As soon as we opened the door to the first penthouse it seemed like we had walked into a war zone. The first thing I noticed was the luggage sitting by the door. Then her country accent filled my ears and my heart twisted because I had missed Dallas like crazy. I hadn’t gotten to see much of her in the last few months because she had been so busy with her final semester of nursing school.
The growling voice of Axton Cage greeted me next and I let out a sad sigh. I had my suspicions on why Dallas had called it quits with the rock god, but she had never really admitted anything to me. I suspected that Harper knew but we were both too loyal to talk about it without first talking to Dallas.
Harper grabbed my hand and pulled me through the penthouse, eager to stop the argument and to see our friend. When I caught sight of her for the first time in what had to be months my mouth fell open. It just wasn’t fair that she was so beautiful. Even tattooed and pierced as she was, that girl was hot as fuck and if I ever decided to go that way, I would so hit that.
“Dallas!” Harper exclaimed when she saw the woman who had been her rock growing up. “Fuck, I’ve missed you!” She threw her arms around the blonde, and inked up arms wrapped instantly around Harper’s waist, holding on tight.
I watched Axton as he kept his gaze trained on Dallas. He hadn’t been the same since Dallas had broken it off with him. Maybe it was because I had gotten to know him so much better over the last few years, but I had seen that his eyes had lost some of their light. I had noticed that when he thought the world wasn’t watching, he looked almost depressed at times.
Sure he had been carrying on like he didn’t even remember Dallas’s name. I had seen him leaving the studio with groupie after groupie when America’s Rocker was done recording for the day. But I could see that he just wasn’t happy. I felt sorry for him, actually.
Now, with Dallas in the same room with him, despite her just gutting him with words I was sure that I would need a dictionary on country slang to understand, I saw more life in his eyes than I had seen in what felt like forever. I didn’t know if it was a good thing or not, but I was hoping that Axton got his head out of his ass soon and would try to get his girl back.
Harper
“Bitch, I missed you!”
I laughed and hugged Dallas tighter. “I missed you too.”
“Dallas!”
We turned to see Linc coming into the penthouse, dressed in nothing more than a pair of basketball shorts. He pulled us both into his arms, swinging us around like we weighed nothing at all. To him, we probably didn’t. I clung to his shoulder with one arm while I wrapped the other around Dallas’s shoulders.
My eyes closed, savoring this. It felt so good to have them right there holding me just then. For a long time these two were my only family other than my stepdad. Dallas, and then later on Linc, had been my rocks. There wasn’t anything I wouldn’t do for either one of them.
“Dude, I’m getting seriously jealous over here.” I heard Shane chuckle from somewhere behind me.
Linc let us go and turned to face my fiancé. “Ah, sorry bro. I’ll hug you too.” He winked and everyone burst out laughing.
“I’d watch that,” Dallas said and glanced from one hot guy to the other, taking Linc and Shane in from head to toe. “Yeah, I’d pay good money to watch that.”
“Well I wouldn’t,” Natalie said as she came into the living room from the direction of the bedrooms. “That’s just gross. He’s my brother.”
Shane wrapped his hands around my waist and I melted against him. It was still hard to believe that he was going to be my husband in two days. I felt like an entire lifetime had passed since he had first kissed me and ran for the hills. We had come so far in the past two years, but my love for him only seemed to grow with each passing day.
“Okay, I need a shower and lots of water. I need hydration after that long-ass flight.” Dallas picked up her cosmetics bag and lifted the handle on her huge roller bag. “Where am I sleepin’? And if you say with douchebag over there, I’m throwin’ someone out the window.”
“It’s a king sized bed, hotness,” Axton said and winked at her, acting his normal conceited self. “And you don’t take up too much room.”
Natalie stepped forward before Dallas could drop her bags and punch him—if that was what she happened to do. Knowing Dallas, it was hard to tell what she could have done to him. A knee to the balls. A punch to the face. Maybe even suck his face. She was always surprising me. “My room has two queens. If you want to stay in my room, that’s cool.”
“Or mine,” Linc assured her. “I don’t mind sharing.”
Dallas nodded. “I’ll go in with Nat. She doesn’t snore.”
“We were planning on just ordering room service for dinner,” Lana told her. “So take your time. I’ll order you a steak or would you rather have pizza?”
“Both. I’m starvin’.” She gave Lana a peck on the cheek and followed Nat down the hall. “And tea. Extra sweet.”
“Extra sweet,” three people said at the exact same time as she did. I wasn’t surprised that one of them was Axton. Natalie and Linc shot him a grin and Dallas turned to give him the finger before disappearing down the hallway.
Nik disappeared down the same hall and a few minutes later Layla joined us. After ordering what seemed like enough food to feed a small country, we settled down and watched television while we waited. With Lucy still sleeping soundly in her room and Mia conked out too, everyone was quiet. I sat on Shane’s lap who was seated between Drake who had a half-sleepy Lana draped over him, and Layla who was getting a foot massage from the beast of a rocker sitting on the floor in front of her. If it hadn’t been so cute I might have laughed at the sight of the bad-ass rocker doing something so sweet for his very pregnant wife.
Linc, Natalie, and Axton took up the other couch and I let my eyes drift to the rock god. Because of my loyalty to Dallas, I hadn’t let myself get too close with him after their breakup. Sure, because Axton was such close friends with Shane and Drake, we had all hung out a lot. But I just hadn’t bothered to get to know him better. In my opinion he was a dick, having torn Dallas apart because he was still in love with Gabriella Moreitti. And he still saw that bitch from time to time from what I had heard at work. Just a few weeks ago one of my photographers had gotten a picture of him walking out of a hotel with her and his bandmates.