“You didn’t have to drive us,” I told Hollin as he lugged my two giant suitcases to his truck.
“I know, but Campbell said he was going to store the Rover and then hire a driver to take y’all.” He shot Campbell a look. “Pretentious shit.”
“Hey, I was just trying to make it easier on everyone.”
“What? You think I don’t want to drive the Rover while you’re gone?”
Campbell rolled his eyes. “Have at it.”
“Well, I appreciate it, Hollin.” I bowed under the weight of my backpack, full of recording equipment and all my work stuff.
Campbell reached out for it. “Let me get that.”
“Thanks,” I said with a smile.
My boho bag fell to the crook of my elbow, and I hitched it back up. I had half a dozen other bags inside of it, my iPad, and a spicy romance novel I’d borrowed from Piper. Still, I was sure that I was forgetting something.
“I didn’t bring enough hats,” I told Campbell, tugging on the Blaire Blush baseball cap on my head.
“Never enough hats.” He opened the back door to let me inside.
“Look, don’t make fun of me,” I said, sticking my tongue out at him as I slid into the back. “I like the hats.”
“Then, we’ll buy you more in LA.” He stole a kiss from me before closing the door and jumping into the passenger seat next to his brother.
“We?” I asked with raised eyebrows.
Campbell turned around, shooting an arched eyebrow right back. “What? You think I’m bringing you to LA, and I’m not planning to spoil you?”
“There was no talk of spoiling.”
“What’s the point of having all this money if I can’t spend it on you?”
“Well, I don’t know. But I don’t expect you to spend any of it on me.”
“I know.” He winked at me and turned back to the front.
“All right, kids. We’re set,” Hollin said as he pulled out of the driveway.
The boys bantered and fought over the radio station—Hollin opting for country and Campbell wanting anything but—until we pulled up to the private airport terminal.
I hopped out of the back, lugging my bag when another car pulled up alongside us. Nora waved from the driver’s side. She hopped out onto her characteristic four-inch heels and threw her arms around her brother.
“I’m going to miss you.”
He laughed and hugged her tight. “Shrimp, it won’t be forever.”
“I know. Not as long as last time or the time before that, okay?” She gestured to me. “You have to bring Blaire to Morgan’s wedding.”
“We will be there for your big Wright wedding at the vineyard.”
Nora smiled and nodded. “Good. It’s the biggest wedding I’ve ever done. Even at my internship. Do you know how many friends the Wrights have?”
“I have some idea if that pool party was any indication,” I said.
She shook her head. “This is going to make that look like nothing.”
“But she’s going to kill it,” Weston said, coming around to the other side with nothing but a duffel bag and a guitar.
“Is that all you have?” I asked in dismay.
He shrugged. “I’m used to packing light. Figure we’ll just be in the studio all week anyway.”
“I overpacked,” I whispered to Campbell.
He cracked up. “Maybe a little.”
“Have a great time,” Nora said. “And bring West back with you, too. I don’t want to have to find another roommate.”
West grinned down at her. It was not a friendly roommate look in the slightest. It was one that said he was this close to kissing her, if she’d only let him. “I’ll be back, Nor. Before you know it.”
She swallowed hard and nodded. “Better be.”
Hollin grumbled from the trunk about my luggage, breaking the spell. We all hurried back to help him get everything out. Campbell said his good-byes, and then we walked into the private terminal. I handed all my luggage off and then walked through our own TSA check. Then, we were escorted directly onto our own private jet.
“Holy shit,” West whispered behind me.
“No kidding.”
I’d flown private exactly once, and that was when we’d taken the Wright plane into Dallas for the Cosmere concert. That had been a plane full of my friends. This was just for Cosmere.
“The record label sent it for all of us,” Campbell said.
The rest of the band was already on board with drinks in their hands. I dropped my bag and took a proffered glass of champagne. West held his hand up, declining the drink.
We settled into our seats with Campbell at my side. My phone dinged right before takeoff.
Have so much fun and come back soon!
Oh, Honey. She was really going to miss me.
Taking off now! Talk in a few hours.
And then we took off as smoothly as anything I’d ever been on. The flight was full of laughter and, of course, music. Everyone had an instrument with them. Even Santi had drumsticks and banged on anything he could find. I joined in with them at the chorus of “Rooftop Nights,” which I knew entirely by heart now.
“Girl, you’ve got some vocal cords,” Viv said, punching me in the arm.
I laughed and shook my head. “No way. I am mediocre at best, but singing is fun.”
“She did chorus all four years of high school,” Campbell said. “It’s a losing battle. She never sings for me.”
“I sing,” I said defensively. “I just don’t want to make my career out of it.”
Viv smacked Campbell’s foot. “Well, leave the girl alone. She can sing in the shower for all I care. I’m just giving her a compliment.”
“Ay, mami, I’d listen to you in the shower,” Santi said with a wink. Campbell threw a pillow at his face. Santi died laughing. “I did it for the reaction. Your boyfriend is a possessive motherfucker. I hope you know that.”
Campbell looked ready to get to his feet, but I put my hand on his chest. “Santi, I think you have your hands full with every other female in Lubbock County.”
He sat back and twirled his drumstick. “Sí, doesn’t feel like a problem to me.”
The rest of the band laughed, and the next couple hours disappeared in no time. By the time we landed at LAX, I could tell that Campbell wanted to go straight to Michael’s to try to work everything out, but Viv refused.
“We will all go to see him Monday morning before we go into the studio to record. Go home and rest.”
Campbell sighed. “Fine. See you Monday.” He clapped hands with West. “You sure you want to stay with Santi? I have plenty of room.”
“Yeah, I have some friends in the city, and they live near him. It’ll be good to see them.”
“All right. See you Monday then.”
We watched them go and then went to Campbell’s driver. He didn’t have pushy siblings here in LA to pick him up.
“Are you missing Hollin right now?”
He nodded. “I was just thinking that. I was here all alone for so long that I got used to it. But it feels so much…less without them now. I already got used to them making fun of me all the time again. It’s weird how fast you can get used to something.”
The drive into Hollywood Hills took about an hour, and my jaw dropped at the enormous homes we passed before pulling to a private gated entrance.
“Campbell,” I whispered with wide eyes.
“Yeah?”
“You didn’t tell me that you lived in a gated community in Beverly Hills.”
He was quiet for a second before asking, “Does it matter?”
“No,” I said automatically. “I just don’t think of this when I think about you.”
“And you don’t think that is part of the reason this is so easy?” He ran a hand back through his hair. “Cosmere’s rise to fame has been amazing, but they’ve been full of people, specifically women, who are interested in me because I have money and celebrity status. With you, I’m just me. I didn’t want this to be what you see when you see me.”
“Well, that isn’t going to change, but maybe a heads-up would have been nice,” I said on a laugh as we were let through the gate and circled ever higher through the hills.
We finally came upon his house, which was admittedly smaller than some of the mansion homes we’d passed on the way but it still had to be a few million dollars. I’d been joking about Jensen’s house, and then here he was, with something smaller but easily ten times as pricey. Fuck, I really had not considered how much of a celebrity he actually was. I’d seen him perform to a packed stadium and gotten fifty million views on one video with him in it, and still, it hadn’t clicked until I saw this house.
I blinked at it as the driver unloaded my luggage to carry inside. Campbell came around to my side of the car, lugging my camera bag on his shoulder.
He laughed at my expression. “It’s just a house, Blaire. Let’s go inside.”
He took my hand and guided me to the front door. I pulled out my phone and did a walking tour of the house to show my friends later. No one was going to believe me otherwise.
The interior was a dream of charcoal, velvet, and polished bronze. Everything was lush and evocative and entirely primal male. There was no way in hell that this had all come together on its own. It looked like a master class in interior design. From the artsy collection of guitars to the set of Grammys just casually displayed next to an antique record player, it screamed musician. As if he lived and breathed his art.
I sent the video to the group chat I had with Piper, Annie, and Jennifer. Then a separate one to Honey. My phone dinged immediately with texts of oohs, aahs, and oh my Gods!
Honey sent back heart eyes with a quick, You’re never going to want to come home now!
I laughed, silenced my phone, and pulled away to live in the moment. “Wow, Campbell.”
“Yeah. I might have had some help. I wanted it to feel like me, but I had no idea where to start. English recommended the designer. She normally works in New York but came out for my house.”
“It’s incredible.”
“Thanks. I’m pleased. English is coming in tomorrow. Have you decided what you want to do?”
I had been thinking a lot about what I wanted. We could continue to keep our relationship a secret. But I was done with that. I was tired of living in the shadows. I didn’t want anyone to think that Campbell was on the market still. He was mine. And I knew that it would come with consequences for the world to know that, but I was ready.
I glanced over at him with a coy smile. “I have.”
“And?” He arched an eyebrow.
“I’m tired of hiding. We lived our entire last relationship without anyone knowing. I don’t want that a second time.”
“You know it will be…complicated?”
I nodded. “Yes. Complicated with you is better than simple or easy with anyone else.”
He smiled then. A real, uninhibited smile that said I had said exactly the right thing. “Good. I hoped you’d say that.”
I stepped up to the full set of glass windows along the back wall and admired the rectangular pool set into the hill just below eye level. But the real beauty was the endless Hollywood Hills on display. It was a treasure.
Campbell wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me in close. “I dreamed about you being here.”
I turned in his embrace and laughed. “No you didn’t. You never thought we’d ever talk again.”
“That’s why it was a dream,” he said, bumping his nose gently against mine. “I never thought it would be a reality.”
“And now that it is?”
“I don’t ever want to wake up.”
Then he kissed me, and we both forgot the entire world existed.