“It’s all great, Trevor. Could you please help me with this?” She motioned toward the bottle.
“Absolutely.” He crossed the floor in front of me.
“That’s a seventy-thousand-dollar bottle of champagne!”
“Oh, did you want us to return it for a refund instead?” Sarcasm dripped from those pretty pink lips.
My blood pressure spiked. God, the woman simultaneously turned me on and annoyed the shit out of me. Always had. She might have a body like a Sunday drive—all lush curves that demanded two hands—but she had a mouth like a Monday morning alarm clock. She was a color-coded, alphabetized checklist with no sense of humor, and I had half a mind to tell her to drink the damned thing herself if it would help dislodge the stick from her incredible ass.
But I didn’t want that bottle anywhere near me. Even the thought of it made my mouth water. I could already taste the sweet oblivion on my tongue.
“Get rid of it.” It had been a gift anyway and wasn’t worth messing up my entire recovery for.
“Thank you.” Her shoulders dipped slightly in relief as Trevor hefted the bottle and carried it out.
“I’ll get it dumped, Ms. Shannon,” he promised as he hauled it away.
“A little formal there with the Ms., isn’t he?”
Her brow puckered. “He called you Mr. Winters.”
I wasn’t nearly drunk enough for this conversation. “Right, but that’s my last name. I thought we lost the whole title-before-the-first when we became adults, but I know how much you love your protocol, so hey, whatever floats your boat, Ms. Shannon. Now, is Ben coming too, or are you his emissary?”
How many people needed to be here?
“You are…” She shook her head. “If I’m stuck here with you, then at least tell me you know that Shannon isn’t my first name, right?” She tilted her head and folded her arms under her breasts. I couldn’t say if she had a nice set or not, considering she was always buttoned up to her throat like a librarian. Not that it mattered—I didn’t sleep with girls on staff.
Wait…her name wasn’t Shannon?
“It isn’t?” I narrowed my eyes. I’d been calling her that for the last four years.
“No!” She shook her head, all indignant, like I was the one rifling through her bedroom. “And yes, Ben sent me to make sure all the…contraband was out before you got back. He’s on his way over.”
“Well, I guess you failed that one.” I snorted. “But you wiggled it free so at least you’re not stuck here anymore. And I don’t really care if you stay or not, but I’m getting in the shower, so if you don’t want an eyeful, I’d get out.” I pulled my shirt off and headed for the bathroom.
Her gaze widened and flickered toward my torso, but she marched out.
By the time I finished my shower and got back downstairs, Ben stood in my living room, the dark skin of his forehead wrinkling with concern as he thumbed through his phone, Ms. Shannon at his side. She even looked small next to Ben, who wasn’t a huge guy. She didn’t come up to my collarbone, even in heels.
“So, if we cancel San Francisco,” he began.
“We’re not canceling San Francisco,” I cut him off.
Chaos erupted.
“We have to cancel every show this fall.”
“You won’t be ready.”
“We’re not putting you through this.”
I stuck two fingers in my mouth and whistled, which had the desired effect of shutting everyone up. “Okay, this is the point where you all stop making decisions for me.” I stared down my well-meaning bandmates. “That’s never been how we’ve operated, and we’re not starting now.”
Jonas rubbed the bridge of his nose and sighed. “We’re just worried about you, Nix. We want to give you the best shot at staying clean. Canceling four shows is nothing in the scheme of things. We’ll reschedule. You’re more important.”
“We’re not canceling,” I reiterated. “I did a six-week program instead of the full twelve because I wanted to make sure that I could handle myself in the real world before the fall dates. Did you honestly think I would dump myself into rehab and not think about what we had coming up?” I was a selfish prick, but I wasn’t that selfish.
“We weren’t sure exactly what went through your head.” Quinn leaned forward, bracing her elbows on her knees. “You didn’t fill us in. And no, don’t look at me like that—we’re thrilled you went. We’re just trying to figure out how to best support you.”