"So...fess up." Rose pointed at Derek while wearing his work glove as if he'd committed a crime and she was going to uncover all the dirty details. "You said over the phone that you wanted to be close again--"
"I do."
Now that his sister was standing in front of him, Derek realized just how much he'd missed her. He felt like he'd been walking around the last five years missing an arm.
He'd been to busy with himself to feel the pain--like the records and the tours and the fans were some kind of opiate that had dulled his absence from her life--but now it had all come crashing down on him. Not being a good brother, not being there for his sister in all the little and big ways a twin brother should, it fucking hurt.
"Then tell me what it is. The mind link doesn't include telepathy. At least I don't think it does." She pulled the gloves off and threw them over her shoulder at the bench. Then she crushed one palm to each of his temples and narrowed her eyes. "Let me make sure."
He smiled at her. She was such a goofball. Their mom had always said she got a double dose of goofiness, enough to make up for Derek who was notoriously un-goofy.
"Wait...I think I'm getting something." She squinted even harder while pursing her lips. "I think it's about a woman. You've met a beautiful woman and decided to settle down and finally give me some nieces and nephews to spoil."
The smile slid off his face. He knew she couldn't possibly know, but it still surprised him to hear her say it out loud.
Derek had thought about settling down with Layla. Stupid, he knew, since they hardly knew each other, and she'd made it clear every chance she got to show him exactly how she viewed him--as disposable.
Rose dropped her hands. Her eyes grew wide and her mouth dropped open. "Holy crap on a cracker. It is about a woman. Am I right? It's about a woman? It's never been about a woman with you before. Who is this woman? Where is she?"
"No. It's about me wanting a little privacy to sort out all the shit in my head and those dick heads inside deciding I'd had enough time without checking with me first," Derek grumbled.
"Hey." She put her hands on her hips. "Don't you dare take that tone with me."
"Not you. I'm glad you're here."
"Okay, then. Who is she? Not Rena? Please say it's not her, because I hate that witch."
Rena--who just happened to be his manager's sister--was his last girlfriend, if you could even call her that. Regular hookup was more like it. She was the one who started throwing the word "girlfriend" around, which was exactly enough to make Derek run from her as fast as possible. Derek wasn't into girlfriends, especially ones who clung to you like they needed you to validate how important they thought they were.
Nope. Derek didn't do girlfriends. But with Ms. M., he would have forgotten about every thing he "didn't do" just to spend a few minutes with her.
But he was wrong about her. She was just as much a booty call as Rena every was. Hell, she insisted on it.
According to her, that's what they both wanted. He'd just been momentarily distracted into wanting something more, that's all.
It was the grief combined with his frustration, add to that those stunning dark eyes and slick black hair. The way her cheeks flushed when she got mad about something, which was pretty much all the time. The way her mouth tasted, the way her body felt around his.
A distraction.
"No. It's not Rena. It's not anyone." Derek glanced at his phone, hoping to see what, he didn't know.
A missed text from her? A missed call?
Who the hell was he kidding. She hadn't called or texted him once since they met.
Maybe he wanted her to reach out to him so he could so righteously ignore her. He had the upper hand now, and he'd be damned if he opened himself up to her again just so she could remind him as soon as possible that she just knew he was an asshole.
"Liar. Tell me. Or else." Rose fixed him with her patented bullshit-detecting stare.
He sighed. "Fine. I met a woman here...a teacher. We hung out a few times. That's all."
The stare vanished. Rose grinned and clasped her hands to her chest. "And it was love at first sight, the only problem being you don't believe in love at first sight so you've decided to go all angsty out here in your little man-hole."
"Man-hole?"
She made a face and shrugged. "Sounded good in my head."
"Trust me. It is so not love at first sight. Actually I'm pretty sure she hates me."
Rose leveled a stern look at him. "What did you do to make her hate you?"
"Absolutely nothing."
"You're lying again."
Derek grumbled again as he picked up a sander and ran it over a plank of wood he had on the workbench. "I lost my temper with one of her students the day we met. But I apologized for that and she tore me a new asshole, so I thought we could get past it."
"What else?" Rose started tapping her foot.
"Nothing. I don't want to talk about it anymore."
He cringed as he thought about how he'd fucked her over the piano like she was the groupie she was so set against acting like. No, he'd treated her worse than that. He'd been with his fair share of groupies over the years, and he'd never once used them the way he'd used her.
By the end she was wound so tight, he bet he could have made her come with a single touch. He finger, his dick, his tongue. Whatever.
When he'd pulled out of her and she'd frozen there, bent over the piano with her ass in the air and her shorts askew, he'd almost dropped to his knees and fucked her with his tongue just so she'd be sure to know who she belonged to.
Which was stupid, because she didn't belong to anyone.
But he didn't give her what they both wanted at the time. He stood there like a stubborn jackass, clinging to his anger because that was the only way he'd be able to keep telling himself he was justified, wishing she'd ask him to touch her because if she would have asked, all that anger would have blown away like sawdust.
Derek dropped the sander on the table. "She thinks she knows me, and I don't have the time or energy to keep trying to show her she's wrong."
Rose put her arm around his waist and rested her head on his shoulder. "But you want to..."
"Nope."
"What are you going to do with this house?"
"I'm going to stay here for a while. Fix it up. Then I don't know what. Sell it, I guess. Or maybe I'll just give it to someone."
"I think you should keep it. You need an anchor. I'd rather you buy a house back home, but this one spoke to you. Always listen to your gut, Derek."
Derek's cell phone rang. The ringtone told him it was his manager, Andy. The last person he wanted to talk to.
The guy had always rubbed Derek the wrong way--he was too pushy, too greedy, too much of a dick in general. It had gotten worse since they started winning awards. Derek hated feeling like he was someone's work horse.
He'd been meaning to talk to the guys about it, but then the shit hit the fan with his dad, and Andy suddenly seemed as significant to him as taking a taking a piss.
"You gonna answer that?" Rose said.
"Nope. I don't want to talk to that prick."
"Why don't you just get out of your contract. Pay him out and get rid of him."
Morphium only signed for a year at a time, but they just resigned before his dad died. Still, they could afford to pay him out, and it might be worth it.
The phone stopped ringing. "Maybe. The guys seem to be okay with him."
"Adam's not."
Derek blinked in surprise. Of course Adam had opened up to Rose. They were as close as siblings themselves.
The phone started ringing again. "You need to answer that. You have a right to stay here as long as you need to, but you need to tell him that. Seth's been trying, but Andy is..."
"Yeah, I know." Andy was the pushiest asshole on the face of the earth. Derek hated the sound of his voice, the way he always told him what to do with his life as if he were the one in charge of all of them.
"I'll leave you alone so you can talk to him. Tell him how it is, Derek. He works for you." Rose kissed his cheek and headed back inside. "You deserve to call the shots in your own life."
The way Rose smiled at him over her shoulder as she shut the door, he wondered if she was even talking about Andy anymore.