Page 43 of Love You Like This

“Yeah.” I nod my head, the movement accidentally brushing our lips together.

Then we’re kissing again. Our tongues moving against each other frantically, as if we’ll never kiss again and need to experience as much of each other as we can. The last thing I want to do is stop. We can’t go further than this, it’s the only thing keeping me from pushing him down onto the sand and straddling his hips to grind on him until we both come.

The passion of the moment is broken by my phone vibrating in my hoodie pocket between us. We break apart and take a step back from each other. His lips are swollen, and his eyes wild as I pull my phone out to see it’s a phone call from Shan.

He motions for me to take it while he adjusts himself. I feel his eyes on me as I walk back to the house to take the call out of the wind. I love her, but she has absolute shit timing.

Seventeen

XANDER

Present

The floor shakes as the opening band kills their last set here in Los Angeles. They’re going to be huge by this time next year, I just know it. As long as they don’t burn their success down with the crash and burn of the two fronts’ relationship. Darren extended them an offer to open for us as a way to pull heat off our band.

Evil fucking genius that he is, it worked perfectly. No one has heard about the rumored baby. More importantly, everyone is leaving Hazel and Stone alone. Instead, the media is focused on rumors of cheating in a band that earned eight Grammy nominations on their debut album.

“Ready?” Tobias comes to stand beside me in front of the screen showing their performance. He bounces on the balls of his feet, incapable of standing still for more than thirty seconds.

“Always,” I turn toward him, noting the dark circles around his eyes. “You good?”

“Yeah.”

I narrow my eyes at him because the answer wasn’t convincing enough.

He rolls his eyes at me. “I’m just having trouble sleeping. It always happens when I’m home.”

“Have you talked to anyone in your family?” I ask softly.

“No.” His response is firm and clearly conveys he’s uninterested in speaking about it anymore.

“You know you’re always welcome to crash at my place.”

“I know. Thank you. What I really need is pussy.”

“Fresh out of that,” I say with a huffed laugh.

“No shit. It’s like you’re planning on joining the seminary or something.”

My eyes flick over to the table where Jade is sitting shoulder to shoulder with Hazel, handing her books to sign assembly line style. Darren is leaning over them with his face severe as he talks about something I can’t hear. Jade waves him off.

She hasn’t spoken to me since our conversation a few days ago. It’s killing me to know I laid it all on the line for her and she’s seemingly unfazed. Meanwhile, I couldn’t be more bothered. It’s not like the way things ended between us was completely my fault. She couldn’t wait to block me as soon as our parents split up.

I’ve never demanded the answers that I think I deserve. Those few days moving from LA to New York were chaotic. I had every intention of calling her once everything settled down.

The longer I think about it, the more my irritation grows. I let it fuel me while I’m on stage. Every note that I hit feels sharper. My background vocals are fucking on fire. I can see it in the way Stone catches my eye and loses himself to the performance. The best part is that there are a ton of reporters in the audience. Publications from Rolling Stone to small, LA indie newspapers are covering the tour.

The more good stories flooding the news cycle, the better. By the time we make it through Texas and Florida to get to the last show in Atlanta, hopefully nothing will have leaked about the woman claiming I’m her baby’s father. Not just for me, but also for her. The internet is terrible, especially when such a bold claim is proven false.

Which it will be, I have no doubt.

As soon as the lights onstage go off and we’re done, I make my way back to find Jade. I’ve had enough of the waiting. I want to know where she stands. What she thinks. Because I can’t live like this anymore.

I stalk down the hall to where I saw her last. She’s not in there. A few crew members point me in the direction of a small office they saw her go into halfway through our set. She startles as I push the door open, nearly dropping the tablet she was working on.

“The fuck, Xander?” She shoots to her feet, her hand over her heart. “Was storming in here necessary?”

I lift the hem of my shirt to wipe the sweat off my face before saying anything. Adrenaline still pumps through my veins from our best performance of the tour. Her eyes are locked on my abs when I pull the cotton away from my face.