“This wasn’t initially going to be part of the evening, was it?” he asked.
Shrugging, Lily said, “Does that really matter?”
“It does to Jenny,” he responded. “Why are you doing this?”
Something about his intense gaze pulled her in, lowering her guard. “Because I know what it’s like to feel insignificant,” she said in a quiet voice, “and if I can help someone else not feel that way, I’m going to do whatever it takes.”
“I see,” he murmured, looking into her eyes as though searching for something. Eventually he smiled and said, “Well, thank you, Lily Montgomery. This is a good thing you’re doing for my sister. If you ever need a favor, you can always reach out to me.”
She returned his smile. “I appreciate that. Hey, if you want to help me now, I’d really appreciate you following the band on social media.”
“I already do.”
“Oh? Since when?”
“Since you made my sister smile.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
No sooner did Archer shove through the door of the guest house after leaving Lily than he wanted to take back what he’d said to her. Well, maybe not what he’d said, but how he’d said it.
Jesus. He sounded like his mother.
But he knew if he hadn’t been short with her that Lily would have persisted in talking to him and he wasn’t ready for that. Did she think he could handle hearing that she had changed her mind about their relationship without it tearing out his insides? Maybe she wanted to purge the guilt she was feeling about her change of heart, but she could damn well wait until he was more prepared to deal with it.
“Hey, Archer, you want some caffeine?” Xander asked, holding up an energy drink from his position at the fridge in the open kitchen to the right of the foyer.
“Why? Am I not peppy enough for you?” Archer replied crossly as he walked into the central living room and dropped heavily into an empty armchair.
Keith eyed him from the sofa as he strummed his acoustic guitar. “What’s up your ass, man?”
Archer rubbed his eyes with his thumb and forefinger. “What are you talking about?”
“You know what I mean. You’ve been pissed since before we got here. You’re snarling at everyone and everything today.”
Dropping his hand, Archer looked around and saw everyone staring at him from their various positions around the room. Since his first instinct of snapping at Keith would have proved his point, he didn’t reply.
“I think it’s been too long since you got laid,” Noelle hypothesized, popping a bubble and shrugging when everyone looked at her. “What? It’s been months, hasn’t it?”
Nearly five, Archer thought darkly, but who was counting?
“Well we’re at a party full of teens,” Sage pointed out as he cracked the top off a bottle of water. “I don’t foresee the sex drought ending tonight.”
“God,” Archer said, leaning his head back on the chair’s headrest. “I’m going to try and sleep for a few. You can all fuck off or kiss my ass. Your choice.”
“That might help with the drought,” Xander quipped.
Archer didn’t laugh. He hadn’t found a reason to smile all day, not since he found out Lily had been with Johnathan the night before.
He was tired enough to drop straight into sleep. His dreams consisted of tormenting images of Lily passionately entwined with Johnathan. Archer kept chasing after her, reaching for her and barely touching her before she moved out of reach again.
When Christopher shook him back awake, he was deeply relieved.
“Time is it?” he asked, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.
“Forty-five ‘til show time,” Christopher replied. “There’s someone here to see you.”
Archer’s heart instantly started racing. Christopher must have noted his reaction because he shook his head.
“Not Lily,” he clarified. “Sydney.”
Archer couldn’t tell if he was more disappointed, glad, or puzzled by that. Had Lily sent her friend to talk to him since he was ignoring her? After how Sydney had been acting, he could only imagine she would delight in telling him to take a hike because Lily was back with Johnathan.
Feeling a headache building behind his eyes, Archer rose from the chair and moved over to the door where Sydney stood on the front porch. The fading sunlight bathed her in a soft glow, giving her the look of a fresh-faced angel. It was an impression he’d had multiple times since meeting her, which made her recent treatment of him that much more baffling.
“Hi,” she said in a quiet voice. “Can I talk to you for a minute?”
He leaned against the doorjamb but didn’t extend an invitation for her to come inside. “Sure, but it might get aired on the show.”
She looked around as though searching for a camera. He could see the idea didn’t thrill her. After a moment she squared her shoulders and gave a little nod.
“It doesn’t matter. I want to apologize.”
He frowned and hooked his thumbs in the pockets of his jeans. “For what?”
“For how I’ve been acting.” She fiddled with the clutch purse she held but didn’t look away from him. “Lily pointed out this morning that I haven’t been very nice to you lately. I’ve had a lot of time today to reflect on my behavior and I was...well, I was dismayed to come to the conclusion that she’s right.”
It took everything in him not to shake her and insist that she get to the point. Was she about to tell him that she had been upset because she hadn’t wanted Lily to be with him and now she didn’t have to worry anymore since Johnathan was back in the picture? Would she propose that they become friends now or something?
Because screw that.
“I’m sorry if I’ve said or done anything to offend you,” Sydney continued. “I know how important you are to Lily, and I know things between you are only going to get more serious. I’d hate for you to think—”
He straightened away from the doorjamb. “Wait. What?”
She blinked in confusion. “What?”
“What do you mean, things are going to get more serious between me and Lily?”
Her forehead creased and she once again looked around. “Oh, gosh. Are we not supposed to say anything yet?” she asked in a hushed voice.
He wanted to growl in frustration. “Lily told you about us?” he pressed.
“Of course. Truth be told, I think she’s wanted this for a long time. You’re her whole world.”
The painful band that had been squeezing his insides all day long eased a little, but confusion lingered. “What about Johnathan?”
“Oh.” Now her gaze drifted down to her sandaled feet. “I know Lily thinks I deliberately mentioned him earlier to get under your skin, but I just wasn’t thinking. I’m never thinking clearly in the morning until I’ve had some caffeine.”
“Why didn’t Lily want you to mention him?” he asked with what he felt was legendary patience.
She once again looked up. “Well, probably because of how much he upset her. I think she figured you’d be bothered by it and I know she always wants you to be focused on your performances.”
Archer’s confusion and annoyance iced over as he started piecing things together. Johnathan had upset Lily the night before, so they hadn’t made up.
That meant Lily’s sore lip wasn’t the result of passion.
“Sydney, did Johnathan hurt Lily?”
Her eyes widened at his dangerous tone. “Not like you might be thinking, now that I replay everything in my head. Geez, I’m making things worse. Lily is going to kill me.” She shook her head at herself and went on, “Johnathan wanted Lily to take him back and she said no. I guess you could say he came on rather strong trying to convince her otherwise.”
“You guess?”
“She’s okay, Archer,” Sydney said in a placating tone, reaching out to touch his arm. “I promise. He just tried to kiss her and her lip got hurt when she pulled away. But it shook her up.”
Arch
er had thought he was angry about Johnathan’s unexpected visit the night before. That was nothing compared to what he felt now. Only the fact that there was nothing he could do about it right then kept him from spewing his frustration out on Sydney.
“Five minutes to sound check,” Christopher said from inside the house.
“I don’t want to keep you,” Sydney said, taking a step back. “I just want you to know that I hope you and Lily are very happy together.”
Lingering anger kept him quiet for a moment. Then he found himself moving forward to stop her when she turned to go. “Wait. Why have you been acting like you have lately?”
Her cheeks pinkened. “I’d rather not say.”
“Sydney, if it’s something I did or said, I want to know so it doesn’t happen again.”
“It wasn’t you, I promise. It was me.”
He tilted his head and gave her a look that said, Really? She seemed desperate, whether to depart or spill whatever was bothering her, he wasn’t sure. Eventually, his patience won out.
She glanced at the open doorway and lowered her voice further. “If you must know, I was jealous.”
“Jealous?”
“Yes, jealous. You and Lily clearly have feelings for each other, but Johnathan was Lily’s boyfriend so you couldn’t do anything about it. Then Lily broke things off with Johnathan and now you two are beginning a relationship.”
Archer ran a considering hand along his stubbled jaw. “Ah...I don’t get it.”
Rolling her eyes, Sydney leaned even closer to him. “I’m jealous because I have feelings for someone who’s in a relationship and there’s nothing I can do about it.”
“Oh.” He considered that. “Who?”
She opened her mouth to speak but Keith came to the doorway. Nikki was right behind him and also stepped out beside Archer. Keith gave Sydney a cursory scan and lifted a chin in greeting before turning to Archer.
“Time to go,” Keith said. “Aren’t you going to change? The crew dropped off our bags earlier.”
Archer saw how Sydney avoided looking at Keith and Nikki and the answer to his unanswered question popped straight into his head. He nearly blurted, “Keith?” But he stopped himself in time.
“Yeah,” he said instead. “It’ll only take me a minute.”
“A minute’s all you got,” Sage said, walking out behind Keith and Nikki with his favorite satchel full of CDs over his shoulder.
“It’s fine,” Sydney said, taking another step back. “I’m going.”
“Sydney,” Archer warned, seeing that she was too flustered to pay attention.
She was so busy backing away that she forgot about the porch stairs. Archer surged forward as her foot slipped on the first step and she flailed. Keith got to her first, grabbing her around the waist and yanking her to safety. He pulled her roughly against him to correct their imbalance, prompting Sydney to drop her purse and brace herself with her hands on his chest.
“Are you okay?” Keith asked her.
She just looked at him with wide eyes and nodded. There was a noticeable pause before Keith released her. Archer wasn’t sure what his bassist saw in Sydney’s gaze, but it made him frown and ease away from her.
“Sorry,” Sydney said to no one in particular, turning and rushing down the stone path towards the party, the flowing skirts of her dress billowing behind her like wings.
“What a ditz,” Nikki snorted. “She didn’t even take her purse.”
Keith watched Sydney until she disappeared through the trees. Archer couldn’t read Keith’s expression, but his gut told him that he had a future mess on his hands.
Christopher stepped outside then and bent down to pick up the purse. “I’ll be sure Sydney gets this. You guys get going, would you? And for God’s sake, Archer, get changed. We’re a minute behind schedule now. We’ve got a young lady waiting for the birthday concert of her dreams. Let’s make those dreams come true.”
* * *
Archer wished he had time to find Lily before their sound check. He was irritated with himself for wasting the day by ignoring her. Now that he knew she wasn’t going to shatter his heart by breaking things off, he missed her desperately.
God that was fucking corny, he thought with a grin as he took his guitar from the tech and positioned himself in front of the mic. This rather nauseating sappiness was Lily’s doing. No one had ever had this effect on him before. He supposed this was what inspired songwriting legends to produce their enduring love songs.
On that embarrassingly saccharine thought, he closed his eyes and shut everything else out. Okay, Archer, he thought. Time to focus on why you’re here.
And like the flick of a switch, his focus became all about the performance. His goal was to give Jenny Kingston his best effort, from the first test of his microphone to the final encore. He knew his band felt the same way.
It was easy enough to gauge how the birthday girl was enjoying herself, he noticed as soon as the curtains parted. She was sitting right up front in a roped-off section at a table that seated eight.
Lily sat right beside her.
Archer’s pleasure over seeing Lily dimmed a little when he realized that Rick Kingston was sitting on her other side. The actor had his arm around the back of Lily’s chair and was chatting with her like they were old pals, making her laugh several times. Archer told himself it wasn’t a big deal, but he wished Rick didn’t seem so absorbed with Lily. He wondered what in the world Lily was doing at the VIP table in the first place.
It took him a few songs to figure out that Lily was helping to guide Jenny through taking photos and videos on her phone and uploading them to social media. His tension eased when he realized that Lily was just filling her new role for The Void. Judging by Jenny’s delighted reactions, Lily was doing an excellent job. Rick was merely enjoying the moment along with his sister.
Archer mentally shook his head at himself for once again thinking the worst, even for a moment. He really needed to get a grip. He had never imagined he’d be the jealous type if he ever fell for someone. It was ridiculous, really. He was a popular rock star with more money than he knew what to do with. Women threw themselves at him. The world was at his fingertips.
He supposed most people would be shocked to know how insecure he was. The only one who really knew was Lily.
It had always been Lily.
He relaxed after that, pausing between songs to talk to the crowd and asking Jenny if she had requests. They ended the show by bringing the teen onstage and getting the crowd to sing “Happy Birthday” to her. She started crying halfway through the song.
While the crowd cheered and broke into applause, Archer leaned closer to her. “Are you okay?” he asked.
She flung her arms around him. “This is the best night of my entire life!” she exclaimed.
Grinning, he hugged her back with his free arm. “Do you want the mic for a minute?”
“Sure,” she said, wiping her cheeks. “Thanks.”
He handed her the mic and stepped back. When the spotlight shifted to her, he moved into the shadows and took off his guitar to hand it to the tech who rushed over to take it.
Jenny turned to the crowd with a wide smile on her face and lifted the microphone closer to her mouth. “I just hugged Archer!” she shrieked, fanning herself with her free hand. “And God, Lily, you’re right. He’s just as cut as he looks in magazines. Sorry, Rick.”
Noelle broke into a comedic ba-dum-bum drum tap and cymbal crash combo that had the crowd roaring. Archer struggled to keep a straight face as he once again stepped closer to Jenny and a second spotlight followed him. He stayed a foot behind her so she could have her moment.
His gaze stayed on Lily as she held her phone’s camera up and filmed everything. Her bright smile made his heart constrict.
Corny, indeed.
“First,” Jenny continued, “I’d like to thank all of you for coming. I hope you’ve enjoyed yourselves.” The crowd erupted into more applause and cheers.
As the noise faded, Jenny looked down at her brother. “Ricky, thank you for doing this for me. It’s the most amazing gift I could ever imagine. You’re the best big brother in the world.”
After more applause, she added, “And thanks to The Void for coming here tonight. I really am your biggest fan. I don’t mean that in a creepy, stalkerish way. Well, not too much.”
Even Archer laughed at that. He got a little closer to her and put an appreciative hand on her shoulder. Jenny beamed at him and then looked at Lily.
“And finally, thank you so much, Lily. I wouldn’t have had as much fun tonight if it hadn’t been for you. I feel like I’ve known you forever.” She glanced up at Archer. “Lily’s your best friend, right?”
The question came about so naturally that Archer found himself saying, “Yep,” into the microphone without thinking about it.
Only after he replied did he consider how Lily might feel about him saying as much in a public forum like this. He’d just gone against her wishes to keep their connection private so she could prove herself as a writer.
Jesus, he was screwing up with her left and right.
Lily’s eyes met his over the top of her phone. He tried to let her know without words that it had just slipped out. When her mouth curved upwards and she winked at him, his relief nearly knocked him down.
“Well are you willing to share her?” Jenny asked him. “Because she’s just amazing.”
“She’s more than that,” Archer replied, still looking at Lily. “She’s one of a kind.”
Chapter Thirty
It was just after midnight when Lily knocked on the door to Dane’s hotel room. She had hoped to catch up with him after the concert while he and the band were mingling with the party guests, but he was constantly surrounded. Jenny was endearingly attached to his hip. Rather than intrude on the teen’s magic moment, Lily used the time to capture as much potential social media content as she could. She then ended up riding back to the hotel with Aria and Sydney while the band wrapped up the meet-n-greet portion of the event.