Catch Me (22 page)

“How’d you end up over there?” Shea croaks, groggily wiping his hands over his face.

I smile, untangling my hand from Nick’s. “You looked comfortable. Didn’t want to wake you.”

Shea blinks a couple of times, focusing his eyes on me “What
happened
?” He gets up from his seat and crouches down in front of me. “You were crying. What happened?” He narrows his eyes at Nick for a moment before leaning up and wrapping his arms around me. “Let’s go,” he says, straightening up and standing me up with him. The doors of the jet have been open for a couple of minutes, but we’re waiting for the luggage and our car to drive up.

“I’m fine,” I respond, shrugging out of his hold, though he doesn’t let me go completely. “I’m good now.” I inch a little further away, feeling self-conscious about the attention he’s paying me and needing to put space between us.

Shea’s eyes move from my face to Nick’s in a glare. “What the fuck happened?”

“Not my place to say, bro,” Nick responds quietly.

Sighing, I back away from Shea completely and pick up my things. “I freaked out when the city came into view,” I offer, adjusting my purse on my shoulder.

“Fuck,” Shea mutters behind me. “I’m so sorry, Bee.” He wraps his arms around me from behind and tucks his face into my neck. “You should’ve woken me up.” His voice is remorseful, but the thing about remorse is that it’s one of those feelings that you can only selfishly welcome when you need it, and I don’t need it now.

“It’s fine. Nick helped me not go into full-on panic mode,” I say with a nonchalant chuckle, feeling Shea’s arms stiffen around me.

“Hmm,” Shea says against me, dropping his arms. “Thanks, man,” he says to Nick.

Nick doesn’t say anything, but his loud exhale brings my attention to him. When I turn around with a frown, I see that he’s watching me as if he wants to say something. I raise an eyebrow at him, but he just shakes his head dejectedly and grabs his bag and walks out of the plane.

“What was that about?” Shea asks, suddenly all perceptive and shit. It makes me want to slap him.

“I dunno,” I respond, shrugging as I switch my phone on.

We walk down the steps, grab our bags and head to the tinted black SUV that’s picking us up. One of Shea’s usual bodyguards, Darius, is waiting for us beside it.

“Brooklyn!” Darius greets with a wide smile. Darius is about six feet five inches tall and two hundred and something pounds of hamburgers. I would love to say muscle, but I’ve never seen any on him. He’s on the heavier side and has an intimidating look with his bald head and his black wraparound glasses. He looks like Laurence Fishburne in The Matrix, but fat.

“Hey, Darius,” I respond, walking up to him to bump his fist with mine.

“How’s life been treating you? Still no Boogie Downs?” he jokes, making me laugh. Darius has this running joke that when I have a kid I should name him Bronx. He’s a real comedian, this one. He has this whole, “And then you can call him Boogie Down as a nickname” spiel that further proves my “this guy thinks he’s a comedian” point.

“No, not yet,” I answer with a fake chuckle. I shoot Shea a look that tells him to please say something so Darius won’t keep talking.

“You ready, D?” Shea asks, catching my drift.

“Sure, boss,” Darius responds, turning back to the car and holding the door open for us.

Nick stands aside, letting me slide in first.

“I’m not riding in the middle,” Shea says, shaking his head before opening the passenger door and climbing in the front.

“You’re such a child,” I say with a laugh as Nick slides in beside me.

“Whatever, I got claustrophobia,” Shea comments.

“Sure,” I reply, still laughing and rolling my eyes.

Nick scoots over so that our legs are touching, making me hyperaware of his presence. Tilting my head at him, I smile. He nudges me with his arm playfully in response and I smile brighter. I can’t remember the last time I felt this comfortable with somebody, if ever. Even with Shea it was just easy in the beginning. Our relationship kind of jumped from friends to lovers. Thinking back on it now, I’m not sure we were ever really even friends to begin with. We definitely became friends afterwards, but before, I’m not so sure. It probably had a lot to do with the fact that we were never sober when we were together as a couple. Not once. Our relationship revolved around drugs and alcohol, and that in itself should have been a red flag for the both of us, but we were too busy trying to numb ourselves to care.

With Nick I just feel free, like I can be myself, but at the same time terrified of the depth of this feeling. The way butterflies swarm the pit of my stomach at the mere thought of him scares me. I’m scared of the feeling going away, I’m scared of it staying and him going away. I don’t have any experience with this and it freaks me out. I can’t even recall when Nick slipped through the barriers around me, but as I sit here looking deep into his eyes, I know I never stood a chance at keeping him out. When he looks at me I feel like nothing else matters.

My phone vibrates inside of my purse, snapping me out of the moment. I dish it out quickly to busy myself.

Nina: You there?

Me: Just got here.

Nina: You okay?

Me: Yeah

Nina: No breakdowns I should know about?

I roll my eyes but respond:
Just one

The phone rings instantly and I let out a breath, knowing I have to answer.

“Hello?” I respond quietly just as Shea gets on his phone in the front seat.

“What do you mean just one?” Nina asks.

“On the plane. I can’t talk right now,” I respond, hoping she lets me off the hook for now.

“You with Shea?” she asks.

“Yeah.”

“Did that dirty bastard try anything on the plane?” she asks, her voice deadly quiet.

I laugh. “Nope.”

“Humph,” she says. “Did anyone else go with you?”

“Yeah,” I say quietly, not wanting to say any more. As it is, I’m almost positive Nick can hear her loud ass voice since he’s sitting so close to me.

“Who? Gia the whore bag?” Nina asks.

Nick laughs, confirming that he can hear her, and I turn my face to look at him, my eyes wide in shock. He shrugs and throws his hands up in defense, still chuckling softly.

“No. Not her. I gotta go,” I say quickly, still looking at Nick.

“Who’s that? Shea? Let me talk to him,” she says.

“No. Shea’s on the phone. I’ll call you later, Nina.”

“Who is that? The Hen didn’t go with you, did he?” she asks, unwilling to let it go.

I groan. “It’s Nick. Hendrix is in New York. I gotta go,” I repeat.

“Nick ... the hot guy from the club?” Nina asks, gasping.

Nick’s loud laughter fills the SUV now.

“Bye,” I say and hang up on her without waiting for her to respond.

Nick taps my foot with his, but I turn my face to look out the window to hide my flushed cheeks. Damn Nina and her loud voice. She never fails to do something to embarrass me.

I feel the seat dip beside me, so I know he’s close. “You’re so cute when you blush,” Nick whispers in my ear, making me shiver. I hate that he has this effect on me and I really hate that he knows it. I push him back with my shoulders and glance at Shea, who’s turned slightly in his seat looking at us curiously.

“Shut it,” I mumble. “My cousin is crazy.”

Nick scoots away from me with a laugh. “The cat lady sounds like a smart girl,” he comments.

“Clearly, you don’t know Nina,” I respond.

“Clearly,” Shea agrees, shaking his head and facing forward again.

When we get to the hotel, we find Shea’s fans swarming the entrance, which isn’t surprising but can make it difficult.

“Oh fuck,” Shea mutters.

“Do we have more security?” I ask, suddenly worried for Shea. The last time I was with him and people found out where he was staying, his shirt was ripped off and he had scratch marks all over him. I was unharmed because I never walk in with him, but I felt terrible for him. Not to say that Shea doesn’t love the attention, because he lives for it, but I’m sure he doesn’t want to be all scratched up.

“Yeah, I’m driving to the back entrance, that’s where Carlos is meeting us. Don’t worry, BK, I gotchu,” Darius says.

“I’m not worried about myself,” I retort, my eyes bouncing to Shea, who’s turned sideways in his seat.

“I’ll be fine, Bee,” he says, giving me a reassuring smile, but it doesn’t calm my nerves in the least.

Nick’s hand reaches out for mine. “Hey, it’ll be okay, we’ll create a fort around pretty boy so he doesn’t get mauled by his adoring fans,” he jokes, making me smile.

“But then they’ll go for you,” I say, smiling even though the idea bothers me even more than the one of them attacking Shea. I don’t know what I would do if one of these groupies ripped a shirt off of Nick’s back. I haven’t even ripped a shirt off his back, dammit!

Nick raises an eyebrow at me, amusement dancing in his eyes. “Would that bother you?” he asks, his lips twitching. I try to mask the emotion on my face by pursing my lips and rolling my eyes, but I know it would bother me. I’m sure he knows it would, and from the look on Shea’s pissed off face, I’m assuming he knows it as well. I don’t worry about Shea when it comes to me dating other guys. He’s been there for me while I was in “relationships”. He’s even gone as far as inviting them to go to shows with me. The look Shea is giving me now, though, confuses me. He turns around huffing as Darius parks in the back of the hotel, and I know this will be a topic of conversation later.

Nick pulls my hand toward him when Darius walks around the car to open the door for us. “Come on and whatever you do, don’t let go of my hand,” he says, helping me hop out of the truck. I nod in understanding and do as I’m told. There are fans on this side of the hotel as well, but they’re limited because of the barriers the hotel put up, creating a walkway from our car to the door. Shea pulls a Dodgers cap over his head and covers his eyes with his Aviator sunglasses, looking at me to make sure I’m fine and walking ahead of me when I nod.

Ducking my head, I press the side of my face into Nick’s hard back as we barrel through the flashing cameras and hoots and hollers from both fans and paparazzi. The three of us are standing in line to check-in when Shea turns to me and asks me if I want my own room or a room in his two-bedroom suite.

“Isn’t Gia coming tomorrow?” I ask, my brows crinkling.

Shea nods. “Yeah but she’ll have her own room.”

My lips twist as I mull over my options: stay with him and listen to them having sex, which they will have. Or get my own room and relax. It’s pretty much a no brainer for me, so I shake my head vigorously. “I’ll get my own. Thanks.”

Shea shrugs. “‘Kay, I’m sure Hendrix booked you a suite anyway. I just wanted to share one for old times’ sake,” he says, his voice nonchalant and his face showing no signs that there may be a double meaning behind that, but I know better. I see the way the front of his teeth grind against each other slightly. It’s his tell, what he does when he wants to say something cheeky but knows he might get slapped. Thankfully, he doesn’t say anything else as he turns to face the counter.

While he sorts out his room situation, I text message Hendrix to see if by chance he got Stacey to book me a room. My brother is thoughtful enough to do that. More like
controlling
enough and because he knows I’m already in an uncomfortable place and he can’t be here to save the day, he may have done it.

Exhaling while I wait for his response, I turn to Nick. “Are you sure you want to stay here?” I ask quietly. The more I think about it, the dumber the idea seems to me.

Nick chuckles, shaking his head slightly. “No, but I want to be here for you. You don’t want to go home with me so …” He shrugs, letting the words simmer in my head.

I consider offering him to stay with me, but I think that could be awkward. My phone vibrates in my hand and it’s Hendrix saying that he booked me a suite. He says he tried to get me the penthouse but Shea’s assistant had already booked it, so he couldn’t.

I laugh out loud at my brother’s attempt to out-do Shea’s rock star lifestyle for me, then exhale and turn my body to face Nick. “Stay in my room,” I say finally. “I’ll have an extra bed anyway.”

Nick raises an eyebrow, approval swimming in his blue eyes. “You sure?”

I smile, nodding my head once. “A favor for a favor,” I respond.

Nick’s mouth slowly forms into a smile and just as he opens his mouth, Shea turns around, cutting him off. “What’s the difference between sharing a room with him and me?” he asks, completely baffled.

I shrug. “You have Gia coming in tomorrow morning, I wouldn’t want to interrupt.”

Shea begins to shake his head slowly, confusion clouding his face before he blinks it away and narrows his eyes at Nick. “Isn’t Steph going to think it’s weird that you’re not going home?”

I physically feel my heart plummet into my stomach, but I try hard to keep my face as passive as possible, looking away and walking up to the check-in counter before I hear anything else. I’m not sure I’ll be able to keep my emotions under control if either one of them gives me any more information right now. I check-in quickly and walk away, moving toward the elevators. I can hear footsteps following closely behind me, but I ignore them, I know it’s Nick. I don’t need to turn around to confirm it. I can feel the energy radiating off of him as if it were my own. I don’t know if I have the right to feel mad or jealous or deceived, but all three of those things stream through me as I wait for the elevator.