“What’s that husband of yours doing?” My eyes are closed as I fight my body’s reaction to Tristan and the slow glide of his thumbs up and down my thighs.

  “He’s down in the basement with Cole and Gavin. Apparently there were some photos leaked of Gavin and Tristan partying with a set of twins.” I can practically hear her roll her eyes.

  “Wow,” I say, opening my eyes and meeting Tristan’s. The tick in his jaw tells me he heard her.

  “Yeah. Gav says it was forever ago. He has new ink that he got after their last big tour, and it’s not in the picture.”

  “Isn’t that when you met Kacen?”

  “Yeah, Gav says it was then.”

  “So what’s their game?” I ask, my eyes still locked with his. He’s now gripping my thighs.

  “Their ten minutes of fame is my guess. The guys deal with so much of that shit, it’s unreal.”

  “How do you deal with it?” My question is almost a whisper.

  “He loves me. I feel it in my bones. And I love him. You just… need to have a level of trust, you know. Besides, Kace was never as bad as the other three. He was the calm one of the bunch.”

  “Yeah, I remember you telling me that.”

  “So listen, Cole is getting antsy, and honestly so is Stacy. We’re going to have a bridal shower for her, and then we’re all flying to Hawaii in three weeks for a beach wedding. Please say you can take time off to come to the shower.”

  “When is it?”

  “Two weeks.”

  “Let me check my schedule and see what I can do. I’ll get back with you next week.” Tristan is here until Sunday, but I can’t tell her that.

  “Sounds good. Talk to you soon.”

  “Give baby Drew a kiss from me,” I tell her.

  She chuckles. “Will do.”

  I end the call and set my phone on the counter.

  “You can’t let that shit get to you,” Tristan says immediately.

  “Gavin says it was a good while ago.”

  “Lauren,” he sighs, wrapping his arms around my waist and hugging me tight. “That was before I ever met you. I’m not proud of my past, but I can’t change it. I promise you, since the day I laid eyes on you, there’s been no one else.”

  I scoff. “Tristan, that was over a year ago!” I say louder than I intended.

  He nods. “It was, but I knew then that you weren’t one of them, that you could never be disposable.” His eyes are pleading with me to believe him.

  “We just slept together.” I fight to keep the tears at bay at the result of that union created. “And it was a couple of months ago. You expect me to believe there’s been no one at all in your bed, or wherever it is you… entertain?”

  “Yes.”

  “It doesn’t really matter. I mean, if you did, we aren’t dating. We’re just—”

  His lips collide with mine, stopping me cold. He pushes his tongue past my lips and I don’t fight it. The taste of him, the feel of his arms wrapped around me, I can’t fight it.

  When he pulls away, we’re both breathing heavily. “Let’s fix that right now, shall we? As of this very minute, you’re mine.”

  “Just like that?”

  “Yeah, baby.” His voice is soft. “Just like that.”

  “I need some time, Tristan.”

  He steps back as if I’ve slapped him. “Time for what?”

  “Time to think.”

  “Time to think?” he repeats, like he can’t believe what he just heard. “Time to think about what, exactly?”

  “You. This. Us. The possibility of us.”

  “She needs time to think,” he mutters, clasping his hands on the back of his neck. “Are you kidding me right now?”

  “This”—I point between us—“is too much. I just need to think.”

  “So all this time, the ‘I miss you’ and ‘I wish you were here’ messages, what the fuck was all of that, Lauren? You’re in this. I know you are. You’re not like them, not like the others.”

  “I mean, we don’t even know each other that well, Tristan. You live in Nashville, and I’m in Ohio. How do you presume we make that work, huh? Tell me. You can’t leave the band. You’re starting a label and you need to be there. So, what? I’m yours, but only when you have time to visit? I can’t afford to travel to Nashville all the time, especially when—” I stop, catching myself just in time. I almost told him about the baby, but this isn’t the right time. I’m not ready for him to tell me in one breath that I’m his and that he doesn’t have time for me and a baby the next.

  “Come home with me,” he says, his voice gruff. “Fuck what anyone else says or thinks. Come home with me.”

  “My life is here.”

  He shakes his head in disappointment. “How much time?” he asks. “How long until you decide I’m what you want?”

  “Tristan.” I reach out for him and he takes another step back, just out of my reach.

  “How much time, Lauren?”

  “I don’t know, okay. I don’t know. You sprang this on me all of a sudden. I just need—”

  “Time. Yeah, I got it. Listen, I’m going to go.” I watch, unmoving, as he stalks toward the bedroom.

  My heart is beating as if it’s a drum and Tristan is the stick. I’ve fallen in love with him. I knew that months ago, before the baby, but it’s not just me anymore. Is he caught up in the moment, the thrill of sneaking around? Or does he really want me? There’s too much shit in my head right now. I just need some time to process.

  Tristan appears in the doorway, bag in hand. He drops It to the floor and comes toward me, doesn’t stop until his arms are wrapped tight around me and his face is buried in my neck. He holds me like that for seconds, minutes, maybe hours, who knows. All I know is that my heart is pleading for him to stay, but my mind understands that I need this time. I have to get my head on straight. He’s thrown a lot at me, and then there’s the baby.

  Distance makes the heart grow fonder and all that. Maybe once he’s back in Nashville, he’ll realize he made a mistake.

  “I hate this,” he finally says. “I hate that I’m losing this time with you. I hate that my past is controlling my future.” Pulling back, he holds my gaze. “I’m going to go anyway, because this is what you need, what you asked me for. But that doesn’t mean that I’m giving up on us. You’re mine, Ren.” He tucks a loose strand of hair behind my ear. “I’ll do whatever I have to do to prove that to you.”

  I open my mouth to tell him that’s all I want, that all I and this baby need is him, but I don’t. “You don’t have to leave,” I say instead.

  “No, I do. I sprang this on you. This trip, that fact, that you are indeed mine. All of it is a shock to you, but it’s all I’ve thought about for months. Even before we slept together. I’m trying to do the right thing here and give you time to process. I’m giving you that because you are more.” Leaning in, he kisses me, a soft press of his lips against mine. “Lock up when I leave. I’ll call you when I make it home.”

  I watch wordlessly as he picks up his bag and walks out the door, then remain frozen on the counter, wondering what the hell I just did.

  I just let him walk away. The man I love, the father of my baby. He was here offering himself to me and I let him walk away. No, I pushed him away.

  At the sound of gravel crunching under his tires, I let the tears fall. I hop off the counter, place the bag of takeout in the fridge, grab my phone, and head to my room.

  I want a do-over.

  I only made one stop for gas and food, so it’s just after seven by the time I get home. The long drive gave me time to think. I can see where she might not have known, up until this weekend. I never mentioned what we were or what we could be. She knows that I hated sneaking around like a teenager, but I never told her what hearing her voice right before I fall asleep, or after a show, means to me. To wake up and see a text message, wishing me a good morning. I get that I’ve had more time to come to terms with this, but I wasn’t expecting her reaction. I’m at a loss, and honestly, I need Kace and Cole to tell me what the fuck I did wrong. I need them to tell me how to fix this with her.

  Grabbing my phone, I debate on which one I should call. Kace is protective of Lauren, being his wife’s cousin. Decision made, I pull up Cole’s contact and hit Call.

  “T,” he greets. “What’s up, my man? You buy the ’stang?”

  “About that,” I start. “You up for a drink?”

  “Sure. The girls are out shopping for a wedding dress. Wait, are you home already?”

  “Yeah, and I got a fridge full of cold ones with our names on them.”

  “I’m on my way, brother.”

  Ending the call, I tap on her name and put the phone back up to my ear. It rings three times before she picks up.

  “Hey,” she greets me softly.

  “I’m home.”

  “Thanks for calling.” I can tell from the sound of her voice that she’s upset. The idea of her being alone, me hours away from her, when she’s hurting, when I’m the one causing the hurt and confusion, it fucks with me. I’m seconds away from grabbing my keys and driving back to her.

  “Tristan.” Her voice cracks. “I’m so sorry,” she sobs into the phone.

  “Ren, baby, don’t cry. I’m trying to give you what you need. Fuck, it killed me to drive away from you today.”

  She sniffles. “I’m sorry.”

  “This is new to me, Lauren. I’ve never cared like this. I’m giving you time, but baby, I’ve gotta tell you, it’s fucking killing me to not be there with you.” I rest my elbows on my knees and hang my head. “Please don’t cry.”

  “I’m all over the place, and I promise to get my shit together. I just need a few days.”

  “A few days,” I repeat, hoping it’ll sink in. Hoping that’s enough to keep me from hauling ass back to Ohio. “Okay.”

  “I’m glad I got to see you. It was a good surprise. I know we argued a lot, and I was sick, but it was… nice.”

  Nice. “Yeah.” I’m at a loss for words right now. I could pour my heart out to her, but I refuse to do that on the phone. I was with her just hours before and couldn’t manage to do it either. I tried, but nothing I said was getting through to her. Fuck me, I don’t know how to do this relationship shit.

  She sniffles. “Thanks for calling.”

  “Yeah. I’ll talk to you soon?” Even I can hear the hope in my voice.

  “Soon. I promise.” She’s quiet and so am I, neither one of us really knowing what to say after the last two days. “I’m going to head to bed. Good night, Tristan.”

  “Night.”

  The line goes dead and I still have to fight the urge to drive back to her. Lucky for me, I’m saved by Cole letting himself in.

  I hear his feet take him to the kitchen, then the sound of the refrigerator door opening and closing. His footsteps grow louder until he’s standing in front of me, holding out a beer. “Drink this,” he says when I take it from him. “Then take this.” He hands me the other beer and takes a seat in the chair. “What’s up, T?”

  “I’ve been seeing someone,” I confess.

  “We all had a pretty good idea that you were. Who is she? Do we know her?”

  “Lauren.”

  “Lauren?” I tip back my beer and watch through the bottle as his mind races. I can see the moment he figures it out. “As in Logan’s cousin Lauren?” he clarifies.

  “Yep.”

  “Damn, didn’t see that one coming. I mean yeah, I know you were stuck to her side at the wedding, but I just…. Okay, so what’s wrong?”

  “I want her.”

  “I thought you said you were seeing her.”

  “I am, but not really. Fuck!” I drain the rest of my first beer and set it on the table. “We’ve been talking and texting since the day I met her. Then at the wedding, things progressed. I couldn’t go a day without talking or texting her. When we were in Ohio a couple months back, things heated up. We would see each other during the day with all of you, and at night I would slip out and go see her.”

  “Jesus, Tristan,” he scolds. “You can’t treat her like a groupie. She’s family.”

  “Fuck off,” I hiss. “I’m not. I didn’t treat her like a groupie. I wanted to tell you all. I wanted to be with her all day and all night.”

  “So what stopped you?”

  “Lauren. She insisted that we keep it a secret. It was easy enough. You were with Stacy, Kace was with Logan, and Gav has been distracted too. So I slipped out, and each night things progressed a little more. I’m not going into details, but—”

  “That right there says it all.”

  “What?”

  “You not willing to tell me about your time with her. That’s all I need to know.”

  “You lost me, C.”

  “How many times have we hooked up and shared the events, intimate details of the women we were with?”

  Again, my past comes back to haunt me. “I don’t see your point.”

  “My point is that you refuse to do that with Lauren. Just like I refused with Stacy, and Kace refused with Logan. She’s not just a piece of ass.”

  “Fuck no, she’s not. I didn’t go to Kentucky to look at a car. I went to see her. She’s been distant since our last night together. That night, we finally slept together, and I could feel her slipping away. So I went to her. I needed to see her.”

  “Good choice,” he compliments.

  “Yeah, I thought so too, until I get there and she’s sick. So I take care of her, you know. I tried to tell her that this is more, that she’s mine, and she argued with me.” Tilting my head back against the couch, I close my eyes. Why are women so fucking frustrating?

  “That’s a little vague, but I don’t want or need specifics. Let me ask you something. Is she worth it?”

  I lift my head to look at him. “Worth it?”

  “This.” He points to me. “The way she makes you crazy for her. The constant worry and struggle. The fight to be with her. Is she worth it?”

  “Yes.” No hesitation. I know without a doubt in my mind that she’s more than worth it.

  “So why are you here?” he questions.

  “She said she needed some time. We were arguing, and she was upset, and I hate to see her that way. I don’t like fighting with her, so I did what she asked. I left a day early to give her the time she asked for.”

  “Did she ask you to leave?”

  “No, but fuck, I knew if I stayed we’d end up fighting the entire time. I don’t want to fucking fight with her, C.”

  He nods. “I get you. I probably would’ve done the same thing. Just making sure you realize that she didn’t ask you to leave. She asked you to give her time. She lives in another state, and you’re you, I know from experience, the being you part is a lot for one of the good ones to take in.”

  “How did you handle it with Stacy?”

  He pauses for a minute, I’m sure contemplating what to say. Stacy’s changed him. Not in a bad way, of course. Cole was always a jokester and still is, but he’s… grown up, I guess.

  “I made her number one. It was a little easier for me because she was on tour with us, and I have unlimited access to her, but I gave it all up for her.”

  “I’ve done that. I don’t go out anymore. Fuck, man, from the day I met her, I stopped sleeping around. That night with her a few months ago was the first time with anyone since I met her.”

  He laughs. “Been there, brother, and let me tell you, It’s fucking life. Never thought I’d say that only having one pussy for the rest of my life was what I’d want, but it’s only her. It’s like my cock is broken unless it’s Stacy. Not that I’m complaining. There’s something about knowing she’s yours.” He shakes his head as if he’s trying to break out of a memory.

  “Yeah.” I know what he’s talking about. Now that I’ve been inside of her, heard her quiet moans, felt her all around me, sex will never be the same.

  “When are you seeing her again?” Cole’s question brings me out of my memories of our first night together.

  “I don’t know.”

  “Make a plan, my man. You want her, you need to prove it. Guys like us, our careers, our history, we have to work harder at showing them they’re it. Best advice is make a plan and don’t stop until she’s definite, until she’s the only one you see.”

  “Right. A plan,” I agree, my mind already racing, planning my next trip to Ohio to see her. I need to somehow find out if Kacen and Logan are making plans to go anytime soon.

  “The girls are going to go crazy over this,” Cole laughs. “They’ve been trying to get this out of you for weeks. They’re going to be thrilled that Lauren is going to be a part of our family.”

  “She’s Logan’s family,” I remind him.

  “Yeah, she is. But now she’s all of ours too.”

  That right there is why my bandmates are my brothers. I’m certain this crazy ride we’ve been on with touring and living on the road would’ve ended badly for more than one of us without the backing of our brothers to help keep us in line.

  “By the way,” Cole says, standing, “my fiancée has set a date for the wedding. We’re flying to Hawaii in three weeks. Logan has a shower or some shit planned for two weeks, and I know your girl is invited. I’m going to make it known that she should be invited to the wedding. All expenses paid.”

  “I’ll pay for her, man.”

  He waves me off. “Doesn’t matter who pays. All that matters is getting your girl to be there. Women love weddings.” He smirks. “You ready for all that?”

  “With Lauren.”

  He nods. “Good talk. I’ll mention it to my fiancée. I’m sure she’ll run with the idea,” he chuckles.

  I can’t help but laugh with him. “It’s better, you know.”

  “What’s that?” he asks, stopping on his way to the door.

  “With the girls around, it’s better.”

  He runs his hand over the top of his head until he hits his man bun, then drops it. “Just wait until you’re where I am. And honestly, I can’t wait to be where Kacen is.”

  “A few years ago we would’ve sworn that this would never be us.”

  “True that, but I’ll be the first to admit I was wrong. Just took finding her to change my mind. I’ll catch you later. Stacy’s going to be home soon.” With that, he turns and walks out the front door.