Chapter 24

Axton

“You don’t have to go in,” I whisper against her lips before she has the chance to climb out of my truck.

“I have school tomorrow,” she answers.

“Go grab your books,” I urge. “Your clothes are already in here. I’ll make sure you get to class on time. You can follow me in your car, since I’m not much of a morning person.”

She smiles against my kiss. “Tempting.”

That’s the word she uses, but it falls flat. Things shifted when we were on the couch earlier, and I was never able to bring her back to where we were when we were in bed this morning.

“But not enough to get you to come back?”

She shakes her head and nods toward her house. “See them peeking? I’ve never stayed the night anywhere except with my parents and a few girlfriends in high school. They’re waiting for me to come inside so they can bombard me with questions. I have to get this over with.”

“When can I see you again?”

“The first couple weeks of a semester are always super crazy,” she responds.

I wrack my brain, trying to figure out what I did, what I said for her to once again put distance between us. She didn’t act like she regretted last night when we woke up this morning, but she also didn’t throw herself at me like any other girl would have. Whatever upset her happened after. I come up empty.

“That’s not an answer,” I challenge.

“Text me when you feel like it. I’ll let you know if I’m able to hang out for a little bit.”

She’s brushing me off. It’s a very surreal experience for me. I’m agitated, but at the same time, oddly proud of her for not just falling at my feet.

She pecks me on the lips before climbing out. I carry her laundry baskets up the front porch steps into the house. Both sisters are on the sofa trying to act like we didn’t just see their noses against the glass of the front window.

I follow her to her room, wanting to ask if I can stay here with her, but even thinking about it makes me feel like a douche. She’s made it clear she needs to talk to her sisters, and I need to have a long talk with Carson, because apparently I’ve gone insane for this girl in a matter of eighteen hours.

“If you change your mind and want to come over, just shoot me a message,” I tell her, standing right inside the door of her bedroom. I brush my lips against hers, then walk back out to my truck.

I don’t go home right away. Carson is at his parents’ and probably won’t be back until late, and sitting in an empty house alone isn’t how I want to spend my evening. So, I grab a burger and fries at a drive-thru and head to the isolated part of the lake where I took Addi a few months ago. It feels different without her here, just like I know the house will when I go back.

Eventually, though, I have to go home. The lure of my bed and her scent on my sheets is a homing beacon I can’t ignore.

Stripping the second I get to the house, I crawl in my bed, breathing in deep to find any trace of her. A faint, nondescript feminine scent is all I find, but it will have to do. Not at all sleepy, I let my eyes wander the room, wondering if it’s too soon to text Addi.

At the thought, I remember my phone is turned off from earlier. When I power it back on, it buzzes incessantly. I wait for the vibrating to stop, then search through notifications, frowning when I see none of them are from the only person I want to hear from. I spend a few minutes blocking numbers from women I never want to even run into in public, much less reach out to on purpose, then hit my best friend’s contact and wait for him to pick up.

“Are you fucking kidding me right now? It’s like eight in the evening,” he hisses.

“Am I ruining your beauty sleep, fuckhead?”

“I told you over twelve hours ago I needed to speak to you. There’s no way that chick has been there all damn day.”

“Addi,” I correct. “And unless you want me to lose my shit, how about you never call her ‘that chick’ again. She’s not some random piece of ass, Carson, and you need to stop thinking of her as such.”

“Are you done?” He sounds annoyed. Well, that makes two of us.

I scrub my hand down my face. “What is so important that you’re acting like a ten-year-old girl?”

“We’re in the middle of dinner,” he says. “I’ll be home in a few hours and we can talk then.”

“Really? You barge into my room first thing this morning, blow my phone up all damn day, and now you’re not ready to talk? Is this your way of shifting the power or something?”

“Only play I’ve got,” he says, then the line goes dead.

“Fucking baby,” I mutter, tossing my phone on my bedside table and lying back against my pillows. Somehow, I manage to fall asleep with the smell of Addi surrounding me and her beautiful face in my thoughts.

“Get up,” I hear right before someone shoves me in the back. “Seriously, Ax. How can you sleep right now?”

“What the fuck are you doing in my room?” I mumble. “Get out.”

“Oh,” he says, but I can tell by his voice he’s moving toward the door, “I guess Addi is the only one who can step inside? So be it. I’m not sucking your dick for the privilege.”

My eye twitches as I stand from the bed and shove my legs into a pair of jeans.

“How about you just never mention her again? I think that’s in your best interest,” I growl, then breathe deep to calm down, reminding myself he’s not talking about her any differently than other girls we’ve spoken about. He’s not singling her out. It’s just how we talk—used to talk. I now grasp just how much of an asshole I was where women were concerned.

“You must really like her,” he observes.

I shake my head. “Like” is such a simple word for what’s going on in my head, in my heart. “Yeah, man. I like her.”

I push past him, heading to the kitchen for a bottle of water. He follows close behind, holding his hand up, rejecting my offer of a bottle for himself.

“Are you going to tell me what’s going on, or are you going to hold on to it for a little bit longer? If you woke me up just to tease me with some big news, I may kick your ass.”

“You remember that party Easton Montgomery showed up at?”

I nod my head. “It was like two days ago, Carson. Of course I remember.”

“And how I spoke with him?”

He’s dragging this out on purpose. “You mean when you flirted and rode his dick all night. I think I recall that.”

He narrows his eyes, the right corner of his lip twitching in agitation.

“And I told you yesterday he gave me his email address and I sent over the demo video we had made.”

“If you don’t get to the point, I’m going to kick you in the junk and go back to bed.” I turn the bottle of water up to my mouth to hide my grin as he gets even angrier. Shifting from one foot to the other like an excited puppy, I can tell he’s bursting at the seams to tell me, but he wants me to beg him for the info, get excited about whatever the fuck he knows, and he’s getting pissed I’m not reacting the way he expects.

“You act like you don’t even want to know,” he complains.

“I want to know,” I correct. “I’m just not going to jump up and down and clap my hands like a little girl excited over a fucking princess party.”

“You might.”

“I won’t.”

“Easton’s manager called me last night and he wants to add you to Easton’s tour.”

For the first time in my entire life, my best friend makes a liar out of me. After staring at him like my ears aren’t working, I commence the jumping up and down and clapping like a girl at a princess party, only my party includes a tour bus, out of this world parties, and a real chance to get noticed as an artist.

His eyes are lit up and his smile is wide enough I can see his molars. I’m pretty fucking sure mine are visible as well.

“Tour?” I calm only enough to speak. “I swear, Carson, if you’re joking with me just to get me back for earlier today I will gut you and hide your body.”

He holds a hand up. “Save the eulogy preparation, my friend. I’m dead serious.”

“You should’ve just blurted it out this morning. This is the biggest news ever.” I punch him in the shoulder. “You had to let me go earlier because you were having dinner? I could strangle you.”

“This is a big decision, Axton.”

“It’s the easiest decision. The answer is not only yeah, but fuck yeah. Sign me up.”

“Are you sure? We only have until tomorrow by noon to confirm.”

“Do it now,” I urge. “Tell them I’m up for it! They can put me in the baggage area of the bus for all I care, so long as it gets me on the stage.”

Carson sobers. “It’s actually fucking happening. Not that I ever doubted it would, but I just thought we had a few more years of scraping before we got this opportunity.”

“We’re going to have a blast. Isn’t one of his stops in California? I’ve never been that far west.”

“You will have a great time.”

My brows pull together, confused. “Me? You’ll be right there with me, man. It’s gonna be awesome.”

“They only have room for one on the bus. I have to sit this one out.” He holds his hand up to stop me before I can respond. “I’ll catch the next one. We’ll be in constant communication, though. You can’t fuck this up, but don’t let them make you their bitch either.”

“It doesn’t feel right,” I mutter. “You’ve put just as much work into this as I have.”

“More,” he corrects. “But that’s not the point. You’re the talent, so you have to be there. If the tables were turned, I’d leave without you.”

“You wouldn’t.”

“I would, because the star has to be on stage for our careers to go to the next level.”

I cross my arms over my chest, digging in and refusing to cave.

“Don’t be a fucking baby. I have a ton of rules and shit I need to tell you. Grab a pen and a notebook. This is going to take a while, and you leave on Wednesday.”

“Wednesday?” I question. “That’s like the day after tomorrow.”

“You changing your mind?”

I shake my head. “No fucking way.”