Jack appeared with what looked like a beer for Trey. And only when Trey admitted, “This stuff is growing on me,” did I realize it must have been nonalcoholic.
“Camilla, what do you do?” Jack asked.
“Graphic design, right?” Leila asked, impressing me that she remembered from that intimidating meeting I had with their lawyer.
“Yes… mostly reworking corporations’ websites.” I could feel Trey’s eyes studying me closely. “It allows me to make my own hours, work from home.”
“Be there for Alivia,” Leila said, embellishing my point.
“Right. I’m very lucky.” I reciprocated Leila’s warm smile before asking, “How old are your kids?”
“Our oldest, Shane, is seven. Then we have four-year-old twins, Madden and Siarra, and our youngest is fourteen months. I can’t wait until you meet them. They’ll be home from day camp soon, and Drex is napping.”
“How do you juggle four kids and a demanding career?”
“During the week, I couldn’t do it without Bev, our nanny. On weekends, though, Trey can attest to the fact this place is chaos.” I purposely schooled my expression, not wanting to tip her off how shocked I was that they had no help on weekends.
“That’s an understatement,” Trey said with a smirk.
“On that note, let’s relax while we can.” Leila stood and asked, “Jack, can you help me?”
“Sure, babe.”
Once they walked away, Trey came and sat in the chair Leila had vacated. “Are you mad?”
I wanted to say I was furious, but how could I be? There wasn’t a trace of arrogance in the way he asked, or in the worried lines of his handsome face. Surprisingly, I understood his motive of bringing me there. He was trying to get me to see the real him. This cocky always-so-sure-of-himself man was insecure and didn’t trust himself to show me the real Trey Taylor.
“No, I understand why you pretty much tricked me here,” I said, narrowing my eyes. And in an uncharacteristic move on my part, I laid my hand on his arm and, while ignoring the subtle widening of his eyes, added, “And I’m glad you did.”
Chapter 13
Trey
After Jack and Leila put out a tiny spread of finger foods, and Camilla finally agreed to having a glass of wine along with Leila, we all fell into a comfortable discussion.
Camilla’s questions came easily about the band and touring. With each one she asked, I wondered if it was for her own curiosity or for a specific agenda. And I hated having suspicions when it came to Camilla, because that made me no better than her in judging a person without truly knowing them. Regardless, I couldn’t help it.
Through a monitor propped on the end table, we heard Drex fussing before he released a full-blown wail. “Camilla, would you like to come with me to get him?”
She nodded eagerly and then followed Leila up the stairs.
“You okay?” Jack asked in a low voice once we were alone.
“I don’t know.” He quirked up a brow, forcing me to explain. “She’s hard to read. I can’t help but wonder if she’s taking notes, building a case, just waiting for me to screw up.”
Jack studied me for a long while. “Screw up how?”
I released a sarcastic huff. “Do you really need me to list the ways?” Shit, there were at least a hundred bad habits I could easily fall back into, not that I would. But before now, if I had it would be on me, and the only people my actions would disappoint were my bandmates. The stakes had suddenly gotten a lot higher, and the repercussions could have me losing Alivia forever.
“No, I get it.” Jack glanced down at his beer. “I guess what I meant was, you seem solid. If finding out about Alivia is fucking with you, then I want to be sure you’re talking about it and not bottling it up.”
I couldn’t blame my friend for assuming that I was solid or to worry that I wasn’t any longer. I’d had a few slipups since I’d returned to them. I wasn’t perfect. And it didn’t help that over the years I had perfected hiding behind my truths… keeping those closest to me in the dark.
Fuck, it had taken a solid ten years before they all found out Trey Taylor wasn’t my real name. It took that long to finally fill them in that I was actually from Utah and not upstate New York as I had originally claimed. They knew none of that, nor did they have any idea that I was the son of the man who killed the first girl I ever loved, and who tried but failed to kill me afterward. Once I lost Taylor, whose name I had taken when I ran away from the hell that I lived in, I never dared to love another until I met Tara.
Since Tara died two years ago, that skill I had of pretending that life was great had come in handy. My tolerance for heartache was pretty fucking high, and the ability to make light of situations and appear bored with life helped me skate through. For the most part, I was solid… as long as I didn’t dwell on all I’d lost and resisted a constant formidable urge to numb myself.
The way Jack stared at me with unmasked concern forced me to say, “Hey, I don’t want you to think I’m one step away from falling off a cliff. But every time someone comes into my life, I can’t help but wonder when I’ll be losing them.”
“Trey, you can’t go through life that way. You need to focus on the now, the blessings you have at this very moment.”
“Yeah, yeah. I know… and I plan on discussing this with my therapist next week. Doesn’t mean my subconscious is on board with that.”
“Someone wants his daddy,” Leila said from the top of the stairs. She carried Drex down with Camilla close on her heels. I watched as she cooed at the baby, a lightness in her expression that I’d only seen appear when she was with Alivia.
“Hey, buddy,” Jack said when they stepped closer. He held his arms out for his son, but at that moment Drex spotted me and pointed his chubby finger my way. “You want Uncle Trey?” Jack asked him. When his little legs pumped excitedly, I caught Camilla’s stunned expression.
“Come here, bud,” I said, forcing Leila to bypass her husband and bring her son to me instead. I opened my arms for my second-biggest fan in the Lair household, the reason that I was revealed when I positioned him on my knee and bounced him up and down. He giggled and clapped, making me look like a pro at this parenting thing. Little did Camilla know I was a one-trick pony… actually, that wasn’t true. This method worked for anyone under the age of two, and anyone older—which included the rest of the Lair brood, as well as Hunter’s, Scott’s, and Evan’s kids, were all charmed by my guitar-playing skills.
As I made horse noises, I tried not to read too much into Camilla’s continued silence. Thankfully, Siarra, Madden, and Shane barreled through the door with their nanny, Beverly, in tow. When Shane was the first to spot me, I suppressed my smug grin. This was exactly what I had up my sleeve when planning this day.
“Dad! You didn’t tell me Uncle Trey was coming over.”
Jack laughed while peeling the backpack off his son’s shoulders. “He wanted to surprise you.” Taking that excuse for what it was worth, Shane beelined for me, plopped his body down, and began filling me in on every detail of his life that had happened since I last saw him two days ago.