The Rocker That Savors Me (The Rocker...) (27 page)

He took one loo
k at my damp face, saw the suitcase by the door, and went ballistic. “What the fuck are you doing?” he exploded.

I shrugged.
“Packing.”

“No.
No way.” He shook his head, making his over long hair fall in his face. His blue gray eyes looked wild. “Where is Angel?” He never called her Lana anymore. Everyone knew who he was talking about when he said ‘angel’. I guess to him she was his angel.

“I thought she was with you.” They were like each other’s shadow. Where one was the other was sure to follow.

“Jesse grabbed her and left. I figured she would be here.” Drake glared at me. “Why are you packing, Layla? Why are you crying?”

“Because we are leaving.”
I told him and saw all the color fade from his face. It hurt me to hurt him like that, but I couldn’t stay. Not when I knew Jesse was about to crush me. Oh, fuck. I was already crushed. “Look, you will still see Lana anytime you want. Just because we leave doesn’t mean you have to stop being friends.”

“No. You aren’t leaving!” He practically shouted. “I can’t…You can’t…” He broke
off, unable to speak he was so upset.

“Drake.”
I took a step toward him, wanting to comfort him. Hurting him was the last thing I wanted. He had been through so much already. Finally, he had found something that made the world seem like a better place and I was going to take her away from him…

The door opened and Lana walked in. Drake saw her and nearly crumbled. “You can’t go
, Angel!” He grabbed her hands tight. “Tell her!”

Lana looked from Drake to me then back to Drake. Seeing his pain she pulled him into her arms. “Of course I’m not going anywhere.
”

He seemed to sag with relief. Somehow he made it to the couch, taking Lana with him. She landed on his lap
, and he buried his face in her thick black hair. She stroked her fingers over his face, but her gaze when straight to me. “What are you doing, Layla?” she demanded quietly.

“Packing.
We
are
leaving, Lana. Tonight.”

“Why?”
she asked, looking worried. “Why do we have to go?”

“Because Jesse doesn’t want me anymore.
I heard them talking today. Emmie and him. She’s already finding my replacement, and I bet he is too.” Scalding tears burned my face as they poured from my eyes. I scrubbed them away. “So we’re leaving.”

“You think that Jesse doesn’t want you anymore?” Lana jumped to her feet. “Have you lost your mind? Do you not see how much he loves you?”

“I know what I heard, Lana.” I turned toward the bedroom once more.

“You only think you do!”
she yelled. “Go talk to him. Let him explain.”

“No thank you.” It was bad enough that I knew he didn’t want me anymore. I wasn’t going to embarrass myself by having him make excuses. “
I’ve heard all I need to know.”

“Drake, go get Jesse. Get Emmie too
,” I heard Lana tell him. “Tell them to hurry.”

“Don’t bother.” I called from the bedroom doorway
, but he ignored me as he practically ran from the guesthouse. I glared at my sister. “This won’t change anything, Lana. We are still leaving. Make this easier on you and Drake both, and just help me so that we can go.”

She just stood there, crossing her arms over her chest. “I can’t believe you would doubt how much Jesse loves you. Even for a second. God
, Layla! I get sick of hearing him say it, but I never doubt him when he does.”

“He hasn’t been the same lately
,” I told her. “I can feel the emotions churning in him.”

“That isn’t because he has stopped loving you, idiot!”

“How the hell do you know?” I exploded. She opened her mouth to say something but I didn’t want to hear it. “I’m through talking about this. I have things to do.”

Behind her the door swung open. Emmie came into the living room like a little tornado.
“Lana, seriously! What the hell have you done to Drake now?” she stormed. “I couldn’t make sense of anything he was saying except that it was about you.”

“I haven’t done anything
!” Lana pointed at me. “Layla’s packing and apparently it’s your fault. She heard you and Jesse talking earlier today.”

Emmie’s eyes widened. “Then why are you leaving?”
she demanded. “You don’t like the house? I can sell it and buy another one.” She frowned. “It isn’t as close, but if it’s what you really want…”

“This isn’t about the house
,” Lana informed her. “She doesn’t know about the house.”

Emmie threw her hands in the air. “Then please tell me what it
is
about! Because I’m at a loss here ladies.”

They weren’t making much sense to me. I didn’t know what either one of them were talking about. “This is about you hiring another housekeeper. This is about Jesse leaving because he can’t stand to be around me.”

“Do you think I
want
you to leave?” Emmie put her hands on her hips, glaring at me. I couldn’t help but notice that she was looking more fit and beautiful every day. “Have you lost your mind? I would give my right arm to have you stay with me forever, Layla. There has never been someone like you in my life, someone who takes care of me and put ups with me, and still loves me like you do. You are my best friend, Layla!”

“Then why are you hiring another housekeeper?” I
wailed.

“Because you
are going to have your own house to worry about!” she shouted at me. “You can’t take care of your house and mine too.”

“What house?” They kept talking about a house
, and I was so confused I didn’t know what to think. This whole thing was giving me a huge headache.

Jesse

I was still in the shower when I heard my door open. The glass door opened and Drake stood there, breathing hard.
“Dude!”

“Layla’s packing! She’s going to leave
,” he burst out.

“What?!”
I still had soap all over me but to hell with that. I pushed past my friend and grabbed a towel. I moved so fast that I nearly fell on my ass. Wet feet were slick on tile! Righting myself, I wrapped the towel around my waist and ran through the house still dripping wet.

My heart was full of dread. Why would Layla be leaving? What the hell had I missed?

The contrast of the cool evening air on my wet body was a shock to the system, but I didn’t slow down as I raced over the patio and across the little yard to the guesthouse. The door was standing wide open. The first thing I saw was Layla’s big suitcase by the door, and my heart actually stopped for a moment.

“What house?” I heard Layla ask.

“The house that I asked Emmie to buy for us,” I told her. I crossed the room and grabbed hold of her hands. They were trembling, or maybe it was mine that were trembling. “Layla, what are you doing? Why are you packing?”

Tears made her chocolate eyes glittery.
“Because you don’t want me anymore.” She whispered, but there was doubt in her voice. “At least I thought you didn’t. I-I-I heard you and Emmie talking earlier. You said you had to go.”

“Of course I have to go. We all do. I want to sleep with you in my arms ever night. We can’t do that here
, not without confusing Lucy.” I cupped her face in both my hands, wiping a few errant tears away as they slipped from her eyes. “I wanted to surprise you. Give you the house and the ring at the same time.”

“Ring?”
She breathed. Her eyes were huge in her beautiful face.

“This wasn’t how it was supposed to happen.” I muttered, reaching for the towel around my waist as it started to slip. Lana was standing by the door and I didn’t want the girl that was going to hopefully be my sister-in-law to know
what I looked like naked. I glanced at her and then Emmie. “Mind giving us a minute here?”

“
You and I are going to have a serious talk later, Layla!” Emmie muttered as she left. “My best friend and she thinks that I want to get rid of her…”

I sighed and waited for the door to close behind them both before I gave Layla
my full attention. “Now tell me what I missed. Why would you jump to such a conclusion?”

“You’ve been acting so off lately. Your mind is always w
andering. I thought you were getting bored with me. And today when I heard you and Emmie talking I just lost it. It broke something inside of me.” More tears poured from her eyes. “I love you, Jesse. If I lost you it would kill me.”

“Oh baby!” I rocked her against me. “It’s the same for me. It’s been like that from almost the second I heard your laugh that first day we met. I love you. I need you.” Her arms wrapped around my waist
, and I couldn’t help the way my body responded. I was addicted to her touch, but I had things to tell her before I let my other head take over.

“Have I ruined it?”
she whispered. “I didn’t mean to ruin it.”

“No, Layla. You haven’t ruined anything. This might not be how I had planned to tell you, but you haven’t messed anything up.” I brushed a kiss over her eyes, tasting the salt of her tears on my tongue. “I knew that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you after that first weekend. Emmie started making all the arrangements for me.
For
us
, sweetheart. Neither one of us was happy about my moving out, but I can’t start our lives together sharing a house with her and the guys. So she found us a house just two houses over.”

“What?”
she exclaimed. “The yellow one that just went on the market?”

I grinned. “Yeah, that
’s it. Do you like it?”

“It’s beautiful from what I’ve seen of it. But…”

“No buts.” I hushed her with a quick kiss. “It’s ours. Four bedrooms, so the girls each get their own room…and there is room enough for an addition to the family if we can fit that in later on.” I hadn’t really thought about having kids of my own, but after holding Mia for the first time it had become a kind of ache in my chest. I wanted my own baby. Layla’s baby.

“That…That sounds really wonderful.”
She smiled up at me.

I felt a dopey grin split my face. “Yes it does.”

“I’m really sorry.”

“I guess you won’t ea
vesdrop anymore, huh?” I brushed another quick kiss over her lips.

“Nope, never again.”

“Good.” I pushed her back against the wall. “Will you marry me, Layla?” I murmured, kissing a path from her ear down her neck. “Will you spend the rest of your life letting me spoil you? Letting me make you happy?”

“I can’t imagine being more happy than I am right now.” She shivered as I sucked on the sensitive spot where her neck and shoulder met. “But I’m willing to spend the rest of my life letting you try.”

I had thought the end of that stupid tour would never get here!

I was rushing through the house making sure that everything was in order. Determined that the house was going to be just right for when Jesse got home. I hadn’t seen him in two weeks—two incredibly long, agonizing weeks! It might not be a long time for some couples, but for me it was an eternity.

From the day we were married—which
had taken place in at a little chapel in Vegas the day after Jesse had proposed—we hadn’t spent a night apart in the more than two years that we have been married, not until this stupid, completely retarded tour came up. Sometimes, I hated that my husband was the big bad ass rock star that everyone was dying to see live!

Lucy came into the house, tossing her backpack on the sofa. “Is he home?”
she asked excitedly. “Did I miss it?” Now eight years old, Lucy had changed quite a bit over the last two years. Her hair was kept short with little ringlets framing her beautiful face, and she had shot up a good six inches in the last year alone. Since I had married Jesse, she had blossomed even more into a young woman that I was incredibly proud of.

Jesse had been the one to bring up the topic of adoption, determined that he wanted Lucy to know exactly how much he thought of her as his. Lucy
needed to be asked twice, and six months after we had gotten married she had officially become our daughter. It had been weird at first. Lucy didn’t know if she wanted to call us “Mom and Dad” or not. We had let her figure all of that out on her own. It took some time, but after a while she had slipped into calling Jesse “Dad”. She and I were still figuring out if she wanted to call me “Mom”. From time to time she slipped from calling me “Layla” to calling me “Mom”.

I grinned down at her
as I fluffed up the pillows on the sofa. “No, baby. He hasn’t gotten home yet.”

“Thank goodness.” She hugged me tight and flopped down on the sofa. “I didn’t even want to go to school today because I was scared I wouldn’t be here when Dad got home.”

“Emmie texted me about an hour ago, so it shouldn’t be too much longer.” I assured her as I continued to straighten up the living room. I loved the house that we had made a home. Actually, it was as perfect as it could get, but I needed to do something to keep busy or I might lose my mind!