CHAPTER FIVE
"Was it something I said?" joked Noah as his eyes involuntarily followed Indya's back down the hall. He inwardly groaned at the mess he'd made with her at the bar the previous week. She'd totally shut him down, and he guessed things had changed little since then. He'd only met her that once so wasn't sure why she acted that way towards him, although Adam had said she'd had her heart broken by an ex so maybe she was protecting herself over that. He slumped down on the sofa she'd just vacated, feeling the remnants of heat from where she'd sat.
"I think she's star struck," Adam laughed as Lucy slapped her hand across his chest.
"She's just tired," said Lucy. "It's hard work looking after the twins. I don't know how she does it. I thought Tristan and Olivia were a lot of work until I met them. They're adorable but they are on the go all the time. She'll be fine by tomorrow." She stood up and motioned for Adam to stay where he was, "I've got an early class in the morning so I'm going to bed too. You two stay up. There's plenty of food left in the kitchen, the desserts are in the refrigerator."
Lucy headed off to bed and Adam walked over to the kitchen, "Want anything to eat?" he asked as he stuck his head in the refrigerator.
"Surprise me," he said as he kicked off his shoes and put his feet up on the couch. Thinking better of it, he got up and joined Adam in the kitchen. "Want me to make the drinks?"
"Yeah, here take these two beers through," he said as he handed them to Noah. "I'll bring the snacks. No idea how the girls would eat their way through all this, there's enough to feed a small army," he chuckled.
They got settled on the couches, the food spread out on the coffee table in front of them. "So what was Indya's deal tonight?" he asked, unable to keep the question to himself.
"No idea. It might just be what Lucy said, she's not sure how to act around you being a big star an' all," he snickered then pulled his expression into a serious one. "She's also still getting over her break-up, although I'm not sure that's it because she's been fine for the past couple of months. She's well shot of him if you ask me."
"She gave me the brush off in the bar last week," Noah admitted shaking his head, "I wasn't really trying to pick her up, I just wanted to talk to her but she wasn't having any of it."
Adam smirked at him, "Shot down huh?" Noticing his brothers obvious discomfort, he turned serious, "Look, I don't know why she did that. If you want I can ask Lucy? Or you could ask her yourself in the morning?"
"Yeah, I might do that," he sighed as he picked up a couple of chips and threw them in his mouth. It was hard to talk with his mouth full.
"Why are you taking this so hard?" Adam asked, "Normally you'd just brush it off and go on to the next one or have you not had anyone brush you off in a while and that's why you're feeling like this?"
Once he'd finished chewing he contemplated putting more in his mouth to stop from having to answer, instead he decided to open up with his brother. He needed someone to talk to and perhaps Adam could help. He hung his head, "Yeah, I don't get brushed off anymore, not that I ever did mind you. I get women coming up to me all the time, it's just part of being in a rock band. They think they know me because I'm this huge star now but they don't. I guess I can understand why Marcus got so upset when he was voted 'Most Eligible Bachelor' and was hounded by gold diggers before he met Carly," he chuckled.
"Ha, I remember that. He wanted to be taken seriously as CEO of Harrington Enterprises and not because he wanted every gold digger from the entire coast coming on to him. I'm so glad I never had to go through anything like that before I met Lucy. I value my anonymity or at least as much as I can being a Harrington. So Indya..."
"Yeah, Indya," he sighed. "I'm not sure why but I feel drawn to her, and that has never happened to me before." He leaned forward to grab more chips and looked his brother, "It may be that she brushed me off but I don't think it is, there's something more about her. I can't stop thinking about her." He popped the chips in his mouth before he could say anything more.
Adam quirked his eyebrow at him, "Wow, I didn't expect that from you. Don't get me wrong, Indya is awesome. She was like a total mama bear when I first started dating Lucy and always has her back so in my book she's one of the good ones." He let out a laugh whilst shaking his head, "She will definitely keep you on your toes and make you work for it. You sure you want to go through that? Her job is here and you're away touring or promoting for most of the year, how are you going to work around that? The last thing she needs is to be hurt again and hey," he put his hands up in a pacifying gesture, "I know you won't purposely hurt her, but think about things before you do anything more."
"Yeah, I will and thanks." He had more than enough to think about after that conversation so decided to call it a night and hopefully things would be clearer in the morning. Deep down he knew his feelings for Indya wouldn't change, but he needed to figure out how things could ever work between them because out of everything Adam had said, he knew he did travel a lot and didn't know how that would work if he got into a serious relationship with her. He had a lot to think about over and above the added pressure of needing to record a new album in the next nine weeks.