Chapter 5
Xander
“Xan? Do you want breakfast? We’re landing soon.”
I couldn’t place the soft voice that came from somewhere nearby.
Blearily, I blinked several times and the familiar interior of the band’s private plane came into focus. Tans and whites with darker brown leather and wood accents surrounded me. And Harper was still sitting in the recliner next to me. But unlike me, she was upright, smiling, and eating.
She looked way too cheerful for whatever time it was.
Lethargy weighed my limbs down. Honestly, I didn’t know which way was up. It didn’t help that I’d been woken up in the middle of my usual nightmare—the one where I was onstage on the other side of the world and got the call that Liam had OD’ed for the last time.
Scrubbing my hands over my face, I tried like hell to let go of the mental images. But the dream haunted me. I’d been living with a variation of the theme for the last decade. And I knew that next time could be the last time.
Fuck.
“They have Denver omelets with home fries or some French toast thing.” Harper grinned at me and did a little dance in her seat. “The omelets are banging, just so you know.”
I laughed. “Banging? Really?”
Her cheeks bulging, Harper nodded excitedly. After some exaggerated chewing, she waved a hand over her mouth. “Not a fan of sweet for breakfast, but if the omelets are this good, I bet the French toast is too.”
“Noted.” Charmed by her excitement, I waved down Sabrina/Savannah. “Can I get what she’s having?” I nodded at Harper’s tray.
“You sure you don’t want the French toast?” Sabrina/Savannah bent down until her cleavage was front and center in my eyeline. “I remember how you like something sweet first thing when you wake up.”
The innuendo was clear in her voice. And annoying as fuck.
“I’m sure,” I answered flatly. “I’ll have what my girlfriend is having.”
Sabrina/Savannah’s eyes rounded, and after a beat, she hustled down the aisle to the crew section. Hopefully to get my breakfast, but then again, I wasn’t a betting man. And there was a good chance she wouldn’t be back.
“Girlfriend, huh?” Harper smirked at me.
I tilted my head. “Figure we gotta get used to labels, if you know what I mean.”
“Personally I like honey. Do not call me boo. I hate that.” She pointed her plastic knife at me. “Ever.”
“Noted. Honeybear it is.”
“Oh my god. No! That’s puke-tastically bad.”
I snorted. Puke-tastically? Fuck me, that was weird and so fucking funny. “Eh, give it time. It might grow on you. These things need to happen organically.”
“Whatever, bossman.” She paused and nodded slowly. “I think I like it. Bossman. That’ll be my endearment for you.”
I narrowed my eyes at her. “You have some fantasy you wanna act out later? Secretary/boss scenario? Some light spanking?” I thought about it for a nanosecond and nodded. “Sounds hot. I’m in.”
Harper laughed unevenly, and her cheeks reddened. Making me think I wasn’t far off the mark.
“Okay.” I hitched a shoulder. “But for the record, if you call me Wes, I’m done.”
“Oh yuck.” Harper’s lip curled, and she flinched. “Don’t even joke about that.”
I couldn’t deny I felt a little relieved at her quick reaction. She really wasn’t attracted to Wes. Good.
“Here’s your omelet. Please let me know if you need anything else.”
I sat up quickly as Sabrina/Savannah all but dumped my breakfast in my lap. Only my quick reflexes saved my pants. Once I had my tray situated, I raised my head to ask for a drink, but Sabrina/Savannah was gone.
Dammit. Maybe there was something to that axiom about shitting where you eat.
Exhibit A: Sabrina/Savannah’s reaction to my dating someone else.
Exhibit B: The crazy shit Jesse’s fuckbuddy and our wardrobe stylist had put Jesse through during our US tour. Although most of that was on Jesse, anyone with an ounce of self-preservation could tell Rowan had crazy eyes. I still don’t know why we ever equipped her with a pair of scissors, let alone hired her.
Fortunately, Rowan wasn’t our problem anymore. A fat check, a glowing recommendation, and an NDA later, and she’d moved onto another rock group.
Thank god.
But Harper didn’t have crazy eyes. I surveyed her as I dug into my banging omelet. She hummed along to a song on her earbuds and didn’t seem to have a care in the world. And her bouncing did some interesting things to her body. How had I never noticed how luscious Harper’s little body was? I guess I’d just mentally put her in the friend zone since she worked for the group and never really thought about it.
Which was a huge disservice to such a fantastic rack.
“…like it?”
I blinked back into the present and away from Harper’s tits and found her gazing at me with a hopeful expression. “What?”
“The omelet. Do you like it?” Harper gave me a look like she was doubting my IQ.
“Oh yeah.” I smiled. “You’re right. It’s banging.”
She smiled and rolled her eyes. “You don’t have to say it like that. But it’s good. So much better than commercial airline food. Even business class. I’m happy.”
“I can see that,” I said as I watched her tits bounce during her little happy dance. Then I shook my head. Shit, don’t act like a creeper .
I took another bite of the pillowy omelet. It really was fantastic.
Harper had good taste—her attraction to Tyler Worthington aside. What she saw in that douchebag, I’d never understand. Personally, I couldn’t wait until we could force him out. I was done with all his bullshit calls, attitude, and arrogance. Between him and Stolly Records, we had very little control of our lives.
That had to change.
“So do you want to talk about what happens next?”
I forked another bite into my mouth and dipped my head at her. After clearing my bite, I answered. “Sure. You go first. What do you want to happen?”
Her eyes widened. “I don’t know. Honestly, I don’t even know why I agreed to this whole harebrained scheme.”
“Sounds to me like it got you a promotion.”
Harper froze. “Shit, you’re right.”
I nodded as I demolished my breakfast. Everyone else was either sleeping, chowing down, or enthralled in their girl as in the case of Jesse and Chase. And not for the first time, I was envious. How the hell Chase Robinson got that amazing woman under his spell was a mystery to me. Especially since he almost fucked it up early on. But they looked happy and so fucking in love now. They had what my parents did. And what apparently Jesse was building with Ella.
Damn.
How the hell had I ended up in the single fuckboy category with Noah? What was I doing with my life?
Shit had to change.
“Everything okay?” Harper asked next to me. “Do you need a water? You can have one of mine. I noticed Sabrina didn’t give you a fresh one.”
I numbly took the offered bottle. At least I was right about her name. Somehow the knowledge didn’t make me feel better. If anything, it made me feel worse. I should’ve known that.
Shit.
Maybe it was me. Maybe I was the reason I hadn’t been able to have a healthy, mature relationship. It’d been so easy to blame Kelly for our fucked-up relationship—the girl was a trainwreck—but what did it say about me that I kept going back to her? That I wanted that chaos in my life?
Harper on the other hand, seemed to be the opposite of chaos. It was her job to rein shit in, keep everyone rolling on time, and troubleshoot problems. She was the epitome of responsible.
How the fuck was a woman like her still single?
“We never talked about your history.” The words came out like an accusation, and I had to stop and shake my head. Get your shit under control, asshole . “Do you have a boyfriend back home who’s going to be surprised to see you in the tabs with a rock star?”
Harper jerked her head up. After a second, she gave me a deprecating smile. “No one in the picture right now. My schedule doesn’t exactly lend itself to attracting normal, stable men.”
“Is that why you’re attracted to him ? He’s the only ‘normal’ guy in your sphere?” Because if that was true, we needed to have a serious come to Jesus moment. Tyler wasn’t normal or stable. The guy was only about chasing the next buck, no matter who or what he had to mow down to get to it. I couldn’t see Harper with a selfish prick like that.
“Eh, maybe. Mostly he’s the exact opposite of the usual guys I find myself with. The suit doesn’t hurt either.”
“Ah, sounds like you have a habit of hooking up with the crazies, too.”
“Maybe. But unlike you, I know they’re with me for a good time and not for a long time.”
“Whoa. Shots fired.” I clasped my chest in feigned pain. Then I paused as her words niggled something free in my brain. “Hey, isn’t that a George Strait song?”
“How the hell do you know that?” She boggled at me like I’d seriously surprised her.
I shrugged. “I might’ve done some research back when we played a few songs for Shay. Are you a fan? I didn’t peg you as a country chick.”
“I don’t even know how to take that.” Harper laughed. “But for the record, I’m a recent fan. Hard not to be if you spend any amount of time with Shay.”
“Ain’t that the truth.” I shook my head. “So you ready to talk logistics? What this thing will entail?”
Harper took a quick peek around the plane and found everyone busy with their own shit, so she nodded. “Okay.”
“I think for it to look believable we’ll have to touch a lot. Are you okay with that?”
Her eyes widened, and Harper’s throat bobbed with her very visible swallow. “To a point. What are we talking about here? Arm around my shoulders? Or fondling my boobs in public?”
I laughed. “We just need to have that familiarity that couples have in public. You know what I mean. Basically, you can’t flinch when I put my arm around you or pat your ass.”
“You are not patting my ass.”
“Do you want people to believe we’re together or not?”
Her head fell back against her seatback. “I’m going to kill Noah.” She groaned then looked over at me. “Okay, fine. What else?”
“Kissing.”
“No!”
Her sudden yelp had everyone on the plane swiveling around to stare at us. Harper hunched down in her seat and tried to disappear. Meanwhile, I was laughing my ass off. I waved a hand to let everyone know we were okay. After a minute and a few more curious looks, they turned back to their business.
“Holy shit.” I laughed. “You are brutal to a guy’s ego. Is the thought of kissing me that repulsive?”
“No,” she hissed, shoulders hunched. “It’s just…I don’t know. You’re you . I’ve never thought of going that far with you. It’s…I don’t know.” She covered her face with her hands and moaned.
“Okay. How about we agree to table kissing for now? And I promise I won’t just spring it on you. We’ll practice the first one when we’re alone.”
“This is a prank, right? Something you and Noah planned ahead to embarrass the crap out of me?” Harper peeked at me from between her fingers before dropping her hands with a groan. “There’s no way this is my life. This can’t be real.”
“Have you known Noah to ever plan something ahead of time? The guy can’t even coordinate his outfits successfully.” I tipped my head toward the front of the plane where Noah was sitting next to Tyler. But unlike Tyler, who traveled in a three-piece suit, Noah wore red plaid pajama pants with a black-and-white checkered sweatshirt.
“Damn, I didn’t know you were such a Prima donna.” Harper raised her eyebrows as she ran her eyes up and down my body.
I had to look down to remember what I’d been wearing. Black shirt, black track pants, and slip-on shoes. “What’s wrong with what I’m wearing?”
“Nothing. I just didn’t like how you were being all judgy about my friend.”
“Hey, he’s my friend too!”
“Exactly. You should treat him like one then.”
I couldn’t even follow what was going on. But I guess I was in the wrong? I shook my head. “What were we even talking about?”
“This.” Harper flung a hand between me and her. “Our thing,” she hissed as Sabrina walked toward us.
“I’ll just take this.” Sabrina grabbed my tray without even asking if I was done. She grabbed Harper’s and gave her a brittle smile. “Do you need anything else, ma’am?”
Harper’s lips pursed, but after a beat she shook her head, and Sabrina walked away without saying a word to me.
Once she was gone, Harper turned to me. “Pretty sure that ma’am was a dig. Is there anyone else on the road with us that I’m going to have to look out for? Jealous exes with stabby tendencies?”
“Have you met Kelly Evers?”
Harper nodded. “She asked me if I had my mother’s permission to be out so late after our show in Vegas.”
“Yeah, that sounds like Kelly.” I gave her an apologetic look. “I’m sorry she was a bitch to you.”
Harper shrugged. “It’s a reflection on her, not you.”
“Says something about me that I was with someone like that.” We fell into a contemplative silence for a minute, me thinking about my fucked-up dating history and her thinking about…I didn’t know what.
After another minute, I sighed and asked her, “Anything else we need to hammer out beforehand?”
Harper hugged her elbows as she thought long and hard. Finally, she squared up to me. “You can’t date anyone, screw around with anyone as long as we’re doing this. I refuse to be cheated on. Even in a fake relationship.”
“Wait, so not even groupies?”
Harper stared back at me and blinked a few times. “Hooking up with a groupie counts as cheating, yes.”
“And I suppose that sex with you is also off the table.”
Harper continued to stare back at me.
“I’m just asking. So I’m supposed to go the next three months cold turkey? No hookups? No blow jobs? Nothing? ”
“It is possible to be celibate and still have a functioning brain and body. Happens all the time.”
“Not to me it doesn’t,” I muttered to myself. I hadn’t had to go longer than a week without since high school. Did she even understand what a huge ask this was?
Another look her way told me she didn’t give a shit. Harper wasn’t going to budge on this front.
“And if I break your rule?”
“Then the deal is off. I refuse to be made a fool of. This is my reputation on the line as much as yours is. More so, actually. No one’s going to think less of you for sleeping with someone on the crew. That’s just a day in the life. Me, on the other hand? I’ve got everything to lose—my reputation, my job. Who do you think they’re going to side with if this all falls apart? So I don’t think it’s that much to ask of you.”
I groaned and thumped the back of my head against the plush leather headrest.
Goddamn Noah. This was all his fault.
“Fine,” I gritted out.
Harper gave me a big, toothy smile. “Awesome.”
“So we’re doing this? For better or worse?”
“Yes, dear.”
Great. I wasn’t regretting my decision already at all.