Chapter 14

Mason

Two days after the fire, Nicole and I drove to L.A. in my car. Heidi had been all for the idea of Nicole traveling with the band for the next three months. The two women had spent the remainder of the time Nicole and I were in Desert Springs planning out every detail of the new store. Heidi would keep Nicole updated on what was happening, and forward anything Nicole needed to deal with while she was away.

Now I just had to tell the band about her. I’d spoken with Nolan yesterday but hadn’t mentioned Nicole or what I had been doing while I was away. I had been telling the truth when I told her the band needed to hire someone to handle our social media. Until recently Jared and Aaron had been responsible for it. Our publicist had suggested we hire someone to take over the task, but I hadn’t exactly given the guys any choice when it came to Nicole. I had hired her without consulting them first.

I’ll admit that when I came up with the idea, I hadn’t really been thinking things through. I’d just known that for the past few days, before the fire, I’d been having fun. Sure, I loved touring and I loved my life in L.A., but something was missing. I still didn’t know what it was, but in the time I’d spent with Nicole, even after the fire, the feeling that something was missing was less intense than it had been before.

I didn’t know if it would vanish with her joining us on tour, but what I did know was that I wasn’t ready to walk away from her just yet. Eventually I would have to when she returned to her life in Desert Springs, but in the meantime we might as well enjoy ourselves.

We spent the rest of the journey talking and joking around and listening to my favorite rock station. I pointed out when the band’s latest single was on.

“Do the guys know I’m not some huge fan of the band?” she asked while we were stopped at a red light, and then blushed. “I mean, because, you know…” She gave a quick shrug.

“I haven’t told them. It’s actually better that you’re not a huge fan. Female fans tend to get all giddy around us. It’s impossible to even talk to some of them. It’s fine when they just want an autograph, but it wouldn’t be so great if they were working for us.”

“But eventually they’ll realize you guys are nothing more than regular people, and won’t act that way anymore.”

“One would hope. But in the meantime they’d be pretty useless. With you, we skip all of that.”

She laughed. “You do realize if I bumped into Luke Bryan, I’d be exactly like the fan you just described.”

“Who the hell is Luke Bryan?” The light turned green and I pressed my foot on the accelerator.

“Oh my God, you don’t know who Luke Bryan is?” she practically squealed.

“Not a clue. He’s not a singer from some lame boy band, is he?”

She laughed again. “He’s just one of the hottest singers in country music. He’s won numerous awards. I can’t believe you’ve never heard of him.”

I lifted one hand from the steering wheel and smacked my palm flat against my chest. “I must admit, Nicole, I’m heartbroken. You’ve never gushed over me that way.”

“You poor baby. I’m sure you’ll get over it.” Laughter filled her voice, reminding me once again why I’d asked her to join the tour. She enjoyed teasing me, but it wasn’t like she was attempting to get into my pants. Not that she hadn’t already been in them. Nor would I complain if she tried to get into them again.

We pulled up in front of Nolan’s house an hour later. The rest of the band had already arrived, their cars either on the driveway or parked in the street.

Nicole climbed out of the car, and I took the moment to enjoy the view. She was wearing a dark sundress covered with tiny pale pink flowers. The short, flowing skirt was the kind that would flash her ass and panties if a wind caught hold of it. She wasn’t wearing much when it came to jewelry, other than a narrow beaded bracelet in black and teal. But it was the short black cowboy boots with the rope design etched in the leather that gave it away—she wasn’t your usual Pushing Limits fan. She looked like she’d be more comfortable at a country music concert than she would be at a rock concert.

But either way she looked hot.

We walked to the front door, and I rang the doorbell. Rocky’s small yet determined bark answered from the other side. The door opened, revealing Nolan holding on to the collar of the eager eight-month-old golden retriever.

At seeing me again, Rocky yipped excitedly.

“Oh, aren’t you just adorable?” Nicole said, her voice pitched higher than usual. She knelt in front of the puppy and offered him her hand to sniff. Forget sniffing—he was more interested in jumping onto her lap, his front paws already there.

“Not quite Bernie, is he?” I said, smiling at Nicole’s excitement at seeing Rocky.

Nolan lifted his eyebrow in a question.

“Nolan, this is Nicole. She’s the sister of a friend of mine.” Who would kill me if he found out what we’d been doing the last few days. As it was, Nicole had made me promise not to say anything to Zack when it came to the fire. She didn’t want him to worry when there was nothing he could do.

He hadn’t even suspected that I would do the deed with his sister. But why would he? He didn’t know me as well as he thought he did. To him, I was probably the guy who had once been dragged down by a gambling addiction and drug abuse. Neither of those activities had given me the energy or drive to have a sex life.

And no, I hadn’t switched from one addiction to another—I hadn’t become a sex addict. If I went without sex for a period of time, I didn’t get the shakes and I didn’t get moody. I could survive.

Whether I wished to go without sex for a period of time was another thing. If it was offered, who was I to say no?

“She’s our new social media person,” I explained to Nolan.

A furrow formed between his eyebrows, unseen by Nicole, who was attempting to extricate herself from Rocky’s enthusiastic welcome.

When she finally succeeded, she stood up and held out her hand to Nolan. “Hi. It’s nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you too,” Nolan said politely, but I knew him well enough to understand what he was really thinking…and it didn’t bode well for me.

I mentally shrugged it off. We needed someone to help us manage our social media, and we couldn’t do better than Nicole. The guys would quickly realize this and would be thanking me in no time. Or at least I assumed they would be.

“Everyone’s out back,” he told us, pulling Rocky away from the front door.

I stepped into the house. Hailey had been busy while her boyfriend was touring. From what I could see, the inside had been repainted a light brown and the furniture seemed like a modern version of rustic, with lighter colors and clean lines. The only reason I knew those terms was because my aunt was an interior designer. Or at least she had been the last time I’d seen her and the rest of my family.

“Place looks good,” I said.

“Definitely an improvement over my old apartment,” Nolan replied, smiling in the same goofy way he always did whenever he was thinking about his girlfriend.

“Rocky!” Logan said from the kitchen doorway.

The puppy barked at his favorite four-year-old and bounded toward Jared’s son. Logan kneeled and let Rocky lick him. Nothing was cuter than a little boy giggling over puppy kisses, as he liked to call them.

Taking hold of Nicole’s hand, I led her over to the pair.

“Hi, Uncle Mason,” Logan said and signed, still kneeling. He held up his fist to me.

I fist-bumped him. “Hey, Logan, this is my friend Nicole. She’s going to work with the band while we’re on tour. Nicole, this is Logan, Jared’s son.”

“Nice to meet you,” she said to him.

“Do you curse like Uncle Mason?” he said, a hopeful expression on his dirt-smudged face.

I laughed. “Hate to disappoint you, buddy, but I’ve yet to hear her swear even once. Besides, I don’t think the dollar-per-swear-word rule counts for her. She’s a guest.”

Nicole’s gaze darted to me. “Dollar-per-swear-word rule?”

Nolan snickered. “Jared wasn’t thrilled when Mason cussed around his son, especially when Logan started repeating the words. So Aaron suggested that Mason had to cough up a dollar every time he cursed.”

I let out a mock huff. But I couldn’t complain. I would’ve felt the same way if our places were reversed. Although at the time, when Jared first adopted the payment rule, he’d had no idea Logan was his son. Probably just as well—otherwise he might have charged me five dollars per word.

“Let’s play, Rocky.” Logan charged outside with Rocky close on his heels.

“Logan’s hearing-impaired?” Nicole asked.

“No, deaf. But he has a cochlear implant, so he can hear a lot of what goes on around him. He just doesn’t like listening to music with it. He prefers to feel the vibrations through the floor.”

“Jared is the band’s guitarist, right?” At my nod she added, “That’s so heartbreaking that his son can’t listen to you guys play.”

I shrugged. “It is what it is.”

Outside, I introduced Nicole to everyone else in the backyard, including Hailey and Callie. Beckie was also there, standing next to Kirk—close enough for me to wonder if something was going on between them.

Like Nolan, the guys looked less than impressed when I introduced Nicole as our new social media person and said that she’d be joining us on tour. But also like Nolan, they managed to keep Nicole from guessing that something was wrong.

Food and drinks had been set up on the patio, and Aaron had returned to manning the grill. I grabbed a beer for myself and was pouring Nicole a glass of wine when Nolan approached the table.

“Band meeting in the living room,” was all he said before heading inside.

Nicole was busy talking to the three other women, all of them laughing at something one of them had said. I handed her the glass of wine. “The band is having a brief meeting to get me up to speed since I’ve been away for a few days. I’ll be right back.”

She smiled sweetly at me, and my cock twitched at the thought of those luscious lips on it.

Keeping that erotic thought in my head, I entered the house, braced for the interrogation I was about to face.