I framed her face in my hands.
Kissing her.
She was on her tiptoes.
Trying to get closer.
The way she always did.
I fucking loved it.
Loved that it seemed like she couldn’t get enough.
Like she couldn’t get close enough. Couldn’t get deep enough. Couldn’t get touched enough.
I was all too eager to sign up for the task.
My chest pressed full with that emotion that gripped me every time she was near.
Joy.
I could feel her smiling under my mouth.
Damn, I loved that, too.
“I need to go.”
“Why?” I said with a pout. Because hell. If this was your girl? You’d pout, too.
She giggled. “Um…there’s this little thing called work. You know…pays the bills and the rent?”
“There’s also this little thing called staying in bed…making love to my girl. All day.”
She groaned a throaty sound. “Don’t tempt me.”
“Funny, ’cause that’s all you do.” My voice lowered. “Tempt me.”
“Mmm…well, as tempting as staying in bed with you all day sounds, I really have to go. Cash register won’t run itself, and I’m not sure Heidi is qualified to hold down the shop by herself quite yet.”
A chuckle rolled from me. “I’m sure she’d be all too willing to try.”
“Oh, I bet she would.”
Edie and I? We’d been this way for the better part of the last month. Ever since the night I’d finally let her break down the last of my walls. When I’d let her into that place where I’d never let anyone else, and she’d turned right around and let me into hers.
Trust.
They say relationships are built on it.
And I was still kind of reeling she’d trusted me with that.
I pecked another kiss to her sweet mouth. “Fine. Go. But you’d better miss me while you’re gone.”
She tossed a grin at me from over her shoulder. “You know I will.”
Leaning with my shoulder against the door jamb, I watched her perfect ass sway as she walked to her car, because I couldn’t get enough of that, either, returned her small wave when she drove away, smiling like a damned fool when I turned around.
Startled, I jumped and skidded to a stop.
“You’ve got to be kidding me with this.”
There was Deak, sitting at the table with his ankle hooked on his opposite knee, reading the paper and sipping at his coffee like he’d been there the whole damned time.
“Always so damned jumpy.”
I widened my eyes. “Always so damned creepy.”
He laughed at the ceiling. “I am many things, mate, but creepy is not one of them.” He waved his hand over himself, at his bare chest and bare feet, board shorts his only attire. “Ladies love it.”
It was my turn to gesture at myself. “In case you hadn’t noticed, not a lady.”
He shot me a mocking grin. “Just keep telling yourself that.”
I shook my head, fighting a smile. “Huh…if I didn’t know better, I’d say it sounds like someone wants to get his ass kicked.”
“I’ll take ya any day, mate.”
“And you just keep tellin’ yourself that, pretty boy.”
“Pretty boy?” Deak scoffed, voice oozing with offense. “I’ll have ya know I’ve been running around the wilderness of Australia with snakes and spiders that will kill ya with just a nip since I was a boy. Swimming with sharks. This here is all man. Nothing pretty about me.”
I snorted. “I bet you spend more time in front of a mirror in the morning than Edie and Blaire combined.”
“Hardly. Wake up looking this good. It’s a sad, sad story for the rest of you assholes.”
Chuckling, I shook my head as I went into the kitchen and poured myself a cup of coffee, wandered back out and sank down in a chair opposite Deak. “What’s on the agenda today? You giving lessons?”
“Nah. Off today. Jed has some shit scheduled for me tomorrow,” he said, flipping through the pages of a newspaper.
“Who the hell reads an actual newspaper anymore, anyway?” I taunted, kicking up my feet.
“Real men.”
“Right,” I drew out. I laughed beneath my breath as I took a sip, breathing in the easy atmosphere when I rocked back.
I relaxed that way for the longest time before I felt something shift in the air.
Deak stilled. Sat up a little higher in his chair. Eyed me over the top of the paper. Something that looked like confusion moved across his normally casual expression.
He sat back, head angled as he stared across at me.
Unease flitted and fired at my nerves. “What?”
“Don’t talk much about yourself.”
I blinked. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
He hiked a shoulder, as calm as could be. “Just wondering why this dude looks just like you and wears your last name, and I’ve never heard a thing about him.”
Apprehension slithered down my spine. “What the fuck are you talking about?”
But I already knew. When I first left L.A., Sunder hadn’t hit it big the way they had in the last couple years. I mean, they’d already had a huge ass following, sold a ton of records and constantly sold out their shows, but their style was too gritty and raw and hard to draw in the masses.
But something had shifted on the last album. Things had exploded. Their faces showed up on TV more and more, stories about them popping up on my Facebook feed. Didn’t know if it was the song Baz had done with Shea that’d shot Sunder into the stratosphere or if it was just because the last album was so kickass, which it most definitely was.
Brilliant, really.
But whatever the factors, they were more popular now than they’d ever been.
Deak folded the paper in half and slid it across the table.
It was open to the entertainment section. At the top of the article was a big black and white photo of the band live on stage. Still, the static image managed to capture the intensity of the show. Beside it was a close-up picture of Baz grinning out, Shea wrapped around him, her head resting on his chest.
Emotion throbbed. Hurt and respect. Love and regret. And a fuckton of fear.
Couldn’t help but feel all of them when I thought of my big brother.
Deak jabbed at the picture with his index finger, head cocked to the side. “Look familiar?”
I scrubbed a hand over my face.
No.
I hadn’t ever told Deak who I was. He just figured I was some kind of stray roaming city to city playing his music, a gypsy who couldn’t stay in one damned place. He had no clue about the home I’d left behind.
“Yeah, looks familiar.”
“Yeah?” he pressed.
“What do you want me to say, Deak?”
“Uh, I don’t know….how about why you held out on me and didn’t tell me your big brother’s a rock star? You could start there.”
“Don’t exactly advertise that fact. And if you didn’t know who he was to begin with, what does it matter?”
He cleared his throat, paused while he sifted through his thoughts. “Doesn’t matter who he is, Austin. Couldn’t give two shits that he’s famous or what the fuck ever. Think ya know me better than that by now. Just figured you didn’t have any family to your name. That you moved around trying to find a place to call home and maybe you’d found it here. And for the record, I know of the band, but I’m hardly some fanboy who’s gonna go searching for pictures and posting them on my Pinterest wall. My apologies for not recognizing the connection.”
The last was pure sarcasm.
I scowled at him and he just kept right on. “You two not get along?”
“It’s not that…it’s just…my past’s…complicated.”
He laughed, but there was something dark about it. “Pretty sure the past is that way for the best of us, mate. Doesn’t mean ya have to go hiding it.”
I exhaled heavily. “I…I don’t talk about it with anyone. Not you. Not Damian. So there’s no need to get offended.”
Only person I trusted with it was Edie.
“All right. I get it. Respect you.” He nudged the paper closer. “But you might want to take a look at this.”
Standing up, he walked down the hall, leaving me to my privacy and a queasy sense of dread.
I did my best not to read the caption at the top of the article, but there was no ignoring the words. My chest tightened.
Sunder Splintering?
sun·der (sŭn′dər)
sun·dered, sun·der·ing, sun·ders
v.tr.
1. To break into two or more pieces or parts; sever
2. To force or keep apart
3. To form a barrier or border between
Warily, I pulled the article closer, swallowed around the lump growing thick in my throat when I began to read.
How long until Sunder lives up to their name?
Los Angeles bred Sunder is back at it again.
Late last week, Sunder cancelled a sold-out show in Denver just hours before curtain drop due to an unforeseen emergency.
Sebastian Stone, lead singer and founding member, was spotted hours later rushing into a Los Angeles emergency room.
It was announced early the next morning the last three shows of their North American tour would be rescheduled.
An undisclosed source says, “Baz is doing what is right for him and his family…and that’s being there for them when they need him.”
Things seemed to turn around for the troubled band when their track, Forever, featuring Shea Stone, hit the top of the charts two years ago. Since then, sources close to the band say Stone has shifted his attention away from the band and turned his focus on his growing family.
Sebastian and Shea Stone were wed three years prior. Shea, who already had a young daughter before Stone came into the picture, gave birth to the couple’s son, Connor, two years ago.
Guitarist Lyrik West recently said, “Family is always gonna come first for us. Whether it’s our support of one another or for our growing families. That’s just the way it has to be.”
West was recently wed this year. He and his wife are expecting their first child this winter.
A statement from bassist Ash Evans added to the conflicting reports. “We were born to make music. Simple as that. The rest? Rumors or reality? It really doesn’t matter. Sunder isn’t going anywhere.”
Can Sunder survive another crisis?
Or will the old adage remain true?
What goes up must come down.
Come home.
Come home.
Baz’s petition spun around me.
Pushing and pulling.
Attracting and repelling.
I just didn’t know if I ever could.