Shatter (27 page)

Demetri

“I have to admit, this plan kicks ass.” I rubbed my hands together in excitement and
kissed Alyssa on the forehead
.
H
e
r
father had totally outdone himself and made so much taffy for the occasion that if
I died in five seco
nds I would still be in heaven.

“Thanks.” Alec shifted nervously on his feet next to me
. “
Shit, I’m nervous as hell.”

“It will be fine.” Alyssa
reached for his hand and squeezed it.

The cafeteria was full of friends and family. Both of Nat’s parents had made it as
well as some
of our friends from schoo
l. I patted Alec on the back an
d waited for the doors to open.

Nat had been slumming around the house just like Alec
.
B
oth of them looked like they hadn’t slept in years
,
so it was actually Angelica’s idea for someone to do her makeup and put her into a
dress before she faced everyone.

I didn’t think it was necessary until I saw Nat yesterday. She had dark
circles
under her eyes and she looked thin
—
which couldn’t be good considering she was pregnant.

The door opened.

Damn. Well done
,
Angelica.

Nat gasped when she walked into the room
.
S
he was wearing a white sundress with strappy sandal things and her hair h
u
ng loosely around her shoulders. I couldn’t tell if she had makeup on
,
but her face somehow looked bri
gh
t
er, and her lips were shimmery.

I nudged Alec, but he seemed paralyzed. His mouth dropped open
,
and then he took a stride
toward
Nat
,
then another. Um, not part of the plan, but—

And then he was kissing her.

Ma
uling her in front of everyone.

I cleared my throat and wondered if I should cover Alyssa
’s eyes or something.

“Why don’t you kis
s me like that?”
s
he whispered.

“What?” I turned to her
. “
I kiss you like that all the time.”

“No
,
you don’t
.
Y
ou’ve never done that with your tongue
.
D
id you see his tongue—
”

“—Please don’t
refer
to Alec and his tongue ever again. Ever.”

Al
yssa giggled. The little tease.

Finally Alec pulled away. Nat’
s eyes were shining with tears.

“Nat
.”
Alec sighed and went down on one knee
. “I’ll never stop loving you. I’ll never stop wanting to be with you. My heart…”
He shuddered
. “
It’s yours. It’s always been yours. I can’t take back the mistake I made this last
year. I can’t take back all those times I didn’t protect your heart when it should
have been my first priority. I also can’t promise that I won’t mess up again. I’m
an ass, but I’m learning
,
and all I know…
is that I want you by my side every single day for the rest of my life. I want us
to be a family. I want to be your family.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out
a six carat antique cut diamond solitaire ring. I knew it was badass because Jayemeson
and I went into Portland to get it with him.
Though, I didn’t know exactly how cool until Alyssa almost passed out when Alec showed
it to her to get her approval.

“Be my wife. Be my partner. Marry me?”

The room was deathly silent. I sw
ear I was sweating for the guy.

I expected Nat to cry. Instead she laughed out loud and pulled Alec
up from
his knees and kissed the hell o
ut of him in front of everyone.

When they broke apart she laughed again and shouted
. “
Yes!”

“He should have s
u
ng to her again
,
” Jaymeson said next to me. “Americans
.
N
o romance whatsoever.”

“Says the man who abandoned yet another woman in his bed last night.”

“She left satisfied.”

“Boys!” Alyssa interrupted
. “
Do you mind? The
y’
r
e
kind of having a moment and I want to listen.”

Jaymeson snickered
. “
You’re next, Demetri.”

“Laugh now…
but remember what I said
.
W
hen you fall, and you will…
it’s going to be hell.”

Jaymeson rolled his eyes and walked o
ff.

Alec twirled Nat in his arms around the room. Everyone began to clap and disperse.
We had taffy, cake, and tons of
snacks for friends and family.

It hit me in that moment, that you never really know where life is going to take you.
Our bad choices led us to Seaside, Oregon of all places. But that’s where we found
our forever. It made me realize that sometimes forever isn’t where you expect
it to be
, and that’s okay. Because the best parts of my life have been unexpected, and I wouldn’t
change that for the wor
ld.

Alec

Nat grabbed my hand and pressed it to her swollen belly
. “
Do you feel her moving?”

I nodded and tried like hell not to cry. We’d just started the first leg of our tour
and already I was ready to have a nervous breakdown over the fact that my pregnant
wife was carrying a girl.

A girl
.

As in a girl
who
would grow up into a teenager, then a woman, and date. Dating. Not gonna happen. I’d
told Nat, but she just laughed at me as if I was joking. Seriously, I was losing sleep
over it. Holy shit, I was going to be that dad. The type
who
cleaned his guns in front of his daugh
t
er
’
s potential da
tes in order to scare them off.

“What
’
s wrong?” Nat rubbed my head.

“Oh, just thinking about guns.”

She laughed
. “
Do I want to know?”

“No.” I chuckled
. “
You don’t.”

A knock sounded on the door. We’d been hanging on the tour bus for the last day while
we traveled through Washingto
n state to our stop in Seattle.

“Guys!” Demetri burst into our room.

“Good thing we weren’t
indecent
,
” Nat grumbled.

Demetri waved her off
. “
Whatever
.
Y
ou guys are always all over each other
,
and can I just say I’ve seen my fair share of PDA since starting this tour? Seriously,
you guys disgust me.”

“I heard that!” Alyssa shouted behind him.

Grinning, Demetri winked at us and shrugged
. “
Sorry to interrupt
,
but big news.”

Nat whispered something naughty in my ear and tugged it with her teeth. “Dude, make
it fast or I’m going to punch you in the face.”

“They added more tour dates because we completely sold out all cities, so we aren’t
going to get home as soon as we thought, but the good news?”

I waited.

Demetri chuckled
. “
Jaymeson fell.”

“Fell?” I repeated
. “
What does that even mean?”

“You’ll see.”

Keep reading for a sneak peak of Jaymeson
’
s story in
Fall: A Seaside
N
ovel
.

Chapter One

Jaymeson

“You’re a man
-
whore.”

Not what I expected my manager and long time friend to say to me after
I had
not only starr
ed
in three blockbuster hits last year
,
but
I
successfully pull
ed
off the longest summer of my life in Seaside
,
Oregon with boy
band A
D
2.

“Pardon?” I tossed my cell in
one
hand and laughed as anot
her text alert went off.

WNNA MEET UP?
—
CANDY

I hit ignore and stuffed
the phone back into my pocket.

“As I was saying
.”
Brett cleared his
throat
. “
You’re turning into a—”

“—Whore, got it.” My phone went off again, I held up my hand
. “
Hold that thought
,
Brett.” My phone blinked
with
another mes
sage
.
Candy again? Nope
,
this one
was from Brit. Ah, Brit. A man could get lost in those giant—

“—Jaymeson!” Brett snatched the phone from my hand and slammed it against the mahoghany
desk. “People want to like you
.
T
hey really do. It’s just…”

My phone beeped underneath Brett’s hand.
His face
turn
ed
an interesting shade of purple,
and
he picked up my pho
ne and threw it into the trash
can.

“What the hell!” I lunged for my phone
,
but he moved to stand in front of the can and glared. Uh
-
oh.
His nostrils were flaring
.
T
hat
only happened when he was royally pissed. Maybe I should go back to England on an
extended holida
y. Anything to get rid of Brett, or whoever the hell was texting me.

So what? People thought I was a man
-
whore
.
At least I wasn’t some drug
-
addicted madman running up and down Sunset
Boulevard
with my trousers falling around my ankles. I mean, really
.
T
here were worse things in life.

“We done?” I asked coolly.

“Not by a long shot.”
A vein throbbed on Brett’s temple
as he pointed his finger in my direction. “You’ve gotta get your shit together, Jaymeson.
I’m not kidding this time.”

“My shit is just fine. Thank you
,
” I retorted with a mocking glare.

He cursed and ran his fingers through his hair.

I stood and stretched
. “
Look, I’m the least of your worries. You’ve got celebrities shooting up heroin and
snorting cocaine and slapping tattoos on their asses
with
misspelled words. Compare me to them and I’m…” I exhaled
. “
Mother Theresa?”

“And now you’re blasphemous
,
” Brett muttered
. “
And if you think you’re in the clear
,
then you’ve got another thing coming. Look.” He threw down a few of the tabloids.
Pictures of me littered them, as they always did, but this time it hit me straight
in the gut.

“What’s that?”

“You tell me.”

I was lying across a couch with three scantily
-
clad women. Each of them
was
snorting a line of cocaine
.

It looked bad.

“I don’t do that shit, believe me. I know what it does to a person.” My step-mom being
the prime example.

“I know that.” Brett sighed
. “
And you know that. But the media? They’ve just labeled you America’s newest English
bad boy. They’re calling you the new British Invasion. My phone
’
s ringing off the hook with irate producers who are thinking very heavily about not
casting you
,
only because it appears that you’re not serious about your work. Now. Sit.”

I sat this time and moaned into my hands. “What do I do?”

“Stop sleeping around.”

“Be reasonable.” I laughed
. “
What can I do that won’t make me want to kill myself?”

With an evil smile, Brett answered
. “
Well, I thought you’d never ask.” Brett pressed a button on his phone
. “
Y
e
a
h
, Patty, go ahead and book that trip to Portland for Jaymeson
.
G
et him a car too.”

“Portland?” I repeated
. “
Oregon?”

Brett folded his arms across his chest. “Nope.”

I wasn’t sure I wanted to know where he was going with this.

“Seaside, Oregon. You’re going back to hell.”

Was it selfish to
wish for a plane to crash?