Page 76 of Heartbreaker

“Fuck off,” I growl.

“Ah, man,” Dash says, clapping me on the shoulder. “Relax. We’re just happy you fucked someone other than a harpy or a groupie.”

My temple starts throbbing.

But thankfully the guys pick up that I’m at the end of my rope—or that I’m ready to flip the table and get the fuck out of here—because they change the subject. Atlas discusses his latest business ventures, along with the extra travel that will come with it. Dash mentions he picked up doing a security rework for a bigtime Hollywood actor with a stalker problem. And Banks talks about hockey—and how things have finally leveled out for him.

I don’t share about getting snowed in with Jade, about setting the sheets on fire, about the snowball fight, and all the other things, the feelings, the promises. Those are for me—for us—only.

But I do tell them about working with her.

“She’s fucking smart, man,” I say. “And talented. She can hear the music before it’s even played and has the singing chops to back up what’s running through her mind.” I shake my head. “I’ve never written so many songs or done it so easily.”

“Impressive,” Atlas says.

“Yeah.” I pick up my glass, drain the dredges as silence falls between us.

Thankfully, they don’t give me shit for once.

Or maybe that’s because Aspen is heading our way, clearly having wrapped up what she needed to wrap up.

Banks jumps to his feet, starts for her, then stops. “I almost forgot. I got ice time next Tuesday. You guys in for some old school Gamebreaker action?”

“I’m in,” Atlas says. “My plane out isn’t till Thursday.”

“Righteous,” Dash says, extending his fist for Atlas and then Banks to bump. “You both know I’m in.”

Three sets of eyes come to mine.

I shrug, pushing past the uneasiness that flicks the back of my psyche. “I’m in too.”

Now three sets of eyebrowsshoot nearly to their hairlines.

“You’rein?”Banks asks.

I glare at him. “That’s what I said, isn’t it?”

Banks looks at Atlas, who shrugs. “Thatiswhat he said.”

“Christ,” I mutter, that throb in my temple growing.

“Fuck, man.” Dash claps me on the shoulder again, so hard that my teeth click together— which is probably for the best because it stifles what I would say in response to his next words.

“You need to marry this one.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Jade

I’ve beenon the phone for nearly three hours.

Three long, miserable, frustrating, and unproductive hours.

It’s maddening, how stubborn my management company is being. They’re so far up the record company’s behinds, they must be seeing brown.

And I’m furious.

They’re pushing back hard against firing Farrah, so much so that they’ve refused to do it. She didn’t realize how much the personal questions would bother me. Plus, since I’m such a big star she assumed I’m used to it. She’s apologized at least a hundred times, and both she and my management company have practically filled my house with flowers and baskets of goodies.

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