9. Chapter 9
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER 9
~STARLA~
I ’ve gone over this line sixty times, and I just can’t get it right. I don’t love the melody, and I certainly don’t like the lyrics.
I lean my forehead on the piano. I’ve been at it too long. I’m tired, which is unusual for me at midnight, but I can’t go to bed.
I haven’t heard from Levi all day. I knew he was busy at work, so I didn’t try to text or call until after six, but he never responded.
And that’s not like him.
I didn’t want to seem like the crazy girlfriend, so I didn’t try again, but I’m worried now. And maybe a little crazy.
So, I try to call again, but it goes to voicemail.
I know he keeps the ringer on for work, so either something’s wrong, or he’s ghosting me. Both options give me anxiety.
I decide to throw caution to the wind and call Lia.
“Hello?”
“Hey, it’s Starla. I know it’s super late, so I’m sorry if I woke you.”
“You didn’t,” she assures me. “What’s up? Are you okay?”
“I’m fine, but I haven’t heard back from Levi all day, and I’m kind of worried. Have you guys talked to him?”
“I haven’t, but let me ask Wyatt.” She doesn’t cover the phone when she turns her attention to her husband, who must be sitting close by. “Have you talked to Levi tonight?… When?… Is he okay?”
“What did he say?”
“He said he talked to him earlier this evening. Levi was at home.”
I stand and march to my handbag, grabbing it and my keys.
“What’s his address?”
She rattles it off. “Oh, you can park under his building in one of the guest slots.”
“Perfect, thanks.”
“No problem.”
She hangs up, and I hurry to my car, pull out of the driveway, and head toward town, following the instructions on the GPS on my phone.
I notice that the cop who’s been parked outside my place all day follows me, but I don’t care.
The least Levi could have done was text me back to tell me that he was okay and just needed some time alone. Hell, I understand needing some space. Needs space is my middle name.
But ignoring me? That’s not okay. And, yes, I see the irony here. If this is half as bad as he felt when I didn’t reply to him after our first night together, I feel even worse about it now. That was a bitchy thing to do, and I’ll regret it forever.
I find his address, and just like Lia said, I pull under the building and find an empty space marked guest. I hurry to the elevator and punch in his floor.
When the doors open, I hurry out and down the hallway to his door, pounding on it when I get there.
It takes about thirty seconds for him to answer. Maybe he was asleep? I don’t know, but when he pulls open the door, I scowl at what I see before me.
Levi’s hair is disheveled, his face is dark with stubble, and he’s only wearing boxers.
“If I interrupted you with someone?—”
“For fuck’s sake,” he mutters, taking my hand and pulling me inside. “No one is here, Star.”
“Were you sleeping?”
“Unfortunately, no.” He sinks into a reclining chair and rubs his hand over his eyes. There’s a bottle of scotch next to him, along with a half-full glass.
“Are you drunk?”
“No.” His brown eyes hold mine as I perch on the edge of the couch across from him.
“You look horrible.”
I want to climb into his lap and hold him tightly, to assure him that whatever is going on will be okay.
“Thanks.”
“Levi, what’s going on? Why didn’t you reply to my calls or texts?”
“I’m sorry about that,” he says, rubbing his eyes again as if he’s trying to scrub something away. “I should have replied. It’s just been a rough day.”
“I see that.” My voice is soft as I watch him. “Did someone die?”
He grins humorlessly and looks over at me. “Yeah. Two someones, actually. Well, three if you count the baby.”
“What in the world? I didn’t think you worked homicide?”
“And I won’t be.” He takes a sip of his scotch. “Not after today. I’m not going to fill your head with what I saw today, sweetheart. And I’m not great company right now, so I just came home to brood and get a little drunk.”
“I guess being with a cop means there will be tough days like this.”
His eyes meet mine again in surprise. “There are some rough days, yes.”
“So, in the future, if there are bad moments, can I expect you to just disappear? I shouldn’t worry? I’m not trying to flip you shit for this, Levi. I’m honestly not, I just want to be ready if it happens again.”
“Come here.”
Finally. I comply, and he pulls me into his lap and buries his face in my neck, holding on tightly.
“You can always talk to me,” I remind him as I push my fingers through his hair, soothing us both. “Always. I might not understand, but that doesn’t mean I can’t listen.”
“Today was too horrible,” he mumbles against my skin. “Too gruesome to talk about. And I can’t really talk about it. But you’re right, I should have gone to you rather than try to protect you from it because having you here for less than ten minutes has already calmed me.”
I smile and kiss his temple. “I’m glad. Are you tired?”
“Bone-tired.”
“Does this thing recline?”
He reaches to the side, and suddenly, we’re rocked back. I stretch out, half on him and half off, my head on his chest. We don’t say anything at all, we just listen to the stillness of the night around us in the apartment. Before long, Levi is snoring softly.
With my ear pressed to his chest, listening to the soothing, rhythmic beat of his heart, I follow him into a deep slumber.
“For Christ’s sake, Jax, you’re going to break my freaking tailbone.”
I rub the spot with indignation, pissed as all get out that Jax just threw me on my ass.
“Stick the landing, and you won’t have a sore ass,” he retorts. “You’ve done that move a million times.”
“Yeah, when I was in shape for the tour, not when I’ve been off the road for a month.” I stand and walk to the edge of the studio to retrieve my water bottle. “Why are you so damn intense today?”
“I’m just doing my job.”
“No.” I cock my head to the side, watching him. “You don’t usually toss me around like that unless you’re pissed. What are you pissed about?”
He turns his back on me and yanks his white towel off the bar to wipe his face.
“Logan irritates the fuck out of me sometimes.”
“Lover’s spat.” I nod and take another drink. “That’ll do it. For the betterment of my ass, could you tone it down just a smidge? I’m going to be bruised.”
“He can be so damn inconsiderate.”
I suppose we’d better hammer this out so I don’t leave here with a broken wrist. “What did he do? You guys don’t usually fight.”
“His mother,” Jax says with a sigh, making me grin. “It’s not funny. That woman is the worst. ”
“What did she do?”
“She wants us to come to dinner tomorrow night.”
“How horrifying of her.” I smile as he glares at me.
“We already had plans, Star. Tickets to see a show we’ve wanted to see for a long time, and they weren’t cheap. I’ve been looking forward to it for weeks.”
“Gotcha. Okay, so Logan just tells her it’ll have to be another night.”
“One would think. But, no. No, he pretty much does whatever his mom wants him to do. So, instead of seeing the show, we’re going to have dinner with that woman. ”
“Why can’t he just tell her you have other plans?”
“Because she has cancer,” Jax says and holds up a hand. “Now before you call me insensitive, hear me out. She has stage 0 breast cancer. The tiny lump has been removed, and the doctors don’t even suggest she have a mastectomy or any other treatment. It’s just gone. But she calls the goddamn c -card as often as she can, and he falls for it. ”
“Yikes.” I scrunch up my face in sympathy. “Yeah, it does sound like she’s using it as a way to manipulate Logan.”
“Yes!” Jax points to me. “Exactly! But when I said that, you’d have thought I told him to just put her to sleep to put her out of her misery. He was livid. ”
“Maybe the cancer scared him, even if it was minor.” I shrug. “I don’t know, I’m not good at family stuff. When did it happen?”
“Two weeks ago.”
“Give it a little time. He’ll be better.”
“In the meantime, I have to have dinner with her, watch her wipe his mouth with her napkin, and smile the whole time.”
“We do ridiculous things for love.”
Jax laughs and cues up the next song. “Okay, now that I’ve got that off my chest, shall we try this again?”
“I don’t know, are you going to maim me?”
“No, drama queen.”
“Takes one to know one.”
The music starts as Jax laughs and reaches for my hand, easily guiding me around the floor in the familiar routine we’ve been working on. It’s a slight change from the one we already had for this song; I just like to mix things up once in a while.
This will be a nice change when it’s time to go out on the road again.
We run through it twice more, and each time, I stick the landing perfectly. No more falling on my ass.
“Okay, I was throwing too hard,” Jax says. “I’m sorry.”
“I’m gonna live.” I plant a kiss on his cheek as Levi walks through the door and narrows his eyes on Jax.
“Do I have to kill you, man?” Levi asks.
“Nah.” Jax holds out his hand to shake Levi’s. “She just can’t keep her hands off me.”
“This room is suddenly full of male ego.” I roll my eyes. All of a sudden, one of my most famous ballads comes through the speakers, and to my utter shock, Levi sweeps me into his arms and leads me into an easy slow dance across the floor. “Well, look at you, fancy-pants.”
I wouldn’t expect a man as big as Levi to move so effortlessly. It’s sexy as hell to be in his strong arms, moving around the room.
He’s singing along with the music, too, his voice a smooth baritone.
“I don’t know if I’ve ever been so turned on by someone singing my own song to me,” I confess with a soft voice.
“You write good music,” is all he says before he begins singing again, leading me in the sexiest slow dance in the history of the world.
“Thanks for coming to get me.”
“I was glad when you asked,” he admits.
Jax came and got me and brought me to the studio, and I asked Levi to pick me up since we had plans to go out for dinner anyway.
“Have you had any other contact from the psycho?” he asks.
“No, thank goodness. Everything has been blissfully drama-free. Have you had dancing lessons?” I ask.
“Not unless you count watching Dancing with the Stars .” He smiles down at me, pure joy radiating from him, and I’m completely intoxicated. This is a new side to Levi, one I’ve never seen before.
He tugs me closer and grinds against me, making me laugh.
“Hey, none of that,” Jax calls from the edge of the room. “Get a room, Crawford.”
“That’s the plan,” Levi mutters as he leans in to kiss my cheek. “Let’s get out of here, sweetheart.”
“I thought you’d never ask.”
“I can honestly say I’ve never had sex in a police car before.”
We’re sitting in the restaurant in a circular booth, next to each other. Levi’s hand is on my still-tingling thigh.
“That makes two of us,” he says with a smile and leans in to whisper in my ear. “But it won’t be the last time.”
We’re not young adults. Keeping our hands to ourselves shouldn’t be difficult. And yet, as soon as we made it from the studio to his car, I was straddling his lap, and his hand was down my yoga pants. It was fast and dirty, and so damn satisfying.
“Focus on the menu,” Levi says beside me, not looking my way.
“I am.” It’s totally a lie.
“Squeezing your legs together like that gives you away.”
I glance up at him and then break out into a laugh. “Who knew I had this side to me?”
“It seems we’re bringing out new sides of each other.”
“Hi, I’m Candy.”
I look up to find a bored waitress in her early twenties holding a notepad and a pen. “What can I get you?”
She hasn’t even looked at us, which is fine with me because I’m not disguised today.
“I’ll have the salmon Caesar salad,” I begin. “With an extra side of bread. Carbs are my soul mate.”
She smirks, but she still doesn’t look our way. “And for you, sir?”
“New York strip, medium rare, with the wild rice and a side green salad. I’d also like some bread.”
“Okay,” she says, jotting it all down. She glances up when she reaches for the menus and then stops cold when she sees me. “Oh, God. You’re Starla.”
“No, I?—”
“Holy shit ! I’m your biggest fan, like…ever. I know all the songs. And when you had that cameo in the movie with Adam Levine? Holy shit, so good. ”
“Uh, thanks.”
“Can we get some photos? And your autograph?”
“Later,” Levi interrupts, glaring at Candy. “After we’ve had a chance to enjoy our meal, please.”
“Oh. Right.” She nods but then frowns. “Wait. Are you one of those stars who gets pissed when people just want to talk about how much your work means to them? Because I have to be honest, I think that’s bullshit. As your fan, I’ve bought everything you’ve ever recorded, and concert tickets, too. Like, you’re rich because of me.”
“Right,” I reply, completely pissed off and ready to just go. At this point, she’ll probably spit in our food anyway. I’ve learned from experience, there is no bouncing back from this. She’s already pissed off, and neither Levi nor I have done anything wrong. “It’s awesome that you’re such a big fan. I really appreciate it. Levi, we can just go.”
“Oh, now you don’t want to eat here?” Candy demands, propping her hands on her hips. “If you don’t want to be recognized, you shouldn’t leave your damn house.”
“Wow,” Levi says, crossing his arms over his chest. “Why do you think you can speak to her like that?”
“Well, because I’m her biggest fan,” she says, and I can feel my cheeks blazing with embarrassment and anger. “Also, you should reply to your email.”
I stop cold. No way. There’s no way we just happened to come in and eat where my stalker works. What are the odds of that?
Zero.
I’m being ridiculous. She probably just sent some fan mail that I didn’t see. I shouldn’t automatically jump to the worst-possible conclusion.
I want out of here.
“I’d like to go,” I say to Levi as I glance around the restaurant. Other customers have stopped eating and are watching us with rapt interest. Some have even taken out their phones to record the incident. “Please, they’re recording us.”
“No problem,” Levi says, scooting out of the booth and reaching for my hand.
“You had drinks,” Candy says. “You can’t just leave without paying for them.”
“Yes, they can.” A man walks up behind Candy, surprising her. “I’m so sorry for the harassment from my employee. This is not how we run our business. You’re fired.”
“What?” Candy demands.
“Get out,” he says and turns to us. “I understand that you want to go, but come back anytime for a meal on us.”
“Thanks,” Levi says with a nod and pulls me close to his side as he leads me out of the restaurant. I tuck my face into his shoulder, trying to avoid being recorded by the phones pointed at us.
“That was a disaster,” I say as we sit in his car. “I’m so sorry.”
“What are you sorry for? That girl was ridiculous. ”
“Oh, that was tame compared to some I’ve met.” My heart is racing and in my throat. “At least she didn’t touch me.”
“Christ,” he mutters, putting the car in gear and driving away from the restaurant. “Why are people so ridiculous? Why couldn’t she have just quietly told you she enjoyed your work? Then we could have gotten on with our day.”
“Most do that,” I concede. “Ninety-nine percent of the time, people are gracious and kind, and just want to say hello. The other one percent is a little…odd.”
“That’s a polite way of putting it.”
“Well, it’s true. That whole scene will be all over social media and the tabloids within the hour—if it isn’t already. I’m sorry for that because your face is there, too. And now people will dig into who you are, and it could be uncomfortable for you.”
“I’m a big boy,” Levi says with a sigh. “I’m fine. I don’t give two shits about social media. I just don’t want anyone to ever speak to you like that.”
“Thank you.”
“Are you still hungry?”
“Hell yes, I am.”
He grins over at me. “Should we go get some Red Mill and take it back to my place?”
“That’s perfect. I didn’t really want to be good with a salad anyway. A burger sounds delicious.”
“Done. But we’re getting an extra order of fries because last time you ate half of mine.”
“Why are you so protective of your fries?”
“Because I’m hungry .”
“We’d better get two extra orders.”
“You’re really hungry.”
“Sex in a cop car does that to me.”