Free Vintage Volume Two by Lisa Suzanne Page B

to his phone while Parker stroked my hand in a soothing motion and I tried to look anywhere but at my dad.

nine
     
    The next morning, we were up early to head to the airport. I was flying home with my dad. Parker was heading back to LA with the band. Flashing Light ended up booking additional gigs on their own, and they wouldn’t be returning to LA for another two weeks.
    I was thrilled for Parker and the success he was finding in his career.
    But I was devastated to be away from him. I’d grown reliant on him for the safety he provided me, and I was scared to be without him while the Randy threat loomed largely in front of us.
    I knew I’d have my dad nearby for protection. Unfortunately, that also meant Jadyn would be nearby.
    I’d built up in my mind a million different ways that everything would be different when I returned home.
    But nothing was different.
    Everything was exactly the same as I had left it.
    When I had left, I was in love with Parker and missing him already.
    Now that I was back, I was in love with Parker and missing him already.
    A lot had changed between us; we were “engaged” now, and he’d be back in a two short weeks so we could resume our charade.
    Parker .
    Even as his name threaded through my thoughts, I couldn’t help but feel a little spasm in my chest just thinking of his brown eyes, his messy hair, the stubble on his jaw, the way he looked at me, the way his abs hardened under my fingertips.
    I loved him, and being away from him made me realize how much.
    I didn’t know what I had until it was gone. It was cliché for sure, but being away from him showed me how reliant I’d become on his presence.
    It wasn’t reliant as in dependent . It wasn’t the dangerous dependence I’d had with Damien.
    It was different with Parker. He provided things for me that I didn’t know I never had, and now that those things were with him on his bus in some other state, I realized how much I needed him.
    I didn’t want the engagement to be a charade. I’d thought it more than once, but it was probably time to admit the truth to Parker.
    The thing was…I wasn’t exactly sure how to do that.
    How do you tell the man you’re fake-engaged to that you want to be actually engaged to him?
    I was all for girl power, but I wanted the traditional fairy tale where the man asks the woman for her hand in marriage. That had already happened, but not the way I wanted it to. Not the way that counted. 
    I immersed myself back into my job. Vintage appeared to be exactly the same as I had left it. In fact, it seemed like my absence was hardly noticed.
    When I first walked in a few minutes before eight in the morning, I couldn’t help my yawn. I’d been used to sleeping in until whenever the hell I wanted to over the past month. I’d been used to an afternoon into night schedule. This was the reverse of that, and it was going to take some getting used to.
    I stopped at the café and asked Heather, the café manager, for a cup of coffee. She handed it over, and I filled it with cream and sugar. I headed back to punch in, and then I met Tim up by the registers.
    I took a sip of my coffee, and I watched as his eyes fell onto the ring Parker had given me.
    I hadn’t really considered Tim’s reaction. I hadn’t really thought about Tim much at all, in fact.
    His eyebrows rose, but he didn’t say anything. His gaze just stayed on my ring.
    I broke the silence. “I'm, uh…engaged.”
    He nodded. “I see that.” He turned his attention to one of those binders that held information that was a complete mystery to me. “Congratulations.”
    His voice was soft. He was hurt, maybe because I hadn’t told him or maybe because it was confirmation that he had no actual chance with me.
    “Thanks,” I said, and I headed down to the floor to start my daily routine.
    Tim pretty much ignored me—not in an offensive way, but in a way that showed me that he was sad.
    It was a fake engagement, anyway. I wanted to tell