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“Hey,” Derek says into the phone. He scrubs a hand down his face and grimaces. Whatever she said must be working on his nerves. “Hang on, hang on. Let me talk to the guys.” There’s more silence on his end. “Because there’s more to the band than just me, and I have to make sure they’re okay with it.”
Pulling it away from his ear, he hits a button on the phone and turns to the guys. “She wants us to hang out at her next show, which is in Cary, so that we can sing our song.”
“Just your song?” Brent asks.
“Are we allowed to do any other songs?” Derek asks Serena. The stress and irritation are written all over his face. You can tell he hates dealing with her, and if she can’t see that, she’s blind. Or just self-centered enough that she doesn’t care.
“We can do two others,” he tells them.
“When?” Brent asks him.
Derek asks her, then replies with, “Tomorrow.”
Aiden looks over at Mom and Dad, waiting for their opinion.
“Do what you need to do,” Mom says in way of answering.
“We should do this,” Aiden says to Brent, and then he turns to Derek. “You know we have to do this. It’s good for us. And for once, her tour stop is close to where we are, not thousands of miles away.”
“He’s right, man,” Brent tells Derek. “Just play the dutiful boyfriend for one night, and then we can hide away again and work on the album.”
“And help Audrey pack up,” Mom adds in.
“That too,” Aiden says.
Sighing, Derek puts the phone back to his ear and walks away from the rest of us, figuring out the details.
“Where is this show?” Emma asks. “You know we wanna go.”
“Wouldn’t have it any other way,” Aiden remarks. “It’s at the Aster Theatre. It will be nice for you ladies to come see us play.”
“Yay!” Emma squeals.
I just roll my eyes. As much as I like hearing them play, seeing Derek with Serena isn’t something I’m looking forward to. And knowing that it’s not a big deal if she touches him when I can’t, may just kill me.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Emma and I are lying on the beach enjoying some much-needed sun and girl time. We spent the morning packing up some things in the house and helping my mom. She’s going to have a donation place come and pick up some of the goods before she leaves—or I leave; that’s not quite clear. But now my dad is resting, and she suggested that we go enjoy some time together.
“Thank you for coming out here to be with me.”
“Are you kidding me? It’s been fun watching you squirm and Derek eye-fuck you from across the room.”
I pick my foot up and smack her leg with it. “Jerk.”
She just giggles. “I’m glad I could come out here and help you. I think your mom was a bit disappointed with the progress that you made. I think she thought more would be done.”
“She definitely was. But we made headway this morning.”
“Guess you were fucking Derek more than cleaning up, huh?”
My face heats, and I keep my eyes pinched shut so that I don’t have to look over at her. “My dad may know something. Think he’ll say something?”
“How does he know something?”
“He caught us watching each other last night when the guys were playing.” I peek over and see her nod. “I hope he keeps his mouth shut to Aiden. He said he would, as long as he didn’t have to lie.”
“He shouldn’t.”
