Chapter 39
Thirty-Nine
XANDER
Smoke curls into the air off the ribs I’m grilling as I rotate them.
I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing with them, but I need something to distract myself with.
Tobias, Stone, Darren, and my dad sit around the table on my deck as the sun sets over the water.
I could have ordered food or hired a chef, but this has been therapeutic. Smells good, too.
Once I’m satisfied with their progress, I close the lid of the grill and sit back down with them. We’re all here to figure out how to keep Jade from quitting on us. I keep thinking about the statement she released.
She was firm in her assertion that nothing untoward happened and no contracts were breeched. The thing that haunts me is that there was no indication of what she planned on doing moving forward. She didn’t mention resignation in the statement, but from what Darren told me, she is considering it.
He’s currently going to war with the editor of Music Daily over something their lead reporter texted her.
He wouldn’t go into detail with me, but it had to be bad.
He’s gone into battle mode, though, and lost his suit jacket and tie.
His shirtsleeves are rolled up to his elbow as his fingers fly over the screen of his phone.
A scowl crosses his face every time he puts his phone down between their volley of messages.
I drop down into my chair and lift a bottle of beer to my lips. “Has Haze talked to her?” I ask Stone.
“She has. I think all the girls are getting together right now.”
“Fuck.” I rub a hand over my face. “Half of Jade’s friends hate me.”
Amber’s probably salivating at the thought of cutting me from her life. Not that I blame her. She didn’t know us before, not like Steph and Shan. Definitely not like Hazel knows us together now.
“Jade’s not going to be swayed by her friends’ opinions,” Dad says with a certainty I don’t feel.
“You don’t know that. I don’t even know what her frame of mind is right now.”
“She’s okay,” he says again. “At least she was when I saw her yesterday.”
My head snaps to the side. “Is she staying with you?” I never even thought to check and see if she had gone to him. It wouldn’t be weird at all for her to go there.
“No.” He hesitates then sighs. “She was laying on the couch at Suzette’s when I—” he shoots me an apprehensive glance, “got up.”
Wait.
When he got up?
“You got up there? As in you slept there?” I ask.
He gives me a single nod of his head. “Yes. Suzette and I have been reminiscing.”
“Is reminiscing a euphemism for fucking?” Stone asks with a shit-eating grin.
Dad gives him an exasperated sideways look in response.
“Nice. Like father, like son.” He tips his glass of tea in salute to us both. “Maybe a dual wedding in the future.” He wiggles his eyebrows, and Tobias chuckles.
I wad up the beer label I stripped from the bottle earlier and toss it at him. “Fuck off.”
He dodges it with a laugh. We all needed the moment of levity. The air feels just a bit lighter now, the tension lifted a little from my shoulders.
“Did you stay long enough to get a good read on her?” I ask Dad.
“Not really.”
“Walk of shame in front of your former stepdaughter had to be awkward,” Tobias smirks.
“She’s seen worse,” Stone says.
“Facts,” Tobias agrees.
“Anyway,” I take a sip of my beer, “I’m not losing her. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do to stay together. It took years to get here; I’m not going back to life without her. I’ll quit the band if I have to.”
Four pairs of eyes shoot to me, each startled by the declaration.
I’ve thought it through, though, and I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life.
I have enough money saved and invested to last the rest of my life and any kids we might have.
Neither of us would have to work. Not to mention the hundreds of millions I’ll inherit from my dad eventually.
“I get it,” Stone says, surprising me. “If it came down to the band or Hazel, it’s her every single time. I love you guys, but she’s my soul.”
“I don’t get it,” Tobias says quietly, his eyes shuttering until no emotion bleeds through. “But I respect it.”
“Jade thinks that her job defines her. She’s worked so hard her whole life to not let romantic relationships run her life like her they do her mother’s.” I shoot a look at Dad. “No offense.”
“None taken,” he waves me off. “She’s watched Suzette jump from relationship to relationship chasing an everlasting dopamine high. She saw that and decided to move in the complete opposite direction.”
Darren pulls out a cigarette, his second since we’ve been out here.
It’s a dead giveaway that we’re stressing him the fuck out.
He lights it and takes a drag. “Fuck you both,” he says, blowing the smoke away from us.
“Neither one of you is quitting. I don’t care if I have to hog tie you and carry both your asses over my shoulder. No one’s fucking quitting.”
“Kinky.” Stone settles into the role of jokester for the evening.
One of the reasons we’ve been so successful through all the shit we’ve experienced is that we know each other so well we can slip into whatever role is needed. The clown. The protector. The asshole. The charmer. A united front against adversity.
“So what do we do if she tries to resign?” Tobias asks. “Just tell her no? How would that even work?”
“What if you all put out statements of support for her? Say you stand behind her and are happy to see her and Xander in a loving relationship,” Dad suggests.
“I can use my influence to suggest killing any stories about the two of them. It might not shut down everything, but I have solid relationships with a lot of people in the media.”
“Couldn’t hurt.” Darren stubs out his cigarette. “I have a good picture of you on stage, but you’re looking at Jade while you play. I dropped it to all of you.”
The photo shows up on my phone. It was taken at our Atlanta show when Darren went out into the crowd for a few songs. He was at the perfect angle to catch me, turned in her direction. The look in her eyes blows me away. It’s love. Just pure, unadulterated love.
“I don’t know how I took it and didn’t realize what was happening right in front of my face.”
“You can be rather oblivious,” Tobias drawls, thumb tapping on the edge of the table.
The two of them share a look but don’t say anything.
“I have one, too.” Dad pulls out his phone and navigates to a folder of old pictures.
“Here.” He hands it over, a picture of Jade and me at the villa in Mexico on the screen.
We’re both in swimsuits near the pool with the ocean in the background.
My arm is wrapped around her waist while she smiles at the camera.
Her head is tilted in the most adorable way, and I’m just smiling and looking down at her. “It was always one of my favorites.”
The next few hours are spent either bullshitting or discussing the plan for keeping Jade with us, specifically with me.
Dad hangs around to help me clean up after everyone goes home.
When I finish cleaning off the grill, I find him at the sink rinsing the last of the dishes and putting them in the dishwasher.
“Now that you know everything going on with me, why don’t you tell me about how you and Suzette ended up back together?”
“I ran into her about eight months ago on set. We got to talking and decided to grab dinner later that night.” He closes the dishwasher and dries off his hands.
“It was supposed to be a friendly meal, just to catch up on life.” He tosses the towel down.
“But all my feelings for her came rushing back. It was the same for her.”
“But is she just going to bail again when shit gets rough?” I don’t hold any ill feelings toward her, but I’m also not going to sit back and let her hurt my father again. He’s dated some women but hasn’t come close to ever getting married again.
“We’re taking it slow. She feels different this time. More grounded and stable.”
“I’d hope so. She’s in her fifties now.” I set a handful of beer bottles in the recycling bin. “I guess there’s something about those Maxwell women that we can’t get over.”
“They are extraordinary creatures.” He looks around and leans against the counter. “I’m going to crash here tonight, if you don’t mind.”
“Not at all. Guest room’s all yours.”
I’m not too proud to admit that even though I’m a grown man, having my dad stay with me tonight brings a certain type of comfort I wouldn’t have otherwise.
He truly is one of my best friends. We settle onto the couch and turn on a Lakers game to zone out and watch.
I can’t change anything tonight, and if I brood on it, I’ll only get agitated.
We’re enacting phase one of the plan tomorrow. Hopefully it’s all we need because I’m pretty sure phase two could end up with me in jail.