One More Time (17 page)

“Hey guys. Tonight Dragonfly has something really special in store for you. Are you ready?” The crowd cheered. “You sure?” The crowd cheered louder. “Well, all right then. Let’s give it up for Miss Isabella Fisher!” While they were catcalling and screaming, he made his way back to me. As he handed the microphone over, he mouthed, “Love you,” and my heart soared.

Sucking in a deep breath, I began playing
Hand In My Pocket
by Alanis Morissette. Every time I came to the chorus, I sang it acapella. When I was done, the crowd was dead silent. I closed my eyes, held my breath and started counting to ten.
Please let them like it.
Right as I hit five, the cheering started. It was so loud, it made my eyes water. Once they started to wind back down, I shot into my version of
Second Hand News
by Fleetwood Mac. Since everyone was on their feet dancing, I followed it with an all-time favorite Cranberries song,
Zombie
. Acoustically, it was paired down and simplified, but was still an awesome song. I played a few more up-beat tunes before slowing it down a bit. I had been fiddling around with a song since returning to Charlotte with Dillon. Taking a deep breath, I blew it out.
Here goes nothing.

“This next one is by a newer artist to the scene, Avicii.” The crowd cheered and I couldn’t help but smile. “The song is called
Addicted To You
and it’s for Dillon.” My version was as sultry as Avicii’s, but I decided to slow it down and drag out the chords a little more. By the way the crowd cheered when I finished, I’d say I’d made a good choice. “Enjoy yourselves tonight. I’m going to grab a beer.” I leaned my guitar against the table and made my way to the hall where Dillon was waiting.

Picking me up, he carried me into the office, where he closed and locked the door.

“That was so fucking hot. You are so fucking hot,” he said. “You make me crazy, Ibby.” I had never seen Dillon at warp speed before. It was sexy and at the same time, humorous. “Feel this.” He pressed my hand to his rock hard cock and I couldn’t help but moan. My panties were instantly wet. “I want inside you right this second,” he said, giving me a scorching hot kiss. Loud banging on the door interrupted whatever crazy thing he was going to say next. “Fuck off!” Dillon yelled and started unbuttoning his pants.

For some reason I found this immensely funny. Yes, I was turned on, but he was acting like a horny lunatic.

“Dillon! We all want to see Isabella!” Piper shouted through the door.

“Later!” Dillon shouted back. Not able to hold it in any longer, I broke into gales of hysterical laughter.

“That doesn’t sound like sex,” a man’s voice said through the door. This made me laugh even harder. Dillon buttoned back up his pants, stormed over to the door and flung it open.

“That’s because it’s not!” he all but shouted. The perplexed look on Gage and Piper’s faces had me howling with laughter.

“You! Were! Brilliant!” Piper shouted. She pushed Dillon aside to get to me. Ellie and Joss were right on her heels.

Dillon looked completely railroaded and I felt sorry for him. Before I was swallowed by the girls, I told them to hang on for a second. Dillon was staring at me and I motioned for him to come over. When he got to me, I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled his head down so I could whisper in his ear.

“I promise later to show you just how much I love you, okay?” His head shot up and his silver grey eyes captured mine.

“I’m holding you to that,” he said. Then he gave me a kiss girls only dream about.

One of the girls sighed and I hesitantly pulled away and asked, “Who wants a beer?”

Later that night, I made good on my promise.

Dillon

‡

S
he has no
clue how incredible she is. That makes her even more so.
I stared down at Ibby’s sleeping face and smiled.

There is no other word for tonight, except amazing. Isabella’s performance was simply amazing. The last song dedicated to me was so sexy-hot all I could think about was getting her naked in the office. I was so caught up in making this happen I almost punched Piper in the face when she interrupted us. I let out a chuckle and Ibby stirred beside me. As I stroked my hand soothingly across her back, she instantly settled and I went back to my thoughts.

Luckily, just as I’d predicted, Piper, Ellie and Joss had taken Ibbs under their protective wings, while Max, Gage, Kurt and I stood off to the side and watched. Poor Ibbs was beyond overwhelmed by my friends. Cas, Garrett and Bobby were there. Hell, even Benny, Tut, Twon and Harry showed up and by the time Ibby went on stage, we had a full house. At one point, I thought I spotted Dana across the bar, but when I went to check it out she was gone. The MMG-Dragonfly crowd was a lot to take in. I remember how I felt when I first met them all.

I couldn’t wait to show off my girls tomorrow at Kurt and Joss’s place. My chest constricted and I rubbed my hand over it. I’d never felt this way about anyone before. Well, that’s not exactly true. I loved my mom and brother. I even loved my dad before it all went to shit. I especially loved my aunt. This, however, was different.
My feelings for this woman consume me. She was like a fire in my veins burning all the way to my soul. There is no cure for this. Even if there is, I wouldn’t want it. Is this what my dad felt for my mom? Was death the only way out?
Most of the time, I tried not to think about my parents. Every now and then, though, thoughts of them and our lives from before seeped in and I found myself remembering.

I must have drifted off because suddenly I was jerked awake by Isabella shouting. Amelia was wailing in her Pack ‘n Play and Sally was standing beside the bed staring down at me.

Shaking the sleep from my brain, I noticed I was covered in sweat. That’s when it hit me.
I was dreaming again.

“I’m awake,” I told them.

“It’s about time,” Sally harshly retorted.

“How bad was it?” I asked, glancing over at Isabella.

“Talk to me, babe,” she whispered. The tears in her eyes turned me inside out. Sally gathered Milly from the Pack ‘n Play and rocked her back and forth.
Shit!

“Sorry,” I said.

“You need to get a hold on whatever the hell has you by the nuts,” Sally warned. Then she turned and stormed out of the room with Milly.

“She’s right. You need to talk about whatever it is that’s bothering you. If not to me, then talk to someone,” Ibby said. “This is the third time since we’ve been back that you’ve woken up yelling, and by far the worst.”

I dropped my head back against the headboard and sighed. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“The other two times weren’t this bad. You just jerked a few times and shouted out. Amelia slept through both. This time, however….” she trailed off.

Clasping her hand in mine, I told her again how sorry I was.

“Are you going to tell me about it?” she quietly asked.

I gave her the only answer I could, “Someday, I promise.” I could see the hurt in her eyes and my heart clinched.

“Okay,” she said.

She looked exhausted and I was now wide awake. Kissing the side of her head, I told her to go back to bed. Then I quietly escaped the room to find Milly. After taking her from a cranky Sally, I rocked her back to sleep. Then I played my guitar and worked on a few songs that had been in my head. I did not revisit thoughts about the dream. I never did.

After Ibbs woke for the second time, I ran to the store for breakfast food and to grab the ingredients for her famous dip. Thankfully, neither she nor Sally brought up the nightmare again. On the drive back from the grocery store, Max called and said Garrett and Cas had some news about Dooley they wanted to share. We made plans to meet at Kurt’s house half an hour before the party. That way, we would be through with the discussion by the time everyone else arrived.

Ibby and Sally wanted to run to the store to look at swim suits. When I handed her my credit card and told her to have fun, she gave me a strange look. I thought she was going to argue with me about it, but instead she threw her arms around me and gave me a big kiss. I let out a sigh of relief.
Note to self, buy her more shit.

Amelia and I hung out at home while the girls shopped. We took Brutus for a walk and watched soccer on television. By the time the girls got back, she was hungry and I was due at Kurt’s. They agreed to meet me there once the dip was ready.

As I pulled into the back driveway, I put the jeep in park and stared at the pool house. It seemed like yesterday Piper was living there while running from Dooley and Gage.
It’s amazing how quickly things change.
I made my way around the pool area and noticed the festive decorations. I was anxious for my friends to get to know Isabella. The sooner they learned she was an important part of my life, the better things would be.

“Knock, knock,” I called out as I stepped into the kitchen.

“We’re in the living room,” Joss yelled.

I followed the voices into the living room and stopped at the threshold. A wave of Deja vu rolled through me and I couldn’t help but remember the last time we were all together in this room. It was the night before Piper got a wild hair and took off for Texas to save Reyn.
Right before the shit hit the fan.

“Everyone’s here now,” Max said. He was sitting on the sofa beside Ellie and baby Mac. It hit me that Mac and Amelia were born within a week of each other, one prematurely and both under fucked up situations.

“Take a load off, D,” Cas said. He was standing off to the side with Bobby and Garrett. Tut, Twon and Benny were sitting on bar stools. Joss and Kurt were sitting in one of the overstuffed chairs while Gage and Piper occupied the other. I crossed over to the one empty bar stool and sat.

“Where’s Isabella?” Piper asked.

“Yeah,” Joss whined. “She promised I could get my hands on Amelia today.”

“Ibbs and Sally are running behind. They are bringing Amelia over in a few,” I told them.

“First of all,” Max loudly said, “congrats to Dillon and his baby mama.” He winked at me when he said this, and I pretended to scratch my forehead…with my middle finger. Ellie slapped him on the shoulder. “Naw, really,” he continued in a more sincere voice, “Isabella was awesome last night and I couldn’t be happier for you.”

I acknowledged his kind words with a “Thanks man.”

Focusing back on the group, Max said, “On a more serious note, and why you are all here today, is because I wanted you to know after the crazy-ass shit that happened with Dooley, I asked Garrett, Cas and Bobby to dig into Dooley’s finances. Nothing tells you more about a man than the financial paper trail he leaves behind.” No one seemed surprised by this. Max and Gage had gone nuts when their women were kidnapped by Dooley and his people. Hopefully this was Max’s way of coming to terms with it.

“And?” Gage asked.

Max looked over at Garrett.

“So far, we’ve connected all the dots but three,” Garrett said. “Dooley had a shit pile of people on his payroll. That said, all of those appear to be tied to business interests and none have traveled to Charlotte recently, or otherwise appear to be likely to retaliate for his death. Only three remain that we have not yet traced. We are still working on that.”

“We don’t need to… worry, do we?” Piper quietly asked. She was sitting in Gage’s lap, so she failed see his jaw clinch and his fingers flex when she asked this.

“No, there’s nothing left to worry about,” Cas reassured. “We just want to dot our i’s and cross our t’s. The main thing we wanted to let you know is that we have been getting more information on Dooley and the preliminary results lead us to believe this whole ugly episode is behind us.”

“While we’re all together,” Garrett said, “I want you to know I’ve asked Cas to be my partner in the business. He’s going to focus mostly on Charlotte to allow me to spend more time in Kentucky. Tut is also going to train with us and come into the fold.” After everyone finished congratulating Cas and Tut, I started to ask if they had found anything on Jimmy, but the doorbell rang and I decided to shelve it for the moment.

“I’ll get it,” Kurt said.

“So other than the three, we’re good?” Max asked.

“Looks like it,” Garrett said. He opened his mouth to say something else but Ellie’s excited squeal cut him off.

“Sarah? What are you doing here?” Ellie all but tossed Mac at Max as she jumped off the sofa and ran over to the woman who was standing in the doorway and flung her arms around her. It took me a minute to realize it was Max’s little sister, Sarah. I hadn’t seen her since Max and Ellie’s wedding. I watched Sarah as she hugged Ellie and had to admit, the girl was a knock out. She had Max’s dark hair and blue eyes, only she was female and had a killer body.

“Since I couldn’t come in when Mac arrived, I decided to surprise you. If I’m interrupting, I can come back later.” she quietly said. “I was just hoping to see all of you and my new baby nephew.”

A very concerned Max, carrying a happily gurgling Mac, headed over to his sister and they all three hugged. Max pulled back and searched Sarah’s face. “What are you doing here, baby sis?” he sternly asked.