Angel (Fallen Angel, #3)(22)

Killian cocked his head to the side. “I’m sorry. Did you just ask for a coffee? All right, who are you and what have you done with my best friend?”

I shot him the finger as he closed the freezer and then moved down the counter to the coffee machine. “I’m trying to cut back a little on the day drinking, that’s all.”

“That’s all, huh?” Killian opened one of the cabinets and pulled out a couple of mugs. “Wouldn’t have anything to do with wanting to impress a certain blond we both know, would it? Next you’ll be telling me you quit smoking.”

“Let’s not get crazy,” I said, though the thought had crossed my mind. Ever since I’d been spending more and more time with the angel, I found myself cutting back on a lot of my old habits and focusing on some new ones. But I knew myself well enough to know that cutting down on one vice at a time was the smartest way to go here. Otherwise I’d turn into a grumpy motherfucker. Well, grumpier than usual.

“You mean crazier than you in a monogamous relationship and not swallowing a bottle of whiskey every few days?”

I scoffed, ignoring his smartass comment, as Killian went back to making the coffee and I unzipped my bag, which I’d put on the stool beside me. “I’m just trying to get my ass in better shape before the tour, that’s all.”

“That used to involve drinking more, not less, so your liver could keep up.”

I pulled out a notebook and some paperwork from my bag and put it on the counter. “I’m turning over a new leaf, what can I say.”

Killian pressed a button on the coffee machine, and then turned to lean back against the counter, crossing his arms as he eyed me for a beat.

“What?” I said, when he remained uncharacteristically silent.

“I’m going to say something right now that might make you uncomfortable and feel like you need to lash out and be a dick. But please try to resist the impulse, okay?”

Not liking where this was going at all, I narrowed my eyes and braced myself.

Then his lips pulled into a wide grin and he said, “I’m so damn happy for you, V.”

Killian was right: the impulse to tell him to shut the fuck up was right on the tip of my tongue. But I managed to bank it, because honestly, I was pretty fucking happy for myself too.

“You and Halo? I didn’t think that would work in a million years—”

“Thanks, asshole.”

“Come on, even you have to admit it was a long shot. But somehow…” Killian chuckled and shook his head. “Somehow it worked out. I mean, shit, V. You told everyone you were in love. How’d that even happen?”

I thought about that night at the prerelease party and how desperate I’d been to get to Halo, to tell him everything I was feeling no matter who the fuck was there, and what had come out after that had seemed as simple as breathing.

“Halo,” I said, imagining that gorgeous face of his, and when I looked to Killian, I shrugged. “From the second he walked into that first audition, I needed to get closer to him, and I still feel like that now whenever I see him. I can’t explain it beyond that.”

Killian ran a hand back through his hair, and as the machine stopped brewing, he said, “I don’t think you have to, man. Wherever he is you want to be, and if that ain’t love…”

“Yeah, yeah,” I said, but lowered my eyes, feeling a little too vulnerable for my liking. “We here to talk about my love life or this showstopper of a piano we’re having made for the tour?”

“You mean the piano you are having made for Halo.”

“We needed a kickass piano no matter what. This is just—”

“Special. Because it’s from you.”

As much as I wanted to tell Killian to quit with the sappy shit, he was right. I’d been adamant that I would pay for the piano, because it was a gift to commemorate the angel’s first tour. Plus, if I’d left it up to the guys, Halo would be sitting behind some boring black number, and that just wouldn’t do. I wanted his concert debut to be an experience he would never forget, and that included being front and center when he played his killer intro for “Invitation.” The one that had refueled our imaginations and kick-started Fallen Angel’s supersonic rise to fame. I wanted this moment to be the one people talked about for years to come.

Killian pushed off the counter and turned to fill the mugs with steaming brew, then he brought them over and slid a mug across to me.

“Okay, show me what you got,” he said as he leaned forward on his forearms to look at the Polaroids I’d taken at the Steinway & Sons factory this morning. “Fuckin’ hell, V. It’s beautiful.”

“Right? And it’s not even finished yet. I mean, look at the detail. Even here, on the legs,” I said, reaching out to turn the Polaroid to face Killian.

He picked it up to get a closer look. “How long did they say it would take to finish?”

As I sifted through a few more of the photographs, I picked up the one that was the most wow and held it out to him. “A couple of months. I paid a pretty fucking penny for them to fast-track it. They said it could be done.”

Killian nodded as he took another sip of his coffee and then took the second picture I held out, and when he looked down at it, his eyes widened until they almost fell out of his head. “Holy shit. Is that… That’s… Halo is gonna die when he sees this.”