Three months later.
I swayed slowly in my spot on the side of the stage.
This was the fourth show I’d been to this month alone, but it still felt like I was experiencing it all for the first time.
Parker had come back with a renewed passion for his music. Already he had pumped numerous new releases, all of them hits.
Most of them about me…
It was like he couldn’t do a thing wrong if he had a guitar and a mic in his hands.
He first reappeared on the scene on his own, before bringing Jasper in on a few collaborations about a month ago. He’d wanted to ease Jasper into the industry and they hadn’t even promoted their songs, so no one was more surprised than us when those singles had turned out to be the most popular of all.
Their first song together had debuted at number one all over the world and still remained there now, four weeks later.
I had a pretty good feeling that over the next few months they would transition into a duo entirely.
I looked out at Parker and Jasper now as they belted out another of their newly released songs. They looked right up there together – this was a change that was going to be good for the both of them.
I’m so glad he’s back.
I still felt guilty to my very core about causing Parker to take a step back from his music career, but at the same time, it was as though he’d needed it – the break seemed to have given him more inspiration than ever and the songs he’d written since then were exceptional.
They were honest and raw and real. Some of them were truly heart-breaking – those were the hardest for me to hear. Parker said they were the hardest to perform too, and the tears that could be heard in his voice when he sang some of them showed that he wasn’t being insincere in the slightest.
I sighed as I watched them up there, two best friends doing what they were born to do. It was so satisfying to witness.
Hannah nudged her elbow against mine.
I looked over at her and smiled. She may as well have had giant hearts in her eyes as she looked at Jasper.
My best friend was so in love, it was beautiful to watch.
“They’re on fire tonight,” I called to her over the deafening volume of the music. They were magic together. They were already so close, and that translated into their music; they flowed together perfectly and they could read one another like they’d practised it their whole lives.
She nodded in agreement. “I’ve got goosebumps!” she yelled back, gesturing to her arm.
The song came to an end, and as the crowd exploded into cheers and whoops, Parker turned to catch my eye.
Uh oh.
I knew that look.
That look was trouble.
Oh shit…
I backed up in what I already knew would be a futile attempt to get away from him as he began to prowl towards me from the centre of the stage.
Hannah clapped her hands together enthusiastically. “I love it when he does this,” she cried gleefully.
Traitor.
“Parker…” I warned as he got closer.
I’d backed up as far as I could – my back was hard against the sectional wall.
He had a giant smile on his face and that gorgeous dimple of his was on full display.
I sighed, hearts of my own in my eyes. Even I knew it was all over for me – I’d do anything this man wanted when he smiled at me like that.
“Hey, baby.” He grinned. “I’m sure you can figure out what’s gonna happen next.” He slung his thumb over his shoulder in the direction of the stage.
I groaned.
“C’mon, legs, let’s just get it over with.” He pressed his body against mine, his guitar slung around the back of him.
He kissed my neck, just below my ear. “I’ll make it worth your while...” he whispered suggestively.
“Just go already you party pooper,” Hannah demanded from somewhere behind Parker.
“Fine,” I muttered in defeat.
Parker chuckled. “You’d think you just agreed to your own execution.”
“May as well have,” I grumbled.
It wasn’t that I didn’t love him singing to me – but he could do that at his house, or mine… or anywhere really… anywhere where we weren’t being watching by thousands of people.
But as per usual, I let him lead me out from the safety of my hiding space and onto the stage. I just didn’t seem to be able to deny him something that clearly made him this happy.
The crowd went absolutely bat-shit crazy the moment they saw him towing me out. I should have been used to that by now – Parker had been making a habit of bringing me out on stage and singing to me, but the all-encompassing volume of noise still nearly knocked me backwards.
I glanced around and frowned. The crew normally set up two chairs facing each other, one for me and one for Parker.
But not today... today there was just an empty stage – even Jasper had made an escape.
“What are you doing?” I hissed at Parker.
If it weren’t for the slight twitch from the corner of his mouth I would have thought he didn’t hear me. Either way, he didn’t answer – instead tugging me by the hand out into the very middle of the bright lights.
“So, you all know my girl, right?” His husky voice boomed out into the packed arena.
The screams picked up volume.
“Now I know I’ve been singing to her lately, but in the spirit of mixing things up, I’m not going to do that tonight.”
Half of the crowd booed in disappointment, the other half screamed in excitement of the unknown.
I looked up at him, questioning his intention with my eyes.
He glanced down at me and ran his finger over the crease between my eyes that my frown was causing.
“I actually brought her out here because I’ve got a bone to pick with her,” he announced, his eyes only leaving mine as he finished speaking.
The crowd let out a few collective gasps.
I may have joined them.
I didn’t know what this damn rock star was up to, but I didn’t like the chances of me escaping without a bright red face.
I heard a few calls from the crowd, and surprisingly, it wasn’t the usual females asking Parker to defile them in vulgar ways. It was still strange to me that I could actually hear an individual over the general noise of the masses.
One stood out most, a male this time. “I’ll take her off your hands, man!” he yelled.
Parker chuckled. “I’m sure you would, man… she’s beautiful, isn’t she?”
The crowd erupted into screams and applause.
Damn it.
There goes that blush.
Parker slung his arm over my shoulders.
“I’m going to share with you all the grief she’s been giving me,” he told the crowd with his shit-eating grin back in place on his face.
I nudged him in the ribs and shushed him, entirely forgetting that half the world was probably watching my reaction.
The laughter of the crowd reminded me of where I was.
I blushed even deeper.
Parker chuckled again, but otherwise ignored me. “So now, you see, I’ve been asking Charlotte here to move in with me…” He trailed off.
My heart accelerated into overdrive.
Parker may have been hounding me to move in with him before we broke up, but he was yet to mention it again since we got back together. It was ironic really, I’d hesitated before when I should have agreed, and now that I was finally ready to say yes, he’d stopped asking.
Parker interrupted my thoughts. “I’ve asked her fifteen times, can you imagine that?” He played it up to his audience.
“You would only have to ask me once,” a call came from the front row.
I refrained from rolling my eyes.
“I’ve always had to be… resourceful when it comes to impressing Charlotte.” He glanced down at me again and smirked.
I had to laugh at that.
“Is that what we’re calling stalking and theft these days?” I teased.
My words rang out over the crowd and I cringed. I hadn’t realised I was so close to the mic. “Shit,” I muttered as Parker laughed loudly along with the crowd who were apparently hanging off our every word.
“See?” He shrugged, totally unembarrassed. “Resourceful…”
Something like that.
“Now I figured if I asked her again, in front of all of you, that she’d be less likely to turn me down… gotta work with what you’ve got right?”
Cheers rang out.
He turned to face me entirely – his attention focused solely on me now.
“So whatdya say, legs? Move in with me?”
I pretended to ponder the question for a moment.
Parker waited nervously.
“I’ve got two conditions,” I bargained with him.
He smiled the biggest smile I’d ever seen, and nodded. “Alright, let’s hear it.”
I wrapped my arms around his middle and held him tight. “Number one, if you decide you want to marry me one day… you do not do it on a bloody stage,” I told him with a smile.
He threw his head back and laughed.
God I love him.
“Deal,” he promised through his laughter. “What else?”
I shot him a sassy smirk. “I don’t know how many times I have to tell you to use your damn manners…”
“Please move in with me,” he cut me off quickly. “Please, please, please, please, please.” He chuckled.
“Do it, Little Red!” Ricky’s voice boomed through the speakers.
I laughed; he was such a smart-ass, wherever he was.
Parker smiled at me with his gorgeous dimpled cheek.
“Hell yes,” I told him.
He fist pumped the air to the cheers of the crowd before kissing me like there was no tomorrow.
“Well this is new,” Jasper drawled as he looked around the bare apartment, lit only by candles – the power wasn’t out or anything, we were just trying to be romantic.
It was weird seeing the place empty again. It had been home for Han and I for a long time now, and in a lot of ways it was the only place I’d ever truly felt at home.
Until Parker came along…
Now I was home whenever he was near.
All of my things were now mixed in with all of Parker’s stuff and we may not have been married, or even engaged, but I knew that they’d stay that way forever.
“Would you just let us surprise you for once?” Hannah whined when Jasper tried poking around under the blanket we’d set out.
Parker sauntered up behind me and wrapped his arms around my middle.
“Is she still pretending to be pissed off with him?” He chuckled.
“Looks that way.” I grinned.
Hannah was still acting like she was bothered with how Jasper had asked her to move in with him. The smart bastard had literally waited until all of my stuff had been moved out, he’d walked into the half empty apartment, glanced around and announced to Hannah, ‘pack your crap, barbie, you’re moving in with me’. I’d thought it was hilarious. Hannah, who I knew was genuinely overjoyed at moving in with Jasper, hadn’t stopped comparing the way Parker had asked me to live with him, with the way Jasper had asked her.
If you asked me, I thought she got the better deal.
“What’s all this about anyway?” He kissed my cheek.
I shrugged. “A girl can’t treat her man?”
“It’s my job to treat you.”
I rolled my eyes. “It’s twenty seventeen, rock star, come out of your cave.”
“Now that we’ve lured you here under the false pretence of food and romance… we actually wanted to talk to you about your team of staff.”
We’d all stuffed ourselves full on the platters that Hannah and I had put together and were onto our second bottle of red wine.
Time to get down to business…
“I told you we’d hired Snitch as our private photographer and to do some videos and shit, right?” Parker asked before stuffing another stack of food into his mouth.
He had told me, and I was excited about him joining them; Parker already trusted him, so it really did make sense to bring him on board.
I really liked him too, he was sweet. He and his wife had been so genuinely thrilled about the amount he made off my fake pregnancy photos that he’d sent me a bunch of flowers as a thank you.
He’s a good guy.
He’d also been a big part of Parker’s public ‘get Charlotte back’ plan too, and Parker had been really impressed with his work.
“You told me,” I confirmed.
I shot Hannah a nervous look. We were both a bit freaked about this, but we were hoping the guys would be on board with our ideas.
She gave me a thumbs up.
“So, we were thinking… that you need to hire a new publicist.”
Parker and Jasper groaned in unison. Hannah laughed.
“I would like to never, ever have to have a publicist ever again,” Parker stated.
“I second that motion,” Jasper agreed quickly.
“Pipe down, we’re not done,” Hannah scolded them both like spoiled children.
Parker smirked and Jasper gave her a salute.
I cleared my throat. “And then there’s also the small issue of the manager turning into a singer and joining the madness…” I gestured to Jasper. “So really, you need a manager and a publicist.”
“Shit,” Parker mumbled.
“I thought this date was meant to be fun.” Jasper scowled.
“You’d think we’d just told you both you needed a tooth pulled, not that you need to hire some extra help.” Hannah shot them both a look of disbelief.
I wasn’t surprised at Parker’s reluctance; he hated bringing new people into his circle.
That’s why our plan is so perfect.
“Now I know you just love the whole interviewing process and having new people in your space…”
Parker grunted at my obvious sarcasm.
“So how about we just skip all that instead… and you give me and Lotte the jobs...” Hannah cut in.
Parker’s mouth opened and then snapped shut again without him saying anything as his eyes darted from me to Han, and back again.
A slow grin broke out on Jasper’s face. “For real?” he asked.
“For real,” I confirmed. I could tell he was already sold on the idea.
“But… but…” Parker stuttered. “But what about your business… we can’t ask you to give that up.”
I knew that was what he’d say. That was why we’d already eliminated the problem.
“As of yesterday, C & H styling has officially been restructured,” I told him.
Hannah nodded. “Yep… we decided to give it a shakeup… the two of us are retaining only a handful of high-end clients who we couldn’t seem to get rid of.” She rolled her eyes dramatically. “You celebs… you’re so needy.”
It was true. When we’d informed our clients that we wouldn’t be working in the same capacity any longer, there were a few that wouldn’t take no for an answer. They’d thrown more and more money at us until we’d come to the conclusion that even if the guys turned us down, we’d still be making the same amount of money we had been making previously, with less than a quarter of the time spent doing it – that, and we both still actually loved our work, just not full time.
It was a no-brainer.
On top of that, we’d hired two makeup artists and two hair stylists to take over and expand on our little, more low-key business. We’d been training them ourselves for the past month and were confident in their abilities and the fact that they wouldn’t run our reputation into the ground.
Working together, we figured we’d have more than enough time to attend to our existing clients, keep an eye on our new team, and manage and run PR for our men.
“Legs, you can’t give it up for us,” Parker argued.
“It’s not just for you,” I insisted. “It’s for us too… I can’t speak for Hannah, but your life is crazy busy, and adding my work into it just makes for a near impossible situation. I just want to be with you, Parker, whenever I can be… and if that means that I don’t apply as much makeup to strangers, then hell, where do I sign?”
“What she said,” Hannah agreed. “That, and you guys are going to pay us really, really well.” She grinned.
“You’re serious about this?” he asked me, his ice-blue eyes full of concern.
“Deadly serious,” I promised. “I’ll tell you all of the ins and outs later, but if you don’t agree to this pretty soon, I’m probably going to get offended and start getting emotional.”
“You’re hired,” he replied without missing a beat. “Oh, that’s unless my partner has any problem with it?”
I looked at Jasper.
“You had me at ‘for real’.” He grinned.
“This does not mean you get to boss me around,” Hannah warned him, her attitude all bark and no bite.
“Oh c’mon, babe, don’t be like that…” he teased her.
Parker’s hand reached out for mine and stole my attention entirely with one touch. “Do you know how much I love you?” he asked me with a beautiful smile on his face.
“Probably as much as I love you?”
“You know what; I think the bad luck streak with the publicists is going to continue,” Jasper interrupted our little love fest with his taunting. “This one has a bad attitude.”
I giggled and sighed as I looked around. I had my best friend by my side – and literally living right next door; she was madly in love with an amazing man – even if he did like to push her buttons, and I had the love of my life in the bed next to me every night.
Life doesn’t get much better than this.