When I heard a baby crying, I stepped behind the sectional and crouched down so that I could watch too. There was a woman laid out on a table, a tent separating her head from the rest of her body. Several people wearing surgical scrubs stood on either side of the woman’s stomach while the one I assumed was the doctor worked on the woman. “Going to feel some pressure,” the doctor told the woman.
The whole thing only took minutes. When it was over, there was another screaming baby. Apparently, the woman had been carrying twins. A nurse took the baby from the doctor, wrapped it up in a blanket, and showed it to the mother.
“What do you think?” Layla dared to ask after the video had stopped.
Emmie shook her head. “It’s still scary…but you were right. The doctor made it sound much scarier than the video showed it to be.”
“Well, Nik will be there with you.” Layla assured her. “You get to have someone back in the operating room with you. Nik will make sure that you are fine. Right, Jesse?”
“Fuck yes, he will.” I gripped Emmie’s shoulder, giving it a little squeeze. “You and the baby are going to be just fine, sweetheart. I promise.”
The front door opened and slammed shut. I figured Nik had to have broken every traffic law in the state to get home so quickly. It was just a little over an hour’s drive to the studio with traffic. Nik had managed it in half that. “Baby?” he called out, sounding frantic.
“I’m here,” Emmie called.
He fell on his knees in front of her, his hair looking crazy, his face pale and his eyes blood shot. “Fuck, Em. Tell me what’s going on?” His voice was thick with emotion. “I’ve been going out of my mind…”
Layla stood, and I followed her from the room while Emmie told Nik about the visit to the doctor. She glanced at me over her shoulder as she walked toward the kitchen. “You look like you could use a drink,” she murmured softly.
“Or ten.” I ran a hand over my face and head.
She grinned. “Come on. I’ll fix you something.”
Before she could enter the kitchen, I grabbed her waist and pushed her up against the wall without turning her around. I held onto her tight, needing her against me but too much of a coward to turn her around so that she wouldn’t see the tears in my eyes. “Thank you, Layla,” I whispered against her ear and felt her shiver. “Thank you for helping Emmie.”
Chapter 9
Layla
If I thought the kiss from that morning was hot, it was nothing compared to how having Jesse pressing me against the wall just outside the kitchen felt with his chest against my back, his dick snug against my ass. My breasts pressed against the wall while my nipple rings tugged with every breath I took in.
His fingers skimmed down my bare arms causing goose flesh to pop up with every stroke of those big thick fingers. “Thank you, Layla.” He breathed against my ear and I couldn’t help but shiver. “Thank you for helping Emmie.”
The sincerity in his voice and the gratitude, spoke more to me than anything else. I had seen the way he was with Emmie, the way they all were. It hadn’t really hit me how much that girl was loved until right now. It made my heart ache with an emotion I had never felt before in my life. That this big rocker, a man that I had seen rocking hard on television and in the tabloids, could feel so deeply for another human being was amazing to me.
My experiences with rockers had never shown me that that type of person could feel such emotions…
Hot, slightly damp lips grazed my exposed neck. “Really, Layla. Thank you.” He stepped back and quietly walked away.
I stood there for a long while, trying to get my body to stop trembling. Good God, that man made me ache without even trying! My whole body was one massive throb, and my heart was trying to break through my chest it was beating so hard.
On shaking legs, I made it to the downstairs bathroom and splashed cool water on my face and ran my wrists under the stream of slightly chilled water. I didn’t look at myself in the mirror, to frightened of what I might find in my eyes, too much of a coward to let myself admit that I had feelings for the rocker that went beyond lust.
--
The rest of the week passed quickly enough. I worked hard, made sure that the house was spotless, and then made sure I was out of the main house before the guys returned from the studio each evening.
Lana disappeared every night after dinner, sometimes taking her homework with her, and didn’t return until it was bed time. Sometimes I heard their laughter just outside. Other times I would look out the window and see the two walking side by side on the beach. I didn’t ask questions, although I knew the smart thing to do was demand to know what she was doing, but like I had told her, I trusted my sister to make the right decisions with Drake.
Friday arrived all too soon for me. I watched Lana as she went through her entire wardrobe and finally settled on something to wear. A simple black skirt with a white camisole and short sleeved black sweater that only had two buttons to keep it closed. She looked beautiful as always, but when she got into my makeup, I found a much older version of my baby sister looking back at me. I hated it, but I kept my mouth shut as I watched Drake whisk her away for their dinner at some Greek restaurant that Lana was supposed to love.
I tried not to watch the clock the whole evening. I hadn’t given Lana a curfew, but I hoped she would be responsible enough to know when it was time to call it a night. Lucy attempted to keep me distracted. We played a few of her board games, and I let her cheat the majority of the time. We colored until she was sleepy, and then I tucked her into bed with just one story instead of her normal three.
I was just turning away when her eyes suddenly opened and she clutched my hand. “Do you think Lana likes Drake?”
Her question surprised me. “I don’t know, Lucy. Why do you ask?”
She sighed. “Because I like him. I want her to like him too. Drake is really awesome.”
I bit my lip to keep from smiling. Lucy didn’t give such high praise to just anyone, and ‘awesome’ was as good as it got in her book. “He is kind of cool,” I agreed. “I think that Lana and Drake are going to be great friends.”
“Do you think that he will marry her?” She sounded excited about the prospect.
My stomach clenched in fear. “I don’t think that is going to happen, honey. Lana needs to go to college. She needs to find herself before she can handle something like that…” I broke off, not wanting to discuss something so heavy with my six year old sister. “Go to sleep now, Lucy. You can ask Lana all about her night in the morning.” I placed a kiss on her forehead and made my escape.
It surprised me when Lana opened the front door at just after eleven. I had thought she would be out until at least after midnight. When she shut the door and leaned back against it, I knew that her mind was still on the evening out and the man she had spent it with. She had this star struck look on her face and wonder lit her eyes.
I cleared my throat to grab her attention, and she glanced over at me sitting on the sofa. A grin split her beautiful face, and it was so infectious that I couldn’t help smiling back. “So it went well?”
She practically floated over to the sofa and dropped down beside of me. She kicked off the heels she had borrowed from me and laid her feet across my lap while she leaned back with a content sigh. “I had a blast. He has this way of making everyone else but me seem insignificant. There were three girls at the restaurant trying to get him to notice them, but he kept his eyes solely on me. We talked about everything and nothing, just like we always do. Then he took me to this little park, and we just sat on the swings for forever. I didn’t want to come home, Lana, but he said he didn’t want to get me in trouble…”
The news that it was Drake being so responsible made some of my tension about them ease…just a little. It wasn’t like I was going to get over these feelings overnight. I wanted better things for Lana in life than a rock star. I wanted her to go to college, live it up a little without having to worry about anything
else. I wanted her to have the things, and chances that I never got. It wasn’t me trying to live through her; it was me wanting a better life for her than what I had had at her age.
“Tomorrow he’s taking Lucy and me shopping.” She shook her head. “I told him I didn’t want anything, that all I wanted was to spend time with him, but he insisted. He wants to buy me things, Layla. How do I say no to him? I can’t…” She trailed off with a frown. “I don’t want him to think that the only reason I want to be friends with him is so that I can take advantage of the things he can give me. I just want him.”
I had no clue how to help her with that. Drake, as far as I could tell, had never been one to splurge on anything. All the pictures I had ever seen of him in tabloids had showed him in tattered old jeans and tee shirts. He never had a woman hanging off his arm, unless you counted Emmie, which I didn’t. Maybe his buying Lana things was the only way he knew how to make her see that he cared about her, but I could be wrong.
“Do what you have to do, Lana. When he tries to buy you something, insist that you don’t want it.” I grasped her hand and gave it a little squeeze. “I’m happy you had a good time, sweetie. Now go shower and get to bed. We can talk in the morning.”
She hugged me tight. “He really is a good guy, Layla,” she murmured before standing. “You’ll see.”
I just smiled as I watched her walk into the bedroom. Only time would tell about Drake, but I really hoped that Lana was right.
Jesse
Emmie was much calmer after her talk with Layla. No one wanted to go into the studio on Wednesday, but she insisted. Somehow we made it through the day without losing our minds and actually got two tracks done.
I spent the day with my mind split between worrying about Emmie and how she was handling the news that she was going to have to have a C-section, and day dreaming about Layla. By the time we got home that evening I was anxious to see them both.
Emmie was getting over the distress of the new development where the baby was concerned. She and Nik had talked about it long and hard the night before and I think that Nik was more worried about it than Em was now. Poor guy had been off most of the day, missing notes, forgetting words that he had wrote himself. I felt sorry for him. If it was bothering me so bad, I could only imagine how he had to be feeling. Em was everything to him, and the baby was something that he had grown obsessed with over the summer. His happiness depended on them both.
Layla had taken off before I got home. I was beyond disappointed. I wanted to knock on her door and invite myself into the guesthouse, but decided that it was better to wait. Maybe she needed some space after the kiss the day before.
Drake disappeared every evening after dinner. I was actually jealous of the time he was spending with Lana. I wanted to have the same time with Layla! I wanted to go on long walks with her along the beach. I wanted to lie on a blanket in the grass and just watch the night sky while talking about nothing that really mattered.
Don’t get me wrong. I was happy for my buddy. Since Lana had come along, Drake had even slowed down on his drinking. He didn’t constantly have a bottle in his hand. He barely drank a beer with dinner each night. Then I would hear him in his room in the middle of the night stumbling around, hear his quiet moans while he fought his nightmares once he finally fell asleep. Just like I heard him throwing up each morning. Something that wasn’t a part of his hangover, but the result of his nightmares…
I couldn’t think about Drake’s nightmares though. They just pissed me off and made me want to punch something.
Friday night he didn’t have dinner with us. Emmie said he was going out with Lana, and I wondered if that was a good idea. But Emmie seemed thrilled about it, and I trusted her judgment on this so I didn’t say anything.
We were all still up when Drake came home. It wasn’t late, barely after eleven. I was relieved when he walked into the house. The look on his face startled me though. He was actually humming and I had never seen him smiling so freely before the entire time I’d known the guy. Even I would admit that Drake, like his brother, was a sexy fucker, but when he smiled, it shined from the inside out and made him almost beautiful.
Emmie jumped up and hugged him tight. “How was it? Did you have fun?” She sounded like a mother asking her son how his first date went. It wasn’t far off the mark. It was probably Drake’s first actual date, and she mothered us all.
He laughed and pulled her down on the end of the sectional with him. “It was just dinner, Em.”
“I don’t care. Tell me all about it.”
“Maybe later.” He kissed the top of her head, and she snuggled closer to him with a little pout. “No, sweetheart. I can’t right now.”
“Tomorrow?”
He rolled his eyes at her but was still grinning. “Tomorrow.”
I emptied the rest of my beer and got up to throw it away. “I’m calling it a night.” I stopped behind Emmie to place a kiss on her cheek. “I finally get to sleep in tomorrow!”
“You get most of next week off, you big baby,” Nik grumbled. “So stop complaining.”
I shot him the finger. “Not my fault I’m so damn good at what I do that you get the drums down on the first go.” I winked down at Emmie. “Night, sweetheart.”
“Night, Jesse,” she called after me.
I tossed the beer bottle in the recycling can in the kitchen before heading up to my room. Instead of crashing on the bed I moved to the window. It didn’t overlook the beach but the guest house. It was dark except for the flashing light of a television in the living room. I imagined Layla laying there on that damned hide-a-bed and wished I was there with her right now…
Layla
I had the whole day to myself. It was something that never happens, but I wasn’t going to complain about it. I spent the morning just vegging out in front of the television, watching pure crap. It was stuff that would rot my mind, but I loved every second of it. After a small lunch of cereal and a bagel, I took a long soak in the bathtub and then washed my hair.
Emmie called me on my new cellphone and asked if I wanted to come over to swim, but I was enjoying some me time far too much to want to end it just yet. She seemed a little disappointed, but I promised her that I would spend the entire day with her by the pool the next day, and she cheered up. I loved spending time with Emmie.
Lana and Lucy got home from their day with Drake just after four. Lucy came running into the guest house full of excited energy. She was already telling me about her day while Lana stormed into the bedroom and slammed the door behind her. I glanced over at the front door to see Drake glaring after her, his arms loaded with bags of clothes and toys.
“Lucy, go watch some cartoons.” I pushed her toward the sofa. “You can tell me all about your day later, I promise.”
“Okay.” She sighed. “Don’t yell at Drake. It isn’t his fault that Lana is so rotten.”
I shot her a look that told her to keep quiet and moved over to the door where Drake dropped his load of bags on the floor. “How was your day?” I asked.
His jaw tensed and he finally turned his glare from the closed bedroom door to me. Those blue gray eyes of his were gorgeous, the way they were all glassy and full of stormy emotions, even when he was pissed off. “Your sister is so stubborn!” He informed me. As if I didn’t already know that! Ha!
I couldn’t help but grin. “I’m sure it wasn’t that bad.”
“She didn’t want me to buy her anything. Nothing! Not one little thing. Then when I bought them anyway, she stormed out of the store and left me there with poor little Lucy. She refused to speak to me the rest of the afternoon…” He ran a hand through his over long hair and pulled at the roots. “She makes me f…uh…freaking bonkers!”
I admired the way he caught himself from swearing. I had noticed the weekend before that he and the others tried not to swear when Lucy was around. “Give her a little while. She won’t stay mad forever. Lana’s the type of girl that doesn’t want material things. S
he learned the hard way that people trying to buy her affections didn’t exactly mean that they cared about her.” I saw his eyes darken as if my words had smacked him in the chest. “She would rather you pick her a flower beside the road than buy her one in a flower shop…”
“I wasn’t…I just wanted…” He raked his hands through his hair again, looking sick to his stomach. “I’ll call her later,” he muttered and turned to leave.
I stood in the doorway and watched him make his way back toward the big house. He looked almost defeated with his head bowed and his shoulders slightly slumped. I felt bad for him, but he and Lana had to figure it all out on their own. When he was out of sight, I closed the door and picked up the bags filled with expensive clothes.
My eyes got huge when I saw that they were from an exclusive boutique on Rodeo Drive. I could just imagine the money he had spent there. Leaving Lucy in the living room with a cartoon movie on, I took Lana’s new things into the bedroom. She was laying on the king sized bed glaring up at the ceiling.
“Drake said he will call you later,” I told her as I dropped the bags on the bed and started snooping through them.
I pulled out jeans with designer labels on them, tops made of silk instead of cotton, and two dresses that made me want to weep they were so beautiful. There were two shoe boxes: one with heels that were to die for in a passion red, and another with boots that just begged to be worn by me… Okay, maybe not by me, but if Lana thought I wasn’t going to borrow them, she could think again!
“I told him I didn’t want anything,” Lana muttered. “He said he just wanted me to try a few things on, and I didn’t have to get them if I didn’t want them. So I tried them on. It was fun. But then the sales girl started ringing everything up, and he kept adding more and more things to the pile. I didn’t want them. I don’t want them! But would he listen to me? No!” She punched the bed beside of her. “I don’t want his fucking money. I don’t want what he can buy me. I just want to spend time with him!”