Page 20 of Love You Like This

My favorite thing is dragging Hazel away from Stone

The car pulls up in front of the hotel, and I slide out of the backseat after thanking the driver and slipping him a tip. The happy buzz from gossiping with the girls lingers as I make my way through the lobby and up to my room. I don’t know what I’d do without the three of them. They’ve picked me up in ways no one else ever has.

Especially Xander Jacobs.

Eight

XANDER

Present

A knock at the door draws my attention as I wrap a towel around my waist. It better not be Darren. I can’t deal with any more bullshit about the baby. Especially when I’m almost completely positive it isn’t mine.

I open the door and step aside for Tobias and Stone to enter. They’re both dressed as if they’re planning on going out.

“What’s up?” I ask as I close the door.

“Get dressed,” Stone says as he follows me into the bedroom and drops onto my bed.

“For what?” I ask.

“Dinner.” Tobias taps his finger on the desk as he also fully invades my space by inviting himself into my room.

I drop the towel and pull out a pair of boxers. If they’re going to invite themselves in, they can deal with seeing my dick.

“Have you noticed Jade has been acting weird lately?” Stone asks, meeting my eyes in the mirror.

“Yeah,” I draw the word out, unsure where he’s going with this.

“She’s really pissed you knocked some chick up,” Tobias says.

“I didn’t knock anyone up.”

“You don’t know that for sure.”

“I’m sure,” I snap back at him.

“Relax,” Stone interjects. “We’ll figure it out if it’s yours. We don’t need to worry about it until we know for sure.”

I’m positive it’s not mine. It can’t be. But I’m not in the mood to go round for round with either of them.

“I think there’s something else going on,” Stone continues. “I know you guys have a history you aren’t fond of talking about, but it feels different than the usual tension between you two.”

“I know. I tried to talk to her after sound check, but she just shut me down. Every time I try to get her to listen, she comes up with an excuse to walk away.”

“I don’t get it, you guys fucked once like fifteen years ago. Why is she still pissed?”

I hurt her. That’s why. Her pain is all my fault. The heaviness of that thought settles onto my shoulders as I pull a pair of jeans on.

“Where are we going for dinner?” I ask to change the subject. I know that Stone is right, but I don’t have it in me to do a deep dive on all the mistakes I made that summer.

“A sushi restaurant.”

“Sounds good.” I grab a black henley out of my suitcase and pull it on.

We meet up with our security at the elevator and descend to the basement parking garage together. The six of us walk up the steps into the waiting sprinter van. When we all go out together, even the biggest SUV isn’t big enough. We could use two separate cars, but after years together our security team is just as close to us as we are to each other.

The ride to the restaurant is quiet. Stone spends most of his time texting Dan, the bodyguard he assigned to Hazel after an incident early on in the tour. If he could be with her right now, he would be, but anytime any of us go to a signing with her, we cause a ruckus.