Chapter 19
NOAH
Ace was getting on my very last fucking nerve.
He seemed to recognize how badly he’d fucked up the night he’d broken into my apartment, and his idea of making amends was to force me to interact with him.
Over the next few days, he made it his mission to separate me from Minho, Torin, and Skye at every opportunity possible, but the joke was on him because Z stepped up as my unlikely hero.
“So you and Ace are not good right now, huh?” Z asked on our second--to--last day at Camp Beaver, when we were paired up to peel potatoes in the camp kitchen. Surprisingly, he’d actually volunteered for the crappy job with me. “Is it because you tried to quit the team?”
I stopped peeling, frowning his way. “Excuse me?”
Z shrugged. “He told me that you wanted to quit after you got out of hospital, and he wouldn’t sign off on it. Is that why you’re going out of your way to avoid talking to him this week? Because he forced you back out here after nearly dying?”
He wasn’t asking in a dickish way; he seemed genuinely concerned. But that didn’t change the level of irritation his questions sparked as I realized what story Ace had spun to explain our broken relationship.
“I never blamed him for that shit,” I snapped, angrily peeling my potato while rage simmered in my veins.
“That attack was no one’s fault except the freak who broke in and tied us up.
I asked to leave the team after Ace broke into my apartment, threatened me, demeaned me, and basically acted like I was less than shit under his boot.
I asked to quit because I was firmly of the impression he wanted me to quit, and then he showed up for our contract meeting like some kind of Jekyll and Hyde wannabe and pretended like none of that had happened. ”
Z put his potato down, visibly shocked. “Sorry, he did what? Rocky, that’s—-”
“It’s between Ace and me,” I growled, focusing on my stupid potato and picturing Ace’s face.
“He acted like a fucking douche, and I’m not interested in letting bygones be bygones just because he flopped out his legal dick.
I’m still here on the team, which is what he demanded, but he can’t force me to respect him. ”
The more I spoke, the angrier I got. Because not only was his behavior revolting and unforgivable—-treating me like a whore and acting like the entire friendship we’d built meant nothing because I didn’t have a penis—-but more infuriating was that I still thought about how he kissed me.
How incredible his hands felt on my body.
How easily I’d melted into his touch. And how, if I were honest, I’d probably do it again.
Idiot. Both of us.
My aggressive potato peeling bit me in the ass when the peeler slipped and slid down my finger instead. “Ow!” I exclaimed. “Ow, shit, what the fuck?” That really hurt.
“Fuck, Rocky,” Z groaned, tossing his potato back into the bucket and grabbing my hand to run it under water. “Were you picturing Ace’s balls or something?”
I snorted a laugh through the pain of my partially peeled finger, shaking my head. “I’d rather picture Leight’s balls before Ace’s.”
He snickered, grabbing some paper towel to wrap up my finger. “Fair. Hold this. I’ll grab a Band--Aid.” He wrapped my other hand around my paper--covered finger, squeezing tight, then hurrying away to find the kitchen first--aid kit.
“You didn’t cut the skin completely off,” he murmured when he came back and inspected my finger. “This flap might seal up again.”
“Ew,” I groaned, screwing up my nose. Sprains, breaks, dislocations—-no problem. Skin flaps? Nope. Hard pass. I was more than happy to let Z patch me up because it was giving me the ick.
“All done,” he declared after firmly bandaging it up. “Now sit there and talk with me while I finish all these potatoes by myself.” He laid out a towel on the stainless steel counter beside the sinks we’d been working in and patted it for me to sit.
“Sorry, Z.” I winced, hopping up into the spot he’d prepared for my butt. “I’m helping in spirit.”
“Very helpful,” he agreed with a nod, picking up his peeler and a fresh potato. “So how are we fixing you and Ace?”
“We aren’t,” I snapped. “I’m here. I’m doing the team thing. No one ever said we all need to be best friends.”
“No…but it’s better when we are. Don’t you think?” He gave me a thoughtful look before returning his attention to the potato in his hand. “You guys were close before the attack. Is what happened between you guys so bad that you can’t ever get back to the way things were?”
I bit the inside of my cheek, remembering the betrayal on Ace’s face when I admitted who I really was. When he realized that I’d been lying the whole time he’d known me.
“Doesn’t matter,” I muttered, shaking my head. “Tell me more about you, Zeth Briggs.” I tried to change the subject, but his face screwed up in irritation.
“No…just Z. Not Zeth Briggs, that’s my dad. I’m…I’m just Z.” He said it with a heavy sigh, like this was something he needed to remind people a lot, and guilt twisted inside me.
I shifted my position, leaning my elbows on my knees. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to offend you. You and your dad aren’t close, I take it?”
“Uh, we used to be when I was younger, but ever since my mom died, things have been really tense between us. Or I guess shit started getting weird before that, when I refused to sign to Grandad’s label and my dad took it as a personal insult.
But it really went downhill after Mom.” He gave a sad shrug, and sadness welled up in my chest for him.
I remembered seeing his mom’s death on the news—-or rather I’d seen Z’s dad making a press statement while openly sobbing. I hadn’t seen Z at that interview, and I had to wonder now if that was due to his strained relationship with his father.
“That sucks,” I offered quietly, never really knowing the right thing to say in these circumstances. “How old were you?” I vaguely remembered it was only a few years ago, so he must have already been living away from home.
“Twenty. It was two years ago. So I wasn’t a little kid who desperately needed his mommy or anything, but—-”
“You’re never too old to need your mom, Z.” I cut him off with a stern frown. “Were you guys close before she passed?”
He nodded, genuine sadness in his eyes when he briefly glanced up from the potatoes. “Yeah. She was my biggest supporter and literally the only one who stood up for me when Grandad tried to force the record deal contract. She was the first person I played any new music for, too.”
Fucking hell, he was going to make me cry, and I’d never met the woman. “Who do you play for now?”
He shrugged, seeming uncomfortable. “Ace and Xavi…and recently, I guess it’s been you.”
My brows shot up and my lips parted in surprise. “Seriously?” Yes, he’d played some new music for me occasionally since I joined the team, but I always assumed others had heard it first. Never in my wildest dreams did I think he’d actually used me as a first impression for fucking anything.
Z nodded, keeping his focus on the potatoes and making it clear that he didn’t want to elaborate on that subject.
“Mom was not a fan of my relationship with Tessa,” he murmured after a few minutes.
“Not that she thought Tess was a bad person or anything. She just didn’t think we had any spark between us, and honestly, I’m starting to think she was right.
We had actually broken up before Mom passed. ”
“How come?” I asked, curious to know more about his girlfriend. They’d been together for a long time, and with such a public life, it couldn’t have been easy to maintain.
“Uh, just dumb shit really,” he replied with a lopsided smile. “Fighting about our schedules and careers and all that. Tess is a big Seventeen Daggers fan, so our blow--up fight was when Dad asked me to join him on tour and I refused.”
I frowned, not liking the sound of this girl.
I’d only known Z a couple of months, and even I knew better than to think that would be a good idea.
Then again, maybe she was just focusing on the spotlight and opportunities it’d bring her.
Bitch. Okay, that wasn’t fair. I didn’t know her…
but surely, if she knew Z at all, she wouldn’t have pushed him on that.
“So how did you get back together?” I asked with genuine interest. That was two years ago, so they must have resolved things pretty well.
Z gave a short laugh and groaned. “Uh, honestly, I don’t remember the specifics.
That sounds so bad, I know, but when Mom passed, I was a wreck.
Partying way too hard, drinking, drugs… I was sort of self--detonating, and Dad was more concerned with his public image as a grieving widower than my struggle.
Anyway, one night I was at this fucking painful fundraising party with the boys and they refused to serve me alcohol because I was underage, so I was in a foul mood.
Xavier was flirting with this total knockout blond at the bar, and I was on a mission to destroy everything good in my life—-friendships included—-so I…
” He trailed off, his words fading out as he lost himself in the memory of that night, a frown creasing his brows as he furiously peeled potatoes.
I wet my lips, eager to hear more but not wanting to pry into his pain. Something about his story had started my pulse racing, though…
“You stole her from Xavier?” I guessed with a smile. “Wouldn’t be hard if he’d opened his mouth. Big dinosaur has the personality of a wet sock.”
Z gave a snort of laughter. “That’s not true and you know it. He’s actually pretty great; you guys have just gotten off to a rough start. Anyway, no… Technically I didn’t steal her away, but an opportunity presented itself, and one thing led to another. You know how it goes, Rocky.”
He quirked a brow at me like I was one of the boys who regularly fucked girls at parties, and I nodded weakly. “Uh--huh, sure do. All those…opportunities. What’s a guy to do, huh?”
He laughed again, then groaned. “I don’t know why I’m telling you that part. She had nothing to do with me and Tess at all. She’s just been on my mind a lot lately, and I can’t work out why.”
My interest piqued at the wistful look on his handsome face. “Who, the blond girl?”
“Yeah. It’s so dumb. It barely even qualified as a one--night stand.
We had amazing sex in some random office, then I basically ran away because I was terrified I was going to do something tragically embarrassing like confess my love to this total stranger or start crying about my mom or something.
” He rinsed the potato he’d just finished, then swiped a wet hand through his unnaturally red hair.
“You probably think so much less of me now, huh?”
I shook my head firmly. “Not in the least. I think it’s…endearing. Humanizing. You’re nothing like the nepo--baby I thought you would be. You actually have emotions, and that’s nothing to be ashamed of.”
“Gee, thanks.” He snickered. “You find it endearing that I’m not the shallow, spoiled brat you expected? Asshole.”
I rolled my eyes. “You know what I meant. So how’d you go from a drunken hookup with a stranger to making up with your ex?”
He shrugged. “No idea. I was decently fucking drunk, and everything after I ran out of that office was a blur. I remember slamming some shots and then…not a lot. I woke up the next day with Tessa in my bed, and she was gushing over how glad she was that we made up, and I was too embarrassed to admit I had no idea what she was talking about.”
My jaw dropped. “What? Z, that’s—-”
“Our secret, Rocky. I haven’t actually told anyone else that story, so just keep it between us, all right? Whatever happened, it was for the best. I stopped my path of destruction and cleaned up, so it all worked out.” He flashed me a smile that didn’t quite meet his eyes.
I chewed the inside of my cheek thoughtfully, considering everything he’d said. “Why do you still think about that other girl when you’re with Tessa?”
He blew out a long sigh, shrugging again.
“Honestly, I’m not sure. Recently it feels like she’s on my mind all the time.
Maybe just because I’ve been thinking about the spark that Mom said I lacked with Tess?
I felt it with her. The girl from the gala.
I’ve never felt like that with Tess, which is a really shitty thing to accept when I thought I would marry her one day. ”
“That’s really sad, Z,” I said softly, my heart aching for him and Tess both. “Did you ever reach out to the other girl?”
He shook his head. “Nope. But she also never reached out to me, so I guess it wasn’t ever meant to be, right?” He sighed heavily, throwing the last peeled potato into the pot of water. “Done! We make a pretty good team, Rocky.”
We actually did. Not only did we get all the peeling done—-including one finger—-but I felt like I knew Z a whole lot better than ever before.
Which was concerning, because I was pretty sure I’d just developed a massive crush on him and a crazy level of jealousy for the anonymous girl that had so securely stuck in his mind for more than two years.
Oddly, I expected to feel the same resentment toward Tessa, but instead I felt bad for her.
“You should probably break things off with Tess,” I told him as we cleaned up and headed back to the cabin.
He groaned, ruffling his fingers through his messy hair. “I know. I keep meaning to. It’s just hard because I really don’t want to hurt her. Thanks for listening—-but don’t think I’m giving up on the Ace issue, though.”
I flashed him a grin, blinking innocently. “What issue? No issue here. Purely business.”
“I’m going to fix it, Rocky. Our team succeeds so well because we are all friends. You included.” He draped his arm around my neck, then pulled me into a headlock, ruffling my hair as I protested and struggled weakly to free myself.
If Z really wanted to push the issue, I would swallow my pride and accept Ace’s apology. I just hoped he’d forget about the whole thing and I could let Ace suffer a little while longer because he deserved it.