Page 48 of A Billionaire Rebel

Beyond amazing was how we’d sounded together. The first time I’d played and sung with the other members of Holden, it’d been like something had clicked each time. With Jae, it’d been more than a click. It had felt like every time we’d had sex, like she was a part of myself I hadn’t realized I was missing until I’d found her.

When I’d kissed her goodnight, it’d been harder than I liked to leave, but spending all of our time together wouldn’t necessarily be a good thing. No matter how much we enjoyed being together, we did need some time away from each other.

Which we’d had overnight, this morning, and the early part of the afternoon. Now, I was bringing flowers to her at the store and planned on hanging out through the end of her shift. I’d actually called Starla to make sure she would be okay with it, and she’d told me I was welcome to hang out at her store as much as I wanted, especially since she knew I could keep Spencer away from Jae. I liked supporting local businesses – that was what had taken me to Starla’s Music in the first place – but I admired how Starla’s first thought was to keep Jae safe and not how she could use my presence to boost sales.

Someone was already in the store when I arrived, and Jae was talking them through the points of various brass instruments. I slipped inside, smiling at her when she looked my way. She looked surprised, but when she smiled, I breathed a sigh of relief that my appearance hadn’t annoyed her.

I waited until after she’d rung up a French horn before heading to the counter. She came around, her face lighting up when I held out the flowers. Usually, I used flowers as a way to gauge expectations in the women I dated, but I’d brought these today without any motivation other than wanting to see her smile. Still, it was good to know that she wasn’t one of those women who thought the price of a man’s gifts should be in direct proportion to the number of zeroes in his bank account.

“These are lovely.” She kissed my cheek. “Thank you.”

“Starla said sunflowers are your favorite.”

“They are.” Jae touched one of the petals, a soft expression on her face. “Growing up, every Valentine’s Day, no matter how tight money was, my dad always bought flowers. Six roses for my mom, and two flowers for each of us girls. Jetta would get stargazer lilies. Jamie always wanted daisies.”

“And you wanted sunflowers.”

“And I wanted sunflowers.” She glanced toward the door. “Let me go put these in water. Do you mind keeping an eye on things for a minute?”

“Not at all.” I watched her disappear into the back and then turned to the new keyboard display.

I ran my fingers over the keys, tested how they felt when I pressed on them. I unplugged the headphones and let the sound fill the store. Nice. I picked out a simple tune, listening carefully. Satisfied, I played through one of my songs.

“Looking for a new keyboard?” Jae asked as she came over to stand near me. “Starla said this one was professional quality.”

“It is,” I agreed. “I’m not in the market for one right now, though.”

“Does that mean you just came here to give me flowers?”

I moved until I was right in front of her and took her hands. “I wanted to spend some time with you, maybe talk, maybe just watch you work. I called Starla to make sure it was okay that I was here.”

“You did?”

“I didn’t want to cause any problems for you at work.”

“Thank you.” She stretched up toward me, and I bent my head, meeting her halfway.

The kiss was simple and sweet, but it managed to be more than all the other kisses I’d had with any other woman. When I raised my head, the dazed look in her eyes made me smile. I loved that I could do that to her.

“I had fun last night,” she said. She took a step back, and I reluctantly let go. “I was surprised you wanted to sing when you just finished a tour.”

“There’s no pressure at karaoke,” I said. “It’s okay if I forget the words or miss a note.”

“That makes sense.” She moved behind the counter and retrieved some cleaning supplies. “Do you do all of your practicing at the studio?”

“I do some at home too, but we generally use the studio when it’s the whole band.” A sense of loss rose up in me, and I turned back to the keyboards. I ran a scale, the muscle memory in my hands doing most of the work.

“I’m sorry.” Jae touched my elbow. “I didn’t mean to make you think about Bair.”

I shook my head. “That’s not it. I miss my friend, but I want to be able to think about the good times we spent together.”

“What is it then?” she asked as she went to the closest display case. “Feel free to tell me it’s none of my business.”

I knew I shouldn’t say anything, especially since none of us had talked to Z or Haje yet, but I didn’t want to carry this alone. “You can’t tell anyone this, not even Jamie.”

She studied me for a moment and then nodded. “All right.”

“We’re going to dissolve Holden.” Somehow, saying it out loud to someone who wasn’t in the band made it more real. “Kalini and Hawk have decided they want to move on from music, and with Otis in the hospital for who knows how long…” I let the words trail off. She didn’t need me to spell it out.

---