He gripped my shoulders. The harsh line of his mouth suggested much crankiness in the immediate future.
“Hey, I did a nice thing for another human being to help her feel good about herself. I just happened to do it with your money. But Jimmy, you were not nice to her when she left, and I felt … you know, you invited her up here and then …”
He just looked at me.
“Can we go back to the part where I’m in the right and you’re in the wrong? Personally, that was more fun for me.”
Footsteps sounded, coming down the stairs behind me.
Company would save me, hooray!
But Jimmy didn’t seem to care if there was an audience to his throttling of me or not. Instead, he wrapped his hand around my ponytail, tugging gently until I tipped my head back.
“I don’t care about the flowers,” he said, leaning in and pressing his cheek against my forehead. Damn that felt good, I had no idea foreheads were so receptive to sensation. My body went weak, awash with good vibrations. It was basically like having one big happy spot smack bam on my face, mildly embarrassing but ever so rewarding. Imagine if he’d actually kissed me there, I’d probably have come.
“It was a nice idea,” he said. “You did the right thing. Thanks.”
“You’re welcome.”
“Don’t care about the chairs either in case you’re wondering.”
I smiled and held perfectly still as he stroked his knuckles over my cheek. It was so nice being touched by him again, getting to be this close.
His gaze rose, going straight over my head to whoever stood beyond. “Hey, Dean.”
“Jim,” Dean answered, voice curt.
I stopped. The moment he’d touched me I’d entirely forgotten anyone was there, such was his power. And there he’d been, using me to make a point, showing Dean he’d won or some other such manly bullshit.
“Lena,” Dean said.
With both hands, I pressed against Jimmy’s stomach, forcing him back. “Hi, Dean.”
His face was shuttered, his expression closed. “What happened to your foot?”
“She tried to kick my door down,” said Jimmy, bless his helpful little heart. I’m sure there wasn’t a trace of smugness to his voice at all, that would just be my imagination.
Dean wandered toward the studio. “Better get to work.”
The door quietly closed.
“What was that?” I asked, voice deceptively calm.
“What?” he asked, shoulders already rising to protest his innocence.
“You did that on purpose just to get to Dean.”
“Hang on, you do or you don’t want me touching you?”
“Did you think I wouldn’t tell him I couldn’t see him anymore?”
He rolled his eyes, giving me his bored look. “I was just messing with him.”
“No, you were being a jealous dickhead.” I advised him as calmly as possible. “And it was insulting to me and assholish to Dean. The guy’s worked with you for years. He deserves better.”
He caught my hand. “You mad at me again?”
“Oh, you picked up on that did you?”
“Lena, c’mon.”
I tugged my hand from his grip. “Fix it.”
“What? How?”
“I’ll give you a hint. Not by buying anything. You figure it out.”
# # #
My private email account had suddenly been bombarded by all sorts of messages. Mostly consisting of “oh hey, you know someone famous. Wanna hang out some time?” type sentiments. I guess people were easy come easy go on the twenty-something social scene. Most of my friends didn’t appear to have greatly noted my absence when I bolted from home following my sister and my ex’s engagement announcement. This renewed sudden interest on account of my being associated with a Ferris brother, I could do without.
“Hey.”
I looked up from the laptop to find David Ferris hovering in the office doorway. Not someone I’d expect to come calling.
“Hi, David.”
“Can we talk for a sec?” he asked, face serious.
“Sure.”
He took two steps in, scanned the room. There was just the desk and a couple of chairs, some shelves holding various music awards and such like. It was probably the simplest room in all of the house, the most utilitarian. He’d probably never even been in it before.
“Jim’s busy in the booth, but we’ll be finishing up soon,” he said, lips drawn into an awkward sort of smile.
“Right. Is there something I can help you with?”
“I wanted to talk to you about him.”
My guard rose a little higher. Again with the all of them being over involved in each other’s lives. I kept my mouth shut.
“Glad you two made up. But, Lena, he’ll keep fucking up. He can’t help it.”
“I don’t think we should be—”
“At high school he could have any girl he wanted with a look. I swear, that’s all it took, and they’d come running.”
I bet they did.
“It’s been the same ever since. He’s never been the type to go back for seconds. None of them ever interested him that much.”
I buried my hands in my lap, looked away. Wherever he was going with this, I didn’t like it. Also, no matter how mixed up things were with Jimmy and me, I wasn’t going to talk about him to his brother behind his back. “I’ve heard. David, I’m not comfortable with this.”
“He’s really into you. You walk into a room and he’s all over it, Lena. Watching you on the sly, listening in to everything you say. I don’t know if you realize …”
I blinked. “Um, no. I didn’t.”
“Jimmy’s always been a hard case, closed off.”
“He’s not. He’s just complicated.” I leapt to his defense without thought. Those were the same damn things my idiot ex had accused me of being. Anything along those lines was still a big angry red button sitting inside of me, waiting to go off.
“Lena,” David said. “Just let me explain. Please.”
I nodded.
His gaze ran over the glittering trophies. He really was a very attractive man, but all I saw were the pieces of Jimmy in him, the shared genetics. Or maybe that was love, searching for traces of what your heart longed for everywhere you went. Perhaps I’d always be trying to see him from now on.
“Did you know it was his idea to start the band?” David asked.
“No, I didn’t.”
David nodded, half smiled. “Yeah, he likes to make out it was me, but it wasn’t. Jim said if we were spending so much time fucking around with guitars and shit, we might as well try to make some money out of it. But that wasn’t what it was about for him, not really.”
Despite myself I edged forward in my chair, eager to know. “So why then?”
“Family, Lena. He wanted us all to stick together. I think … well, I know, even back then, he was starting to unravel. He was already drinking and smoking pot. Not just casually, but to excess. Then as the band got bigger, so did his troubles.” His jaw shifted from side to side. “It was like, he didn’t feel like he deserved success, so the more it came his way, the faster he ran.”
”Why are you telling me this?”
“Because right now he’s running from you. He’s terrified of you, Lena.”
I blinked.
“He’s always keeping an eye out for you, and then the minute you’re in his space he gets all agitated and wound up. It’s like you’re his new drug of choice. Only you’re actually good for him.” He squinted, forehead wrinkling. “Problem is, he just doesn’t know how to deal with you. Doesn’t feel worthy of the kind of love I have with Ev, or Mal has with Anne.”
“I’m not sure what to do with that,” I said, shifting my aching booted leg into a more comfortable position. My mind twirled in weary circles. It’d been a long day. “What are you saying here, David? What do you want from me?”
“Ah, I dunno.” He laughed. “I guess I’m asking you to have patience, to not give up on him.”
I just stared.
“Don’t break his heart, Lena. Fuck, he barely even knows he has one, but he does. And it’s actually a really good one. Just give him a chance to figure out what to do with it, please?”
“David …”