Shea, Sebastian’s wife, was adorable. Everything about her screamed country, from the red boots to the cute drawl that continually came from her mouth.
Sebastian nuzzled his nose in her hair. With the way he kept touching her, I got the feeling the man couldn’t get close enough. “Ah, baby, you should know by now that’s nothin’ but tame for Ash. Zee’s just lucky the asshole didn’t have a prostitute waiting for him back in his room.”
Zee shook his head, that cool easiness gliding out. “Uh, pretty sure the two were interchangeable. Let’s just say stripping was entirely unnecessary since she was already lying there naked.”
Ash pointed at Zee. “Again, you should be thanking me.”
Oh my God. These guys were out of control.
I floated on their joy.
“Thanking you?” Zee shook his head. “Only thing I wanted was to hunt you down and strangle you. You should’ve seen the girl’s face when I opened the door and asked her to leave. She thought it was some kind of sick role-play that she wasn’t sure she wanted to play. You know, since I was doing my best to remain respectful with a parting ‘please’ and ‘thank you’. Don’t think she’d ever heard the words. You know me…the generous one who sent her right back up to your room. On my twenty-first birthday, nonetheless.”
Ash stretched out his arms. “Well, what did you expect? She got a good look at me and the poor thing was hooked.”
Willow just shook her head. Apparently, she was used to it and accepted the way her husband used to live before she’d become the center of his life. The guy had come with quite the reputation.
But it was Ash’s younger sister, Edie, who covered her ears. “Ah, stop it. I don’t need to hear anything about the crazy stuff that goes on while you’re all out on the road.”
Austin wound his arm around her shoulder and leaned close to her ear. “Went down,” he emphasized, smiling down at the baby girl Edie held in her lap. “I think the key here is this is all in the past. But let’s just say before I took Baz’s spot, I was witness to some unsavory shit. Pretty sure Sunder wrote the book on bad behavior.”
Zee was absolutely right. I couldn’t help but love them. Couldn’t stop my grin as I listened to them spar and tease. Their true affection for each other was apparent in every word, and I wondered what it might be like to be a part of it.
Shea laughed her sweet country laugh, though it was tinged with the slightest reprimand. “If I’d been around, I never would’ve let them pull that stuff in front of you, Austin. Shame on all you boys for being such bad influences.”
Austin grinned, but there was something soft about it. Rimmed in a gratefulness that rushed to his expression when he glanced meaningfully at his older brother then back to Shea. “Think the guys here did the best they could, considering the circumstances. Only thing that matters is I turned out just fine.”
His gaze dropped to his wife, just as low as his words. “Better than fine, actually.”
“I love you.” Her voice was less than a whisper as she mouthed it up at him, their lips meeting for a flash.
My spirit danced. Throbbed with the sweetness of it all.
How many stars had I wished on that one day a man might look at me that way?
I dropped my head when Zee looked my way and caught me staring at Austin and Edie and the obvious love they shared.
He reached out, his fingers gentle where they brushed along the sensitive skin of my forearm.
Eliciting chills.
Stoking hunger.
His voice was a soft murmur intended only for me. “Thank you so much for sharing this time with me. You don’t know what it means.”
Chapter Eighteen
Zee
We finally made it into the music room about two hours after Alexis and I had shown. It was the way it always was, all of us getting caught up in memories, joking around, my family enjoying the crazy awesome life they’d been granted.
All the while, their kids playing at their feet.
Baz was slouched back on the couch where he’d been watching the four of us hammer out a song that needed to be tweaked before we hit the stage.
Just like every tour, we’d be kicking this one off here in LA at our favorite old theater. It was just about as much a tradition as the shots Ash had us tossing back after every show.
It was the theater where Sunder had been discovered. The theater where Anthony had first talked to Baz after Sunder had gotten their first big break and opened for a huge band back in the day.
It was the same night Lyrik’s life had come crashing down.
Crazy how that old saying remained true. One door closes and another door opens. At the time, I seriously doubted Lyrik would’ve chosen the door his mistakes had led him through.
But ultimately, that door had led him to Tamar. Ties had been made that night. Aspirations set. Goals kicked into play.
It was where it all had begun. Always had seemed a fitting starting line.
Sweat slicked my back and brow, and I lifted the hem of my shirt to wipe it, trying to gather my breaths that had been pounded out during the session.
“Hell yeah, that was killer.” Ash tugged his teeth over his bottom lip as he set his bass on its stand. “All that speculation about Sunder going dry? Getting too soft to kick ass? Washed up? Now that is just about the most offensive shit the paps have ever gone on about. If they know one thing about us, they should know we always, always kick ass. That’s just one thing that hasn’t and won’t ever go out of style.”
Lyrik roughed a hand through his sweat-drenched hair. “Yeah. Some things do indeed remain the same. And if that’s our one constant? I’ll take it. No complaints here, man.”
Austin was all gloating grins as he chugged a bottle of water. “Hey, you assholes got me on board in place of the big brother. Did anyone seriously think we wouldn’t be killing it for the rest of our days once I took the stage? Now maybe if Baz wouldn’t have stepped down, we might be tellin’ a different story.”
Baz pointed at him. “Oh, you wish, little brother. I was the one who got the train barreling down the tracks. You just hopped on like a hobo snagging a free ride.”
“Hobo?” Austin went for him, throwing a bunch of fake blows to the side of Baz’s face that Baz deflected like an old pro.
“Who’s calling who a hobo? Considering your lazy ass spends half your time at the beach on Tybee Island,” Austin taunted as he jumped around, throwing those jabs and just missing his brother’s face.
Baz lifted his hands, palms out. “Hey, don’t be jealous I get to chill. I put in all the hard work at the beginning, and now I get to kick back and reap the rewards.”
Lyrik scoffed, voice brimming with sarcasm. “At thirty-one. Man, all those strenuous years of hard work you put in…don’t know how you survived it.”
Baz chuckled. “Watch it, dude, or next time you all want to crawl to my place in Savannah to record your next album, I’m all of a sudden gonna be all booked up.”
Ash gasped, hand over his heart. “You wouldn’t dare.”