Over It (The Kiss Off #2) (16 page)

“Really?” I asked. “Really. What did you expect?”

He was quiet for a moment. “I didn’t think it through enough, did I.”

Recovering from my shock, I tried not to laugh. What an idiot. It was kind of adorable. Terrifying, but adorable. How did those emotions even go together like this?

I looked him up and down and shook my head. “What the hell are you wearing?”

“Do you like it?” he said. He reattached his beard and did a spin in the moonlight. “Mads gave me a makeover. So I could come hang out with you.”

“Mads did this?” I asked. “She didn’t tell me.”

Not that I’d given her much of a chance to.

He wandered closer, his hands in his pockets, and shrugged bashfully. “It was supposed to be a surprise.”

“Ha,” I said, reaching up and running the tip of his beard between my fingers. It was coarser than I’d anticipated. “Well, it was.”

He removed my hands from his luscious locks and held them between us. “So, I have to tell you something,” he said, swinging our hands gently from side to side. “I got a new room, and…” He let go of one of my hands and reached into his pocket, pulling out a key card. “…I got this for you.”

"You changed rooms?" I asked. I could feel my entire face lighting up, my soft and gooey center projecting itself out through my eyes. "For me?"

"Yeah," he said, putting the key card in my hand and wrapping my fingers around it. "You wanted me to. And I'm sorry I didn't take what you were saying seriously."

He draped an arm over my shoulder (until I squealed in pain and he apologized and side–hugged me instead), and we strolled along the beach toward the jetty, alone in the moonlight, the flickers of the bonfire and sounds of frivolity fading away behind us.  Just me and my bearded hobo. I thought he wanted to come and experience the party, but I was more than happy to be led away from it.

"Stalkers aren't a joke. I get that," Ty continued. “And just because I
think
she’s harmless, doesn’t mean she actually is. I get that. I don’t know her, after all.”

"Did she take anything from your room?"

He shrugged. "Don't think so. I think it was just the playlist. And though that's harmless enough, I mean..."

"It could just be the beginning," I said.

"Yeah. You should have seen the manager's face."

"Dex's?"

"No – the
hotel
manager. He was just about crapping himself and couldn't shut up with the apologies that she’d gotten in so easily; if this chick had taken something I think the head of security may even have lost his job. Think they'll be checking pretty carefully on who gets into the lobby from now on, let alone the elevators." He nudged me with his hip. "You'll probably need a key."

"I have one of those," I said.

Ty grinned. It was hard to see under his beard, but it was there. "Damn right you do."

We reached the jetty and made our way toward the end. Ty tapped the heels of his sneakers on the weathered boards, dislodging excess sand.

"Shame," I said. I grabbed his trucker cap, whipped it off his head and jammed it down onto mine. He smiled, letting me do it, but adjusted his beard to make sure it was still in place.

Ty narrowed his brows at me. "What’s a shame?"

"I can't very well sneak Mads and Nikki in sometimes, then, can I."

"Sure you could. You have a key and they're your guests."

"Oh," I said, "hey, yeah. Beautiful."

"
You're
beautiful," Ty said, sending my insides squirming with pleasure. At the end of the pier, he stopped, leaned against the railing, and pulled me in toward him. He locked his hands together behind my waist. "So do you think the key to my Stalker–Free Zone, no girls but Poppy (and maybe Mads and Nikki), completely new room is something you might want to use?"

"It could be," I said.

"Beautiful," he said.

I grinned. "
You're
beautiful."

Ty stroked his beard. "And I feels it, too."

I moved to kiss him but thunked him solidly in the forehead with the brim of his cap. He pulled it off my head and turned it around before planting it back down on me like a homeboy. I kissed him, but couldn't stop laughing as the beard tickled my lower lip and chin. He yanked it down and gave me another quick kiss. We both looked around nervously, but no one was around. There were, however, countless windows on dozens of docked boats, so I pulled his beard back up anyway. Better to be safe than sorry. I should have hated it. I should have hated that we had to disguise ourselves just so we wouldn’t be disturbed when hanging out together in public. But all those windows staring out at us, all those fans just down the beach… I don’t know. It was kind of hot.

"Seriously though, thank you," I said, "for changing rooms, for the key, it's great. I really appreciate it."

"Good. I hate it when we fight."

“Me too,” I said.

We stood there, cuddling on the jetty in happy silence, watching the ripples of water gently rock the docked boats for a moment, before Ty shifted and said, “So you want to see something?”

He let go of me, pulled out his cell, pressed and swiped his way to the videos section and held the phone between us.

“While you’ve been at school all year being this giant nerd…”

“Hey,” I tickled him in the ribs and he squirmed away from me until I stopped and let him continue.

“…I’ve been doing this.” He pressed play and the phone screamed. Thousands of girls screaming. The video was shaky, looking down from a rooftop at a sea of girls, screaming, jumping, waving, holding up banners and their phones, camera lenses pointed up, taking photos and video of Ty taking photos and video.

“Whoa,” I said.

“I know, right? This was when we did the RJ and Ruben radio show in New York.”

The camera phone swung up and around to show Ty’s overwhelmed face as he shook his head in disbelief and waved. Tommy and Seb laughed with glee and Tommy lifted his tank top to show the crowd his six pack. Of course he did. The sound distorted as the screams got even louder. His cell’s speakers were incapable of processing it. I watched as Archie smiled and muttered something under his breath that the boys laughed at but the phone didn’t capture, and he blew kisses at the crowd.

“That’s insane,” I said, mesmerized by a couple of girls near the front wiping overwhelmed tears from their eyes.

“Tell me about it. This is what it’s like everywhere. I don’t know what comes over them, why do girls scream like that?”

I shrugged. I couldn’t explain it, we just did.

“Girls
cry
when they meet us, like competition winners and at CD signings. They
cry
, Poppy. I say hello to them and they start sobbing right in front of me. We were supposed to do a signing at a mall in Kentucky but there were so many people there, the fire marshal ordered that we not even enter the building.”

I grinned at his incredulous face.

“I can’t believe this is my life.”

“I can’t believe it’s your life, either,” I said, squeezing his hands. “I know someone famous.”

He smirked. “This is all your fault, you know,” he said. “This never happened back home before
The Kiss Off
.”

“I’m sorry and I’ll never do it again,” I joked. “Wait, actually, that’s a complete lie.”

Ty quirked a brow.

Before he could answer, something buzzed and a second later his cell was ringing, playing
Mandy
by Barry Manilow (which, I have to admit, was unexpected).

“Sorry,” he said to me, looking at the readout. He turned his back to me and answered the phone. “Hi, Mom.”

I wandered aimlessly a couple of feet ahead of him, down the jetty, running my fingers along the white painted safety railing. Around the nuts and bolts was gritty with rust and small bits of paint had flecked off in sections due to the harsh seaside weather. Or so I assumed. I figured it wasn’t ninety degrees and sunny every day here, we had just lucked out.

As I heard the sounds of his lowered voice on the wind, talking to the woman who raised him, I wondered how long it had been since he’d seen his family. He’d been rehearsing and touring the country for months now. As annoying as my family could be – my mom and all her rules and the way my little brother Rory needed to know everything about everything – I’d still miss them if I was away for a long time. I’d miss the way my dad hums when he’s cooking, and the soft snuggliness of Becca’s cuddles. I’d even miss the dog lying across my feet when I sat at my computer, or curled up next to me on the couch, prodding me gently with his feet as he chased squirrels in his sleep. I’d miss just having them there when things were hard and stressful. I’d miss having them there to celebrate when things were good. As I stared out at the moonlight reflecting off the ocean, butterflies fluttered in my stomach. I wasn’t ready to leave home permanently, to leave the nest. Had he been ready? Didn’t everyone expect they’d live with their families until graduation, at least? I doubted Ty was any different. I wondered what it was like on the road for so long. And so suddenly. His life had changed more than I could even imagine since I’d met him, just a tall boy with neat hair in his Mount Martha's private school uniform.

As I watched him talk to his mom, I wondered if it was weird that I still hadn’t met his parents and brother. I guess if we were going on dates to the movies and dinner at Swanky’s or Myron’s Steak House, or I was hanging out at his place, I would have at least met the fam, if not had a sit–down, ‘getting to know you’ dinner with them by now.

If we had done that, then since Ty had left, his family and I would have kept in touch. I’d have gone around to see them a bunch; I’d have gone to his brother’s hockey games, I’d have watched the news with his dad and sat in the kitchen with his mom, sharing news of what we’d heard about Ty.

We’d have missed him together over coffee and bruschetta and by the time he came home I’d have spent more time in person hanging with his family than I would have spent in person with him.

I’d have slotted neatly into his family and developed into the perfect daughter–in–law, already part of the family and whoa Nelly let’s back this truck up a bit.

I blinked at nothing, shocked at the unexpected turn my thoughts had taken.

I heard him say goodbye to my imaginary BFF, his mom, and he stared at the phone for a second, looking frustrated.

“What’s up?” I asked as he wandered slowly up the jetty toward me. “Everything okay?”

“Yeah, it’s nothing,” he said unconvincingly. “It’s fine. My mom just brings up school a lot.”

I didn’t say anything. I could see by his face that he had more to say, so I waited until he was ready, until he’d sorted it out in his head first.

“They all do. I think our parents must get together all the time now that we’re not there and drink red wine as they talk about us and plot how to trick their boys into finishing high school and getting their diplomas.”

This surprised me. “Would you really need tricking into that?” I asked.

“No. No way, I want to graduate, I don’t want to be a high school dropout. We only had a semester to go. But then all this happened and it sure doesn’t leave time for writing essays or studying for finals,” he said. “Maybe we can get tutors in a couple of months when it all dies down. If it dies down. Do you think it’ll die down?”

I wrapped my arms around him and leaned my head against his chest. He wrapped his arms around me, too. It was almost too hot for this, our bodies radiating heat at each other, but I persisted. It felt important right now.

“I think if it’s important to you-”

“It is,” he cut in.

“Then you’ll find a way. Even if the pace doesn’t let up, you’ll work something out.”

He breathed out heavily. “Man, can you imagine if it stayed like this forever?”

I tilted my gaze up and watched him; watched thoughts flicker through his mind unvoiced. He looked really tired.

“Is it too much?”

He thought for a moment, looking at something just beyond me. I could feel him playing with the ends of my hair.

“Yes and no,” he said. “I mean, yes, it’s too much – the sixteen-hour days, the phone–in radio interviews between sound check and getting makeup done for a photo shoot and interview and show later that night. People watching me all the time, telling me what to do, waking up and not even knowing what state I’m in… but at the same time... it’s incredible. I get to do what I love doing; I get to play music in front of thousands of people who love it as much as I do, and I get to share this whole crazy experience with my best friends since kindergarten. So yes, it’s too much,” he said, “but it’s also exactly enough. Does that make sense? It’s an incredible ride.”

He looked down at me, into my eyes. “How’d I get so lucky?”

He booped my nose and I smiled, lifted myself onto my tip–toes and kissed him.

We stood, cuddling in the moonlight and summer breeze, staring out to the horizon in contented silence for a couple of minutes before I remembered I needed a favor.