“Really?” she squealed, all tears gone. “I’ve never been to California! I’m sure the kids will love it.” Wait. What? “Columbus Day is next weekend, so I’ll have to book our flight as soon as we get off the phone. What airport should we fly into?”

“You’re coming to Cali with me?”

She chuckled. “Yes, silly. That’s what we just agreed on. The kids have a long weekend and I took time off because we…” She trailed off, sighing. “Doesn’t matter. I just don’t have to work. And you said it sounded fun.”

“I’m working while I’m there, Jules.”

“I know. We can entertain ourselves while you’re working. I’m sure the hotel has a pool. But when you’re not on the clock, we can spend time together as a family. I’m so happy that you want us to come. I’m so excited! I’m going to go tell the kids!” She was practically yelling again. “Now, go play bodyguard to that girl and I’ll see you next week!”

The line went dead in my ear before I could process what in the hell had just happened. I looked up, taken aback a bit when I found both Nate and Molly staring at me. The latter had her arms crossed and was shooting daggers at me. Nate, with his arm slung over Molly’s shoulders, looked on sympathetically. It was if he was saying, “Dead Man Walking.”

Molly pushed away from him, shaking her head. “Well, this night’s been fun. Really. But I’ve had all the excitement I can handle. I’m going to take a shower.” She kissed Nate on his cheek. “Kick ass on your set. Sorry about—”

“You have nothing to be sorry for. You’re safe, it was a false alarm. That’s all I care about.”

She didn’t say another word, just kicked off her heels, picked them up, and hurried to the bathroom.

“She’s pissed.”

Nate laughed at that. “Yeah, Carson. She’s pissed. But her adrenaline is crashing, she’s missing the party, and she just found out your wife is joining you, so she can’t have the fuck fest in California she’s been planning weeks for. Cut her some fucking slack.”

“Ex-wife,” I clarified. “And how in the fuck did you know about our plans for Cali?”

“It’s a small bus, Mike. I hear shit that I don’t want to all the time.”

Made sense. I sighed. “So, it was just a fucking camera?”

He nodded. “Yeah, but the douche had psycho written all over him. And a love letter to our girl, using letters cut out from a magazine. Creepy Lover Boy was kicking it old school—loser stalker style.”

A smile threatened to break free. “I freaked.”

“Hey”—he shrugged, smacking me on the back as he walked by—“you didn’t shoot him. And now he’s been added to the no admittance list. Today was a win, Mike. Molly will calm down, give her time. I’m off—the fans have waited long enough.”

After he had left, I collapsed onto the couch and listened to Molly move around in the bathroom. Nothing about today had not gone as planned. But I was thankful that it had ended like it did and that I’d been wrong.

Sitting back, I let the unusual quiet wash over me. I was too distracted, by both the crazy letters Molly was getting and Julie’s divorce drama. To top it off, I had completely screwed up the next weekend’s plans. Fuck.

I’d make it up to her. I’d make it up to us both. ‘Cause right now, the only thing keeping me out here and from kicking in the bathroom door was the knowledge that we weren’t going to be alone for long. I needed that woman, more than I wanted to admit.

Chapter Twenty-Three

~ Molly ~

I was trying hard not to be angry. Really, really, really trying. And failing.

Mike wasn’t my boyfriend. He owed me nothing. And yet here I was, sulking in the recliner in the corner of the bus like a jilted girlfriend as we crossed the Nevada border into the Golden State.

Vegas had been…well, Vegas. I swear that none of the fans who came to see us at The Cosmopolitan were actually local people. Instead, they were all diehard fans who wanted to party hard in Sin City. Mission seriously accomplished.

Well, at least I’d partied hard, as did most of the ‘Bama Boys. Nate had nursed one beer all night while his wife secretly sipped a club soda. I wasn’t sure if anyone else noticed, and the two of them sure as hell weren’t saying anything about it, so I played dumb. Mike had been too busy scowling at me and treating me like a child to finish the one beer he usually allowed himself.

Eh, whatever. It was Vegas, baby! Anything I did here stayed here, after all. Well, except for the raging headache that had been pestering me ever since we’d crawled onto the bus sometime early this morning when the party had finally ended.

And my anger. That was my own little black cloud, following me everywhere I went. I was seriously pissed off at Mr. Carson, bodyguard extraordinaire.

So, as we chased the sun, my friends slept off their liquor in their bunks and I huddled in a recliner, sipping lukewarm coffee and chastising myself because there was no reason for me to feel like I did. Yes, it was pointless. And no, I had no right. But my heart didn’t know that.

I was still beating myself up when the boys started waking up a few hours later. I listened as they laughed joyfully and looked forward to our mini-vacation. Yeah, we were still working, with shows almost nightly and more interviews than I wanted to think about, but we would be off the damn bus and out of each other’s hair.

I smiled at the pleasant thought of a real bed, a private bathroom, and a shower bigger than a shoebox. And solitude. I hadn’t been alone in a room in so long I couldn’t remember when the last time was. It really was the little things that made me a happy girl.

Well, the little things and Mike. Mike in my bed doing those gloriously naughty things that he liked to do. It would be the first night since he joined the tour that I wouldn’t have Mike sleeping a few small feet away. The thought made me sad.

I closed my eyes, trying to force those unwanted thoughts away. And focused on clean sheets, a king-size bed, and a bathroom with a tub.

I was still trying to be positive a few hours later when I unlocked and pushed open the door to my hotel room. Mike went in first, prowling around the room, looking for signs of danger. When he realized it was clear, he turned toward where I stood holding the door open.

“You can come in now, it’s all good.”

I shook my head. “I wanna lock up after you leave.”

“Leave?” He looked confused. “Why in the hell would I leave?”

“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe to get your family?” I snapped back, my voice full of sarcasm.

The asshole laughed as he sauntered across the room toward me, entirely too sexy. When he reached me, he grabbed my hand, yanking me away from the door, and as soon as it shut, my back was against it. “I’m going to say this once, and then we aren’t going to talk about it again, okay?” He adjusted his stance, spreading his legs a bit and bracing his hands on either side of my head. “Jake and his family will be here later this afternoon, and Lia is having them picked up. They’ll call me when they settle into their room.”

He leaned in super close, staring into my eyes, and continued, “I think you’ve forgotten how this works, beautiful. I told you that first night, we are gonna be together non-stop. Wherever you go, I go. Wherever I go, you go. Simple as that. So when my visitors get here in a few hours, we’re gonna have dinner with them.”

He grinned wickedly. “But they’re not going to be here for a few hours”—his hands flew to the buttons on my shirt as he bit his bottom lip—“and I have plans for you.”

My heart thumped in my chest so fast it could have been mistaken for the bass beat in a hip-hop song, and I struggled to find the words I wanted to say. “You”—I cleared my throat—“you do?”