“Since youallowedthe four of us to come back to you.”
“Yeah, ok, since I did that.” Leo’s smirks as she pushes up on her bare toes and brushes her lips against mine. “I didn’t plan for that, for the band. I definitely wasn’t planning on being in love or things like this.” She kisses me sweetly, cupping my cheeks, moving her lips against mine in the softest caress before she’s pulling back slightly and smiling wickedly. “I also didn’t plan on having sex ever again but I’ve been happily railed by the three of you consistently now, and it’s become a rather consuming thought as of late.”
Grabbing the belt loops of her jeans, I tug Leo toward me and smile when she giggles. “We will definitely be revisiting that comment as well as the rest of this conversation, but I’m more interested in this shit with Collinsworth at the moment. If you were so clear on where you stood about the art and being uninterested in him, why is he still calling you?”
“Cause I’m that fucking good.”
“There’s my cocky little shithead.”
Leo grins in my face. “You know I’m right and so does Justine, which is probably why she encouraged him to call about his paintings. I doubt she knows he asked me out but she’ll push for me to keep busy, even if it means taking on a project for that asshole.”
“So, maybe you should tell her? That way she stops trying to push you two into some weird professional thing none of us wants.”
“I know.” She sighs and drops her forehead to my chest. “I need to make sure Justine knows what’s going on. I need to explain that things are different now. She doesn’t have to push anymore, no one does, and as soon as I’m ready, I’m going to do what I’ve always done.”
“Which is make beautiful fucking music.”
“I miss it.”
“It misses you,” I say with a smile, one that grows as Leo giggles again and lifts her head to look me in the eye.
“I miss the music almost as much as I missed you. Corny or not, it’s my destiny; the four of you, what we are capable of doing together. That’s how things are supposed to be, and I’m not supposed to do anything else.”
Halle-fucking-lujah.
Wrapping my arms around my girl, I bury my face in her neck and breathe deeply. I’m so goddamn relieved to hear her say these words. Having Leo back, making sure she’s healthy, that’s the number one priority but getting her to play with us again is something we’ve wanted for so long it was starting to feel like an impossibility. Knowing it’s not? That Leonor is open to the idea and ready to say the words out loud? I’m not sure there’s an emotion to accurately describe how I feel.
But thisisLeo we’re dealing with, so acting completely crazy and over the top the way I want isn’t an option. Not if I don’t want to spook her.
Which is exactly why I switch gears instead.
“So how are you going to handle the douche at the mansion moving forward?”
“I plan on telling him he can take his personal projects and shove them up his stupid ass.” Leo plants a hard kiss on myneck then pushes off my hips before she starts pacing again. “He called me a fuckingcharity case, Norm, like the only way I’d ever be working there is if Justine took pity on me or some shit. I don’t know how he thinks anyone could get past that. Especially since he hasn’t taken the time to actually learn one damn thing about me or my life.”
“Obviously. One thing you’ve never been is a charity case, even when you were peddling on the streets of NOLA. Justine didn’t hire you until she was sure you weren’t a con artist, and she did everything by the book despite wanting to make sure you had a way to take care of yourself.” I lean back into the wall, take a swig of my beer, and shake my head. “What a bastard.”
“Right?” Leo scoffs. “I don’t know why he thought I’d be interested in anything he had to offer.”
And I’d like to clock him for it.
“For a dudewho wears nothing but four articles of clothing, all in black, I think Lucky has a bigger wardrobe than all of us combined.”
Leo hums her agreement as she rolls toward the mountain of shit sitting along the entire length of the loft. “I’m surprised he didn’t stay to start putting things away.”
She definitely has a point, and if Lucky didn’t have other shit to tend to right now, he would have.
But since Leo doesn’t know that, or that the guys are out buying new security equipment for the entire building after a rather unsettling conversation with Franc, it’s my job to keep distracting her. Which is what led to overeating leftovers from last night and about a forty five minute nap in the new bed.
“You think he’d wig out if I started unpacking for him?”
“Norman,” Leo gasps as her head swings in my direction. “If I didn’t know how much you love him, I’d think you were being a dickhead to Lucius.”
Chuckling, I raise my hands in surrender then start crawling toward the edge of our new gigantic mattress. “Just saying. He’s got a ton of shit, sweets. It’s going to take himforeverto get all of this put away exactly how he wants it.” I scrub a hand over my face as I look at mine and Pete’s shit, then glance around the room. “I’m pretty sure it’s not all going to fit, honestly.”
“I’m looking into the loft across the hall,” Leo says nonchalantly as fuck.
“You’re looking into an entire loft for Lucky’s clothes?”
