Daisy (Pushing Daisies Book 1) Read online

  And that copper red hair meant she’d stand out in a crowd no matter who she was or where.

  Fucking hell, the things I was thinking about doing to her and with her. She was twenty-one, for fuck’s sake. Far too young for me. But damn, watching her did something to me.

  I needed to walk away. Find something else to do. Anything else to do. This much I knew. Yet here I stood watching Daisy work the crowd like a pro.

  “She’s awfully hot,” Barrett said, suddenly beside me. “Beautiful, right?”

  “Hadn’t thought about it,” I told her but only glanced her way quickly then went right back to watching Daisy on stage. Like a fucking creeper.

  “Sure, you haven’t,” Barrett said. When I looked at her with, what I hoped was a what-the-fuck-does-that-mean face, she bit her lips together like she was the cat who’d eaten the canary. “How could you not? I’m not into women, but I noticed.”

  “Well, I haven’t.”

  She held her hands up in defense. “Sorry. I wasn’t saying you want to ravage her body. I simply commented that she’s beautiful.”

  I sighed my frustration. “Fine. Sure. She’s beautiful. You’re beautiful. All the band girlfriends are beautiful. Are you satisfied?” Except that Daisy was beautiful. I mean, all the girlfriends were actually beautiful women in different ways, but none of them, thankfully, affected me the way that Daisy was.

  “Hey.” She nudged my arm with her shoulder. “I promise I didn’t know they were doing that to your bus. I would’ve stopped them.” I cocked my head to the side and raised a brow, which brought out this melodic laugh from her. “Fine. I would’ve tried really hard, though.”

  That much was true.

  Even Barrett, the love of Dixon’s life, probably wouldn’t have been able to talk him out of his prank, but she absolutely would’ve tried. Barrett was good for Dixon. Actually, all of the girlfriends were good for their men. Perfectly matched and made my job a bit easier after Drinkswine had fucked things up. Our image was back to where it needed to be.

  “Hey, guys.” Mack slid in beside us and my entire body tensed. Here I was, not able to take my eyes off his sister.

  He’d fucking caught me. Or I felt like he had.

  I stayed there until Pushing Daisies was almost done with their set, then I walked away. No way in hell was I going to watch Daisy, glimmering with perspiration, come off that stage. It’d almost been too much just to watch her.

  Just in time, I slid into a side room before they passed by.

  What was happening to me? All of a sudden, I was hiding from a twenty-one-year-old woman? I didn’t do that shit. Still, since I was there, I took a few minutes on my phone to answer a couple of emails then went back to make sure the guys were ready to go.

  When I stepped out, Barrett was swinging her arm around while pointing down a hallway like she was giving someone directions.

  “What are you doing?” I asked her when I’d gotten close enough for her to hear me.

  “Oh.” She chuckled. “Trying to direct Mack to the right room for their meet and greet.”

  “Right.” I stood there trying to remember what I’d planned to do. Oh, right. I’d wanted to touch base with the guys before they went on, yet when I walked away from Barrett, I went toward the room where Pushing Daisies was doing their meet and greet. That hadn’t been my intention.

  Inside, I slid up next to Calvin, one of my favorite security guys. We’d hired him to tour with Courting Chaos for the summer. Both for the guys’ protection and their girlfriends’, as the guys hated it when the women went off on their own in strange cities. Calvin was big and intimidating, which was exactly what I liked in our security.

  The meet and greet was going as normal. First, a couple of teenage girls stepped up. I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but pictures were taken and this process was repeated until everyone was taken care of.

  Her gaze locked with mine for the briefest moment. The non-contact contact caused my heart rate to tick up just a beat, but I kept my imagination at bay at least.

  I was about to leave, as my presence here wasn’t needed at all, when this tall, blond guy stepped up. Something, maybe my gut instinct, told me to wait. At first, everything looked normal until he slid in between Daisy and her brother Van.

  Daisy’s posture snapped up straight and rigid. Blondie put his arm around her then slid his hand down her side until it rested at her hip. Though I couldn’t tell if he was touching her ass or not, the mere thought of it had violence coursing through my veins and I wondered why her brothers hadn’t noticed.

  Then the motherfucker gripped her hip. The tightness in Daisy’s jaw had me steaming. I had to fold my arms across my chest to keep myself from going over there and pushing the guy off.

  Daisy hadn’t told him to move. Fuck. Maybe she knew this guy.

  “Can I get one with just Daisy?” Blondie asked.

  Unintentionally, I took a step forward before stopping myself. Literally nothing had happened, but I didn’t like the look on Daisy’s face and wanted to go over there to intervene.

  But once again, she said sure. It wasn’t my place. Plus, they were done anyway and Blondie was being shuffled out of the room.

  “I’ll see you later,” I told Calvin, then I slipped out of the room, hopefully unnoticed.

  I headed for the band’s dressing room, even though there was only minutes left before they’d head out. They didn’t need me there to ensure they went on. This was their dream. Now that we’d cut out the cancer in the group, things had been running smoothly and this wasn’t our first show of the tour.

  “Everybody ready?” I asked as soon as I entered the dressing room.

  “Always,” Dixon answered first.

  “Barrett.” I waved her over to me. “You confirmed all the hotels coming up in the next couple of weeks?”

  “Pft. Of course. We’re all set. We got the rooms switched around for the rest of the tour since Hurricane shared two and clearly Pushing Daisies needs three. Mack and I worked that out over a Zoom call last week.”

  “No problems?”

  She shook her head. “They were all very accommodating. It helps when you’re renting out almost an entire floor.”

  I snorted. Wasn’t that the truth. Sometimes the openers stayed at cheaper hotels, but we’d liked how Kissing Cinder had run things and decided to do the same. They’d set an excellent example for the guys.

  “I guess it does.”

  Within moments, it was time for them to go on.

  I stood beside the stage where I tended to hang out when I watched the show. This band was on their way up. The crowd loved them. Yeah, sometimes, their antics got on my nerves like when I’d had to have Barrett babysit Dixon. Little had I known that forcing them together wasn’t a hardship for either of them.

  Or maybe I had known. Fuck. It didn’t matter anymore.

  After the show, the guys filtered into the dressing room, where they’d shower then head off to do… whatever they did with their nights, but I knew for sure they’d be on their buses. Tonight’s trip was a long one. We’d be heading out soon, which was why there was no meet and greet for them after the show.

  They didn’t need me anymore, so I went straight out to my bus.

  Now, since I didn’t have any roommates, we could’ve left right then, but my driver, Matt, knew that I was the last bus to leave. No one was getting left behind because that happened more than people realized.

  To kill time, I headed for the bedroom at the back of the bus. That harness system needed to go. The last thing I needed was for someone to come on here, look down the hallway, and see this fucking thing.

  Not that many people came on here, but Barrett did for work sometimes, though she’d know why it was there. Still, knowing it as here and having to look at it were two different things.

  I grabbed ahold of the straps and pulled with everything I had. Didn’t budge. Once I found the bolts that affixed it to the bus, I knew there’d be no tak
ing it down tonight. I didn’t have a toolbox on the bus and it wasn’t going to happen with my bare hands.

  “Fuck,” I muttered, roughly pushing the straps back.

  I’d have to deal with it later.

  Chapter Three

  Daisy

  We’d been on tour with Courting Chaos for a week, of which we’d spent only one night in a hotel. I’d grown used to bus living. We had an old one Dad had bought us for cheap but had seriously enjoyed the break from my brothers. They’d shared a hotel room, two in each. But being the only woman meant getting my own room and I wasn’t about to complain.

  Being the only two women on the tour at the moment, Barrett and I typically found each other pretty easily. We’d chatted a few times. I knew the guys of Courting Chaos were all ridiculously in love with their girlfriends, who, according to Barrett, would be joining us at some point in the near future.

  “So tell me about the other girlfriends,” I told her as we were eating at the venue. The guys were going to join us any moment but we tried to make use of these few moments of girl time.

  “You’re going to love them,” she said. But that wasn’t what I’d wanted to know. I’d wanted to know what they were like. Sometimes girlfriends were clingy and sent daggers your way just for talking to her boyfriend. “Cross’ and Ransom’s girlfriends just graduated from college. That’s why we had the day off on Sunday. Most of us flew in for the graduation.”

  Right. My brothers and I had stayed in a hotel in Georgia for a rare day off. I’d wondered where the Courting Chaos gang had gone but hadn’t felt comfortable enough to pry. My brothers had gone off on their own after nicely asking if I wanted to do something with them, but I’d mostly just ordered room service, played my violin, and read a book.

  Courting Chaos had joined us the next morning.

  “Why didn’t they come back with you all?” I asked. They had such a normal friendship—it seemed like, anyway. Being such a tomboy, I’d had a hard time with female friends. Except my best friend, Bri, who had been just as much of a tomboy as me growing up.

  It was how we’d bonded but being on the road made it really difficult to touch base. We talked when we could.

  “Indie and Bellamy had things to take care of before they uproot their lives to come on the road.”

  “And you’re friends with them?”

  She nodded. “Here’s the rundown. Indie came on tour last summer because she does that to spend time with her dad who is Vince Cinderstone from Kissing Cinder. But Kissing Cinder isn’t touring this year, so she’ll be here probably the whole time.” She took a quick drink. “So she came, fell in love with Cross—this is the condensed version. So much happened before I came.”

  “Got it.”

  “Then she invited her best friend to come on tour for a couple of weeks and she somehow snagged Ransom. Or rather he snagged her.”

  “That’s Bellamy, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “So everyone hooks up with whatever girl comes on tour?”

  Barrett laughed loudly then took a bite of food. After chewing, she finally answered. “I’d like to say no, but that’s how it seems anyway. Except Booker and Paige. Booker actually went home because his mom was sick. My best friend, Paige, was her home health nurse. So them hooking up happened at home. And she’ll be here at some point, but she has a normal job. She’s a nurse in Ann Arbor.”

  “And what about you and Dixon?”

  Now she groaned. “That’s a whole other thing, but I got hired as Lawson’s PA and was adamant that I couldn’t be with Dixon.”

  “I see how that turned out.”

  “Right?”

  A laugh shook my body, but there was one more thing I wanted to ask before the guys got there. “Who’s Lawson’s hookup then?”

  Barrett gave me a knowing smile, making me instantly regret asking.

  “He doesn’t have one,” she told me, which shouldn’t have surprised me, yet my stomach sunk for no good reason. “He used to have a few friends he saw now and then depending on where we were, but not in a while. He hasn’t found his one yet, I guess. What makes you curious?” Barrett bit back a smile.

  “Nothing,” I said quickly. “You made it seem like—”

  All of the guys, I do mean all of them, came in right then, cutting off my words. I could only hope that Barrett wouldn’t say anything else. Her gaze stayed on me and she gave me this huge grin where I thought I could see all of her teeth then she took another bite of food.

  She didn’t mention our conversation. All I heard after that was, “Uh-huh.” But I didn’t look at her. Instead, I focused back on my baked chicken and salad.

  The guys’ chatter drowned everything else out for a few glorious minutes.

  Why had I asked Barrett about Lawson? Because I was curious seemed like the logical answer. Not because I was interested. That wouldn’t have made any sense whatsoever.

  I was mulling the answer over when I bit down and a sharp pain hit my jaw. I winced and dropped my fork.

  “Shit,” I said as I moved my tongue around my mouth to figure out what I’d just bitten. I thought it was a crouton from the salad.

  “What happened?” Barrett asked.

  The noise in the room stopped, making me the center of attention, which I didn’t love in this scenario. Then I found something hard and pulled it out of my mouth.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me,” I said to no one in particular.

  “What is that?” Van asked.

  I sighed and said, “It’s the one filling I’ve ever gotten.”

  Mack moved in closer. “You lost your filling?”

  “Apparently.”

  “OK.” He stood back to his full height and pulled his phone out of his front pocket. “I’ll find a dentist who can get you in right away. If you go soon, you can still go on tonight.”

  “My dentist is in Detroit,” I told him as my tongue poked at the whole that was left.

  “Wait,” Dixon said, interrupting. “Fangirl, you’re from Detroit?”

  I turned to him, trying not to show any humor. He’d been calling me that since the first day and there were no signs of it. “Van’s going to regret that.”

  “Come on, man,” Van said from behind me, though I hadn’t actually kicked him in the nuts yet.

  “Yes, we’re from Detroit,” Mack told him. “Well, outside of it, and yes, Daisy. We’re in New York. I’d have to think we can find an emergency dentist.”

  “I know a guy,” Lawson told my brother. Not me. My brother. “I went to school with him. He became a dentist and now lives here. I can call him.”

  “That’d be awesome.”

  Lawson glanced at me as he too pulled his phone out. I watched as he walked out of the room. When I looked back at Barrett, her eyebrows were raised and the corners of her mouth were turned up. I shook my head at her mostly because I wanted to pretend like I didn’t know what that look was for.

  But I totally did.

  Lawson returned quickly and said, “He can take you now.”

  “Now?” I asked.

  “Or as soon as you can get there.” He pulled his phone out again. “I’ll text you his address.”

  “Is someone going with her?” Barrett asked.

  “I’m a big girl.” I pushed up from the table and dropped my plate into the trash. “I can go myself.”

  “Absolutely not,” Mack told me.

  “Well… ” I threw my hands in the air. “None of you can take me. We have the interview with Courting Chaos for Thunder Gods. We can’t all miss it.” Mack glanced at Barrett and I knew what he was thinking. “No way. She wrangles these guys. She can’t go with me.”

  “Lawson can,” Barrett said with a huge grin.

  “Barrett,” Lawson warned.

  I swallowed hard. Why would she suggest that? Especially given how she’d already been teasing me about him.

  “He doesn’t have to do that,” I told him. “I swear. I’ve successfully crossed th
e road at least twice on my own.”

  Dixon snorted from beside Barrett. At least someone appreciated my humor.

  “It’s fine,” Lawson finally said, as if that were the last word. “Barrett’s right. I’m the only one who can take you.”

  “Again.” I narrowed my eyes on him. “I’m a big girl. I can go by myself.”

  “Actually,” Ransom said in his best mansplaining voice. “You keep saying you’re a big girl, but you’re actually pretty small.”

  “You know that’s not what she meant,” Barrett countered so I didn’t have to.

  “Let’s go,” Lawson said, wanting no further argument as he began walking away.

  I scrambled around the table and called out a goodbye then had to jog to catch up to him. Once I did, I told him again, “You don’t have to take me.” I told him after a quick stop to the dressing room so I could grab my purse.

  He shrugged but didn’t look up from his phone. “I don’t mind. Barrett’s right. I’m the only one who doesn’t have anything pressing to do.” He pulled the door open and we headed toward the front of the arena. As if he’d meant to time it perfectly, a ride share car pulled up in front of us.

  “So this is your friend?” I asked as our driver moved us in and out of traffic.

  “Yeah. We went to high school together but he moved out here for school and decided to stay.” He’d said that before.

  “And dentistry was his passion?”

  Lawson cracked a smile and looked over at me for the first time. “I guess.”

  I faked a gasp. “Are you saying you didn’t notice any unusual mouth fetish?” What I’d just said sunk in. “I mean, beyond the normal teenage boy.”

  He fought the smile that was desperate to break loose. “I did not. And he better not have a fucking mouth fetish now.”

  This right here was the downside of being me. There were a ton of upsides but being everyone’s little sister just outright sucked in some situations. Lawson was treating me like a little sister which wasn’t how I wanted to be seen. I groaned on the inside.