Page 18 of Collide

I want to tell him I’ll go wherever I fucking want, but I’m more concerned about his attitude toward Ivy. This is his family. “You can think what you want about me, but don’t disrespect Ivy. She’s done nothing wrong.”

“Have you done something wrong?” Tommy eyes me, implying I’m taking advantage of his niece. Or maybe he’s suggesting I’m wrong to want my deceased best friend’s girl?

“I would never—”

“She doesn’t need another disappointment.” Tommy’s statement is clear. He knows the baby is Cash’s, and he hates him for leaving her.

“Uncle Tommy,” she hisses, hurt vibrating off her.

“I’m sorry, baby girl, but I warned you. This isn’t happening.”

I’m still up in his face, ready to let him know whatever happens will happen, when Ivy speaks up again.

“Nothing happened.” She stops. “Nothing’s happening. You have to have expectations to be disappointed, and I have none.” With that, she spins and stalks back into the penthouse, disappearing down the hall. What does that mean? Does she think I’ll disappoint her?

“Phew.” Petty blows out a breath, and Tommy turns on him.

“Shut up.”

“What?” he whines, all false innocence. “I didn’t say anything.”

“Just stop talking,” Tommy barks again.

“Maybe you should stop talking,” I suggest to Tommy. “But before you do, go apologize to your niece.” His mouth falls open, gob smacked by my demand, but I’m not making a polite suggestion. “I think she’s been through enough, and you’re the last person she needs throwing judgment at her. Care,” I add for emphasis. If looks could kill, he’s stabbed me six ways to Sunday, but I hold my ground. He is going to apologize to her. With a huff, he walks around me but not without knocking into my shoulder first.

As soon as he’s out of sight, I grip my shoulder. “Fuck, that hurt.”

Jared’s eyes are on me. “What’s going on with you two?”

“We were at the beach.”

“Gage?” he warns, knowing me better than anyone except Cash, who I sometimes question didn’t know me at all.

“What? I like her, okay? We were at the beach. No big deal.”

“Is this about a few years ago?” Jared asks.

“What happened a few years ago?” Petty inquires, and I tip back my head, closing my eyes.

“Nothing,” I say at the same time Jared tells Petty my secret. “Gage had a life-altering moment with Ivy.”

“What?” Petty shrieks. “When?”

Some might think all rock stars bang chicks bareback in equipment rooms all the time, and while that might be true of many, it wasn’t true of me. Collision had just gotten our start. A jump up the charts. Though I was inundated with female fans, I’d never done what I’d done with Ivy before. The unknown of who she was. The sense of her being important. The frenzy with which we went from zero to sixty.

“It doesn’t matter,” I say, but Jared just can’t keep his mouth shut. “At the Theatre. Kit’s last concert. Ivy and he had an altercation in the hallway, which lead to a tryst in the closet.”

“Oh, is this like Mr. Green with a candlestick in the billiard room?” Petty’s voice rises, falsely throwing it to sound feminine and scandalized.

“No,” I snap.

“I think it was more Mr. Everly with his candlestick in a broom closet,” Jared mocks.

“I hate you guys,” I mutter, not meaning a word of it.

“Well, you’re going to love me later tonight. Three redheads waiting for us. Eight p.m., men. Eight p.m.” Petty stands, proud of setting us up, but I don’t want to go out with a redhead. There’s a certain blonde who’s taking up all my head space. Candlestick included.

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