Page 66 of Reverb

“I don’t even know. My thoughts are all jumbled.” She’d left her childhood bed here, because it was so small, and bought a bigger one for her new place. She got into her old bed and pulled the covers over her head, burrowing in. “I’m so confused,” she said, her voice muffled.

I stared at the lump under the covers, wondering what to do. She hadn’t told me to fuck off, so that was something. She’d let me into the house. It was what I had to work with, so I’d work with it.

I sat on the edge of the bed, behind her back. Her body rolled toward me as the bed sagged. She didn’t come out from under the covers.

“Whatever she said is probably wrong,” I said. “I don’t tell her anything.”

“That tracks,” Sienna replied from her blanket fort. At least she was talking. “I wanted to ask her who she was talking about, because half the time, it wasn’t you.”

“She has a story in her head and she goes with it,” I explained. “If I contradict it, we fight. We’ve been doing it for thirty-seven years, and I’m fucking tired. So I don’t do it anymore.”

She was quiet. Even from outside her bubble of covers, I could tell she was thinking that over.

“Let me guess,” I said. “She didn’t talk at all about Alec.” Alec was the stepfather who had hit me when my grammar slipped.

“Not about Alec,” Sienna’s muffled voice said. “Not about Chase. No honesty about why you left home for L.A. I know she means well, but I swear, Stone, if I see her again I might tackle her to the ground and squeeze some truth out of her. I’ve never been so infuriated.”

I scrubbed a hand through my hair. I’d never had anyone get mad on my behalf, and I wasn’t used to the feeling. “Yeah, she’s got a lot of denial. What else did she say? ‘Cause you aren’t hiding under those covers because of that.”

A pause. “She said you’re dating Angie.”

I groaned aloud. Fuck, could this get any worse?

“Also, you and Angie are going to do IVF and have her grandbabies.”

Yes. Yes it could.

I turned on the bed and gently tugged the covers down, revealing Sienna’s face. She’d taken her glasses off under there and I looked right into those gray eyes.

“Maplethorpe,” I said, my voice low. “Look at me and tell me that you think I’m dating my agent.”

She blinked, her dark lashes distracting me for a second. “No, I don’t actually think that,” she admitted. “You’d have to be a magician to be cheating on me all this time while making an album.”

My throat was tight and hot. “I would not cheat on you. Not ever. I fucking swear it.”

She looked vulnerable for a second. “Angie is very beautiful.”

“I don’t care,” I said. “We had dinner together a few months ago, right after the tour. I’m gonna be honest here and say that Angie was looking for a date. I told her no. I did it in person because she deserved that respect. We ate dinner, we went home separately, and that was it. If you don’t believe me, call her and ask.”

Sienna bit her lip, thinking. “I’m not going to call Angie. My embarrassment is already acute.”

This woman. I was fucking nuts for her. I tapped her forehead. “What’s going on in your brain, Sienna? Get outta your head. You think that was bad, think about how bad it would have been if I’d told Diana you’re my girlfriend.”

She looked so horrified that I knew she’d definitely met my mother.

“Sorry,” I said. “Maybe you see now why I don’t date.”

“She said you play the field,” Sienna said.

“Because I don’t tell her anything, remember? Babe, your brain is scrambled. You think I live some rock god life, but I don’t. I work out, I jerk off, and I play guitar. That’s my life. Or it was, until you came along.”

Now her brows drew down, that annoyed frown I was so familiar with. “Stone, you are stupidly hot. That can’t be true.”

I shook my head. “I was bored of all that a long time ago. A long, long time ago. Then I met you, and suddenly I wasn’t bored anymore. I think that’s why you made me so mad.”

Her frown eased a little, and her gaze traveled my face. “Well,” she said, “for my part, you made me so mad because you went out of your way to make yourself genuinely infuriating.”

“I’m aware,” I said.

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