Bare Skin (Skin Deep 5)

Chapter 24

Dani

Two Months Later

I looked out the window, blowing out a breath as I watched my brother drive away with my nephew, then smiled as arms wound around me from behind, pulling me back into a hard chest.

“He’ll be fine,” Calland said in my ear before nipping it with his teeth.

I sighed. “I know, but…” I spun in his arms, lifting mine to lock them behind his neck, staring up into the face of the man who’d captured my heart so completely.

“It’s hard, I know, baby,” he said softly, dropping his head down to place a chaste kiss against my lips. “But, it’s just for the weekend. Remember? Baby steps?”

I nodded, burying my face in his chest. We’d decided it was beyond time to ease Kaden into T.J.’s house, so we’re starting out with weekends and gradually increasing until he’d be fully moved in with his father.

I didn’t have any doubts about my brother having Kaden; I knew he’d take care of him and love him more than anything. He’s a good dad already, more than ready to take over full time, but…it’s been me struggling with it. I’d had Kade since he was born. He’s a year old now, and we’d celebrated with a pool party at Allie’s house, which she’d offered up for the occasion. Everyone had shown up, and that only cemented the fact that I’d made the right choice in staying here.

Kaden, T.J., and I were all officially residents of Ohio. T.J. and I had flown back to L.A. for Grayson’s funeral (Calland had so graciously kept Kaden for us), during which  Alex had been an ass, as usual, which ended up with T.J. laying him out in front of the funeral home.

The hatred in Alex’s eyes was palpable when he’d looked between me and my brother, which was sad, considering the fact that he’d been a good guy, and a great friend at one time. But he’d gotten up, rubbing his jaw and wiping away the blood at the corner of his mouth from where T.J. had punched him. He’d nodded once, then turned and walked away, thankfully not making more of scene than he already had. Somehow, though, I felt like we hadn’t heard the last of him.

Anyway, while we were out there, we’d packed up my apartment and T.J.’s storage unit, loading everything into a U-haul, and drove back home, waving goodbye to California for good. There was nothing left for us there. Neither one of us wanted to get back into the whole show life, because the stress of it was ridiculous.

When we’d gotten back, Calland had already been in the process of buying a house for us. We’d argued, because he hadn’t even talked to me about it, even though I loved the house he’d picked. I’d tried to argue that we didn’t need that much room, since Kaden would be eventually living with T.J., but he’d argued back that we’d need the space for our own kids one day. That had shut me up, quickly.

Now we were living in our new home, and I loved every minute of my life. I loved that it didn’t matter if there was an occasion to warrant it, get-togethers and impromptu parties abounded in this group, even if it meant just randomly meeting up at Griff’s and singing karaoke or dancing around like idiots. There was one night at Griff’s that Emma had managed to convince Griff and his house band that usually plays on live music nights to let T.J. and I do a little something. We balked at first, but they’d all worn us down. I was apprehensive at first, but when Emma had pled her case, saying, “Come on. You have to give us this! We have famous friends and we’ve never gotten to see them perform. And your brother is already so fucking hot, his cream-your-jeans-ability is gonna skyrocket and who wouldn’t want to see that?”

“Ew!” I’d cried in return, but all the other girls had chimed in to agree with her. “You guys are seriously bent,” I’d told them, to which they’d only replied, “Well, duh. Just ask our husbands!”

I’d rolled my eyes. “And we’re not famous.” It had been a lost cause with that argument, as well, because we’d still ended up on stage. After a brief conversation with the house band, the guitarist had said he’d sit in (thankfully he knew all the songs we’d suggested) because T.J. wanted to do the drums, and I usually played bass. But T.J. wanted me to sing lead, so I had, and he’d done all the backup. We’d done Trivium’s Until the World Goes Cold, and it had been good…but not as good as it could have been if the drum kit had had a double kick; that had always been my favorite part of the beat. But the crowd had loved it regardless, and it had felt good to perform just for the fun of it, especially with our friends. They’d even yelled for an encore, so we did Tear Down the Wall by Art of Dying, another one of my favorites because of the bass line, but T.J. had taken lead while I sang backup. Afterwards, I don’t think I’d ever seen the guys roll their eyes so much when the girls started swooning over T.J.’s singing. It was pretty comical, that’s for sure.

And of course, Fourth of July was awesome—as per usual, I was told—since Calland was in charge of the fireworks again. He was very secretive and refused to even let me see what he’d bought, even after he refused to let me go with him to pick it all out. He’d actually let Brandon go with him this year, and the two had cackled and crowed like two evil villains before it was all done. Of course the party was at Allie’s, because she had the pool, it was summer in Ohio, and that meant that swimming was a requisite activity. Once we’d left the party, though, Calland had talked about putting our own pool in, so I was kind of looking forward to that.

Nanny had brought a pack of bottle rockets with her, but Poppy had taken them away, citing the fact that, ‘she didn’t need to be traipsing around with firesticks in her fingers.’ But, fortunately for Poppy (I think he might have had a heart attack, otherwise) he fell asleep on Allie’s couch and missed out on what happened when Nanny snuck in and snatched them back.

She’d procured a lighter and a bottle from somewhere and showed up down by the firepit with them. She’d managed to get one in the bottle and lit without incident; however, when she’d gone to step away, she’d accidentally hit the bottle with her shoe right about the time it went shooting out, screaming towards what should have been the sky. Instead, it had been Ian’s chest that was the target. He’d dropped to the ground, narrowly missing being hit, but I don’t think I’d ever forget the shocked terror in his eyes.

Nanny had only called him a pussy and told him to get up. Seriously. I LOVE that woman.

Calland’s voice dragged me back to the present. “We have a whole weekend to ourselves…and it’s only Friday night.” He waggled his eyebrows at me exaggeratedly. “You thinking what I’m thinking?”

I rolled my eyes. “Is that all you think about?” I asked him, drolly.

He drew back and slapped his hand over his chest. “What?” he asked, his voice rising into an over-the-top falsetto. “Get your mind out of the gutter, you perv!”

I laughed, but he still continued with his fake affront.

“I was merely going to suggest that we order dinner in and have a sweet, non-sexual, movie night.”

He said something else after that, but he dropped his voice and it was very rushed and muffled, so I couldn’t make it out completely, but it sounded like, ‘with a very happy ending.’

“What was that?” I asked him, cocking my head.

He shot me an innocent look. “Nothing, love.”

“Uh-huh,” I muttered, narrowing my eyes at him. “I heard you about a happy ending.”

He winked. “Then why’d you ask what I said, woman?”

He smacked my ass and moved away from me towards the drawer of takeout menus that he’d collected before I moved in. “What sounds good?”

“How about a pizza and some booze?” a happy voice called from the door.

I spun around, surprised to see Emma and Luke standing outside on the front porch, staring through the screen door. “What the…how? What are you guys doing here?” I sputtered before I turned back to Calland. “You left the door open again,” I told him in exasperation.