But the fun and games ended the moment we walked into the penthouse. Calum was in the kitchen, grabbing the creamer from the refrigerator. He turned to watch us both walk in, his brow creasing with suspicion until he took in what we were wearing.
At first, I was worried he’d be able to tell what had transpired between Dare and me, but it was obvious we’d come from the gym.
“The fact that you two can work out after a night of drinking astonishes me,” Calum deadpanned, closing the door of the refrigerator.
“We didn’t drink as much as you, and besides…I needed to burn off some anger,” I said, plunking down at the island.
“Anger about what?” Calum eyed me warily, grabbing down another two mugs. But Dare shook his head, moving toward the staircase.
“I’m gonna go shower,” Dare said by way of explanation—before he disappeared up the stairs—without sparing another glance in my direction.
I tried not to let it get to me, turning my attention to my brother. “Caught Jason screwing Brighton Wells last night.”
“No kidding.” Cal looked pissed. “Where is he?”
“No idea.” I shrugged. “I took him off the list, so he got tossed with the rest of them at the end of the night.” Calum chuckled, loving that revenge tactic.
“Want me to get Tai to switch your flight to a later one?” It was the same thing Dare had offered. I shook my head, glancing toward the stairs. It was probably better I kept my flight time—got out of here before I embarrassed myself by getting over-emotional by Dare’s disconnected passiveness.
I shouldn’t have felt the sting of rejection—Dare had made it perfectly clear last night that he wanted me—he just didn’t want to risk upsetting Cal. That had to mean he’d go back to keeping his distance and acting like he didn’t want me when my brother was around.
I didn’t like it one bit. Now that I had had his hands on me, I didn’t want to go without that experience. I wanted more—more of the things I knew he could give me. But it wasn’t a practical expectation, our lives were taking us in different directions.
“Nah, it’s fine. I’m over it and him. He no longer exists to me, so it will be easy to ignore him on the flight. Besides, I need to get back to finish some assignments.”
Calum watched me, his intelligent eyes searching to see if I really was over it. I put on my best, most reassuring smile. “If I see him, I’m punching him.”
“I’m not going to stop you.” I smiled, lifting my hands. “I might even clap. He deserves it. I still can’t believe he did that to me, at my birthday party!”
“That’s fucking low.” He scowled, his jaw clicking with barely restrained anger. Cal really wasn’t a fan of people hurting my feelings, especially people of the opposite sex.
A small part of me wanted to call Calum out…ask him if it was as low as leaving your girlfriend without saying goodbye and never talking to her again, but I knew that would only hurt him needlessly.
Cal punished himself enough about that. Maybe one day, he’d either get over it or go back and beg for her forgiveness, but for now…I think he was having too much fun torturing himself with his regret.
A lot of great music had come from it, but Calum couldn’t live in a place of pain forever. It wasn’t healthy, and eventually, it’d take a permanent toll on him. I wanted to talk to him about all of this and more, but Cal would just shut down on me…and I didn’t want to spend the last few hours of my visit in his bad graces.
It would be a while before we’d get a chance to see each other again. The guys were leaving on tour for the next several weeks, then they were slated to be in the recording studio after that, recording their new album. I likely wouldn’t get a chance to see him—or Dare—for another six months, or longer. Bringing it up now would only put Calum in a foul mood for the beginning of the tour. I knew I’d have to wait to talk to him about it.
I wasn’t going to take the guys up on their offer to upgrade my ticket or catch a later flight, as tempting as it was. Putting off the inevitable wouldn’t change things, and I felt empowered to deal with it.
The longer I hung around, the more risk I ran at giving myself away. I was worried my brother would somehow be able to look at the two of us in the same room and justknowwhat transpired between us. I couldn’t say for sure if he’d be pissed about it, but I didn’t exactly want to test the theory—not when he was hungover and already pissed—and not when they were leaving for another tour in a couple of days. Friction between bandmates wouldn’t be good for the tour.
Plus, it didn’t exactly make me look good, hopping from a relationship with one guy into the bed of another. It was exactly the kind of behaviour I needed to be careful about, if I wanted people to take me seriously in this industry.
“I’ll give you a lift. I can’t believe that little prick.” Calum was livid—he’d likely offered to drive me on the off chance he’d cross paths with Jason. He was looking for a fight, as he usually did when his dark mood followed him. “Fucking told Tai to keep Brighton off the list too. Bitch is seven shades of crazy.”
That might have been true—very true, from the many reports of people who had worked with or dated her—but when Brighton Wells appeared at a party, it garnered a lot of attention from her extremely massive fanbase. Her fans were now equally as obsessed with the guys from The Forgotten Flounders as they were with Brighton, and it all stemmed back from my brother’s first year on the road.
That’s when he’d been stupid enough to sleep with her—his words, not mine. It created a long list of problems for my brother, but that had only served to elevate his punk-rocker playboy status.
After her fling with Calum fizzled out, Brighton didn’t hesitate to go for Evan. Then the gossip magazines exploded with the constant “will they, won’t they” narrative that portrayed a celebrity caught in a punk-rock love triangle.
It was probably the only reason why she continued to receive invitations to their events, despite all of the chaos she’d caused for the guys in their early days.
“Yeah, well. Guys are apparently not able to resist her charms.” I rolled my eyes. Even before Brighton had slept with my boyfriend, I hadn’t liked her for the drama she caused these three.
She got my brother into some heavy shit too: cocaine. If it weren’t for Dare, Evan, and Gramps’s intervention…who knows what would have happened to him.
