Chapter 18

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

JOULES

96 bobas left until my baby sister dies …

Driving cross-country from Fayetteville, Arkansas to Seattle, Washington with my sister’s friends is hell on earth. Luna flirts with me constantly, Ella corrects every little thing I say, and Chloe has to go to the bathroom every fifteen fucking minutes.

“I swear to God, Lakelynn, if she doesn’t come out of the restroom in the next thirty seconds, I’m leaving her here.” I’m standing next to the SUV, back leaned up against it, the sound of trucks whizzing past as we refuel in Little America, Wyoming.

Where is that, you might ask. Butt. Fuck. Nowhere.

I scowl at the other tourists as they come out of the little shop with ice cream cones and snacks. I’ve seen three dozen different families come and go while we’re still waiting for Chloe. My cousin, Lynn, at least sleeps most of the time, and Maria gets so deep into the books she’s reading that all she does is squeal when the characters kiss. I can live with that.

But it was way more fun when it was just me and Lake.

“She has IBS, Joules,” she stage-whispers to me. There are too many semi-trucks blasting pass on the highway for her to actually whisper. I wouldn’t be able to hear her. “You know, irritable bowel syndrome.”

“I know what IBS is, Canoe.” I give my little sister a look. She’s so cute with her sea green hair twisted up in two buns, a hot pink hoodie on, and a jean skirt with boots. How can Tam not like her? What’s wrong with that guy anyway? I told him he had balls, but I was lying. He’s nutless, and I don’t like him. “But if she has IBS, why does she buy ice cream and soda at every single gas station. Shouldn’t she be controlling her diet?”

Lake peers up at me with big brown eyes because she knows I’m a total sucker.

“Can you go inside and get me a chocolate-vanilla swirl cone? They’re only eighty-five cents, and there’s no boba shops between here and Boise.”

I grunt and push off the SUV, stomping my way into the store. People clear out of the way as I come, like sunshine fleeing a storm cloud. Good. The line was too long anyway.

I join the few brave souls left ahead of me and tug my phone from my pocket. Kaycee Quinn … we didn’t have the most promising first meeting, but she’s growing on me. She sends me song recommendations, raves about restaurants she’s been trying. Usually the restaurant reviews come with too many pictures of her food, but I don’t comment on it because she also sends selfies, and she’s a beautiful woman. Can’t complain.

One thing I do notice is that she’s always alone in the restaurants. Always. Tam is never with her. I should be happy that he doesn’t seem into Kaycee, but instead, I’m just doubly annoyed. I’m pissed off for Kaycee, even more pissed off for Lake.

I end up rushing back to the car with seven ice cream cones stuffed haphazardly into a drink carrier.

“Told ya he was nice,” Lake says as she looks back at the other girls, seated illegally in the seat-less rear of the SUV. They’ll fly back after a few days, and we’ll still need a space to sleep when we’re having trouble finding a hotel or it’s too expensive. Yet another reason they shouldn’t have come.

“Thank you, Joules,” Luna purrs at me, and I give her the most withering stare I can manage. Little sister’s best friend is a huge ick for me. These girls are like extensions of Lake, and I could never in a million years think of these people as anything but Lake’s friends. They’re not even women to me.

Kaycee, on the other hand … I’ve never gotten to know a woman this slowly before. Usually, it’s a quick, hot burn and then a mutual goodbye. Or, like with poor Lucy, a breakup over ice cream. This time, it’s different, and I’m not sure what to make of that. A quick, hot burn would’ve been better. I need to get Kaycee away from Tam, but … I guess slow-burn romance works, too?

I pass the cones out to the girls, take my own to the driver’s seat, and then sit with the SUV idling for ten more minutes until Chloe comes back.

“She doesn’t get one,” I warn Lake, but it’s too late. She hands her friend the ice cream, we head out, and poor Chloe has to hold it for an hour before we find another rest stop.

91 bobas left until my baby sister dies …

The backstage passes gave me false hope. I thought that for sure Tam would show some interest in Lake tonight, but instead I’m stuck watching the same boring-ass concert that I’ve seen literally fifty-two times already. Only, this time it’s from the back, and I have to suffer Tam’s presence between sets.

He rushes into a dressing room, changes his clothes, sips some water, gets a touch-up from hair and makeup, and then he’s back at it again.

Kaycee is a bright spot in an otherwise dull evening. After her three-song set with Tam, she changes into some leggings and a hoodie and joins us.

“Long time, no see,” she tells me, a brilliant smile on her face that makes me feel some type of way. I don’t even know how to explain it. I don’t not want to fuck her, but I also … Damn. I don’t know. I run my tongue over my lower lip and find that her eyes don’t track the movement. She’s just smiling at me like an old friend, gaze shifting over to Lake in question before turning back to me.

I should probably introduce my sister, but I’m caught on the sight of Kaycee wearing my sweatshirt. I shouldn’t like the way it falls over her slim shoulders, the way it swallows her small frame. I frown. Does she eat enough? She goes to restaurants all the time but look at her. She’s a stick.

I bite my tongue before something stupid slips out.

“Hi, I’m Lake,” my sister says, stepping around me and extending her hand. “Joules’ favorite sister.”

“Only sister,” I correct, watching as they shake and then stand back, studying one another. I don’t sense any animosity, but there’s a bit of tension there.

“Tam’s told me about you,” Kaycee says, and I feel my lips twitch into a cocky smile. Ah. So that is why Tam’s being such a prick to me. He knows I’m moving in on his girl, and it’s pissing him off. Good. He should realize that superstar status or not, I’m more of a man than he’ll ever be.

“He did?” Lake asks, sounding surprised. I’m not. I’m only surprised it took this long for Kaycee and Tam to put it together that the ‘friends’ they’re each making are a pair of siblings from Arkansas. “I wish Joules would’ve told me more about you. Instead, he gets all close-lipped and weird when I ask why he’s so obsessed with his phone nowadays.”

Kaycee seems to perk up at that, tossing her braids over her shoulders. Her brown eyes sparkle, and her beautiful face shines. I like her better this way, with all the stage makeup wiped off, but she’s stunning either way.

“He wasn’t obsessed with his phone before?” Kaycee teases, reaching out to poke me in the arm. When Luna did that to me this morning, I slapped her hand. I offer a half-cocked smirk when Kaycee does it, but she ignores me, focused more on Lakelynn than on me.

That irks the fuck out of me, and I find myself standing there with my tongue pressed against the inside of my cheek, trying my best to act like a gentleman.

“Definitely not,” Lake replies with a laugh, crossing her arms over her chest as “Sweet Honey” starts to play, and I have to really fight the strong instinct to find a needle to stab into my eardrums. Lake says she doesn’t like Tam’s music, but you know what? I despise it. I’d rather listen to the PAW Patrol theme song on repeat. I’d rather listen to a compilation of the worst Disney songs in history, like that awful crab song from Moana. I’d rather listen to yowling alley cats in heat than listen to Tam Eyre sing. “Joules is mean, but he’s also really close to his family. It’s a toxic combination that doesn’t lend to having many friends. This is good for him, having you to text and talk to.”

“Same,” Kaycee says, pointing at herself and then silently accepting a frosty water bottle with a spiral straw in it from an assistant. She drinks it without even registering that she’s doing it. “Also for Tam. I know he enjoys his conversations with you.” There’s an edge there in Kaycee’s voice, and then I see it, the way her expression darkens, sharpens, zones in on my sister.

Hah. I knew it. Kaycee is definitely not as nice as she pretends to be.

We’re birds of a feather, me and this girl.

I step close suddenly, surprising her, and lean in to put my lips near her ear. Kaycee shivers, and I wish for a second that she had the sleeves of her stolen hoodie pushed up so that I could see if she had any goose bumps.

“Aww, are you jealous of my baby sister? Think Tam would be jealous if he knew I carried you bridal style back to your hotel room that night?”

When I draw away from Kaycee, I see her bodyguard standing nearby, eyes narrowed, lips pursed. I am this close to getting into a fistfight with a professional.

Kaycee acts like I didn’t say anything at all, but some of the menace is gone from her expression. Unfortunately, I can’t tell if any of that has to do with me or if it’s because Tam has just appeared, jogging offstage with a smile and sweaty clothes.

I curl my lip at him.

“Go shower,” I snap at the guy, and he stops dead in his tracks, turning to look at me like he’s never seen me before. But then his eyes narrow, and I know that he wouldn’t be able to forget me if he tried. “You smell awful.”

“No, he doesn’t,” both Kaycee and Lake say at the same time, and Tam grins at me. And then he has the audacity to wink.

Oooh, if we were in a dark alley, I would beat his ass.

“Women like the smell of fresh male sweat. Don’t act like this is an accomplishment on your part.” I smirk as Tam works his jaw, but then he chooses the high road and ignores me completely.

“Please don’t say gross things like that,” Lake pleads, edging closer to me.

We both watch in barely concealed frustration when Kaycee bounces forward and throws her arms around Tam’s neck. I expect a kiss, one with tongue and roaming hands. Instead, one of Tam’s assistants appears and tosses him a wet towel which he catches and then uses to wipe his face down.

Kaycee releases him with a little frown, and I bite the inside of my cheek to keep the grin off my face.

This is like shooting fish in a barrel, really. Too easy. There is nothing primal or biological between these two. If any pair of us four should be a platonic set of friends, it should be Kaycee and Tam. They look like they could go to church together or exchange knitting patterns. If they ever had sex, it’d probably be stilted, awkward, and weird, and they’d never speak of it again after.

But then I look over at my sister, and I can see how worried she is, eyes darting from one pop star to the other.

“Glad you could make it,” Tam says absently, and he’s not even looking at her. If I punched him, would that fix his attitude problem? I glare at him until he finally glances our direction, eyes skipping past me and down to Lake. “And that you’re feeling better. That was a wicked cold, wasn’t it?”

“Pretty sure it was the flu.” Lake shrugs, like it was no big deal, like me and Dad and Uncle Rob and Uncle Peter didn’t pace the living room every night after she went to bed, worried sick. I don’t want my sister to end up as dirt with a tree stuck in it until she’s at least a hundred-and-ten years old. Then she can die, and I’ll already be gone so what does it matter.

I scratch at my itchy left wrist, and then curse myself for doing it.

Tam says nothing, studying my sister with detached interest before he turns his attention back to Kaycee. But I catch it. I see it. It isn’t natural; it’s forced. He wants to look at Lakelynn, but he feels like he should look at Kaycee instead.

A slow smile spreads across my face.

“Escape room tomorrow?” Tam asks, and it’s hard to hear him over the screeching of the crowd. How does he even stand listening to that day in and day out? It’s like nails on a chalkboard. “Me, you, them.” He tilts his head in our direction. “The guys.”

“Sounds fun,” Lake chirps, bouncing a little on her toes. “What’s the theme?”

“Haunted house,” Tam replies, still not looking at her. Kaycee raises a brow, and he smiles. “Want to come back to my room and have dinner?” he asks, dropping his voice an octave.

Lakelynn shivers beside me, and I take a step forward.

That’s it.

Curse or no curse, I’m going to beat him up.

But Lake’s hand on my arm stops me, and I sigh. Right. I’m supposed to be as nice to this jerk as I can be until the curse is broken. Then if I have time, I can beat him up.

“I wish I could, but I can’t.” Kaycee twists her hands in the front of my hoodie and gives Tam an apologetic smile. “I have to get my hair dyed tonight, so I can hit a shoot in the morning and then meet you at the escape room. I might be a little bit late.”

Tam sighs and then nods, throwing the white hand towel over his neck. His green eyes edge back to my sister.

“Want to come with us and get boba?” Lake blurts, surprising me. But then, only Joe and I know what Lake is really like when she wants something. And I know this for a fact: my baby sister is not ready to die. She’s not ready to let go of our family and this life just yet. “Unfortunately, I’ve got my friends and my cousins with me, but I’ll make sure they stay six feet away from you at all times.”

Tam’s lips creep up into a smile, one that touches the corners of his eyes in a way that his smile for Kaycee did not. Please, Joe, help us out here. This guy is a tough nut to crack. We need you.

Before we left home, I bought the best sushi in town and then left it outside by the redbud tree with one of mom’s nice candles, and an incense stick that I stole from Lake’s room. It’s an offering that Joe won’t be able to refuse; he’ll help us.

“Sure.” Tam grins as his manager—this jumpy little guy with narrow shoulders—edges forward and whispers fiercely into his ear. Tam ignores him, turning and jogging off across the back of the busy stage. He spins around to call over his shoulder. “Text me the address, and I’ll meet you there in an hour.”

Lake grins back and then heads for the exit, giving me a look as she passes by. She’s leaving me alone with Kaycee on purpose. Good girl.

Although alone isn’t exactly an accurate description. There are dozens of staff members back here, not including the bodyguard chick.

“You want some boba?” I ask casually, tucking my hands into my pockets. Kaycee gives me a look.

“Hair appointment and sleep, that’s all I’ve got time for tonight.”

I reach out and finger one of her dark braids, and she doesn’t stop me.

“I like your hair already.” I shrug and release it, but the silky feel of that raven plait between my fingers is likely going to end up in a fantasy of her braid wrapped around my—

I save my dirty thoughts for later, when I get some alone time in the bathroom.

“We’re going blonde for the next part of this drama, and the label thought it would be nice to switch up my look.” She shrugs her shoulders, offers me another smile, and then steps close. This time, she gets up on her tiptoes to put her mouth near my ear. “If you tell Tam about that, I will kill you.”

Kaycee presses a chaste kiss to my cheek, turns, and leaves in the same direction that Tam went.

Well, well.

Maybe I do like Kaycee Quinn after all.