off. Groupies did that for me. Any relationships I had were few and far between because I didn’t want one.

Until now.

Until her.

Payton-fucking-Kinsley is probably the only woman, other than Abby, to tell me to take my dick and shove it, and still end up wrapping me around her finger. She’s had me by the balls ever since that night backstage, and she hasn’t even touched me. No, unfortunately she saves everything she has for her husband. Her piece of shit husband. I can’t stand the bastard, and I damn sure know Payton deserves better than him. How she doesn’t see it is beyond me.

It’s been a year. A year of me shamelessly flirting my ass every chance I got, and her just laughing it off. Months being the friend. I can only watch as her two beautiful girls and she live a life I wish I could be a part of. And honestly, thousands of hours have been spent coming up with different ways I could make her husband disappear and then be the one to console her.

It’s also been almost a year since I stepped foot on stage as more than just a filler. That might be killing me more than not being able to have Payton the way I want her. I still play almost every day, and I do a lot of the studio drumming for IronSound, but it’s not the same. There’s no rush of palpable energy like there was when I walked out onto a stage. No screaming coming from thousands of excited fans to get my blood pumping.

Now I either sit behind this desk, a sound board, or in a boardroom and try to keep my hands to myself.

I never thought I would be here. Then again, I never thought I would be falling for a chick I couldn’t have either. Let alone a deaf one. I always thought… well, I don’t know what I always thought, but I know it was never this. It happened, though. I sit here and constantly think about Payton. The way I want to go all cave man on her gorgeous blonde ass and make her mine, but how I can’t because I’m not the man that will break a relationship apart on purpose. I’m sure sooner or later her husband will fuck up royally and she’ll finally be free. I just have to wait patiently for that to happen.

Sounds so easy, doesn’t it? Wrong.

That leaves me here with my fingers drumming absentmindedly against the desk in front of me. I’m supposed to be doing something. What, I’m not sure, but I know there’s something I’m not doing that I should be. My door opens and the reason I’m so spaced out walks in.

Payton.

My eyes travel slowly up her bare legs, over her flared hips encased in a tight tan skirt, getting stuck there for a beat. All I’ve wanted to do for the past year is to fill my hands with them, to drag my fingers over her creamy skin, and lose myself in her. She clears her throat, gaining my attention, and my gaze snaps up to her sparkling blue eyes.

“Payton,” I say with a smile even though she can’t hear me. I still haven’t learned sign language, so I talk and she reads my lips. It works.

“Sooner or later—” she chuckles “—I’m just going to stop talking until you cave and finally learn to sign.”

I lean back, resting my hands behind my head and grin. “I know how to sign, they just happen to be things you don’t want to hear from me. Yet.” I wink.

“Not this again. I’m married, AJ.” She shakes her head, but the unmistakable blush that spreads across her face tells me more than any words she could say.

Payton tries to conceal the smile behind a set of files in her hands but she can’t. I know she loves my banter and I’m almost positive her husband doesn’t get to see the playful side of her anymore. He’s an idiot. Me, I soak up every second of it she will give me. I have to change the subject though, before the hard on that started forming the second she walked through my door gets too hard to deal with.

“Oh, I’m well aware of your current situation. Now, what did you need this morning, beautiful?”

“Well I had papers for Olivia, the girl you’re
supposed
to be working with this morning.” She cocks her head to the side and smirks.

Shit! That’s what I was forgetting.
I jump up, hoping the problem in my pants isn’t too noticeable, and rush out the door. The laughter behind me makes me smile as Payton rushes out the door behind me, her heels clicking on the floor until she’s next to me.

She reaches out and grabs the back of my shirt, making me slow down. The files she was holding in the office get thrust into my face along with a pen.

“Sign this.” She laughs and I sign without stopping to read them. I can’t believe I actually forgot what I was supposed to be doing this morning. “And make sure she signs on the correct lines this time. Messing up paperwork just to see have me chasing you down to fix them is getting old.”

I turn my face toward her so she can see my lips as I talk. “You’d never have to chase me down to get what you need from me, Payton,” I say with a wink, earning me that blush again. “You’re leaving for New York tomorrow, right?”

“Yep.” Payton nods. “Taking Willow to see Wicked for her birthday and have a meeting with a client.”

“Well, have fun. I’ll do my best to get these papers signed right so you won’t have to use that as an excuse to come see me.”

I push my way through the studio doors, apologizing as I walk in, thinking Olivia is just sitting there waiting for me. I’m immediately shushed by the blonde occupying my seat while Olivia is already in the booth singing her heart out.

“Nice of you to join us,” she says over the sound from the speakers.

“Izzy, what the hell are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be in, oh I don’t know… school?”

“Job shadowing. Well, I would be if there was someone here to shadow. I guess this should constitute as working though, since I was alone and all,” she answers without looking up from the soundboard and makes a few adjustments. I wave goodbye to Payton, watching her ass sway from side-to-side as she leaves. I take the seat next to Izzy once she is out of sight and drop the file Payton needs onto the desk next to me.

“Izzy, you’ve been doing this since before you could walk. I don’t think this constitutes as job shadowing anymore.”

She reaches up, hitting the intercom button. “Liv, can you take it from the top of the second verse again.” She finally turns toward me and smirks before turning her attention back to the board. “It’s required to pass. Plus, if I hadn’t been here, you would’ve been wasting company money by not showing up.”

I can’t do anything but shake my head, because she has me there. I would have been wasting company money by having Olivia here and not recording when she should be.

“You’re not skipping mid-terms or anything, are you?”

Without missing a beat, she reaches into her bag and hands me an approved release paper, all without taking her eyes off of what she’s doing.

“You knew about this, but I guess since you can’t seem to take your eyes away from the pretty lawyer lady, that’s probably where your mind is too. You know she’s married, right? With kids. One’s my age, one’s younger.”

“I know. I’ve met her kids, and unfortunately, her husband.”

“Her husband is a douche,” Izzy whispers, rolling her eyes.

I narrow my eyes at her, just as Olivia finishes up the song. “Why do you say that?” I mean, I know that, but why does Izzy?

Izzy shrugs and tells Olivia to go ahead and take a quick break when she asks. “He’s just weird. Smells like he bathes in alcohol sometimes, so I assume he likes to drink, maybe that’s why. I’ve asked Willow about him but she just shrugs it off and won’t talk about it.”

Reaching up, I adjust the bass on the playback just a bit, which earns me a dirty look. “If he makes you feel weird, I don’t want you near him alone.”

“Yes, Dad…” She snickers.

I swat the back of her head and point to the soundboard. I try not to bring attention to the fact that she called me dad as a joke. It’s taken a long time to get her to the point that she doesn’t cry every time she talks about him and I don’t want to take all that progress away by drawing attention to it. “Back to work. I wouldn’t want to have to call the school and get them to fail you on this, little girl.”

As gently as I can, I slide the race car book from under Sage’s hands and pull the blanket up, tucking it in around her shoulders. I can’t help but chuckle at the book now resting on the side table. Race cars. Who the hell would have thought my five-year-old baby girl would like race cars instead of dolls. She wiggles a little until she’s comfortable, her pouty lips parting and it looks like she mumbles something but I can’t understand what it is. The happy mood I was in because I get to spend time alone doing something fun with Willow drops because I hate that I can’t hear what Sage is mumbling.

I make my way down the hall to make sure that Willow is all set to go to New York in the morning and tell her that she needs to go to sleep as well so she will be able to get up in time for us to leave. She kisses me goodnight, her body practically vibrating with excitement for our trip and climbs into bed, shutting the light off as soon as I start to walk out the door.