I throw on my jeans, leaving the button and zipper undone. I don’t plan on making small talk with the person banging on our door, rather annoyed that the hotel staff is bothering us right now.
“Lana?” I’m shocked when I see her crying face and slumped form in fron
t of me. “What’s wrong?”
“I fought with Kings and I have nowhere else to go.” She walks straight into my arms, forcing me to wrap my arms around her.
“Lana, is that you?” I look over my shoulder, releasing Lana so Shayla can see her better.
“Shay, I’m sorry. I know we just talked about this, but I couldn’t do it. He’s so upset, Shay. So upset.” She looks tortured, attempting to tell us what happened.
Shayla rushes to us, covered in her silk robe, and takes Lana in her arms, worry etched on her makeup free face. “Where is he?”
Through a shuttering sob she replies, “He’s still in the room, but I had to get out. Please go see him. I feel fucking terrible.” She sobs harder.
“Lana, I can send Trey. Let me be here for you,” Shayla tries to console her.
“No, Shay, we can talk later. He was fucking torn up, I worry about him being alone and I don’t think he will listen to anyone. Please.” I can see the struggle Shayla is facing. So badly wanting to ignore her wishes, but he shouldn’t be alone and she has a point. I won’t be able to talk him down when he’s emotional like this; Kingston’s not that kind of guy. He will be more apt to talk to Shayla first.
I watch her search Lana’s face a few more seconds, then yield to her wants. “L, I promise I’ll come back and talk to you, I promise.” She nods and then Shay looks to me.
“You got her?” She looks to me, and I know she wishes she could be in both places at once.
“Yes, go be with Kings. I’ll hold down the fort here.”
She slips her feet into her boots, looking both adorable and flustered with her silk robe and knee-high boots. She kisses my cheeks, and I watch her take off down the hall, making sure she makes it into King’s room. I close the door and turn to Lana.
“Come on.” I head over to the sitting area next to the fireplace; her shaking is terrible, I need to help get her warm.
I pick up my shirt and slip it back on. “Look at us.”
She smiles at me and wipes her hand under her red, swollen nose.
“What in the world are we going to do? I swear, L, we are crazy,” I state honestly. Because we are, L and I both have had love in our life tainted or spoiled by rotten things, abuse, lack of love…all that rolled into one. No wonder we can’t get our emotions under control and decide what we want or how we’re gonna do it.
“Yeah, I don’t know what we’re going to do. But at least you and Shay are together. Congrats, by the way.”
It makes me feel a little selfish to be excited about our relationship, while she and Kingston have mad shit they need to figure out.
“It’s not all peaches and cream over here either. I still have fears and deep-seated issues living inside of me.” I pull her into my side, wrapping her in a throw blanket, rubbing up and down her arms to help speed up the warming process.
“What do you mean? You two seem mad about each other. Not to mention she forgave you for getting that tattoo. No warning was given to me when I saw Kingston did the same thing.” She sniffles and lays her head on my shoulder. My tattoo was subtle, Shayla forgiving me was way easier, that’s a given. Now Kings, on the other hand, is fucking screwed, he got Lana’s name tattooed in big cursive letters across his lower abdomen. That’s a bit more extreme in my book.
“Pops is right, you two need to be sent to the loony bin.” She winks at up at me,
Pop’s observation is pretty damn accurate. Kings and I are very different men than we were just a few short months ago. We’ve both been with an unsettling amount of women, trying to avoid relationships as long as we could. This whole new commitment and love version of us is still shocking to me at times, especially Kings, he loves the ladies.
“Hey, you two don’t make it easy on us, you know?” I counter, her and Shay like the cat and mouse game, they knew the game they were playing. We can’t help the fact that they changed something in us; something that was too broken it almost took all of us in the wreckage.
“Oh really. How so?”
“Let’s start out with how gorgeous you two are. We’re very lucky.” I see the straight line of her lips crack into a small smirk. It’s working, distraction and complimenting, the perfect diversion, because women like shit like that, right?
“Then to top it off, you two are the most hardworking, smart, and beyond talented women we know. So there, it’s your fault, fancy pants.” She grips my knee tight and squeezes it until I twitch and shout mercy.
“Ow, you turd. Truth hurts, doesn’t it?” I rub at my knee, mocking pain while she stares at the fire, all traces of her laughter gone.
“Do you miss your mom, Trey?” Where in the hell did that come from? I don’t like talking about my mom. Shay and my dad are about the extent of the people I talk about my mom to, and sometimes they have to coerce it out of me. Not wanting to be a total dick, I open up to her.