Assured (Soul Serenade #2)(18)
“I’m a teacher. Not sure how my education and experience will benefit the band.”
He shrugs. “Kace is a planner, always has been. Sounds like he expects this to be a permanent thing. Once the baby gets older, I assume they’ll hire someone to replace you and let you tutor.”
I’m surprised at his candid answers. Not only that, but he seems to understand Kacen. “That’s jumping the gun a little, don’t you think?”
“Maybe, maybe not. I know Kacen will refuse to travel without either of them.” He studies me for a few minutes, as if he needs to gather his thoughts. “The guys and I have always said if one of us wants out, then we’re all done. It’s something we started together, and it’s something we will end together. I see you as Kacen’s way of making sure his family has the best of what it needs. Logan gets her best friend, and their kid gets a good teacher—when the time comes, of course.”
“I guess I can see that. It’s just hard to believe he would be thinking so far ahead.”
“Like I said, Kacen is a planner. He’s not like the rest of us. He never was about hooking up and living the lifestyle to the stereotype that it is. He’s always just wanted to find that one person who gets him and have a family. He found that with Logan, and he won’t stop until he gives her and this baby the world.”
His words shouldn’t surprise me, and they don’t really. I know this about my best friend’s husband. He loves her fiercely. He’s why I’ve changed my ways. I don’t see the point in wasting my time with guys where I see no future; I want what Logan and Kacen have. That’s why I must avoid Cole’s advances. Well, that and the fact that I’m afraid it will be awkward as hell, and who wants to deal with that?
“And what about you, Tristan and Gavin? Do you live up to the stereotype?” I settle back against my seat, prepared for him to backpedal his way out of answering.
“We do.” He nods. “Women throw themselves at you for doing what you love. We’re all three single and unattached, so we take advantage of what’s offered. None of us give them false hope that it will ever be more. We never do repeats and yes, before you ask, we have run off an assistant or two.”
“I appreciate your honesty. I’m a little surprised, actually.”
“Don’t be. With me, what you see is what you get. I have nothing to hide. I’m not ashamed of how I’ve lived my life to this point. I’m living every man’s fantasy.”
“You’re really okay with that? A different girl in each city, never having an emotional connection?”
“Oh, sweetheart, it’s emotional. Trust me.”
“You know what I mean.” I want to tell him that I’ve thought in extreme detail more than once how “emotional” things could be between us.
“I don’t think I do,” he admits.
“Someone to wake up to every day. Someone to lie next to at night. That one person who knows you inside and out, your crutch through life.”
“I have the guys, and I have my family.”
“Yeah, but the intimacy isn’t there.” My cheeks heat as I think of how to get my point across in a way that he might understand. “I want to know that when I fall apart at a man’s touch, that he’s also going to be the one there to catch me when I fall in life, not just in the bedroom. I want a lover and a best friend.”
I watch as he thinks about what I’ve just said. “It’s not something I’ve ever wanted or thought about, really. When I was younger, it wasn’t on my radar because, like most teenage boys, I thought with my cock. Once we signed with the label and released the first album, we kind of blew up overnight. Women were all over us, and I never looked back.”
“That must be lonely.”
“Nah, the variety keeps it interesting.” He wags his eyebrows at me, and I can’t stop the laughter from falling from my lips.
“Okay, funny man, you know that’s not happening. Tell me more about being on the road.” We spend the next two hours sitting in the back booth of Subway, talking about life on tour. Cole is open and honest, just as he said he would be. To my surprise, life on the road is not just one big party.
“Umm, Mr. Hampton—I mean Cole. We’re closing now,” Tommy says from beside us.
This causes me to look at my watch. “It’s late. Sorry for overstaying our welcome.” I smile at Tommy.
He blushes. “No, you didn’t, it’s just time to close.”
“Thanks, man. See you next time.” Cole stands, reaching out for me. This is starting to become a habit, one that I refuse to admit I enjoy. He walks me to my car. “Thanks for eating with me. I hope you take the job.” He tucks a loose piece of hair behind my ear. “It will be good for Logan to have you around.”
He says it will be good for Logan, but the heat in his eyes tells me that he’s not over the idea of the two of us taking a roll in his satin sheets. “I’ll think about it. Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions.”
“Drive safe, sweets.” He opens my door and waits for me to settle in before closing it and tapping twice on the hood.
Slowly, I back out of the lot. In the rearview mirror, I see that he watches me drive away.