“I’ll bet it even left you breathless,” she said.
“Would you two stop already,” Cole said. “So Jude and Eden made out. I’m wasting away here.”
Jude came back inside while I was making sandwiches. He walked into the kitchen. His arm went around my waist and my back pressed against his chest. “Finley said your parents were moving up north.”
“Yeah, I guess I’m going to be living up in the woods with no college degree. I think I’ll take up pine cone collecting or something.” I continued making the sandwiches as he held me against him. I’d hoped the disappointment in my tone wasn’t obvious, but it was too hard. “The sad thing is, I would have killed to live up in a cabin in the woods when I was a kid. But now, it’s the worst thing I can think of.”
He leaned down and kissed the side of my face. “Then you can just stay here with me— in the pool house— preferably naked.”
“Yes, Mr. One Track.”
He laughed and his arm tightened around me. “I’m sorry, Valley. I shouldn’t tease you. You’ve still got all summer. Maybe my aunt can figure something out for you.” He leaned his mouth near my ear. “Although, I was completely serious about the naked part.”
I elbowed him away. “Step back, Sir. I’m armed with a butter knife, and I know how to use it.”
He picked up the tomato and started slicing it.
“So your dad is coming home,” I said.
“Yep.”
“You sound much less enthusiastic than Finley about the news.”
“I’m glad he’s coming home to rest, but Dad and I aren’t always on the same wave length.”
“I sort of gathered that.” I placed the tomato slices on the sandwiches.
“Dad was hoping I would go into the music business. I had talent on the drums, but I liked art. He was really disappointed that I didn’t pursue music.”
“What about Cole and Finley? Didn’t he want them to go into music?”
“His dream was that we all got into the music business. But Cole is basically tone deaf. He’s good with his hands though, which is why my dad bought a construction company. He wanted to give Cole a career. And Dad never pushed Finley into anything. He’s always treated her like a fragile, porcelain doll who just needed to be loved.”
“Construction isn’t your thing?”
“Actually, I like building houses too, but as much as Cole and I get along, we don’t work great together.”
“That seems understandable.” I cut the sandwiches in half. “It would be hard to work side by side with a sibling.”
“Yeah, we’ve nearly come to blows a few times.”
I handed him two plates and we walked toward the couch.
“Well, Valley, ready yourself. You’re about to find out what it’s like to live with the god of rock.”
Chapter 16
An entourage of people arrived hours before Nicky King’s plane landed, and a whirlwind of activity flooded the house. Finley avoided the circus downstairs as much as possible, leaving Jude and Cole to deal with it all. Oddly enough, by the time the limo pulled up out front, most of the people had gone and things had quieted down.
Finley and I had been listening to music and hanging out with Some Pig in her room when she heard the car pull up. She jumped to her feet. “He’s here. Let’s go down.”
I hesitated and realized that I was more than slightly nervous about meeting her dad. Not because of who he was but because of what he might think of me, or if he would think anything of me at all. “I think you should go down alone, Finley. You haven’t seen him for awhile and after the whole health scare and everything.”
Her bracelets jangled as she held her hand out to let me know my reasoning wasn’t going to fly. Reluctantly, I took her hand and we headed to the stairs. There were still unfamiliar voices coming from the front room, but the crowd had definitely diminished.”
“What if he doesn’t like me?” I asked.
“Impossible. If I like you then Dad will like you.”
Nicky King, the rock and roller who my dad worshipped, the man whose voice I’d grown up listening to, was standing in the kitchen with a phone pressed to his ear. He looked smaller than I’d imagined and skinnier and a bit more wrinkly, but his presence could not be ignored. He looked our way, and his eyes lit up when he saw Finley. “Got to go.” He put down his phone and held out his arms.
Finley ran to her dad and hugged him so tightly it seemed she had no intention of ever letting him go. Instantly she broke into tears. “I was so scared, Dad.”
He kissed the top of her head. “It was nothing, Fin Fin. I’m all right.”
She peered up at him. “You didn’t take the vitamins, did you?”
“I will now. I promise.”
A man with an earpiece walked into the kitchen. “Nick, they can’t book the whole suite of rooms— just half.”
“Then find another bloody hotel, Ray.”
The man walked away.
Finley reached back and grabbed my hand. “Dad, this is Eden.”
He held out his hand. “Nice to meet you, Eden, Finley has told me a lot about you. Welcome.”
“Nice to meet you.” They were the only words I could push out. I’d never been the type to be star struck, and maybe it was just because my dad had glorified the man so much, but I was truly feeling shy and nervous around him.
His phone rang. “Excuse me.” He turned away to answer it.
Finley reached into the fridge for a soda. “Want one?” she asked.
“No, I’m good.”
Jude walked into the kitchen, and it dawned on me that just seeing him made my heart speed up. That may or may not have been a good thing. A small muscle in his jaw twitched as he reached for a glass. I could tell he was upset, and the fact that he basically ignored me, made my racing heart slow and drop to my stomach.
His dad hung up the phone. “Look, Jude, it’s just that if you were the reason for Tanya leaving then the least you could have done is hired another fucking chef.”
Jude placed the glass down hard on the counter. “First of all, Dad, I’m not the reason Tanya left. She’s the reason.”
His dad waved a ring-covered hand at him. “Yeah, yeah. You could have handled the whole damn thing better.”
“Just because you sleep with every woman who blinks at you, doesn’t mean I have to follow in my old man’s footsteps.”
Nicky looked harshly at Jude. “I guess that’s why they named a bloody saint after you, Jude.”
Finley grabbed my hand and pulled me out of the kitchen. “They don’t always get along. Jude knows how to push all of the right buttons.”
“Sounds like some pretty mutual button pushing,” I said, and realized it was a comment better left unsaid.
Finley didn’t respond, but it was obvious she didn’t want to hear anything negative about her dad. The glass door slid open and Jude stormed out.
Finley returned to the kitchen, took hold of her dad’s hand, and dragged him to the couch. “You’re supposed to be taking it easy, Dad.”
The couch was filled with several strangers, two were on phones and one was on a laptop. I was feeling awkwardly out of place and Finley was occupied with her dad, so I slipped out the door to find Jude.
He was a few hundred yards ahead on the path leading to the pool house. I hurried to catch up to him, terrified that he might not want to see me at all. He was upset, but a cold greeting would be heartbreaking. I’d have no other choice but to face the sobering reality that he didn’t care for me that much.
“Jude.” At first it seemed he was ignoring me, and it felt like a fist in the stomach. But then he stopped and turned around. His face was a torrent of emotions, and the anger and sadness in his expression only made the pain in my stomach worse.