The next night, Dahlia summons me to the house after I’m done with rehearsal.
Hendrick pulls up out front and kills the engine.
“I don’t think it should take too long,” I say as I open the car door. “Dahlia said if I didn’t stop by to see them, they were going to report me missing.”
He laughs. She was serious.
As we walk up the stairs of the house I’ve barely stepped inside in the past month, I swing Hendrick’s and my joined hands. “Do you want to go back to your place, and I’ll get a ride later?”
“Nah, this is fine. I’ve barely seen you the past few weeks either. Except when you’re crawling into bed at night.”
“You didn’t seem to mind so much last night.”
He grins and then knocks on the front door, like I don’t live here, before pulling it open.
I step in before him and then freeze as I see my friends and their boyfriends all standing in the living room waiting for me.
“Surprise!” They yell in unison. Each one of them is wearing a little paper party hat and the house is decorated with balloons and streamers as far as I can see.
“What?” I look from smiling face to smiling face, then back at Hendrick.
“Happy birthday, Jane.” His knowing smirk sends a wave of realization over me.
“You knew?!”
“We had to guarantee you would show up,” Dahlia says, stepping forward. She places a party hat on my head and then hugs me.
“My birthday isn’t for another week.”
“If we had planned it for next week, you would have been suspicious.” Violet grins. “Plus, with everyone’s crazy schedules tonight was one of the few nights we were all free.”
I walk in and turn in a circle, taking in all the decorations. They even taped up pictures of the four of us on the wall above the TV. “You guys didn’t need to do this.”
“Of course, we did.” Daisy thrusts a plastic flute in my hand and then Jordan pops the cork on the champagne.
“Happy twenty-first!” Violet yells and holds up her glass.
Everyone joins in. My eyes are teary. I can’t believe they did this for me. I mean, I can because they’re the best, but still.
Hendrick’s hand comes to rest on my lower back. A silent comfort.
“To Jane,” Dahlia says. “The next twenty years are going to be twice as much fun as the first because now you know all of us.”
My laugh comes out in a half sob. I mouth “I love you” to her as everyone says, “To Jane!”
In no time, the eight of us are sitting around the living room floor with two empty bottles of champagne and scraps of wrapping paper from the presents they all got me. Dahlia blew up a photo of Hendrick in his Rams football jersey to poster size, Daisy put together a collage of photos and memories, plus some drawings she’s done of the four of us, and Vi wouldn’t be Vi if she didn’t use this opportunity to make me another dress.
“I have a rainbow of green dresses,” I say as I hold the lime green material up in front of me.
“I don’t think that’s how a rainbow works,” Jordan says.
“What are you, the color police?” I ask him and then burst out laughing. I’m tipsy and happy. So unbelievably happy.
Hendrick sits beside me. I angle my body and lean into him so my back rests against his shoulder. He shifts to pull me into his chest and wraps an arm around my waist.
“I’m pretty sure a rainbow isn’t determined by specific colors,” Gavin says, looking thoughtfully toward the ceiling. He pulls out his phone. “Siri, what’s the definition of a rainbow.”
Siri rattles off the definition, which doesn’t specify the colors. Gavin and Jordan argue back and forth.
“Will you try it on?” Vi asks me. “I’m dying to see you in it.”
“Of course. This will be easier for Hendrick to get me out of later than these jeans.”
I tip my head to look him in the eye, then wink. He shakes his head with a laugh.
We leave the guys and go upstairs. It’s weird being back in my room. The few times I’ve stopped by, it was to grab something and go. There’s a laundry basket of clean clothes on the bed that I left the last time I was here. It feels like a lifetime ago.
I change into the dress and admire it in the full-length mirror on the back of my closet door. “You are a genius, Vi. I don’t know how you do it.”
“Dahlia helped me.”
She shakes her head. “Barely.”
“Well, I love it. Thank you. Both of you. I think I’ll wear it the next time Hendrick and I go out.”
“Speaking of the boyfriend,” Daisy says the last word pointedly as she gets comfortable sitting on my bed. “How are things with Hendrick?”
“He’s not my boyfriend. He only said that to cover for me. Eric and the rest of the band don’t know he’s my bodyguard and I’d like to keep it that way.” At least I think that’s why he said it. I haven’t brought it up and neither has he. Every time I think about asking him, I kiss him instead.
“You’re spending a lot of time together, though. Time that he doesn’t need to be with you as your bodyguard,” Violet interjects.
“Naked time,” Dahlia adds.
Daisy pins me with a serious and scrutinizing stare. “Do you want him to be your boyfriend?”
“Of course, I do.” I nod and move to sit on the edge of the bed with my friends. “I like him so much. But he has a lot going on right now with his brothers and deciding what to do about his contract.”
“What will you do if he leaves?” Vi asks.
“Cry,” I say with a small laugh. “I can’t imagine him not being here.”
Daisy gives me a sympathetic smile. “Will you hire another bodyguard?”
“I don’t know. Maybe. I know I need to keep taking precautions.”
“Any update on E. Rex Sean?” This from a concerned-looking Dahlia. She worries about me the most.
“No, not really.” I tell them how Hendrick’s boss has been trying to pinpoint the person who emailed and texted me but so far, they don’t know any more than they did the first week. “Hopefully, whoever it was got the hint that I’m not going anywhere.”
“I’ll drink to that,” Vi says and lifts her champagne flute.
“I left mine downstairs.”
“Knock. Knock,” Hendrick says as he does just that on my open door. He holds a glass of champagne in hand. “Thought you might be missing this. Turned out, I was right.”
He lingers there and my friends’ gazes ping-pong between us.
Vi moves first, swinging her feet off the bed. “I should go check on Gavin. He’s been awake since five o’clock this morning and is probably curled up in a ball downstairs asleep.”
“Same.” Daisy follows her.
Dahlia smiles at me and then gets up, too, leaving me alone with Hendrick.
He walks in, looking around my room like he hasn’t seen it before.
I stand and meet him halfway between the door and bed.
His gaze sweeps down my body. “Wow.”
“You like the dress?”
“I like the dress on you.”
“Good answer.” I drape my arms around his neck. His stare is squarely locked on my cleavage. “Sorry I left you downstairs with the boys.”
“It’s all right. I like them, but we’ve reached the point in the evening where it’s . . . how did you phrase it? Chicks before dicks.” He has a playful glint in his eyes and a teasing smile.
He laughs and presses a kiss to my lips, which lights me up like it always does. I wonder if his kisses will ever stop feeling like standing on center stage. The butterflies in my stomach and the tightening in my chest feel like something life-altering is about to happen.
“Hey, I have a question for you.” My pulse quickens.
“All right.” He leans back, gives my cleavage another glance, then flicks his gaze up.
“Shoot.”
“That night when I introduced you to the band, and you said you were my boyfriend. Why didn’t you just say friend or . . . I don’t know, anything else?”
His stare narrows. “You wanted me to introduce myself as your friend?”
“No, definitely not.”
A slow-forming smile tugs at one side of his mouth. “I didn’t want them to know I was your bodyguard.”
I ignore the disappointment of his simple answer. I assumed that’s why, but now I know for sure. “I thought so.”
“That’s it?”
“Yep.” I try to pull away and reach for my champagne, still in his right hand, but he holds on tight with his left.
“Wait,” he says. “That’s not it.”
His hazel eyes spark with heat and something else . . . something that looks a lot like danger. “I said I was your boyfriend because I wanted them to know that you’re mine. Bodyguard, boyfriend, friend, whatever you want to call me is up to you. I’m yours and that’s all that matters. But to everyone else, I want them to know that I’m the guy they have to answer to if they hurt you.”
A shiver dances up my spine and I think my ovaries explode. Holy shit. I’ve always known he was someone I could count on to watch over me, but I think I’ve just realized how far he’d go to keep me safe. He isn’t just following me around and looking out for bad guys; he’s ready to put himself between me and any danger lurking. The same way he’s always putting himself between danger and the people he loves. Who looks out for him?
If there was any doubt that I was in love with him before, there isn’t now. The thought of anything happening to him makes me want to set the world on fire.
“I guess that makes me your bodyguard too, then.”
One brow lifts. “Oh yeah?”
“Yes. If anyone touches you, I’ll claw their eyes out.”
He chuckles softly. I’m sure he thinks I’m kidding. I’m not.
“But boyfriend has a better ring to it, so I think I’ll call you that. Hi, boyfriend.”
His lips pull into a real, honest to God smile. “Hi, girlfriend.”
I close my eyes as he drops another kiss to my lips. My insides buzz with happiness.
“I get it now,” I confess.
“Get what?”
“Why, at the end of the night, couples always sneak off together like they can’t wait another minute to be alone.”
“Is that your way of saying you missed me?”
“Yeah. I guess it is.”
“I missed you too.” His teeth graze along my collarbone.
I roll my head back as he trails kisses all over my neck and down to my chest.
“Hey, girlfriend?” His deep voice rumbles next to my ear.
“Yeah?”
He lifts my champagne to his lips and takes a sip before passing it to me. “Would you mind taking this dress off now, so I don’t rip your birthday gift? I need to be inside you.”
Something I am more than happy to accommodate.
