“No prob,” he shrugs.
“Thanks.” We all hop in my SUV and get the heck out of the congested airport. “Thanks for picking me up, Lyric. No one, and mean
no one
, not even Mav was available. What the hell?”
“Maverick is doing a play right now.”
“A play? Since when? How come I don’t know anything?”
“Don’t ask me, I thought he mentioned it.”
“Nope.”
“He’s in New York doing
Grease.
”
“Wow! Way to go, Mav. That’s awesome,” she lightly laughs.
It’s way too hard to keep in touch with our family these days. Everyone is always so very busy. With Maverick on Broadway, Sloane filming another movie and my parents’ out of the country, we can hardly get together for a holiday. An no. Brock is not on my mind. I don’t know what he’s doing and I tend to keep it that way. I should feel utterly sick that I think of my brother so horribly, but because of his immature behavior lately, he’s becoming the joke of our family on every late night talk show. It is so embarrassing.
“How did the filming go?”
“Fine. Got a little banged up from being kicked, but other than that it went cool.”
“How bad were you banged up,” I ask with concern.
With a wave of her hand, Indie responds, “Oh, just some bruised ribs. It’s no biggie. I’m used to it.” My sister is one tough cookie. Her body takes a serious beating every time she does a film. I don’t know how she enjoys it, but I have to give her credit because she’s freaking awesome at her job. When she taught me wrestling all those years ago, I was stiff and bruised for days. It was a lot of fun, but no way would I want to keep it up. I don’t like my body being black and blue and feeling pain all the time. No thank you.
We’re almost off the freeway. I look in my rearview mirror and catch Slim on his phone. I smile to myself, he’s so cute. “You doing okay back there, Hot Stuff?”
He gives me the thumbs up. “Yep.”
“Hot Stuff,” Indie curiously asks.
Slim puts down his phone, leans forward, rests his elbows on our seats and comments, “Yeah, I’m like a pancake, drizzling with melted butter and sweet maple syrup. She can’t get enough of me.” I snort from his comment, he cracks me up. God I love this man
- I mean…well…you know what I mean. Okay, I’ll just shut up now.
“Wait. You two together?”
“Ha!” I bellow out. “Funny, but no.”
“You love me, Charlie,” Slim jokes, patting my shoulder - the pat that travels down south, sending heat and tingles in-between.
“Huh?
Charlie
? You guys are fucking nuts,” Lyric laughs. “Oh stop off here, I’m starving! You guys want anything? It’s on me.”
After we get off the freeway, we go through an
In-N-Out Burger
drive-thru and order lunch. Then we continue driving to Indie’s house. She lives up in Hollywood Hills, like most everyone else in the movie industry. Her house is magnificent. A gorgeous three story glass house that overlooks Los Angeles. I have house sat for her several times in the last two years and every time I do, I don’t want to leave. The view is to die for and the pool with the attached hot tub is unbelievable. It’s an infinity edge pool, which makes you feel like you’re swimming on the edge of the hill. Slim is going to want to dive in the second he sees it.
“You guys staying the night? I have plenty of bedrooms,” Indie asks, after we finish lunch.
Slim helps clean up the trash then comes up behind me, wrapping his arm around my shoulders. He bends down and kisses me on the cheek. “I’m all up for it.
Sweetheart
, what about you?”
He’s an ass, yet I play along anyways. “Sure,
darling
, of course.” I sock him in the stomach, which makes him laugh and back away. I don’t understand what he’s up to. I know he’s being Slim and all, but doing this in front of my sister, I find it unsettling.
Indie looks at us like we are both crazy - which we are, no surprise there. “
Oookay
…I’ll be back, I need to hit the shower.”
Once Indie is out of earshot, I practically jump out of my seat and get up in Slim’s face. “What is going on with you?”
He blinks and cocks his head to the side. “Nothing.”
Nothing
?
Yeah right
. I place my hands on my hips. “What’s with the
sweetheart,
pet name, in front of my sister?”
He steps further into my space and lifts my chin with his fingers. “Just joking, Lyric, calm down,” he smirks that sexy smirk of his, then moves away. He goes to the front door, picking up his bag. “Hand me your bag. I’ll find us a room.”
Find
us
a room? The thought of me and him in my sister’s house, feeling good in the same bed. Oh gosh, I’m not ready for Indie to find out what we’ve been doing. “No,” shaking my head. “Not a good idea.”
“Fine,” he sighs. “I’ll find us
each
a room.” I give him my bag. “You do know one of the those rooms won’t get used, right?”
“My sister doesn’t need to know that right now.”
“Shouldn’t be a big deal, Charlie.”
Slim is right, but again, I’m not ready to reveal our little secret. She’ll think it’s insane. Which it is insane! Why I can’t sleep by myself without having a nightmare or anxiety makes me feel weak. I hate losing who I used to be before that whole bus crash happened. “It’s not, it’s just…” I can’t find the words to explain why I want to keep our sleeping arrangement secret.
“I get it. Be back.”
He gets it. I know he does. Good.
While I have some down time on my own, I set up my laptop and do some work. I have avoided work all day, so attending to my emails is a must.
I lost track on how many emails I have read and responded to, time just swept away from me. I noticed Slim went off outside earlier, leaving me to my work, while Indie never came back from her shower. She must have been exhausted and took a nap. I contacted
JINKS’
agent to make sure he was still on top of this European tour the guys want so badly, and he was. He’s making some final adjustments and will let me know in a couple days when this tour will take place. I want this for the guys more than anything. They deserve their first European tour and I’m going to make it happen. I don’t really know their agent all that well, but he seems like a nice enough guy to want this for them as much as I do.
I close my laptop and gaze outside, spying on Slim. For awhile he was looking at the view and then settled himself down on one of the loungers scrolling through his phone. He seems very relaxed out there, but I know he’s dying to get back in the studio. He’s like a little boy who lost his puppy. If music isn’t a part of his daily routine, he doesn’t know what to do with himself. He should have brought his guitar, at least he would have that to take his mind off of things. He really is so sexy, lying out in the sun -
Indie interrupts my thoughts when she comes sailing down the stairs. She’s in a pink, silky robe, bare feet, no makeup and her hair is pulled up in a high ponytail. She makes herself comfy on her enormous sectional sofa, curling her legs underneath her butt. I walk over and sit next to her. “Well, hey, I thought you got lost in your bedroom.”
“I was exhausted after the shower, so I took a nice long nap.”
“Good, I figured you did.”
“So, where’s your
boyfriend
?” She lightly pushes my shoulder, biting her bottom lip with a very devious grin on her face. What a brat.
“Seriously?”
“I think you’re nuts about him.”
I cross my arms, avoiding eye contact. “You are talking crazy.”
“Lyric, come on,” she urges me.
Indie knows me better than anyone in our family. She knows the only way I like to avoid certain topics is by crossing my arms. I have always done that and it even annoys me. Not wanting to
want to lie to her, I admit, “Okay, fine. I like him…a lot.”
“Of course you do,” she giggles, knowing it’s totally obvious. “And I think he likes you, a lot, too.”
I roll my eyes and laugh. It’s the only way without getting disappointed and hurt when I discover he doesn’t have feelings for me. “That’s even crazier.”
“Just sayin’,” she shrugs.
I tell her to, “Ssh!” when Slim slides through the sliding glass door, from outside.
“Great pool back there, Indie.” He takes a seat on the right of us, in the oversized leather chair and leans his elbows on his knees.
“Thanks! If you want, we can use the hot tub tonight. You both bring suits?”
“The only suit I brought is all this goodness underneath,” he smoothly jokes, trailing his hands down his body. Silently laughing, I shake my head. He’s such a goof.
Indie looks at me and cocks her head in Slim’s direction. “I think I like this guy.”
I laugh and agree with her, then say, “I didn’t bring a suit either.”
“You can borrow one of mine. And as for you, Mister Guitar Hero, one of my brother’s left a pair here last year, so we are saved from seeing all that goodness,” she ends on a laugh.
“Damn,” Slim snaps his fingers. “Just when I thought I could show it all off.”
I continue laughing, “I think you’ll survive, Hot Stuff.” He winks at me and I suddenly blush.
Holy hotness, how am
I
going to survive tonight
?
For the rest of the day Indie got more goods off of Slim. She asked him all kinds of questions about his life, childhood, the band, and Slim being the jokester, made her laugh several times. He’s an open book when it comes to his background, and isn’t one to keep things quiet. Once my sister had her fill, we watched some TV and ordered a pizza. I offered to go out and get some food, but Indie insisted on ordering in. There were no complaints from Slim. He could live off of pizza even though he thrives on cooking.
The sun finally set and we all changed into our suits. I was surprised I could wear my sister’s bathing suit; she’s a bit more filled out than I am, yet considering how Indie is, her suits are extra skimpy on her amazing body, so the one I chose fit me pretty well.
Walking out to the hot tub with Indie, I can feel Slim’s eyes on me - or maybe he’s got his eyes set on Indie? I shake my head. I am behaving so irrationally and out of character it’s taking control of my life. Why do I make things so difficult for myself? I have to find a way to forget about ever having anything with Slim even if it kills me.
I step into the heated tub and immediately get chills. It feels heavenly on my cold skin. All three of us sit quietly in our own space enjoying the night time sky. For once the sky isn’t loaded with clouds, instead is covered with twinkling stars and a bright full moon. I quickly glance at Slim and he’s doing the same thing. He’s taking in all the beauty that hovers over us. I want to move over into his arms, cuddle with him, but I stay put. I don’t want to give my sister any indication that we have anything going on, even though she knows how I feel about him. She hasn’t seen our full fledged relationship on the table and I need to keep it that way.
I frown when I notice Indie inhaling from her weed vaporizer. Of course I’ve tried pot before, but seeing my beautiful sister doing it…I don’t like it.
After inhaling, she notices my glare. “Why are you looking at me like that? You know I smoke a little weed here and there. It relaxes me.” I roll my eyes and ignore her. “You want some, Slim?”
I whip my head in his direction, hoping he’ll turn her down. I don’t want a stoned Slim in bed with me. “Nah, I’m good, thanks.”
Good call.
I step in, “Good, because as your manager I refuse to allow you using.”
Slim laughs, “Chill, Charlie. It’s only a little weed. I used to smoke a lot back in the day, though.”
“Not that it’s a bad thing, but Lyric was always more uptight. Never stepped out of her comfort zone.”
“Now wait a minute,” I say defensively, “I did a lot of things that got me out of my comfort zone. I’ve smoked pot before, remember?”
“Yep. You’re right. You have.”
I add, “Plus, take my job for instance. I moved to San Diego, leaving behind my entire family. I know it’s not far away or anything, but I did something that was totally out of my c-zone.”
“Yeah. Okay, no need to explain. You’re right. Sorry.” She immediately drops the subject and so do I. No need to argue over who’s more outgoing than the other. We’ve never competed against one another. I am who I am and so is she. Whether or not I like her smoking pot, it’s not my life. “Damn, it’s a beautiful night. So glad I am home,” Indie expresses.
“Any other jobs coming up?” I ask.
“Yep. There is always something coming up. Never a dull moment.” On that, she takes another inhale of her vapor and closes her eyes.
After another thirty minutes of boiling in the tub, Indie climbs out. “Alright you two, I am hittin’ the sack.” She wraps herself up in a towel. “Enjoy the view and sleep well.”
“Night. You too,” I respond back and so does Slim.
Now it’s just me and
him
. I like it being just me and
him
. Even though night times get serious, I like me and
him
.
“I like your sister,” Slim says.
“I like her too. She’s pretty cool…and gorgeous,” I scoff.
“That she is.” Okay, why did he just smirk, bite his bottom lip and get that dreamy look in his eyes?
God, I am such an idiot.
I set myself up by saying how gorgeous she is.
Dumb.
“What?”
Crap. He saw me scowling. “Huh? Nothing.”
“That’s a load of shit.” He flicks water in my direction, hitting me in the face. “What’s on your mind?”
“Jerk.” I flick water back, then ask, “Do you have the hots for Indie?”
He wipes the water from his face, wetting his hair in the process - which is extremely sexy. Everything about him is sexy right now. His exposed masculine chest with the tattoo that covers half of his right side, leading down to his lower bicep - yeah super sexy. “I think she’s hot, yeah, but am I hot for her? No.”
“Really?”
“Really. Now, come over here. You’re too far away.” He holds out his hand while I travel over to him. I take it and plant myself right next to him. He wraps his arm around my waist, crushing our thighs together. It’s so comforting and feels amazingly right; falling for this man…it scares me. “Why does it matter to you if I was into your sister or not?