I hung up my phone and looked around the almost empty park. It was a weekday, so it wasn’t packed, but I still couldn’t find Laura. Did I get stood up? I walked Hades around the park and kept an eye out.
Half an hour later, I still couldn’t find her. Finally giving up, we headed toward the parking lot. We were halfway down the path when Brooklyn came into sight. Great.
Her blue eyes spotted me and grew wide. She had a small dog that reminded me, oddly, of an Ewok - white with brown markings and cute as hell.
When I got within speaking distance I said, “Hi.”
She gave me a nervous smile. “Hey.” Her eyes moved to Hades. “Big dog. “
“Yeah, he is.” I gestured to hers. “Yours is cute as hell.”
“Thanks. His name is Yoda,” she offered, relaxing a bit.
I smiled. “I was just thinking that he reminded me of an Ewok.”
She chuckled a bit. Then she seemed to decide something. “Can we talk?”
What? She wanted to talk? “Um, sure,” I said, not knowing what to expect. We started walking back into the park. When she didn’t say anything, I tried to get the conversation started. “So… what did you want to talk about?”
“The band,” she admitted. “I… I know how good you were before your voice got messed up.”
I nodded.
She swallowed hard. “I-I guess… I want to know if you’re going to come back to the band?”
“I can’t,” I admitted. “My throat took too much damage. I don’t have the voice anymore.”
“Are you sure?” she asked uncertainly.
I figured it out. “You think you’re just a standin, right?”
Her cheeks turned pink. “Um, well, yeah. I mean, I like the band and want to stay, but… I don’t want to get so into it that if you come back…”
“You don’t have to worry about that,” I told her. “It’s not going to happen.”
She nodded.
“Brooklyn, Ethan picked you because you’re good. Your voice harmonizes with his and Ryan’s. You’re not a placeholder,” I told her. “You’re a band member for as long as you want to be.”
Her eyes met mine. “You think?”
I smiled. “I know Ethan, and Ryan and Oliver. They were looking for someone for the long haul.”
She nodded, her eyes misty. “Thanks, Lexie.”
“No problem.” We walked and continued talking for a while. Turned out she was actually pretty nice. She had two older brothers who drove her crazy, and a mother who wouldn't get off her case about her hair. By the time I left, we had exchanged phone numbers.
I pulled up in front of Rory’s house behind Zeke’s Jeep. What was Zeke doing here? I thought he was busy today. I got out, closely followed by Hades. He was scratching on the door before I even reached the lawn.
The front door opened. Hades jumped on Zeke and went into crazy-happy-tail-wagging mode. He moved into the house and out of the doorway. I hurried into the air-conditioned heaven and closed the door behind me. Zeke was on his knees, playing with Hades as he went nuts. He grinned as he played.
“How was your first day?” he asked as Hades chewed on his hand.
“Good, the artists were awesome, except one but apparently he gets grumpy when he gets interrupted.” I said as Hades finally started to calm down. I dropped onto the couch. “So, what’s going on? You usually never show up unless I’m here.” He’d been trying to avoid Tara for months now.
He looked up at me, his shoulders tense and his face hard. “I need a favor.”
I raised an eyebrow.
I was biting back a smile as Zeke walked into the department store at the mall with me. He had cursed under his breath the entire drive here. Since he had grown two inches, his shirts were now too short and were annoying the hell out of him, not to mention they were tight in the shoulders now, too. And from the bitching I was hearing, he hated shopping. I resisted the urge to rub my hands together in joy. This was going to be fun. Zeke led me to the big-and-tall section of the store.
“So, are we just getting shirts?” I asked as he moved through the racks of clothes.
“Yeah,” he grumbled. I sighed. He stopped at a wall of shirts. He gestured at the wall. “Which are the black ones?”
I smiled to myself before pointing to the row. “Right there.” He started going through the shirts. “Do you know what size you need now?”
“Probably just a size up. Two-XLT,” he growled. He really didn’t like this. Naturally, I had to poke.
“You should try a shirt on just to make sure,” I told him. He shot me a look over his shoulder. “What? Do you want to come back and return them simply because you didn’t take five minutes to try it on?”
He scowled at me before turning back to the wall. He picked out one shirt then turned. “Fine.” He started away from the wall. I moved quickly and grabbed a dark blue V-neck and hurried after him, fighting back a laugh. I caught him before he reached the dressing rooms.
“Wait, try this one.” I held it out to him with a straight face.
He scowled at me. “Why?”
“Because you grabbed a crew neck and I’ve noticed you pulling at your neckline lately,” I explained in a rush. It was true but, well, I wanted to fuck with him and make Sylvie's week.
He grumbled as he took the shirt and headed in. I stood at the doorway that led to the fitting rooms and pulled out my phone. “Come out when you try it on.”
“Why the fuck would I do that?” he snapped.
I smiled and pulled an excuse out of my ass. “Well, if you don’t lift your arms, you won’t be able to tell if it’s too short. I can make sure.” I brought up the camera on my phone. If he came out, I only had a few seconds to take the pic before he killed me.
It only took a minute or so for him to come out in the dark-blue V-neck. My breath stopped. The dark-blue shirt that hugged his muscles brought out his eyes even more. Oh… fuck… My heart raced, my body tingled.
He fingered the collar. “You were right about the crew neck.” His voice brought me back to the mission at hand.
I held up the camera. “Zeke.” He lifted his head to look at me. I snapped the pic fast.
His brow came down, his shoulders grew tense. Oh, he was pissed. “What the fuck are you doing?”
I started snickering as I quickly sent the pic to Sylvie. “Nothing, just… um.” I dissolved into laughter as I hit send.
Zeke stalked towards me. “Lexie.” I backed up and darted down the hall of empty dressing rooms. “Give me the phone.”
I was laughing so much that, when I reached the mirrors at the dead end of the dressing room, I was breathless. I turned around and tried to breathe.
His face was hard as he moved towards me. “Who did you send it to?” He demanded as he got closer.
I snorted and planned my escape. He finally got within arm’s reach. I darted left, jumping over the arm of a couch and trying to hurry past him.
Zeke's hand grabbed my arm, stopping me. “Give me the phone.” He held me steady on the couch as he reached to take my phone from me. I dropped it out of his reach and he tried again.
“Nope!” I stuffed the phone into my bra as I kept smiling up at him.
He stopped trying to grab it. “I will go after it,” he warned.
I burst out laughing. “No you won’t. You’re a terrible liar.”
He narrowed his eyes at me.
I snickered.
“What did you do with the pic?” he asked.
I gave him a big smile. “I sent it to Sylvie.”
He cursed. I chuckled. My footing on the cushions shifted. He reached out and steadied me without a thought.
“Who else did you send it to?” he demanded as he kept me from falling.
“No one,” I admitted. I was still smiling at him when he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. It looked like he was searching for patience. “I just wanted to make Sylvie’s day.”
Those ice-blue eyes opened and met mine. My heart skipped as I held his gaze. His grip on my arms eased.
“Are you really mad about the picture?” I asked, my voice quiet.
“Gonna delete it?” he asked in that deep, quiet voice he used with me every once in a while. Chills ran down my spine - in a good way.
“Do I have to?” I grinned up at him, hoping he’d say no.
“Yeah,” he growled. Then he closed his eyes and clenched his jaw. “Please get rid of it.”
My curiosity piqued. "Why have you been saying please so much?"