Jax threw a pillow at Jemmy. “Are you sure you weren’t born a blond? Nobody can be that dense.”
“What?” she asked naively.
“They’re not fake!” Noah sighed in exasperation. “Now, cut that cake Jaxson!”
“Then how-” Jemmy began.
Troy jumped up and pulled her down on one of the air mattresses and put a hand over her mouth. “Can someone please get this girl a piece of cake!” he called.
We had almost eaten the whole cake by the time we were ready to settle down and watch a movie. The guys picked an action movie with some big-time actors. Jemmy had snuggled up with Jaxson and I found myself not minding. Even though she told me she once had a crush on him, it didn’t bother me to see her with him. I know she had no interest in him. She was the closest thing to a best friend I had ever had, and I know she needed the comfort.
The lights had been turned off and Will was almost half asleep in his recliner.
I was sandwiched between Noah and Troy. I felt warm and cozy and my eyes wanted to close because of my lack of sleep the night before and the emotional surge I had felt fro
m Drake.
Troy tucked my head under his chin and whispered. “Go to sleep, we will wake you when he gets home.”
I nodded. “Thank you.” I wasn’t going to argue.
I felt his warm hand slip under my shirt and cup my hip. Noah readjusted himself so he could lay on my stomach. I reached up drowsily and tangled my hands in his hair. I heard his contented sigh as I drifted off to sleep.
I don’t think I slept that long before I felt a gentle shake on my shoulder. I blinked owlishly, looking around. To my right Troy was asleep, his outrageously long eyelashes were fanned across his cheeks, his full lips bowed, softening his appearance; making him look boyish almost. Noah was still sleeping on my stomach, but his hand found its way to my upper thigh. Jemmy was on the opposite side of Noah, with Jax spooning her.
“Blake,” Drake said softly.
I started, and he held his finger up to his lips.
I nodded, understanding that he didn’t want to wake the others. I gently extricated myself from Troy and Noah and followed Drake to the music room. He sat down heavily, and I sat beside him. I studied his face seeing that he looked like he had been crying for most of the day.
“She left me,” he finally said.
I didn’t know what to say so I just nodded, grabbing his hand and linking my fingers with his.
“The weird thing is last night when I saw the guys hugging you, I wanted to be hugging you too. You were so free, so affectionate, and I wanted you to be demonstrative with me, too. Then you opened your mouth and played that guitar and I thought about what a lucky guy I am that the girl that was my nucleus and the girl I was connected to was so beautiful and talented. Who could ask for more?” He swallowed visibly. “Then Rose wouldn’t answer her phone this morning, so I went to go see her. She said we were through. She couldn’t be with me anymore. She said I never gave myself fully to her and I still had my head up in the clouds. She laughed at me and told me to grow up and said that I needed to let go of my hopes of ever finding my connection. She said my gift had always been more important than her. I wanted to deny it, but I couldn’t. My mother left us because of my gift, even if I hadn’t found you, if I had lost my gift, it would be like she had left for nothing. And she was right, I did love her, but I could never really plan a future with her if I didn’t know what my future held.”
I stroked his hand and let him continue talking.
“But something still didn’t feel right. Like, she kissed me last night, told me she would see me today and left. We didn’t fight, we never fought. It felt so sudden. So, I had to quiet the voice in my head and I went to go see Remy,” he leaned back on the sofa and ran his free hand over his face. He removed his glasses and put them on the arm of the sofa. “He admitted to me that she did come on to him a few years ago and he never told me. Why didn’t he ever tell me?” He looked over at me.
When I realized he expected an answer I cleared my throat, “Well…he knows you loved her and sometimes when we care about somebody, we will do anything in our power to protect them.”
“Is that why you didn’t tell me about Collin last night, why nobody did?” He asked wearily.
I gaped at him.
“I thought if we were going to make this work, we needed to build this relationship with no lies. Even lies of omission.” He said with a crooked smile, throwing the words I told Jax and Noah back in my face.
“No one wanted to hurt you,” I whispered to him finally.
“I know I seem…shy, maybe even sensitive, but I’m a big boy, I can handle…life. You guys trying to protect me isn’t doing me any favors.” He said as he grabbed me by the waist and lifted me, so I was straddling his lap.
“What are you doing?” I asked, a bit shocked at this boldness coming from him.
“What does it look like,” He muttered as he pulled my lips down to his roughly. “The way I see it is the boys got you all to themselves last night and today, and I need my time.”
I let him deepen the kiss and found myself getting excited by his forcefulness and this other side I was seeing from him.