“Hold on to the bag,” I tell Kira and hand it over.
“Yes, ma’am,” she mocks.
“Hey, you’re the one tagging along,” I remind her.
“I make your whole day better by gracing you with my presence so don’t even give me such shit. I don’t believe you. You love me. I’m the best, best friend ever.”
I snort. “I might love you, but I’m not so sure about the best best friend ever thing.”
“Whatever.” She flips her hair over her shoulder and stares down into the bag. “It seems like all you do is bring them food. Do they ever do anything other than eat?”
I snort. “Not really. I mean, they do record, but if they’re not fed they get grouchy. Hollis honestly shouldn’t complain about me being hangry, because he’s as bad as I am. Fox and Rush might be tied for the worst position of hangryness. Fox tackled me one day for the bag of food. He made me spill the drinks all over myself.”
Kira laughs. “Oh I would’ve paid to see that.”
“Ugh … you’re so mean.”
“What? You’re normally so put together,” she defends. “Plus, you might’ve acted mad, but admit it, you love those boys.”
I sigh. “I do. They’ve grown on me.”
They’ve grown on me so much they feel like family. When I first met The Wild I never would’ve imagined we would become as close as we have.
We arrive at the studio and I park. Kira hops out with the bag of food and dashes inside. I follow along at a slower pace.
Inside she heads for the recording room, when we open the door I’m surprised to find all the guys in the booth.
I’ve been watching them record their individual parts, but nothing compares to seeing them perform together.
Kira sets the food down on the couch and we both turn to watch through the glass.
“God he’s hot hitting those drums,” Kira says, a wistful look on her face. “So glad I let him tap this ass.” She winks at me and smacks her butt.
Thankfully, my dad seems oblivious or else she’d get a fatherly glare.
We watch them play through the entire song, unable to look away.
When they finish we clap and the guys grin heading out.
Hollis starts to head my way with a grin and I shake my head.
It’s easy to forget our relationship isn’t out in the open yet. Not entirely at least.
Hollis’s smile fades and his eyes shutter closed. I swallow past the lump in my throat.
I’m hurting him. With every day that passes that I don’t tell my dad I’m hurting him more.
Forcing myself to turn around I begin handing out the food. I promised Hollis I would finally tell my dad before my birthday and I meant it—but I need to get him alone. I can’t tell him in front of others, it wouldn’t be fair to ambush him.
Sitting down I place the box of my food in my lap. “Hey, Dad?” I begin.
He looks over at me. “Yeah?”
“Think we could go out to dinner tomorrow night?” I feel Hollis’s gaze land on me.
“I can’t tomorrow, but I can this weekend. Saturday—does that work?”
“Yeah, that’ll be great.” I smile.