Love Notes (Friends Lovers or Nothing Book 4) Read online

Ortiz is new to the road crew. Rumor has it that I’m his first celebrity security gig. With the economy the way it is, I respect a dad that will do anything to increase his kid’s college fund because working as a bodyguard can’t be all that awesome.

  “Man, this schedule’s so crazy that I don’t even know. Mona probably knows.”

  “Two days,” Sunny spoke up as she struggled to keep up with our long strides.

  I slowed down and grabbed her hand. Inside the dim hallway with just and two security guards, I felt comfortable putting my arm around her waist and placing a quick kiss on her neck.

  J.R. opened the Exit door and the bright noon sun assaulted our eyes. I shielded my eyes and still could barely make out the blazing white Mercedes Sprinter waiting for us.

  “Where’s everyone else?” I asked.

  “Hotel, most likely,” J.R. answered. “We got in late last night.”

  The door of the Sprinter popped open and Mona, bright-eyed and eager to work as an assistant is supposed to be, popped her head out.

  “That’s your new assistant?” Sunny uttered. “She’s kind of young, isn’t she?”

  “She’s not young. She’s great. Better than you and Dee-Lee combined,” I teased.

  “You wish. No one is better than me.”

  “Watch and see. Mona has all of your skills and ninety-nine percent less of your backtalk and sarcasm.”

  “This is just her first tour. Wait until this one is over before you start bragging.”

  I introduced Mona to Sunny. To my surprise, my usually straight and narrow assistant became the ultimate Sunny Rain fangirl the moment Sunny reached out to hug her. Sometimes I forget that Sunny is a rockstar in the fashion world, the black Rachel Zoe or Erin Walsh. When she’s not dressing their favorite actresses, she’s designing the clothes they’d kill to get their hands on.

  However, Mona and Sunny would have plenty of time to chitchat later. I had something more important for them to get started on, a project that will benefit both of them.

  “So,” I said when everyone was settled and we were leaving the airport. “I have something that needs to be done before we leave Charlotte.”

  Mona took out her phone and immediately prepared to take notes.

  “I need a new bus,” I stated. Mona looked at me as if I told her to book me a seat on a space shuttle.

  “A new tour bus? Is there something wrong with the one we have?”

  Our current fleet of buses is perfectly fine...for me and the guys and Erica. We didn’t mind bunks and barely any privacy. When we wanted to hook up, we did it in our hotel rooms. However, Sunny is here and Summer will be joining us soon. We needed a lot more space and I had just the bus in mind.

  “You want a JumboCruiser?” Sunny laughed as she gawked at the website I pulled up on her iPad. “For what?”

  “Because it has a private bedroom and bathroom with a shower. You’re going to need that.”

  “And you want this before we leave Charlotte?” Mona had that no task is impossible gleam in her eye.

  “Preferably. Just a lease though. No need to spend half a mil on a bus right now since we’re only out for three months. If you find one, put it on my AMEX. I don’t want the words “tour budget” to leave Roxy and Joey’s mouths. Can the two of you get that done before we pull out of here?”

  Mona nodded but Sunny shook her head. She was smiling though so I knew that she didn’t have a problem with me making her comfort a priority.

  ***

  Everyone was in the grand ballroom of the Hilton hotel. I don’t know if Perry and Steve are buddies with the Hiltons but we only stay in Hiltons when we’re on tour. For security reasons, I’ve always thought that was a little unsafe but they don’t seem to care about that. We must get a good deal.

  There was a giant buffet with more than enough food for fee the fifty or so people in the road crew set up in the room. This is our last stress-free night before we hit the stage tomorrow and this summer tour gets underway so I wanted to make sure we had a good time.

  “Yo! I can’t believe Sunny is back on the road with us again!” Wild Mike laughed as he mopped up marinara sauce with a piece of garlic bread. “You must have missed us.”

  Sunny giggled. “Not really. Y’all drove me crazy and I only did two tours before I quit.”

  “We drove you crazy?” Eddie howled. “You’ve got to be kidding me! Between you, Roxy, and Joey’s road rules, how the hell did we ever have any fun back then?”

  “You had plenty of fun,” Sunny argued. “I couldn’t really stop y’all from doing anything, despite my best efforts.”

  “No, you just sat in the hotel lobbies and gave us that I’m so disappointed in you vice-principal stare. You were so on your job that we forgot you even knew how to have fun.”

  Sunny had a sheepish grin on her face. I couldn’t tell if she felt bad for all the teasing. I hoped not. She had to remember how much of a pain she and Roxy could be and we were just doing short runs...no more than a few weeks. She quit before my first big American tour, like weeks before.

  Over the years, Roxy has gotten a thousand times better. She doesn’t feel the need to hold my hand when I’m on tour anymore. Now she only shows up the first day, the last day, and any time Joey is performing with us. She also pops up whenever she has something important to tell me. Roxy is a big fan of face-to-face meetings. She’d rather hop on a plane than just Facetime me.

  “Yo, A.T! Remember that show we did at Cynthia Woods?”

  Eddie couldn’t help himself. Bringing up that trip to Texas is a running joke amongst the band. It wasn’t our finest moment but it was great payback for Roxy and Sunny’s behavior. And someone always brings it up in front of Sunny just to remind her that she is not in charge. She learned a valuable lesson that night.

  “Oh God,” Sunny groaned. “Why must we always be reminded of groupie night?”

  We all had a great laugh. That was a great night. We were only supposed to be in for The Woodlands, Texas for thirty-six hours...set-up, then the show, a few hours of sleep then back on the road again. If Sunny hadn’t given us the harshest pre-game speech ever, that’s all it would have been.

  “I don’t know what your problem is,” she had started her lecture with. “Y’all are grown men. Eddie, you have a wife! And Mike, aren’t you still with Jessica? Can y’all please just play your damn show, get back on the bus, and be done with it? These girls don’t really like you. They all just want to fuck a musician and you’re dumb enough to risk everything to let them. Joey, I know you have some self-control. Erica, you don’t have to be a ho every day of the week. Aiden, you’re the worst and I swear to God, if you parade one groupie through this lobby tonight, I will kill you.”

  She went on for fifteen more minutes on the same topic. She accused all of us of being hoes, cheaters, and infidels, and made us swear that not a single girl would cross the Hilton threshold to get to us. It was a challenge that Mike, Eddie, Joey, and I happily accepted. Even Erica was in on it. We didn’t have sex with all the girls who we invited back to the hotel. It would have been impossible even if we wanted to. From the hotel to the venue, we invited every female we saw back to our rooms for a post-show cocktail.

  They came in waves and droves. Sunny and Roxy could not stop them or the opening and closing of doors all night long. By the time we boarded our bus, we hadn’t slept at all, and Sunny didn’t speak to us again until we got to Baton Rouge.

  “Everybody!” I stood up and shouted with my glass in the air. When the room quieted, I continued speaking.

  “Tomorrow is going to be the start of another awesome summer! Some of you have been around since the beginning and some of you are brand new. None of that matters because every tour, every show is different and we’re all in this together. I just want you to know that even though we’re,” I motioned to my band filling up the seats at my table, “on stage every night playing, none of this would be possible without the greatest road crew in the world. I can’t
thank y’all enough for the job you do. You guys are the reason I look and sound so damn good on stage. So, from June to August, we’re gonna eat, drink, party, and play a little music! Let’s do this thing!”

  Chapter 3:Raleigh

  I felt my phone vibrate underneath my pillow as the tour bus hit another pothole. I couldn’t tell which one woke me up. I sat up on the bed and reached for my phone.

  “What Delilah?” I growled at my little sister. “I just walked off stage an hour ago.”

  “Shut up,” Delilah fired back. “I had to call you. Sara’s having contractions and we’re taking her to the hospital.”

  “Sara’s a doctor who’s married to a doctor,” I laughed. “She doesn’t know the difference between Braxton Hicks and real contractions?”

  My older sister was just six months along in her first pregnancy, but I wasn’t worried. Sunny had contractions all the time before she actually went into labor with my child.

  “Shut up!” Delilah repeated. I could practically hear her pouting through the phone. “You think you’re so smart because you read all those books when Sunny was pregnant. Obviously the two doctors think it’s more serious than that or we wouldn’t be going to the hospital, would we?”

  I yawned. I didn’t mean to be rude, but I did just play a three-hour show. As usual, my second show of my summer tour was amazing! When I climbed onto my tour bus, I was exhausted. I wasn’t prepared for the start of this tour. Not as much as I planned to be. I blame Sunny.

  “Should we come to LA? Is it that serious?”

  If I had to stop the bus and fly back to Los Angeles, I definitely would if my sister and her baby were in trouble. My fans wouldn’t be thrilled, but so what. I’ve dedicated most of my life to my music and my fans. Because of that, I’ve learned that nothing is more important than the ladies in my life: my mother, two sisters, my daughter, and my best friend.

  Delilah sighed. “I don’t think that she’s having a miscarriage if that’s what you’re asking. She can feel Imani kicking.”

  “She’s having a boy and his name is going to be Tyler,” I argued.

  “Why don’t you name your own son Tyler and be happy that you’re going to be an uncle to a beautiful baby girl?”

  “Tyler Tyler?” I snorted. “Yeah, that will go over with Sunny really well. Why don’t you have a kid and name him Tyler? I can’t be the only Tyler left in this family.”

  “You won’t if you have a son,” Delilah stated. “You and Sunny better get busy. Summer needs a brother.”

  “Yeah right. Sunny isn’t having any more kids.”

  “I think she’ll do anything for you,” Delilah sighed before trying to rush me off the phone. “I just wanted to let you know what was going on here. Tell Sunny that we booked Madison Charles again so if she could hop out from underneath you and reply to my emails, that would be awesome. I gotta go. I’ll talk to you about your show later. Love you. Bye.” Delilah took a breath and ended our call.

  I slipped my phone back under the pillow and rolled out of the bed. It was almost two in the morning and I wasn’t supposed to be in the bed alone. I certainly hadn’t been in there by myself an hour ago.

  I passed the bunks that held my sleeping band mates, frowned at the empty one belonging to Erica, and walked to the front of the bus. Sunny was sitting on the sofa with her legs curled underneath her. Her iPad was in her hand. I sat beside her and turned on the television as she rested her head against my shoulder.

  We’ve only been on tour for a few days. I know I’ll get used to seeing Sunny on my bus, but at this very moment, I can’t believe she’s here. I ran my hand along her shoulder. Her normal peanut butter colored skin was at least two shades darker since we spent a week in the Caribbean before the tour started. It was supposed to be a relaxing vacation before we hit the road. It wasn’t.

  “What are you doing?” I asked, but I knew the answer before Sunny spoke. Sunny never stops working.

  “Sending my web guy some more pictures from the last RainDrops photo shoot. And trying to catch up on some of these emails.”

  Sunny’s body tensed like she was preparing for a fight. I wondered why. She’ll never let little things like vacation and touring stop her from running her business. When she agreed to come on tour, I knew that her phone and iPad were going to be glued to her hand. I’m used to it.

  “Why’d you get all tense?” I asked.

  “Because I have to work and I don’t want to fight about it,” she stated. “I can’t sit on my ass for the next three months.”

  “Did I say anything about you not working?” I started laughing. “We already discussed this. Besides, I’m not Tristan.”

  “I know you’re not Tristan,” she snapped. “Believe me, I know.”

  “Then stop thinking I’m going to respond to the things you do like he did. This is the second time you’ve done that.”

  “Sorry,” was Sunny’s response before she looked up at me. “You talk to Sara?”

  “No. Dee-Lee,” I replied. “You worried?”

  Sunny shook her head. “Sara thinks her doctor can stop the contractions. She’s not having her child three months early. She’ll wait until we get home.”

  “Speaking of home…” I smirked. Sunny looked at me and rolled her eyes.

  “We just got on the road, Aiden. I don’t plan on you spending the next ninety days mad at me because I’m not moving back into that mansion. I love my house.”

  Hearing Sunny say that she loved the house I bought for her made me feel like I finally did something right. When I bought her dream house before she made an offer on it, I knew that I was taking a huge risk. Sunny tries very hard to prove that she doesn’t need her rockstar baby daddy to do things for her. But she wanted that house and I needed to call a truce.

  “Babe, I didn’t ask you to move back in Chateau Tyler. Can you even imagine that? Me, you, Summer, Mom, Sara, Tahir, and Tyler all under one roof. We both know that would never work.”

  “Who is Tyler?”

  “Sara’s son,” I replied.

  “She’s having a girl,” Sunny laughed. “We’re naming her Imani.”

  “Wanna put money on it? Five grand says she has a boy.”

  “Listen Moneybags,” Sunny frowned. “I don’t make five thousand dollar bets.”

  “Because you’re cheap. You can afford it. Put your money where your mouth is, Miss Rain.”

  Sunny tossed her iPad to the side. In one motion, she swung her legs over mine and straddled my thighs. Her moleskin journal fell on the floor. I picked it up, expecting her to snatch it out of my hand.

  “Were you writing in your journal?”

  “A little before I started working.”

  “Why don’t you blog like everyone else?”

  “Because the stuff I write in there is personal. I’m not going to expose the world to my fears and insecurities via the Internet. You write songs to express yourself. I write in my journal. I’m sure you understand that.”

  I sat the journal down and looked into Sunny’s hazel eyes. “You never write me anymore. Remember when you used to text me quotes and inspiration stuff?”

  “I didn’t know you liked that. You never responded.”

  “I didn’t think a response was required, but yeah, I loved it. Why’d you stop?”

  “Aiden,” Sunny looked into my eyes. “You’re a rock star. You don’t need my daily inspirational quotes anymore.”

  I shook my head. “I get five million texts a day. It’s nice to wake up to something that isn’t someone asking me to do something for them.”

  “You want me to send you love notes? That’s so cute.” Sunny rested her head against my shoulder and let out a deep breath.

  “What?”

  “I can’t believe we’re here,” she sighed. “You and me…together. I swear to God, Aiden, you call me Baby and my heart damn near jumps out of my chest.”

  “Not to mention how you can’t keep your hands off me.”

 
; “I’m serious. I know it’s not always going to be like this, but right now, I’m so happy.”

  There were tears in Sunny’s eyes as she leaned her head forward. I kissed her forehead and tightened my arms around her waist.

  “I told you that you’d be happy with me. You just didn’t want to believe me. We’re together now. I’m on tour. Let’s not turn this into a chick flick moment. You know the rules”

  Sunny hopped off my lap and adjusted the waistband of her tiny shorts that were straining to cover her ass. I wasn’t about to hide the fact that her perfect round ass was making me hard. Maybe now that she’s with a dude who doesn’t give a shit if she looks like the women she designs clothes for, she’ll stop talking about losing weight.

  “Do you own a lot of those shorts?” I asked as I stood behind her and rubbed my hand over the curve of her behind. She burst out laughing.

  “I have a few. I got them at Target.”

  “I swear to God, we are stopping at every Target in every city on this tour!”

  “Get a room!” my drummer yelled from his bunk.

  “Not on the schedule yet!” I called back. “Put your headphones on and go to sleep!”

  Mike pulled back his shade and grinned at me and Sunny. “You take your sand to the beach ass to sleep,” he joked.

  “I brought sand to the beach cuz my beach is better. You can keep that beach because that beach is whatever.”

  “Shut the hell up! You ain’t Hov and Sunny damn sure ain’t Beyonce!”

  “Don’t have to be,” Sunny laughed. “Hov’s beach wears my clothes though.”

  Mike groaned. “So it starts. Dude! I can’t believe you’re making us tour with Sunny.”

  “Don’t get it twisted,” Sunny replied. “I’m not working for him this time around. My ass ain’t on the line when he starts pulling his classic tour antics. That’s Mona’s problem now.”

  Sunny walked down the short hallway to our room and shut the door.

  “You angered the beast,” I told Mike.

  “For real though, man,” Mike said in his low southern drawl. “I’m happy to see the two of you together and all. But she’s here and Erica is not. We can’t play this whole tour without Erica. You heard us on stage. The sound is off and you know it.”