Harlow’s phone vibrated and she ignored it. Everything could wait. The outside world was far less interesting to her than this brief and magical time she had with Miles.

  Then dishes began to flow from the kitchen. Small plates full of deliciousness. The first were thin slices of buttery soft smoked salmon she managed—barely—to eat with perfect sized slices of slightly toasted bread instead of inhaling them on their own immediately.

  Bites of smoked meat came next, along with some sort of crispy potato thing and some delightful roasted vegetables.

  Her phone vibrated several more times. Enough that she excused herself to look at the screen and make sure no emergencies had come up.

  There were two voicemails from…her mother. Three missed calls from her as well. A text from Hector and another from Mindy.

  “What’s wrong?” Miles asked, snagging her attention as she read her brother’s words.

  An interview came out and it’s got Mom furious. Watch out for her call.

  Mindy’s was similar though there was another apology for what had happened back in Atlanta, and the things Hector had said before the show. As well as a warning that Gloria had gotten worked up over some interview.

  “Family crap.” With forced calm, Harlow turned her phone off entirely and tucked it away. Whatever it was, it’d hold until after their date.

  Naturally though, Miles Brown was not used to being told no when he wanted something. And Harlow knew by the way he looked her over so carefully that he wasn’t just going to let anything go.

  Damn it.

  “Gloria?”

  “Yes. Gloria crap and it’s not going to ruin this lovely dinner so let it go. I have. Phone is off. In an emergency, my dad, Nora, and Brian know they could call you and you’d know where I was. So. No need to do anything but enjoy this lovely meal.” Her smile was probably a little feral, but he paused. At least for the time being.

  “Fine,” he said at last, refilling her wine glass. “But you’ll tell me about everything once we’re back at the condo.”

  Harlow didn’t bother telling him she didn’t even know just exactly what Gloria was upset over. There was no way she was going to listen to those voicemails and let them ruin her meal.

  Miles frowned at the mention of Gloria. He’d hoped she’d slink off and lick her wounds and leave Harlow the hell alone. Gloria didn’t seem to want contact with her daughter so why the fuck was she trying to upset her?

  Still, Harlow had that stubborn set to her mouth and even though he wanted to kiss it, lessening whatever it was she was holding back, he nodded and let it go. For the time being.

  He wanted a nice night out too.

  “You realize this is a date, right? We’ve eaten in restaurants and gone places, but this is just me and you. I like it. I think we need dates. Plus it allows me to show off the gorgeous woman at my side and let the world know she’s mine.”

  Harlow smirked at him. “Doesn’t hurt that we’re in a whole different country that feels less obsessed with you than the one to the south.”

  “Obsessed?” He snorted.

  Harlow just raised a brow, daring him to argue.

  “I think obsessed is maybe not the best descriptor, though.” That was a whole different subject and not one he wanted to get into in public.

  “If you say so,” she told him before trying the mushrooms that had been delivered to the table. “Jesus these are incredible.”

  He tried them and then nodded his agreement. “It’s the tarragon.”

  She took another bite and shrugged. “Whatever it is, I could eat a bucketful. If this was on toast or pasta, I might never eat anything else.”

  Miles made a mental note to get the recipe so he could try a hand at it once he’d returned to Seattle after the tour was over. He’d make her mushroom pasta or whatever and they could eat it in his bed.

  “You live on Bainbridge too?” she asked.

  He nodded. “I do. My parents have a few acres and wanted me to build on their property but I chose a place far enough away but still close. It’s quiet on the island. Like a small town in a lot of ways really. Private. I grew up there. People know me but they leave me alone when I’m home. It’s something hard to find in other places. I use the studio at my parents’ house when I record.” Just like she did, he knew.

  “Saves a ridiculous amount of money. And it sounds good. For your dad and for Earthquakes.”

  “Exactly. My dad was sure to instill in me an understanding that even after I signed a recording contract, I’d be charged for everything I used or needed back against any profits. The wiser I was with the services I used and where, the more money I’d be saving myself. I’m betting your dad told you the same.”

  Harlow nodded. “It’s why he built the studio at his house. He faced the same thing with his contracts so once they had the ability, they took control of their music recording. Control equals choices, Harlow Michelle, he said. And he was right. I can’t afford to build my own recording studio, but I don’t feel bad using his. And when we use that studio, I’m not obsessed with getting every possible thing I can out of every second because it costs so much. We can experiment. Get things wrong. Getting things wrong is the best way to find out how to get them right. But it costs time and money to make mistakes.”

  Miles hadn’t really had to worry in that way. Not in the last five years or so. Earthquakes’s success had been pretty swift, which kept the lights on and the cost of failures turning into victories hadn’t been an issue.

  More food showed up as the empty plates were whisked away.

  “My parents are coming when we play the Gorge,” he told her. “They’d like me to see if you’d want to come to dinner the afternoon after the last show. They’ve rented a house not too far away. Maddie’s parents will be there too. Her uncles and their wives. Probably cousins. Plus my aunt and uncle, their spouses, and several of my cousins.” He’d talked to his mother about this just the morning before. She’d been excitedly planning for a huge celebration as it was the end of the tour and the whole freaking giant extended family would be in the area. She’d poked around for details of what he and Harlow were to one another, though it wasn’t that difficult because Miles had told her how special Harlow was to him. She’d told him to invite Harlow and the rest of Above Me to the party too.

  “My dad and Jenna and Marcella and Cherry will be at the Gorge show. His tour will be done by that point. I think Nora’s family will be too though probably not Brian’s parents because they’re going on a trip and he’s joining them when the tour ends.”

  “They’re all welcome. My mum will happily feed an army if it meant she got a good look at you and I together. Well, not personally. But arrange it.”

  That made her chuckle, and he was glad for it.

  “When we’re in Ottawa, my dad and the rest of the band want to do a big lunch. Same deal, you’ve been invited. The other day, Marcella told me my Pop let her know he thought your dad was a cool guy who probably raised a good man. But he obviously wants to peep that himself.”

  He really liked it that she was including him in this stuff. Sure, that was what people did when they dated and got more serious. They met the family and all that. But he liked Richie and hoped lunch with him and the rest of the band would be far better than dinner with Gloria.

  “Sounds good.” He paused, weighing his thoughts a few moments. “If I asked you to visit me when we were on our Europe leg, would you?” he blurted out before he changed his mind.

  “Are you asking me?” she replied.

  “Yes, I am. I know you have work here in the U.S. doing festivals at the beginning of our tour, but maybe for the UK shows at the end since you’ll be in Europe at that time? We wind up in London at the O2. Before that we’ll be in Edinburgh, Cardiff, Leeds, and Manchester. Whichever and how many days you can be there I’m happy to take.” They could fly home together at the end. Maybe he could cajole her into staying at his house for a few days when they returned.

  Her expression was something he’d remember for a really long time. Pleasure to be invited and at the idea of their being together. “I’d like that. By late-September our shows both here and in Europe should be finished for the year. Looks like we finish up in Amsterdam. Quick flight to London from there.”

  Miles smiled, happy as hell. There was more for them both once this US tour was done. He’d wanted that a whole lot.

  On the way back, in the car, she listened to the voicemails Gloria had left, and it had been impossible for Miles not to have heard all the screeching about that fucking interview with Sophia. Harlow was a whore who showed it off to the world. Miles was her sugar daddy. She was godless and unfeminine. The usual except for the sugar daddy stuff. The interview had played into that like it was her mother’s favorite song.

  And it meant she’d have to tell him about the interview even though she knew it would make him feel bad and it wasn’t his fault at all. Fucking Gloria. Fucking Sophia. Fuck, fuck, fuck.

  “I’ll tell you when we get back,” she told him quietly, knowing he was impatient to hear what was going on.

  He grunted, obviously displeased with having to wait, but he took her hand and squeezed it, agreeing.

  Still, he said, “What the hell is she talking about?” once they’d returned to the apartment.

  Harlow took a deep breath. “Your ex-girlfriend interviewed me and Nora in New York. I read it after. Most of it was decent.” And it had been, surprisingly enough. Sophia said complimentary things about Above Me and their music, notably the songwriting she and Nora did.

  It hadn’t been about wanting Miles back, Harlow had realized as she’d read the piece the first time. It had been about using Miles to push her own star a little higher. Which made Harlow mad in a different way, because she found herself incredibly protective of Miles and through him, those in his family.

  “Ex girlfriend?” Miles paused a few seconds. “Sophie? Sophie interviewed you last week and you’re just telling me now?”

  “She’s calling herself Sophia now. Yes, as I said, she interviewed us last week. I didn’t tell you because those just in two days alone we had eleven different interviews. It would have been pointless anyway.”

  “It slipped your mind that my ex interviewed you?” His voice had gone a little chillier, which succeeded in pissing her off because she was in a no-win situation and had done her fucking best not to hurt him.

  “What is it you think I should have told you? Do you think I haven’t been confronted by someone you put your dick into before? You’ve put your dick in quite a few people, Miles. If I told you every time I brushed up against one of them we wouldn’t be together.” It was one thing to accept that they’d both had other partners before they’d gotten together, another entirely to talk to him about it every single instance it came up that he’d had sex with someone. It would drive her into a state of perpetual comparison and Harlow understood herself enough to know that would have eaten her alive and eventually killed their relationship with jealousy.

  He blew out a breath. “I’m sorry my past bothers you.” He wasn’t being an ass about it, but the hurt was clear in his tone.

  “Your past doesn’t bother me.”

  “You said you wouldn’t be with me because of it.” God, he was handsome when he was pissed off. It made her want to hit him with a couch pillow and then climb aboard and fuck the grumpy right out of him.

  What she didn’t like was that he wasn’t listening as close as he usually did and beating himself up over something she never intended him to think. “I said if I had to talk to you every time it came up because someone you had been with crossed my path, we wouldn’t be together.”

  “What’s the fucking distinction then?” he demanded.

  He didn’t even have sense to fear when she cocked her head and narrowed her gaze at him! She held up a finger. “One, do not speak to me in that tone,” she told him. “I’m not a wayward child or a pet. Two the distinction—as you put it—is that if I was coming to you every time it happened, it’d emphasize all those other experiences as somehow about me. And they’re not. What you did before me isn’t something I can or want to control. It’s not part of what you and I have and it’s not an interaction I want to have with you. If I thought you were still fucking other people we’d have a problem. If I thought you harbored feelings for any of them I’d be concerned and jealous as hell. But I’m not worried about that.” They’d argue because they were both strong willed people. But the weight of worry that he’d stray wasn’t one she had or would take on.

  The rigidity left his spine as he sucked in a breath and blew it out, centering himself, she figured. “Oh. I’m sorry about my tone. I was being defensive.”

  “And not listening even though you asked me to tell you what was going on,” she added.

  His mouth flattened again. She got it. He was spoiled as hell. Everyone went out of their way not to upset him. Everyone around him bent to his will and made his life easier.

  This thing between them wasn’t going to last if they couldn’t disagree well. That’d take some effort. Learning one another in a new way. Harlow very much thought he was worth it. And that she was worth it too.

  “I’m sorry,” he repeated. “Can you please tell me the whole story?”

  “Sophia didn’t reveal that she was your ex until toward the end. And then she tried a we both nailed the same guy isn’t that fun thing, but of course she didn’t think it was fun. She was trying to push my buttons and make me jealous but also talk about intimate details and I refused to go there.” She gave intimate details to Nora and that was it. Harlow wasn’t one to giggle over dirty girl talk with strangers.

  He stared at her, surprise on his features. And, if she read him correctly, the flush on his cheeks was embarrassment. “Christ. It was a dark time for me in a lot of ways. I never hurt anyone. I never lied about what I was.”

  She shook her head and kicked her shoes off, angry with Sophia anew. “I don’t want you to be ashamed of that. You and she were adults. Everyone consented. Obviously, you’re different with me because I am a vastly superior human being. She’s cute and interesting. I get why you’d be attracted to her. But she’s not me.”

  He snorted a laugh and kissed her forehead. “No one on earth is you, Harlow. Thank god. I’m…I’d say I was surprised but that’s pretty much on brand for her. I didn’t know she was doing music interviews, or I’d have warned you. She’s got few filters, especially if she thinks she can use whatever it is to further herself.”

  “I refused to talk about our sex life because that’s private and it’s ours. Whatever she had with you is not my business but what you and I have is no one else’s business either. I told her your body and sexuality weren’t hers and mine to talk about. Especially without your permission. I respect your privacy and she doesn’t.”

  His expression softened. “Protecting me?”

  “Well of course!”

  Miles leaned closer and kissed her. A soft brush of his lips over hers. “You don’t know what that means to me.”

  Harlow figured she had a pretty good idea. But it was never a chore to be appreciated by a person you cared for deeply.

  “I’ll get back to the protecting me thing in a bit. But for now, how does Gloria come into this?” he asked.

  “She saw the interview. In it, there are several places I discuss what certain songs are about. She took issue with some of that. And in another part of the interview the “not good” part, my sexuality is discussed. You’re part of it. Sophia mentions your piercing and your history with other people, including men. Gloria has decided my whorish ways—you’re also my sugar daddy—have shamed her and her family.”

  He blinked at her, disbelief on his face. “Each thing she does I tell myself that has to be the worst of it and she’ll fade away because she doesn’t want to be around in the first place. And then she doubles down.”

  “Gloria is no quitter. Hector texted and said she’s been worked up since I walked out of that dinner. And the legal reply from my dad apparently sent her into a rage.” Harlow rolled her eyes.

  “Legal reply from your dad?”

  Oops?

  “Didn’t I tell you about that?”

  “Harlow! No, you haven’t. What the hell is going on?”

  “I told you about the call with Jenna! I know I did.”

  He frowned. “But not the reply part.”

  She was pretty sure she’d told him her dad had an attorney on it. But maybe not that it had happened. “I thought I had. I thought that it had finally shut her up but apparently, she’s been stewing in her bitterness, waiting for an opportunity to strike. I’m not hiding things on purpose. Some of this I forget, think I already told you or in some way I’m embarrassed and want to pretend it away.”

  He stepped close. “Baby, I know it’s complicated, but I want you to share this stuff with me. You never have to be embarrassed over something someone else does. Especially with me.”

  “Yeah? That why you’re so unembarrassed about whatever Sophia said about your piercing? Do you tell me everything going on in your world?”

  “If I got interviewed by your ex and he wanted to talk about our sex life? If he said so in a printed excerpt? If one of my parents called yelling at me over it? Yes, I’d tell you. Also, fuck Gloria. She can’t just call you like this and say all that stuff.”

  “Sweet summer child. Miles, she’s been calling me and yelling about what a whore I am since I was a kid.”

  “Harlow…” He closed his mouth on a leashed snarl.

  “There’s more. Since I’m telling you all this, you should know the interview also has a bit about your aunt Erin and your uncles Todd and Ben.” Gloria had ranted about lifestyles and a bunch of homophobic bullshit in response to reading three lines about someone she didn’t even know, who was happily married and involved in a relationship of three and had been for over two decades. Her comments about Miles dating men had been similarly laced with hatred.