Plat, page 14
As someone who’d been without a family for a long time, I’d do everything I could to keep it if I had one. If I was able to get out from under my father’s thumb, the first thing I was going to do was try to find my mother’s family. Then I was going to sell that house in Beverly Hills and maybe buy something in Las Vegas. Or, if things went well with us, Tyler and I could buy something together. His house was nice, but I wanted to build something new, something that would be reflective of both of us instead of something of a bachelor pad.
Could I be that lucky?
Sometimes I wondered.
I’d been lucky when I was younger, rising to stardom starting at a pretty young age. Whether it was beauty pageants or modeling gigs, I’d had looks and talent, but there was an element of luck in show business and I’d had it in spades. To a degree, I still did professionally, since everything I touched turned to gold, but not so much in my personal life. Hell, I hadn’t even had a personal life until Tyler. Now I had an amazing boyfriend, musician friends like Stu, Bash, and Ford, and a girlfriend like Lexi. Maybe even a couple we could be friends with, like Casey and Erik. Queen Casey and King Erik. Who seemed to like me. Yes, initially it was because of Tyler, but I’d already had a distant if not professional relationship with Lexi, and once I’d gotten in the studio with Nobody’s Fool, everything seemed to progress naturally.
And now I was in Limaj. With Tyler. And the royal family.
Maybe I wasn’t so unlucky after all.
23
Tyler
It had been more than a decade since Marcus and I had talked. Really talked. We were identical twins and had once been so close it was like we were one person, but not anymore, and I was a little uncomfortable as I went up to his room. More than anything else, I didn’t want to argue. Every time we’d seen each other since we were eighteen, we’d either argued or fought, and that wasn’t the man I was. Not anymore. I’d grown up, and he probably had, too, so just this once I wanted to clear the air without anger.
“Hey.” He opened the door, and I stepped inside. His room was spartan, nothing like the suite Ariel and I had, and I frowned.
“Hey. Not much in the way of décor, huh?”
“The previous king gutted the place, and when we got here last winter it was even worse. At least now I have a bed, a TV, and a mini-fridge. When I first moved in, I was in a sleeping bag on the floor.”
“Jesus.”
“You want a drink? I was just about to have a glass of bourbon.”
“Sounds good.”
He poured us each a couple of fingers, and I took a sip. “So. How’s it going?”
He chuckled. “Good. My life here is busy as hell, but I love it, and I make a fuck-ton of money.”
“Is there, uh, anyone special in your life?”
He shook his head. “Nah. No time. There was for a while, but she didn’t like being married to a military man, and then she was mad that I went into the private sector. I don’t know what she thought I would do after the military, but that’s been over for a while.” He paused, looking up at me. “So, you and Ariel Fox. That’s pretty intense.”
“It’s been a whirlwind. I’ve never felt like this before.”
“You sure you know what you’re doing?” he asked quietly, leaning against the wall. “I did some digging and—”
“Oh, come on,” I protested, scowling. “You did a background check on her?”
“I had to for security purposes.”
“I know what I need to know about her.”
“Do you? I mean, has she told you everything?”
“Probably not, but I know the big stuff.”
“You’ve only been together about five minutes. You don’t know what kinds of behavior patterns she has. Have you looked into what it means to be bipolar?”
“Yeah, as a matter of fact, I have.” I was getting annoyed. This wasn’t at all what I’d thought our reunion would be like, and if his sole purpose in inviting me up was to badmouth Ariel, then I was out of here.
“Look, I’m not trying to be a jerk. I just—”
“This is how it always is,” I said, shaking my head. “I thought now that we were older and a little wiser, we could put the past behind us, but I guess not.”
“Ty, I’m not trying to start anything.” He took a step toward me. “I just want you to be careful. She could be unstable and—”
“After all this time, now you’re worried I might be involved with the wrong woman?” I met his gaze directly. “Where have you been the last ten years? When I was screwing groupies and having threesomes and getting fucked up beyond belief. Were you worried about me then?”
Our eyes met, and I recognized a familiar glint of stubbornness, but I was pissed. There wasn’t anything he was thinking that I hadn’t at least considered when it came to Ariel, but I liked her. I cared about her. She made me happy. I wasn’t stupid, though. I knew what to look for, and it wasn’t like I’d signed over my assets to her or anything.
Marcus blew out a frustrated breath but reached for a file on a small table. He picked it up and handed it to me. “Everything I found is in there.”
I snatched it out of his hand and opened it, irritation coursing through me. I should have known he would do something like this, but it still pissed me off. He hadn’t been part of my life for more than a decade, and now he suddenly was interested in who I was involved with? Fuck that.
I’d still skim the file, though. I wasn’t an idiot.
Nothing stood out, and I frowned as I skimmed the information.
Arrested at seventeen for drunk driving.
Resisting arrest.
Assaulting a police officer.
Yeah, all shit I knew.
“This right here.” I pulled out a picture of Ariel crying the night of her arrest and showed it to Marcus. “This is why I’ll do everything I can to help her, even if she breaks my heart. She was a scared kid whose life had spiraled out of control between her mother’s suicide and so much fame at such a young age. Instead of helping her, Douglas used it as the perfect opportunity to get control of both her and her money. He doesn’t care about her, and neither does anyone else. Except me. And I don’t care what you or anyone else think—I’m not giving up on her.”
Marcus nodded slowly. “I understand all that. I just don’t want you to be hurt. And honestly, despite Casey approving this, it’s a security nightmare.”
“There’s no security issue,” I said, closing the file and handing it back to him. “She’s not a security risk. I take personal responsibility for her.”
“You don’t know what that might mean.”
“I do. I know her.”
“You can’t possibly know her after less than two weeks.”
“Sometimes, you just know.” I met his gaze without blinking.
“You’re in love with her?” He looked incredulous.
“Probably.” I shrugged. “But whether it’s love or lust or something else, I’m going to do everything I can to help her get away from him.”
“Ty…” He took a deep breath. “You understand that if I ever had to make a choice…”
“Between your twin’s girlfriend and the royal family? Yeah, I know.”
“Even you. If I had to choose between you and the royal family, I took an oath. I’ll always pick them.”
Damn. That hurt. It shouldn’t have after so many years of distance, but it did.
“Well, I guess that’s not a surprise.” I downed the rest of my bourbon and headed for the door. “See you around, Marcus.”
“Dammit, Ty, don’t walk away like this. I owe it to both of us to be honest.”
“I get it.” I paused, my hand on the doorknob. “I just thought it might be different this time, but I guess not.”
“What does that mean? I’m not the one who keeps walking away.”
“No, but you’re the one who keeps pushing me away.” I opened the door and softly closed it behind me.
This definitely wasn’t the reunion I’d been hoping for.
Ariel and I went exploring the next day. Marcus drove us and hung out nearby, but he didn’t stay close enough to talk to us or hear our conversations. No matter how hard I tried to pretend it was okay, our conversation last night still bothered me, and despite how much fun we were having, Ariel noticed.
“You sure you’re okay?” she asked as we strolled along the streets of a busy shopping area. “I didn’t want to push it last night, but you seemed out of sorts after talking to Marcus. Does he not like me?”
I let out a little half-laugh because it wasn’t funny, but it was ironic that she read me so well. Even though it had been less than two weeks.
“He doesn’t trust you,” I said after a moment.
“I understand. The crazy bipolar woman who might stab you in your sleep or something. Yeah, it’s not the first time I’ve encountered that kind of attitude.”
“It pissed me right off.”
“The last thing I want to do is cause more distance between you and Marcus. I’m sorry, Tyler.”
“The distance between us is already so wide, there isn’t much you could do to make it worse. Don’t worry about it. It just hurt that he went out of his way to remind me that if he had to choose between me and the royal family, he’d pick them.”
“That’s awful. I understand why that might be the case, considering his job as a Royal Protector, but to come right out and say it? Ugh.”
“Yeah.”
“This is what I was afraid of,” she said, her eyes filled with sadness.
“What were you afraid of?” I asked.
“Doing something to impact your life in a bad way.”
I slid an arm around her and kissed the top of her head. “Babe, my brother and I haven’t been close in fourteen years. Almost fifteen. You had nothing to do with that. Some things obviously aren’t meant to be.”
“But this was your chance to make up, and it’s ruined because of me.”
“If it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t have had this chance at all. It’s not like I was going to take a trip to Limaj to see him.”
“I still feel terrible about it.”
“This isn’t on you, and frankly, it’s not on me, either. I’ve wondered for a long time if I could have done something different, worked harder to make up with him, something, but at the end of the day, the answer is no. We’ve grown too far apart. I don’t think our relationship is salvageable at this point.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. I’ve mostly come to terms with it. Yeah, he’s my twin and I miss him, but I can’t change him, so I just have to work on me.”
“Maybe he’s right, though,” she said after a moment. “About me.”
“What about you?”
“Maybe I am a risk. Not just to you but to the royal family. I probably shouldn’t be here.”
“Come on, don’t do that. You’re here because I want you here.”
“Is two weeks enough time to put yourself on the line for someone?”
“I don’t know if two weeks is enough time for anything,” I admitted slowly. “But I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t want to be. We know it’s more than sex because both of us can get that anywhere. To be honest, I’ve never felt like this before. It might be too soon for someone on the outside looking in, but as the person living it, it’s perfect. What we have is fucking perfect, and I don’t give a flying fuck what anyone thinks.”
“And if it doesn’t work out?”
“Then it doesn’t work out. I’m a big boy, and it wouldn’t be my first broken heart.”
“But I don’t want to break your heart!” she whispered.
“Then don’t. I don’t know about you, but I’m invested. I don’t care whether it’s been two weeks or two years. The feelings between us already exist. If you have similar feelings, then the only direction to go is forward. If you have doubts, that’s okay, too. Just say so, and I’ll still help you because you’re my friend, if nothing else. I mean, if that’s the case, we should probably stop sleeping together, but—”
“There is zero chance we’re going to stop sleeping together!” She laughed, playfully elbowing me.
“Well, that’s good to hear.”
“Hey, let’s go in here.” She tugged me into a music shop Casey had told us about. The owner hand-carved instruments and inlays for instruments, and Casey’s favorite guitar had been a wedding gift from Erik. It was a hot-pink electric guitar inlaid with dragons carved out of ivory or something. She rarely played it in public because it was so special to her, but she’d gotten it here, and we both wanted to see what the owner had for sale.
“Yorba.” Hello. An older gentleman with glasses and a scarf around his neck called out a typical Limaji greeting to us.
“Hello.” I smiled.
The man eyed us for a moment and then smiled. “Tyler. Hello. Casey speaks you and Bash often.”
I grinned. “And she talks about your store all the time. I’m really freakin’ excited to be here and see what you’ve got.”
“Yes. Come.” He held out a hand and drew us deeper into the store.
“Oh, this is beautiful,” Ariel said, fingering a handmade flute that was in a case.
“My grandfather made this when he was a young man.” The owner smiled. “It is almost one hundred years old.”
“Is it for sale?” she asked.
He shook his head. “It is not. It is a family heirloom.”
“I don’t blame you.”
“Are you looking for something specific?” he asked.
I shook my head. “No. Just wanted to see what you have.”
“Guitars, yes?”
“Do you have any bass guitars?”
“I have one. It is new. A Gibson Les Paul that I am still customizing. It’s not finished.” He took us through a curtained doorway and into what looked like a workshop. On the table was the most beautiful bass guitar I’d ever seen. It had been taken apart, and the owner, Vicenzo, was carving flames into a piece of wood that would fit onto the body. The inlays on the fretboard had already been done and were a gorgeous red-orange glitter color that made the color pop.
“The body will be the same color,” he explained. “But with the flames carved as such.” He held up the wood that would be the body once it was done.
“That’s fucking amazing,” I breathed. “Is it for sale?”
He smiled. “Everything is for sale. Except my grandfather’s flute.”
I was about to tell him I needed it, no matter what the cost was, when I heard Marcus calling to me.
“Back here!” I yelled.
“Hey,” he said, coming through the curtains. “Sorry to interrupt. I don’t know if you’ve been online at all, but Ariel is trending on social media right now.”
“I am?” She turned to him in surprise. “What did I do?”
“You got engaged.”
24
Ariel
I’d been angry before, but I’d never literally seen red. I snatched Marcus’s phone out of his hand and stared at the trending Twitter hashtags in horror.
#ArielFoxEngaged
#ArielFoxDarrenRandall
#ArielandDarren4Ever
Oh, what bullshit was this?
“I’m sorry, we have to go,” Tyler said to Vicenzo. “We’ll be back.”
“Of course.” He nodded. “It will not be finished for a while, so you have time.”
“I’ll call you.”
We walked out onto the street as I tried to get my heart rate back to normal.
“I’m not…” I could barely get the words out. “Fuck.” I blew out a breath. “I’m not engaged. And I’m sure as fuck not marrying Darren Randall.”
“Who is he?” Marcus asked.
“The head of Urban Whiplash Records,” Tyler said dryly. “Kind of like my boss.”
“You know this isn’t true, right?” I asked him, staring into his face.
“Of course.” He threaded his fingers through mine.
“I told you he would do something to make my life harder.”
“He’s mad because he can’t find you,” Tyler reasoned, which made sense.
“But there were those photos of us leaving Club Inferno, and now I’m engaged to Darren—that makes me look like a serious bimbo to the public.”
“What does that say about Darren, that he got engaged to a woman seen leaving a sex club with someone else, though?” he countered.
“It doesn’t matter. There’s a double standard for women, and you know it.”
He sighed. “Yeah, but at the end of the day, this will get sorted out. You’re not going to marry him, and once we have the conservatorship removed, we can tell the world the truth. Until then, you have to hang in there.”
My stomach was in my throat, and I mostly wanted to puke, but he was right. I had to hang in there until we talked to the attorney and got the ball rolling. Hopefully, that would be any day now.
Tyler and I were immersed in each other twenty-four hours a day, and even with my father making a nuisance of himself, I loved being here. I couldn’t think of any other time in my life where I was completely relaxed. I felt so far removed from my old life, the things my father was doing almost didn’t matter. Almost.
It had been incredibly embarrassing for me when Marcus told us I’d just gotten engaged. And though I was mostly avoiding email, I’d already gotten dozens of congratulatory notes. It was annoying as fuck, and I wanted to reach out to Darren, but I didn’t want him to have my new number. I could have used Tyler’s phone, of course, but I was still struggling with involving him any more than necessary. It was dumb, but in my heart I wanted to protect him from the ugliness of my life, whether he needed me to or not.
The band hadn’t heard a word from Darren or Whiplash about the demo tape, and though it had only been a couple of weeks, it seemed that they were purposely staying mute. Darren was probably in league with my dad, and that was my biggest worry. Tyler didn’t seem worried, but I was. I didn’t want this to blow back on Nobody’s Fool, and my gut told me it would. It probably had already started. Every day that passed with no word about the demo tape told me this was going to go wrong.
Could I be that lucky?
Sometimes I wondered.
I’d been lucky when I was younger, rising to stardom starting at a pretty young age. Whether it was beauty pageants or modeling gigs, I’d had looks and talent, but there was an element of luck in show business and I’d had it in spades. To a degree, I still did professionally, since everything I touched turned to gold, but not so much in my personal life. Hell, I hadn’t even had a personal life until Tyler. Now I had an amazing boyfriend, musician friends like Stu, Bash, and Ford, and a girlfriend like Lexi. Maybe even a couple we could be friends with, like Casey and Erik. Queen Casey and King Erik. Who seemed to like me. Yes, initially it was because of Tyler, but I’d already had a distant if not professional relationship with Lexi, and once I’d gotten in the studio with Nobody’s Fool, everything seemed to progress naturally.
And now I was in Limaj. With Tyler. And the royal family.
Maybe I wasn’t so unlucky after all.
23
Tyler
It had been more than a decade since Marcus and I had talked. Really talked. We were identical twins and had once been so close it was like we were one person, but not anymore, and I was a little uncomfortable as I went up to his room. More than anything else, I didn’t want to argue. Every time we’d seen each other since we were eighteen, we’d either argued or fought, and that wasn’t the man I was. Not anymore. I’d grown up, and he probably had, too, so just this once I wanted to clear the air without anger.
“Hey.” He opened the door, and I stepped inside. His room was spartan, nothing like the suite Ariel and I had, and I frowned.
“Hey. Not much in the way of décor, huh?”
“The previous king gutted the place, and when we got here last winter it was even worse. At least now I have a bed, a TV, and a mini-fridge. When I first moved in, I was in a sleeping bag on the floor.”
“Jesus.”
“You want a drink? I was just about to have a glass of bourbon.”
“Sounds good.”
He poured us each a couple of fingers, and I took a sip. “So. How’s it going?”
He chuckled. “Good. My life here is busy as hell, but I love it, and I make a fuck-ton of money.”
“Is there, uh, anyone special in your life?”
He shook his head. “Nah. No time. There was for a while, but she didn’t like being married to a military man, and then she was mad that I went into the private sector. I don’t know what she thought I would do after the military, but that’s been over for a while.” He paused, looking up at me. “So, you and Ariel Fox. That’s pretty intense.”
“It’s been a whirlwind. I’ve never felt like this before.”
“You sure you know what you’re doing?” he asked quietly, leaning against the wall. “I did some digging and—”
“Oh, come on,” I protested, scowling. “You did a background check on her?”
“I had to for security purposes.”
“I know what I need to know about her.”
“Do you? I mean, has she told you everything?”
“Probably not, but I know the big stuff.”
“You’ve only been together about five minutes. You don’t know what kinds of behavior patterns she has. Have you looked into what it means to be bipolar?”
“Yeah, as a matter of fact, I have.” I was getting annoyed. This wasn’t at all what I’d thought our reunion would be like, and if his sole purpose in inviting me up was to badmouth Ariel, then I was out of here.
“Look, I’m not trying to be a jerk. I just—”
“This is how it always is,” I said, shaking my head. “I thought now that we were older and a little wiser, we could put the past behind us, but I guess not.”
“Ty, I’m not trying to start anything.” He took a step toward me. “I just want you to be careful. She could be unstable and—”
“After all this time, now you’re worried I might be involved with the wrong woman?” I met his gaze directly. “Where have you been the last ten years? When I was screwing groupies and having threesomes and getting fucked up beyond belief. Were you worried about me then?”
Our eyes met, and I recognized a familiar glint of stubbornness, but I was pissed. There wasn’t anything he was thinking that I hadn’t at least considered when it came to Ariel, but I liked her. I cared about her. She made me happy. I wasn’t stupid, though. I knew what to look for, and it wasn’t like I’d signed over my assets to her or anything.
Marcus blew out a frustrated breath but reached for a file on a small table. He picked it up and handed it to me. “Everything I found is in there.”
I snatched it out of his hand and opened it, irritation coursing through me. I should have known he would do something like this, but it still pissed me off. He hadn’t been part of my life for more than a decade, and now he suddenly was interested in who I was involved with? Fuck that.
I’d still skim the file, though. I wasn’t an idiot.
Nothing stood out, and I frowned as I skimmed the information.
Arrested at seventeen for drunk driving.
Resisting arrest.
Assaulting a police officer.
Yeah, all shit I knew.
“This right here.” I pulled out a picture of Ariel crying the night of her arrest and showed it to Marcus. “This is why I’ll do everything I can to help her, even if she breaks my heart. She was a scared kid whose life had spiraled out of control between her mother’s suicide and so much fame at such a young age. Instead of helping her, Douglas used it as the perfect opportunity to get control of both her and her money. He doesn’t care about her, and neither does anyone else. Except me. And I don’t care what you or anyone else think—I’m not giving up on her.”
Marcus nodded slowly. “I understand all that. I just don’t want you to be hurt. And honestly, despite Casey approving this, it’s a security nightmare.”
“There’s no security issue,” I said, closing the file and handing it back to him. “She’s not a security risk. I take personal responsibility for her.”
“You don’t know what that might mean.”
“I do. I know her.”
“You can’t possibly know her after less than two weeks.”
“Sometimes, you just know.” I met his gaze without blinking.
“You’re in love with her?” He looked incredulous.
“Probably.” I shrugged. “But whether it’s love or lust or something else, I’m going to do everything I can to help her get away from him.”
“Ty…” He took a deep breath. “You understand that if I ever had to make a choice…”
“Between your twin’s girlfriend and the royal family? Yeah, I know.”
“Even you. If I had to choose between you and the royal family, I took an oath. I’ll always pick them.”
Damn. That hurt. It shouldn’t have after so many years of distance, but it did.
“Well, I guess that’s not a surprise.” I downed the rest of my bourbon and headed for the door. “See you around, Marcus.”
“Dammit, Ty, don’t walk away like this. I owe it to both of us to be honest.”
“I get it.” I paused, my hand on the doorknob. “I just thought it might be different this time, but I guess not.”
“What does that mean? I’m not the one who keeps walking away.”
“No, but you’re the one who keeps pushing me away.” I opened the door and softly closed it behind me.
This definitely wasn’t the reunion I’d been hoping for.
Ariel and I went exploring the next day. Marcus drove us and hung out nearby, but he didn’t stay close enough to talk to us or hear our conversations. No matter how hard I tried to pretend it was okay, our conversation last night still bothered me, and despite how much fun we were having, Ariel noticed.
“You sure you’re okay?” she asked as we strolled along the streets of a busy shopping area. “I didn’t want to push it last night, but you seemed out of sorts after talking to Marcus. Does he not like me?”
I let out a little half-laugh because it wasn’t funny, but it was ironic that she read me so well. Even though it had been less than two weeks.
“He doesn’t trust you,” I said after a moment.
“I understand. The crazy bipolar woman who might stab you in your sleep or something. Yeah, it’s not the first time I’ve encountered that kind of attitude.”
“It pissed me right off.”
“The last thing I want to do is cause more distance between you and Marcus. I’m sorry, Tyler.”
“The distance between us is already so wide, there isn’t much you could do to make it worse. Don’t worry about it. It just hurt that he went out of his way to remind me that if he had to choose between me and the royal family, he’d pick them.”
“That’s awful. I understand why that might be the case, considering his job as a Royal Protector, but to come right out and say it? Ugh.”
“Yeah.”
“This is what I was afraid of,” she said, her eyes filled with sadness.
“What were you afraid of?” I asked.
“Doing something to impact your life in a bad way.”
I slid an arm around her and kissed the top of her head. “Babe, my brother and I haven’t been close in fourteen years. Almost fifteen. You had nothing to do with that. Some things obviously aren’t meant to be.”
“But this was your chance to make up, and it’s ruined because of me.”
“If it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t have had this chance at all. It’s not like I was going to take a trip to Limaj to see him.”
“I still feel terrible about it.”
“This isn’t on you, and frankly, it’s not on me, either. I’ve wondered for a long time if I could have done something different, worked harder to make up with him, something, but at the end of the day, the answer is no. We’ve grown too far apart. I don’t think our relationship is salvageable at this point.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. I’ve mostly come to terms with it. Yeah, he’s my twin and I miss him, but I can’t change him, so I just have to work on me.”
“Maybe he’s right, though,” she said after a moment. “About me.”
“What about you?”
“Maybe I am a risk. Not just to you but to the royal family. I probably shouldn’t be here.”
“Come on, don’t do that. You’re here because I want you here.”
“Is two weeks enough time to put yourself on the line for someone?”
“I don’t know if two weeks is enough time for anything,” I admitted slowly. “But I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t want to be. We know it’s more than sex because both of us can get that anywhere. To be honest, I’ve never felt like this before. It might be too soon for someone on the outside looking in, but as the person living it, it’s perfect. What we have is fucking perfect, and I don’t give a flying fuck what anyone thinks.”
“And if it doesn’t work out?”
“Then it doesn’t work out. I’m a big boy, and it wouldn’t be my first broken heart.”
“But I don’t want to break your heart!” she whispered.
“Then don’t. I don’t know about you, but I’m invested. I don’t care whether it’s been two weeks or two years. The feelings between us already exist. If you have similar feelings, then the only direction to go is forward. If you have doubts, that’s okay, too. Just say so, and I’ll still help you because you’re my friend, if nothing else. I mean, if that’s the case, we should probably stop sleeping together, but—”
“There is zero chance we’re going to stop sleeping together!” She laughed, playfully elbowing me.
“Well, that’s good to hear.”
“Hey, let’s go in here.” She tugged me into a music shop Casey had told us about. The owner hand-carved instruments and inlays for instruments, and Casey’s favorite guitar had been a wedding gift from Erik. It was a hot-pink electric guitar inlaid with dragons carved out of ivory or something. She rarely played it in public because it was so special to her, but she’d gotten it here, and we both wanted to see what the owner had for sale.
“Yorba.” Hello. An older gentleman with glasses and a scarf around his neck called out a typical Limaji greeting to us.
“Hello.” I smiled.
The man eyed us for a moment and then smiled. “Tyler. Hello. Casey speaks you and Bash often.”
I grinned. “And she talks about your store all the time. I’m really freakin’ excited to be here and see what you’ve got.”
“Yes. Come.” He held out a hand and drew us deeper into the store.
“Oh, this is beautiful,” Ariel said, fingering a handmade flute that was in a case.
“My grandfather made this when he was a young man.” The owner smiled. “It is almost one hundred years old.”
“Is it for sale?” she asked.
He shook his head. “It is not. It is a family heirloom.”
“I don’t blame you.”
“Are you looking for something specific?” he asked.
I shook my head. “No. Just wanted to see what you have.”
“Guitars, yes?”
“Do you have any bass guitars?”
“I have one. It is new. A Gibson Les Paul that I am still customizing. It’s not finished.” He took us through a curtained doorway and into what looked like a workshop. On the table was the most beautiful bass guitar I’d ever seen. It had been taken apart, and the owner, Vicenzo, was carving flames into a piece of wood that would fit onto the body. The inlays on the fretboard had already been done and were a gorgeous red-orange glitter color that made the color pop.
“The body will be the same color,” he explained. “But with the flames carved as such.” He held up the wood that would be the body once it was done.
“That’s fucking amazing,” I breathed. “Is it for sale?”
He smiled. “Everything is for sale. Except my grandfather’s flute.”
I was about to tell him I needed it, no matter what the cost was, when I heard Marcus calling to me.
“Back here!” I yelled.
“Hey,” he said, coming through the curtains. “Sorry to interrupt. I don’t know if you’ve been online at all, but Ariel is trending on social media right now.”
“I am?” She turned to him in surprise. “What did I do?”
“You got engaged.”
24
Ariel
I’d been angry before, but I’d never literally seen red. I snatched Marcus’s phone out of his hand and stared at the trending Twitter hashtags in horror.
#ArielFoxEngaged
#ArielFoxDarrenRandall
#ArielandDarren4Ever
Oh, what bullshit was this?
“I’m sorry, we have to go,” Tyler said to Vicenzo. “We’ll be back.”
“Of course.” He nodded. “It will not be finished for a while, so you have time.”
“I’ll call you.”
We walked out onto the street as I tried to get my heart rate back to normal.
“I’m not…” I could barely get the words out. “Fuck.” I blew out a breath. “I’m not engaged. And I’m sure as fuck not marrying Darren Randall.”
“Who is he?” Marcus asked.
“The head of Urban Whiplash Records,” Tyler said dryly. “Kind of like my boss.”
“You know this isn’t true, right?” I asked him, staring into his face.
“Of course.” He threaded his fingers through mine.
“I told you he would do something to make my life harder.”
“He’s mad because he can’t find you,” Tyler reasoned, which made sense.
“But there were those photos of us leaving Club Inferno, and now I’m engaged to Darren—that makes me look like a serious bimbo to the public.”
“What does that say about Darren, that he got engaged to a woman seen leaving a sex club with someone else, though?” he countered.
“It doesn’t matter. There’s a double standard for women, and you know it.”
He sighed. “Yeah, but at the end of the day, this will get sorted out. You’re not going to marry him, and once we have the conservatorship removed, we can tell the world the truth. Until then, you have to hang in there.”
My stomach was in my throat, and I mostly wanted to puke, but he was right. I had to hang in there until we talked to the attorney and got the ball rolling. Hopefully, that would be any day now.
Tyler and I were immersed in each other twenty-four hours a day, and even with my father making a nuisance of himself, I loved being here. I couldn’t think of any other time in my life where I was completely relaxed. I felt so far removed from my old life, the things my father was doing almost didn’t matter. Almost.
It had been incredibly embarrassing for me when Marcus told us I’d just gotten engaged. And though I was mostly avoiding email, I’d already gotten dozens of congratulatory notes. It was annoying as fuck, and I wanted to reach out to Darren, but I didn’t want him to have my new number. I could have used Tyler’s phone, of course, but I was still struggling with involving him any more than necessary. It was dumb, but in my heart I wanted to protect him from the ugliness of my life, whether he needed me to or not.
The band hadn’t heard a word from Darren or Whiplash about the demo tape, and though it had only been a couple of weeks, it seemed that they were purposely staying mute. Darren was probably in league with my dad, and that was my biggest worry. Tyler didn’t seem worried, but I was. I didn’t want this to blow back on Nobody’s Fool, and my gut told me it would. It probably had already started. Every day that passed with no word about the demo tape told me this was going to go wrong.
