Wow. Damn it. But wow.

“Okay,” I whispered.

He nodded, making me nod, too. “I love you too much to make you go back on your word. It’s somethin’ I should’ve taken care of already.”

“Okay.”

“Okay then. Now…quit tryin’ to take advantage of my ass, and bring me some fuckin’ comfort food.”

“There’s still about twenty minutes to go.”

“Now, you’re just teasin’ me, and that ain’t okay.”

“Not even if I get you stoned?” I asked, waving the joint under his nose.

“Well, when you put it that way…”

I grinned.

I was so fucking happy that I was already stoned. And it was all on him.

Three days with only each other and no sex hadn’t been easy. The sexual tension was nearing combustible levels, but we had done it. There were times when we’d both been like fuck it and nearly caved in. But we’d proven to each other that our relationship wasn’t based on sex.

For three days, we’d just talked, hung out, watched movies, and made food. Phil had taken me shopping again, and this time, he’d let me buy him some stuff, too. He’d tried yoga, which was pretty fucking funny. He’d said he liked it and that maybe he’d do more of it in the future.

Most importantly, we’d connected like the best friends we’d always been. We’d had it in us to show each other just how much we meant to one another. It was one of the best times of my life.

Wednesday came, and Tim picked us up mid-morning. Piling into the back of the van, he smiled at us in the rearview mirror. “You guys had a nice time?”

Phil looked down at me, smiling. “Too fuckin’ right we did.”

Grinning like an idiot right back at him, I replied, “Very nice.”

The Twisted Festivus was at the same fairgrounds every year. Behind the main stage area, Tim was able to drive us up to the gate that fenced off the tour buses from the rest of the parking lot.

“I got a few more errands to run, so I’ll see you guys later, all right?”

“Sure thing,” replied Phil, grabbing his duffel bag full of clean clothes before taking my hand.

Shit, we were so in love in that moment that even I could see the glow shimmering off of us as we made our way toward the direction where Tim said the bus was.

“I talked to Jason. Everyone was headin’ back to the house to shower and relax for a few hours. Lili and Lewis are gonna get the food for the next few days.”

“Sweet,” I replied.

His hand squeezed my fingers laced with his, and I glanced up and smiled at him. He looked too cute in his aviators.

Passing the rows of buses, we hurried our steps as we neared Cornered Cannibal’s bus, not wanting to run into any of those people or their crew. However, just as we were heading through their designated area, the door to their bus opened, and Devon blew out with an air of violence, closely followed by a tiny redhead.

“Devon, be reasonable! You can’t just leave in the middle of a tour!”

“Be reasonable?” he vehemently snapped, spinning around to face the petite woman. His Irish accent grew thicker with his anger, giving way to a pretty lilt. “You two are pure fucking evil! What is wrong with you?”

“Devon?” I called out.

Both he and the redhead turned to look at us. Phil stiffened with annoyance next to me.

The redhead blanched, and I recognized her even under the heavily applied dark eye makeup.

So did Phil. “Camryn?” he asked in surprise.

I looked up at my man. He wasn’t looking at Camryn. He was looking at the girl who’d had her ass beaten and gotten spit on, the girl who had had her tooth knocked out and taken his money for dental work.

“What the fuck?” he hissed.

“Phil, it’s not—” she said, holding up a manicured slender hand with bloodred nails.

“What the fuck is this shit?” asked Phil. “What are you even doing here? With him?”

“Babe?”

Phil turned his head and looked at me.

“It’s going to be okay,” I told him, squeezing his fingers.

“You ready to hear me out, brother?” asked Devon, sounding hard yet hopeful.

Phil flinched at the term of endearment.

“You are,” I told him. “And no matter what you decide to do afterward, you have my full support, okay?” Then, I did something that I found a lot harder than I’d thought it would be. I let go of his hand. “I’ll be here when you need me.”

Phil breathed for a few beats, but then he nodded. “Okay.”

Camryn’s jaw dropped, and she took a few steps back. “Devon…”

Devon swung to face her. “I’ll finish the fucking tour. You can tell your master that. I’m not leaving Brigid to be subjected to your twisted shit without having an escape.”

“She chose to—”

“You keep fucking telling yourself that. I’m sure it helps you sleep better at night.”

Camryn glared at him, at all of us, and I could only guess that she was going to be running back to tell Jürgen all about what had just gone down.

Devon looked at Phil, giving him a smile that couldn’t quite reach his eyes.

Phil

Devon took me back to his bus, which I noticed wasn’t too far from ours. It was the same as when I had been in there last time, only no ex-girlfriend. Brigid’s heavy perfume still clung to the walls, but her air of vindictiveness was missing. The stacks of sheet music were back on the table, and it took all my willpower not to reach out and paw through them.

This felt fuckin’ weird.

Waving his hand at the table, he let me know I was welcome to sit. “You want something to drink? I’m making coffee.”

“Coffee’s fine.”

One of the most uncomfortable silences made itself painfully known.

What do I say to a guy whom I’ve spent the last four years hating?

The thing was…I had liked Devon. I didn’t want to have to hate him anymore.

Seeing Camryn…at first, I hadn’t even recognized my friend. That girl wasn’t there, like at all. The familiarity of the face I had looked at hit me full force. I’d realized I knew her from somewhere…and then I’d known where. The sad look in my Baby Girl’s eyes had told me that she had known and that she had desperately wanted me to know the truth, too.

Camryn…holy shit, talk about a fuckin’ wack job.

I had attached myself to some seriously fucked-up broads. I must’ve had some sort of neon sign hanging ’round my neck, stating what a fuckin’ gullible dumbass I was.

“Black, yeah?” Devon asked as he poured the fresh brew into two mugs.

I grunted in the affirmative.

He sat down across from me and busted me eyeballing his sheet music. “Brigid told me you looked over some of it,” he said. An odd sadness crept into his eyes.

“It’s some brilliant work,” I told him.

Maybe Kenna had it right. A man who could pull what he had out of thin air could have only been touched by something divine. She’d talked about the look on his face during that solo of his at Budokan, as if that were proof enough for her. I’d fuckin’ watched that shit after she’d mentioned it, and I had to admit, Devon had looked otherworldly. Shit had given me goose bumps.

“Glad to hear someone thinks so,” he replied.

“Yeah, it doesn’t read like anythin’ the Cannibals would be willin’ to play.”

“No.”

More weird silence.

“So, are you gonna tell me what the fuck is goin’ on, or…”

“What has Kenna told you?”

“Not a fuckin’ thing. She told me you had to tell me.”

I knew why, too. If she had told me, I might have just brushed it off as Devon trying to get one over on her. Smart woman, with her Vulcan fuckin’ logic.

At least one of us has it, I thought.

“You need to know that I wanted to tell you from the beginning, only Jürgen…” He sighed and closed his eyes. “I’ve wanted this for so long, and now that it’s finally happening, I don’t even know what to say.”