“You look beautiful,” I said as I glanced down at her simple jeans and tank. The sweats that she had left my place in that morning were not something I wanted my friend to see her in. Especially since they had been hanging off her, even after she had rolled, tucked, and gathered the extra fabric into rubber bands to make them fit better.
“Thanks.” She kissed me again, quick and hard. “I’m starving, babe. Where are we eating.” Her gaze went over my shoulder and I felt her stiffen. “I assume it will be the four of us…”
Axton pushed between us, hugging her. “Yep. I’m not turning down the chance to be with little Lana.”
She wrinkled her nose at him. “Why do I like you again?”
“My charming personality? The sexy rock god persona?” He smacked a kiss against her cheek, and I had to grit my teeth before I said something I would regret.
Lana raised a dark brow. “Yeah… No, neither of those things.”
Axton pouted. “But…But…You don’t like me?” He grinned. “You know you do, sweetheart. You don’t have a mean bone in that beautiful body.”
“Mean? Maybe not. Bitchy, fuck yeah!” She hugged him before stepping back and putting her hand in mine. “And you, rock legend? Are you going to be joining us too?”
Cole shrugged. “It looks like it, beautiful. Might as well tag along. You wouldn’t deprive an old man of some company for a mere meal, would you, sweetness?”
I felt tension in Lana, but she didn’t look like she was upset. In fact, she was smiling at Cole. “No. I wouldn’t dare do a thing like that.”
Lana
What the fuck had I been thinking?
I should have told Cole, and probably Axton too, that I didn’t want them coming. I had been doing nothing but thinking about Drake all morning, and I had hoped we could have something small at a quiet café or something. Instead, I had had a moment of insanity and a plan had formed.
We all got in the back of Axton’s car, since it was the first one we came to. Axton gave his driver the address for some deli that he said he favored and we were off. I was stuck between Ax and Drake while Cole took up the seat across from us. I didn’t mind that I was squished up against Drake. I would have been pressed there even if Axton wasn’t crowding us.
A silence descended the back of the car and I started to feel tense. Not even Drake’s hand tracing little swirls on my arm could fully distract me. Sighing, I broke the silence. “So, Cole… Are you married?”
Cole snorted. “Tried that once. It didn’t work out too well.”
I knew all about his one marriage. It had ended in a nasty divorce. That had been about twenty years ago, and Cole had had to shell out a big load of cash to keep his secrets a secret.
“How about kids? Got any of those?” I was surprised that my voice was so calm, that I was able to keep my smile in place for so long without my face breaking.
The old rocker shrugged. “One or two. Neither of which want anything to do with me.”
“That’s too bad,” I murmured, offering some sympathy. It would look really bad if I suddenly started screeching at him. “Sons? Daughters? Both?”
“One of each. My son is in the movie business. His mother is an actress.” Which meant that the son’s mother was also Cole’s ex-wife. “And my daughter… I haven’t seen her since she was a baby. Fuck, I don’t even know what her name is. Her mother was a real bitch.”
I stiffened. He had to be lying. Had to! No way had he seen me when I was a baby. Layla would have told me that kind of thing. Unless… Maybe she didn’t know? Crap, now I was going to have to call her and ask her if she knew about it. Layla was going to worry, and Jesse was going to get pissed. Then hot head Jesse was going to fly out to New York and all hell would break loose.
Because as soon as the tabloids found out that I was Cole Steel’s daughter and the reason for his expensive breakup from his wife… Oh and that I was currently Drake Stevenson’s girlfriend… I wasn’t going to have a moment’s peace.
Chapter 18
Lana
It seemed like I had just blinked my eyes and five weeks had gone by. Maybe it was because I was so happy. I had no free time with summer school, the beginning of the fall term, and dance practice with Linc.
If possible, I had lunch with Drake every day. The auditions were still going on with the end of the line nowhere in sight. People actually had backpacks full of food and drinks, and they had sleeping bags so they could camp out in the line. Of course when I showed up, the producer always started muttering under his breath and was quick to wrap things up so I was out of the way sooner rather than later. Axton and Cole had lunch with us several times. I enjoyed spending time with Axton. His sarcasm was amusing, his sexiness easy on the eyes. He was a good friend. Cole?I had mixed feelings about. I wanted to keep hating that old fucker, but he had actually chipped away at the ice around my heart where he was concerned.
Turned out Cole Steel wasn’t all bad. He could be charming when he wanted to be. Don’t get me wrong, I would always hate that bastard, but at least I didn’t have to try as hard to hide that hate all the time. I hadn’t asked Layla about what Cole had said. I didn’t want to open that can of worms just yet. It was getting harder and harder to keep Jesse in LA with each passing day, and I didn’t want to give him a reason to jump on a plane with my sisters.
Today was Friday and I had talked Dallas and Harper into going with me to have lunch with Drake and the guys. Shane had begged me all evening last night to bring Harper, refusing to leave Drake and me alone until I gave in. He had it bad. Harper wasn’t falling for any of his usual tricks, which normally had women handing over their underwear and pleading for the rocker to give it to them hard.
If possible, Axton was worse than Shane. Drake had asked me to persuade Dallas to do the OtherWorld video. I had worked on her for three days before she had given in and accepted. You had to know how to push the right buttons with Dallas because she was stubborn as hell. Mostly, she had mommy issues and was a real daddy’s girl. Lucky for me—and Axton—that Austin Bradshaw hated his ex-wife just as much as his daughter disliked her. One phone call and Austin was in New York telling Dallas to accept the job.
That had been two days ago. Dallas had called Axton and told him that she would do the video… If I did it with her. Sneaky bitch! Put on the spot, I had had to agree. She had been staring me down at the time daring me to say no. Drake hadn’t liked the idea. When his manager had suggested that I be in Demon’s Wings video last Thanksgiving, Drake and Jesse both had gone a little crazy.