Page 66 of Princess and Country

Jeffrey

Iwanted to scream for the universe to hear. I was going to be a daddy. The word sounded foreign coming out of my mouth. But I’d seen the stick. Two pink lines. There was no doubt. I’d be a father. Soon. The part of my heart that got lost in the desert came back. The missing parts I’d been looking for, for quite some time, and those I thought I’d never get back. A daddy. Could I ever get used to this word?

“Please don’t tell the guys before we’re done with the show tomorrow,” Dahlia asked me. “And I want to be the one telling Carter.”

“Are you sure you don’t want us to tell him together?”

Dahlia shook her head. “No. Please. Let me do this.”

I slumped my shoulders. “Fine. But I need to do something, and it can’t wait. Let’s get you cleaned up and dressed.”

“Or we can stay here. Locked up in this awful bathroom.”

I jumped to my feet. “Sorry. Can’t do this. I want to go now. It can’t wait.”

A spark of curiosity appeared in Dahlia’s eyes, chasing some of her tears away.

Why was Dahlia so torn up about being pregnant? After everything we’d been through in the last two years, this was the best news we could ever have. It was life’s way of fitting all the broken parts of our lives back together.

That was why, right now, I knew the thought filling my head couldn’t wait. In the last few months, I promised myself that if Dahlia and I were strong enough to patch things up between us, I would do this. It wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment decision. I’d been thinking about it since I was seventeen years old and madly in love with my brother’s best friend. Back when nobody knew about my infatuation for the copper-haired girl with the voice of an angel.

Back then I dated Vanessa, forcing myself to forget about Dahlia. But whatever I did or however much I tried, it never worked. Dahlia crept under my skin when I wasn’t even ten years old and never left.

Dressed in an emerald-green wrap dress, wearing brown cowboy boots, her hair tied in a thick braid, my girl was a vision. My vision. My dick twitched at the sight of her. How did I ever push her away? Would I be able to forgive myself? I broke her heart after I promised I’d never do it.

I swallowed all the emotions rising up my throat. If I let these out, we would both drown in them. There were just too many of them bottled up inside me.

Even in my darkest hours, Dahlia was the light leading me back home. My star to follow. My aim. My goal.

“You look absolutely amazing,” I told her as she snaked her arms around me. I leaned forward to claim her mouth. The mouth that could rob me of all self-control, and also ignite my entire being.

“Where are you taking me?”

“It’s a surprise. First, we’ll go somewhere, then we’ll have dinner. With fake champagne and all your favorite food. I want to spoil you.”

Dahlia’s eyes glazed.

“I hope I’ll be able to keep it all in.”

“We’ll only eat ice cream if that’s what you crave. Anything for you.”

Billy, one of the Band’s security guys, shadowed us. My girlfriend, my brother, and Stud were now rich and famous. Everybody wanted a piece of them. They had crazy fans following them around the globe. Carter had a lineup of groupies, begging to be fucked by him. As if his dick were a stick made of gold that would make them orgasm ten times stronger. Who cared, really? I just hoped my brother used his head better than he used his golden dick.

Stud forwent the idea of one-nighters. After their first world tour, he started dating his personal assistant, Belinda. She followed him on the road all the time. They never had to deal with the long-distance relationship Dahlia and I had to go through.

“Are you ready, Princess?”

Dahlia smiled my way, her moss-green eyes sucking me in. The same way they’d been drawing me in for the twenty years I’d known her.

I leaned over until our lips collided. “Everything will be okay. I love you. Don’t worry about a thing. I’m here, and I’m not going anywhere ever again.”

Earlier, I took Billy to the side and explained my plan. He drove us to King Street after making a phone call, assuring Dahlia and me some privacy and access through the back door, where nobody would see us going in.

That was what my girl’s life had become nowadays. Everywhere we went, people recognized her.

Dahlia locked her arm through mine as we exited the black-tinted car. “Where are we?” From the alley, the brownstone building didn’t give a clue what it hid inside its walls. Billy knocked on the door, and a man in his fifties with long blond locks let us in.

He smiled at Dahlia and shook my hand.