Chapter 21

Nicole

Later the next morning, while the band was at the TV station, Callie and I took a cab from the hotel to the lingerie store she’d been dying to visit. She was glowing the entire way—and it had nothing to do with where we were going, and everything to do with what she and Jared had no doubt been doing last night.

Which was more than I could say about Mason and me. We’d stayed in our own separate rooms. The way it was supposed to be.

Only that wasn’t what I now wanted.

I missed him. I missed sleeping with him, and I missed waking up in his arms. I missed the warm feeling I got when I drifted off to sleep, knowing he was there and would still be there in the morning.

On the drive over, Zack sent his daily text, checking up on me. After the first week of touring I had confessed to him about the fire and how I was working with the band until the store was ready to reopen. Once I told him the guys in the band were nothing more than brothers to me, he had been less freaked out about me doing something completely out of the norm for me. It also helped that we still talked on the phone at least once a week.

How’s my crazy sister doing?

He’d been calling me that ever since finding out what I was doing.

Great. And how’s my jealous brother?

And I’d been calling him that ever since I realized how envious he was that I was the one touring with the band instead of him.

Missing real American pizza.

I laughed. Every day he told me what American food or TV show he missed while he was overseas.

Shopping with friend. Will talk to you later.

The cab dropped Callie and me off in front of the store, and we entered. The upscale store was nothing like the one back home where I usually bought my underwear. The lighting was softer than in your typical store, and the air smelled sweet, like the gentle caress of freshly cut roses. Classical music played in the background. If there was one word to describe the store’s goal for its customers, it would be “romance.” Although from the look of some of the lingerie adorning the mannequins, hot sex also came to mind.

The other difference between this store and the one back home was that I wouldn’t be surprised if a thong cost more than a week’s groceries. Everything was of super-high quality.

“Is there anything I can help you find?” a woman in her late forties asked. She was wearing a business suit with a skirt and heels, her hair wrapped in a chic bun. Definitely not the same as the girls who worked in the lingerie store back home.

“I’m not sure,” I said, and with a surprisingly straight face added, “I’m looking for something sexy that will turn my husband on.” I tucked my left hand—the one without an engagement or wedding ring—behind me. “But nothing sleazy. That’s not my style.”

She gave me a long look, implying that nothing in the store could possibly be called sleazy and that she was seriously considering spraying me with sanitizer for even suggesting anything so vile.

I bit back a giggle and smiled sweetly at her before joining Callie next to a rack of short satin slips.

She pulled out a navy one with ivory antique-style lace along the low neckline and the hem. It was sexy without being overly revealing. “What do you think?” she asked.

“It’s gorgeous,” I said in an awed whisper.

“I think I’ll try it on.” She scanned the store. “But first we need to find something for you.” Before I could say anything, she grabbed my wrist and dragged me to a rack of baby doll nighties not far from where we had been standing.

She immediately pulled out an incredibly sexy and utterly revealing raspberry pink outfit. The panties were nothing more than a string bikini, and the bra was covered with intricate lace. The rest of the outfit was created from a fine mesh that would show off everything beneath it.

It was so not me…yet at the same time it was perfect.

“I can guarantee Mason will love it,” Callie said, still inspecting the baby doll.

“Didn’t realize I was buying it for him to wear. But he might need a larger size.”

“Very funny.” She handed it to me. “You should try it on.”

“You do realize nothing’s going on between him and me, right?” We’d already had this discussion last night, but I felt like it needed to be repeated in case her hot husband had distracted her while he’d been onstage and she hadn’t heard me.

“So you’ve mentioned. You can lie to yourself all you want, Nicole, but you’re in love with him and nothing will change that. Besides, wasn’t the point of you joining the guys on tour that you could be adventurous and do something different?”

I grinned until my face hurt. “And buying sexy lingerie is adventurous?” Okay, maybe the one she had picked out for me was on the adventurous side.

She shook her head. “No, but taking a chance on Mason is. What do you have to lose? You’ve only got a few more weeks left with the band before you’ll be heading home. Live life. You never know when it will be your last chance.” A brief look of pain flashed over her face, but it vanished in a heartbeat. “My sister and parents taught me that the night they died.”

My heart squeezed in on itself, knowing the pain of losing a parent. “I’m so sorry. I had no idea.”

“It’s okay. It happened almost five years ago. I’m better now.”

We grabbed a few more items to try on and started heading for the fitting rooms, browsing as we went.

“It doesn’t matter if I’m in love with Mason or not,” I said. “He doesn’t fit the list of what makes a perfect husband.”

“There’s a list?”

I explained the purpose of the list and the criteria I had painstakingly come up with. “And he can’t have any piercings or tattoos,” I added at the end, although the part about tattoos might have come out more mumbled than clearly enunciated.

Callie laughed. “You do realize a lot of professional men have tattoos these days, so you’ve just reduced your list of possibilities by a large amount?”

I guess she was right about that. For all I knew, my last two dates had been heavily tattooed under their dress shirts.

“And based on your criteria, Jared would fail as perfect-husband material, but I can tell you that he’s an amazing husband and father. I wouldn’t change a single thing about him.”

She did have a point there too.

While we were searching through a rack of teddies, Callie’s phone pinged in her hand. “Jared,” she said, smiling softly, reading the text. “He and Mason will meet us in Central Park in an hour for lunch.”

The saleswoman unlocked the fitting rooms. I stepped into mine and changed into the baby doll Callie had found for me. It was sexy as sin and made me look equally sexy. But when on earth would I get a chance to wear it?

A persistent voice in the back of my head told me I deserved something feminine and pretty, especially after spending so much time on the bus with a bunch of men. Not that any of said men would ever see it.

I tried on the other outfits, but none appealed to me the same way the first one had.

Once I was finished changing back into my jeans and sweater, I came out of my room at the same moment Callie stepped out of hers. “So?” she asked.

“I’m getting this one.” I lifted up the raspberry baby-doll outfit.

The way Callie’s face lit up, you’d have thought I had announced that Jared was taking the next year off from touring. “It’s perfect. I guarantee you won’t regret it.”

I just hoped she was right.