Page 39 of Lost Lyrics

I’d lost touch with my creative spark when Phil died, and I was terrified of that happening again. I respected everybody’s need for a rest after touring. I wasn’t an asshole. But this break was killing me. I craved to be back working on music with these three guys, my band. Patience wasn’t my forte. I’d give them time off until the end of the year as planned, but not a moment fucking longer. Otherwise, I’d be giving them an ultimatum, like they’d given me.

“I wish I had time for music.” Cole stuck a stick into the top of one of his sand mounds like a flagpole. “With Harper away on vacation with Sloane, I spend most of my days with the kids. By the time Ava and I get up and she goes to work, I feed the kids, dress them, play with them for a bit, then it’s time to repeat everything for lunch and dinner. It’s a full-time fucking job. I can’t wait for Harper to come home at the end of the summer. I need to get back behind my drums. It’s killing me. An hour playing here and there isn’t enough.”

“Maybe not, but you love playing dad. Don’t deny it.” Lewis patted and smoothed sand over another section of Cole’s castle.

“I won’t. But you, my friend...” Cole pointed a pebble-covered finger at Lewis. “Enjoy your freedom while you can. Parenting is exhausting. In eight months when your baby comes, you’ll know what I mean.” The biggest smile spread across Cole’s face as he glanced towards the kids, exploringsome rocks. “But it’s the best job ever...next to drumming and playing with you guys.” An even bigger smile spread across his face when Ava waved at him and blew him a kiss. I chuckled, stoked their relationship had settled over the past couple of months.

Cole turned to me. “I’m glad you’re getting in the studio, though. If you write any good songs, let us know. We get first dibs, okay?”

“Always.” Our dibs rule used to be over girls—now it applied to songs. Music was much easier to deal with than women. “But you’ve nothing to worry about. You guys are the only option. So anytime you want to jam, let me know. I’m always down for that.” I yanked the rim of Slip’s baseball cap lower over his eyes. “That includes you.”

“Thanks.” He tapped my hand away. “But fuck off.”

I just laughed. So did he. “Never.”

“I’m glad you’re not moping around.” Slip sat upright and realigned his cap and sunglasses.

“God, no. I’m busy.” I’d made sure of it. I didn’t want to slip into bouts of depression again, or hit the bottle hard, or lose my connection with music. There was too much to live for. Thanks to these guys...and Sutton. “Since I can’t even seem to stop talking the wedding for very long, there is one important detail we need to discuss. We need to plan my bachelor party.”

“Leave that up to us.” Cole dusted the gravelly sand off his hands. “There is only one option, and that is Vegas. It will involve strip clubs, lots of tits, booze, and partying until dawn.”

Slip nodded as he threw us a sly grin. “I’m all for scantily clad women dancing on stage, but let me tell you, the shows Mads does for me are so much better. They’re freaking hot. I swear, I’m going to install a pole in every home we own. Last week, when Maddy put on music and gave me a lap dance...fuck!At strip joints, you have to behave. At home, you don’t. She wasnaked. And horny. And she went to town on my dick.” Grinning and wincing, he adjusted his crotch. “I swear I got friction burns from her tongue ring.”

“Ouch!” My dick flinched as the thought of pain erupted inside my head. “Is that worse than chafing?”

“Both suck.” He shrugged and winked at us. “But I’ll suffer for the pleasure.”

Lewis arched an eyebrow and hummed low and deep. “Hmmm. I’m all for a bit of pleasure and pain.”

Cole picked up a handful of gritty sand and threw it at Lewis’s chest. “I do not need to hear about you and my sister’s kink fetish.”

“You sure?” Chuckling, Lewis swept off the dirt and shrugged, unashamed of his bedroom escapades. “Tia’s taught me a lot of shit.”

“La. La. La.” Cole covered his ears with his hands. “Nope. Don’t want to know.”

Lewis leaned back on his hands and stretched out his legs. “Never took you to be so vanilla, Cole.”

“Fuck, I’m no missionary-all-the-time guy. But Ava and I don’t need toys, or ties, or tricky shit. My dick, hands, and tongue are more than satisfying. I can get Ava off in a hot minute, but I’m more into endurance and love fucking her for hours.”

“Gotta agree. Long sessions are the best.” Thinking about Sutton naked brought a dirty smile to my face. “Those nights, or days, when you just fuck each other senseless, are the best. You think you’re done, lying in bed, spent, exhausted, and you think your dick will never work again, but your girl gives you a sexy how-about-doing-it-again look, touches your balls or her tits, or flashes you her pussy, and you’re back in action.”

The guys sighed in unison and bobbed their heads. “Yep.”

I straightened my sunglasses and injected a touch of smugness into my tone. “Face it, we’re all pussy whipped, andwe fucking love it.”

“I can’t believe I’d ever be saying that.” Lewis puffed air through his nose and grinned. He tilted his head to the side and glanced toward Tia playing with Ava and Josh on the water’s edge. “But yep...I do.”

A loud shriek cut through the air.

Laughing and giggling, Josh and Charlotte ran towards us, holding hands. With one big leap, they landed on top of the castle mounds, stomping and destroying them into ruins.

Cole slumped back on his haunches and mouthed, ‘Fuck’. All his hard work, gone in a couple of seconds. He pointed at the pile of sand. “Char, that was for you to play with.”

“I am playing. Josh and I are dinosaurs.” She stomped on another tower, giggling and roaring with each step. “Can you build another one?”

“Please, Cole?” Josh fell to his knees and demolished the last remains of the castle, pushing it flat with his forearms. “Can you make the next one bigger?”

“Nope.” Cole’s second of being pissed disappeared as he grabbed Josh around the waist, tackled him onto the ground, and tickled him. Over their laughter and wrestling, I couldn’t tell who was having more fun, Cole or Josh. Cole reached for Charlotte and dragged her into their play flight. “You’re both monsters. No more castles.” Cole leaped to his feet, brushed the pebbly sand off his arms, chest, and shorts, then held out his hands. “I’m going for a swim. Who’s coming?”

---