Page 142 of Hayden's Stalker

She’s sitting stiffly in the chair, and I hate that she’s obviously uncomfortable with this situation. I wish that I could be public with her so that I could help her be more at ease with my friends.

She uses her coolly professional tone when she replies, so I know she’s doing her best to seem like we’re nothing more than we are. “I wouldn’t say I was cranky, just frustrated that I didn’t think to check over the tour bus plans to be sure everything was covered.”

“Not something you would’ve missed?” Harrison asks.

Tati shakes her head. “No, I’d have noticed that straight away. Hayden should consider himself lucky that he didn’t have to tell Jesse he’d be sleeping on the sofa, either. I took that bullet.”

“Like any good bodyguard, she stepped in the line of fire for me.” I wink at her, and the others laugh.

She looks into my eyes, and I know this is technically flirting with her, but it’s also a joke I would’ve made even if we weren’t together. Her cheeks turn red, and my cock jerks in my jeans before she turns away to look at Harrison, who smiles at her.

She turns back to look at me before she asks, “Oh, hey, didn’t you say I should ask Harrison and Heather about hotel walls being paper-thin?”

Harrison, Heather, and I burst into laughter at the shared memory, while April looks curious as she glances between Heather and Harrison.

Heather groans and shakes her head. “I can’t believe you told Tati about that.”

The memory of Sebastian and myself plotting to give them a standing ovation when they entered his hotel suite because they were so damn loud having sex in the room next to us isn’t one I’ll ever forget.

I give her a wicked grin and inform her, “I didn’t. I just told her what question to ask.”

“So tell us about hotel walls being paper-thin, Heather,” April teases her.

“I’ll let you do the honors, honey.” Heather looks at Harrison, and he laughs again before he looks back at Tati.

“The day before Heather’s first fashion show, we had a suite next to Sebastian’s, and Hayden was with him in that suite when Heather and I were, uh,reunitingin ours.”

Our entire group laughs at Harrison’s confession, and April says, “Okay, yeah, I would’ve died of embarrassment.”

“I basically did,” Heather tells her with another shake of her head. “Anyway, we were thinking that maybe we could have some drinks in your tour bus after the show, Hayden?”

Drinks in my tour bus? That’s an odd suggestion from Heather and not something we’ve ever really done since back in the days when we shared buses.

I raise my eyebrows at her. “What? Why?”

“Well, we haven’t hung out in ages, and doesn’t your bus have some special door to keep your fragile ass safe?” She grins cheekily at me as she says it.

I glance quickly at Tati, unsure how she’ll feel about the idea of having my friends in our space. We haven’t had anyone in there since Jesse left the bus, and now it feels like it’s our ‘home.’

She gives me an encouraging smile, and I look back at Heather. “My bus does indeed have a special door for fragile asses. Sure. Sounds like fun.”

The conversation moves on, and a little while later, the topic turns to the media, and April says, “Ugh. I think I’ve seen about twenty stories in the last month about the twenty different men I’m supposedly dating.”

“They do love to write about your love life,” I say sympathetically.

“Tell me about it. I’m tired of being painted out as some kind of man-eater.”

I cringe because April became famous around the same time we did, but her love life has been under a microscope even more than ours has been.

“Maybe, if you find the right man, then after you’ve been with them for a while, the media might chill the fuck out,” Heather says with a laugh.

April rolls her eyes. “Well, if there’s a man out there who won’t cheat on me or break it off because I’m too ‘young’ for him, then maybe I could.”

“Hmm,” Heather says without any more comment.

“You don’t have to be in a relationship to be happy,” Harrison points out.

“Exactly,” April agrees, sounding exasperated. “I wish they’d just let me have some peace for five seconds instead of acting as though I’m some black widow who will devour anyone she mates with.”

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