I saw Alex in the driveway as I pulled into the garage and waved him over.
I’d given up too easily last time and it cost me eight years with her. I hopped out of the truck and gave my brother a hug.
“I need you to replace Maia with another chef,” I said without preamble.
There was a long silence as he pulled back and looked at me warily. “I take it she doesn’t know you’re asking me to do this.”
I raked a hand through my hair. “Alex, I’ve never asked you for anything. I’ll beg if I have to, but if you love me, you’ll just do it.”
“Zane…it’s because I love you that I have to at least try to be the voice of reason here. We both know you don’t mean it.”
“I need time. If she leaves, I’ll lose her again. The only reason she’s going back to LA now is loyalty to you. Absolve her of that guilt.”
He sighed. “Elena will put my cock in a cage if she catches wind of me doing something this shady to one of her friends.”
“So don’t tell her.”
“It’s a literal cage, Zane. She’s probably got it in her purse right now. Do the words cock and ball torture mean anything to you?”
“You’re saying you won’t help me because you’re scared of your girlfriend?”
“I mean, I definitely have a healthy fear of Elena’s skills and you should too, but I’m trying to make light of this because you’re going to calm down in a few minutes and realize you don’t mean it. Why don’t you try, I don’t know…talking to her?”
He was right. Of course I didn’t mean it. I’d never fuck with her job like that, but I needed to vent like I had some option besides wringing my hands or kidnapping her again.
He pulled me in for another hug. I hadn’t cried since our dad died, but I was damn near tears of frustration. I rationally knew she could go back to LA and we could still talk on the phone in stolen moments and I could see her after the tour, but it would be another lost year. If I thought quitting the tour would solve it, I’d do that, but there was so much more at stake than there had been before. So many people’s jobs and the fans and my bandmates. I couldn’t make a call that selfish even if Maia would’ve accepted it, which she wouldn’t.
“I’ve tried talking to her! I just need time. She needs time. If she leaves again, she’s going to talk herself out of it and I’ll never get her back to this point. I know this is what she wants, but she gets in her own goddamn way more often than not. Just fucking fire her, Alex!”
Alex looked over my shoulder and put his hands up defensively. Maia, Elena, Ophelia, Dan, and Kelly were standing there with their mouths hanging open.
Alex followed the others out and Ophelia pushed Elena into the garage and shut the door behind her. “Work your shit out, kids!” she called as she flipped the lock.
Maia crossed her arms, expression swimming with a mix of hurt and fury. “How dare you try to interfere with my life like that without my input!”
God, she made me want to put my fist through a wall. “I didn’t fucking mean it. I would’ve dropped it if you hadn’t walked in, but I’m glad you did because now you’ve got some idea of how it feels!”
Her chin went up. “I won’t apologize for it. I’m sorry I hurt you. But I’m not sorry for doing what I thought I had to do to protect you.”
I was going to lose it. “Protect me? Do you have any idea how bad it fucked me up? Way worse than quitting that toxic band—which I’d like to point out I fucking quit anyway. Have you spent all these years thinking you were some kind of noble martyr in this story?”
She threw her hands in the air. “I was scared, okay? What kind of idiot falls for a twenty-one-year-old who’s destined to be a rock star and thinks it’s going to work out? That’s fairy tale shit.”
“We could’ve had the fucking fairy tale!”
She closed her eyes and curled in on herself. “I wasn’t going to let you give up your dreams for me. I’m not worth that, Zane.”
I couldn’t take it anymore. I closed the distance between us and pulled her to my chest. I’d never been angrier with her, but I couldn’t stop myself from holding her when she was shaking like she was.
“You’re worth everything, baby. You thought you were giving me my dreams, but all you did was make my dreams feel like a consolation prize. You were it for me.”
She tilted her head up to look at me and I claimed her mouth, kissing her furiously. It escalated immediately between us like it always did and I could see exactly what would happen. We’d fuck right here in the garage, letting her avoid talking about it, then we’d still be no closer to a solution.
I pushed her back by the shoulders, putting some distance between us. “We know how that ends. The sex has never been the problem. I need to know whether you’re willing to fight for the rest of it.”
She put her head against my chest, shaking it back and forth. “We’re right back where we started in this stolen moment in Vegas. We make sense in this bubble away from the real world, but the real world is out there pounding on the door.”
“So you won’t even try?”
