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“My champion,” he murmured, and she nodded fiercely.
“Always. I’ll keep saying it until you understand what I see in you.” She gripped the compass again, pulling tight. “Your sister is lucky to have you too.”
His Adam’s apple bobbed.
“What about your mother?”
“She stayed with him. I couldn’t convince her to go.”
“And they’re still together.”
He looked somewhere off in the distance she couldn’t see. “I’d assume so. I haven’t been back in a while.”
“By choice?”
“Her choice. She said it was easier if I didn’t come around anymore, stirring up trouble. So I did as she wished.”
Lauren tipped her head against his. God, how her chest ached for him. He’d been turned away from people he loved, over and over again.
Just as she had, though it was a vastly different circumstance in the case of her parents. They’d never been close in the first place. But to be rejected by his parents and then to lose his daughter…
She cupped his cheek, rubbing his stubbled jaw until his gaze shifted back to meet hers. “It’s their loss.” She pressed her lips to his, hoping he could feel every ounce of feeling she poured into the kiss. “Completely.”
He closed his hand around hers on the compass, his lips curving under hers. “You’re good for me.”
“Ditto.” She eased back and smiled. “And I’m not even talking about the orgasms. I like beating you at Goth Avenger too.”
The furrows in his forehead smoothed away. “We should see if we can play that again somewhere, if we can find it.” He brushed her hair back from her cheek. “Since you’re staying with me.”
Her mother’s ultimatum popped into her mind. Getting back into school could be the answer to everything she’d been working toward or a complete disaster. She just had hadn’t fully figured out which it was yet.
If she turned away from her mother’s offer, there wouldn’t be another one forthcoming. That she knew with certainty. If she missed the deadline, she could try to get back into school on her own as she’d planned, but there were no guarantees.
There were even fewer with West.
“I’m staying,” she echoed.
At least for now.
Chapter Seventeen
With less than six hours between privacy and a bus full of cranky people looking for the same, West was more than ready to kill his entire band by the time they rolled into Los Angeles.
Denver must have felt the same because there were no breaks. Everyone wanted to get home. Michael for obvious reasons, and Juliet had two someones waiting on her. Mal barked for early release as soon as they passed through Glendale.
Denver didn’t bother asking questions anymore. Mal never answered. He showed up on time for the bus and the venues. For him that was more than enough to fulfill his contract with Lila. What would happen after his next six months were up was as clear as the bottom of the La Brea tarpits.
Elle was as quiet as ever. The longer they were on the road, the more animated their co-lead guitarist got. However, she seemed to be the least excited to get home.
Ryan had gotten off the bus with Mal in Glendale with barely a word to anyone. Both he and Mal went in opposite directions the moment they’d stepped off the bus. West had been so wrapped up in Lauren he hadn’t been able to ask Ryan what the hell was up before he was sprinting away from them.
Lauren sat beside him on the couch in the main living space. She was sitting cross legged with a borrowed iPad in her lap. She was busily typing away in one of her endless documents.
He wasn’t sure what she was writing half the time, but she was usually grinning. Personally, he didn’t want to know. Because if it was her project, it was just one more thing to remind him how short their time together was.
Taking pity on Michael, Denver dropped him off right at his building. He barely waved at them before he was off the bus like a shot.
The rest of them were dropped off at their practice space where their cars were. He left most of his shit on the bus, only taking his backpack with all his necessities. Lauren laughed when he led her to the bright green Charger.
