Happy Valenkink's Day Read online

  Wrung out, she limply collapsed on top of Landry as the men’s hands stroked her back, her arms.

  “Better, love?” Landry asked, back to speaking English.

  She nodded.

  Cris helped her up out of bed and the three of them cleaned up in the bathroom before settling in bed again. Tonight, Landry wanted Tilly in the middle, both of them able to cuddle with her. They didn’t have a set sleeping order. It was whatever Landry decided if the three of them were together.

  Cris gently kissed her. “What’d I miss? Why’d he go French?”

  “She just needed a little time out of her mind,” Landry said, saving her the need to answer.

  Cris’ gaze searched her face before he gave her one last kiss. “Love you, Redbird.”

  “Love you, too, Sir.”

  His smile widened as she stroked his cheek. Yeah, she’d reached a point in her healing where seeing him smile like that brought back the old feelings, the good feelings.

  Like their separation had never happened.

  Landry kissed the side of her neck. “Love you, sweetheart.”

  She turned her head so she could kiss him. “Love you, too, you sneaky damn Dom.”

  He smiled. “And yet, you married me.”

  “You married me. So which one of us is really the crazy one, huh?”

  She laid her head down and closed her eyes to the sweet sound of his gentle chuckles.

  Chapter Three

  Loren showed up at Tilly’s a little after noon Saturday to help make sure the house was truly kid-proofed and to help her bake all the heart-shaped sugar cookies they were going to let the kids have fun decorating and taking home with them. That was in addition to other Valentine’s Day-themed crafts the kids could do, like make cards for people, a heart-shaped beanbag toss game, and other fun that might be a little too young for Kyle and Laurel, but would hopefully be enjoyed by the other kids.

  Susan and Kyle were the second set of arrivals, a little before four.

  Tilly knew the triad’s cover story was that Susan’s men, Darryl and Grant, were attending an adults-only cookout later with some of their friends, including friends Kyle had already met, and that no kids were allowed because of two of the guests being celebrities who needed their privacy.

  It was a great cover story. Kyle already knew a little of the triad’s dynamic, that Grant was in charge of Darryl and Susan, but they kept the kinky details out of it. So if Kyle thought the party the adults were going to had something to do with any of that, he wasn’t letting on.

  Darryl and Grant would be driving over to the adult party later in their own car. Since Susan was pregnant, and sometimes still puking at random times, she’d volunteered to help Tilly babysit everyone. While Kyle was fourteen and old enough to stay home alone, he already knew Tilly and her men. And he was eager to take part in Eliza and Rusty’s combat demo, since he was part of the Dungeons and Dragons group that played every week with them.

  When they arrived, Tilly pointed Kyle to where their Wi-Fi password was printed on a card on the side of the fridge, and he quickly punched it into his iPad and headed for the living room.

  “Well?” Tilly quietly asked Susan.

  “I told him I wanted some time with him before the baby comes,” she said. “That he had a life with his dad, and he’d spent plenty of time with and around Grant, but he and I hadn’t had that.”

  Tilly held her hand up for a fist bump, which Susan returned.

  “You’re learning, grasshopper,” Loren said.

  Susan smiled. “He loves Portnoy’s Oyster. Once he finds out about that, he’s going to totally forget about any questions he might have had about tonight. I’m going to be a cool stepmom.”

  Tilly grinned. “Can’t ask for better than that.”

  The doorbell rang and before Tilly or her men could get to it, Laurel raced in and nearly tackled Tilly for a hug, then Loren, her Hello Kitty backpack looking stuffed full.

  “Is he here yet?”

  “Not yet, sweetie,” Tilly said. “He should be here soon.”

  “I’ve been practicing.”

  “I know. Your mom and dads have been showing me the videos. You’re getting pretty dang good.”

  Eva walked in carrying Kenny, Laurel’s little brother, who was two. Behind her walked her husband, Nate, laden with Laurel’s guitar case and Kenny’s stuff.

  “Now we can put the system to the test,” Loren said.

  Tilly reached for Laurel’s backpack and they led the parents into the home office area, which had been barricaded with a long baby fence with a swing-through gate.

  Inside, they had a stack of plastic storage tubs. Tilly grabbed two, and on pieces of tape already affixed to the lids, wrote Laurel and Kenny’s names before they put the stuff in the correct tubs.

  Except for Laurel’s guitar case, which didn’t fit. That they propped in front of hers, then they took pictures.

  “That’s ingenious,” Eva said.

  “Loren gets the credit,” Tilly said. “We can keep everything separated and identified more easily this way.”

  Laurel had disappeared, but Kyle appeared in the doorway. “Laurel said she’s getting guitar lessons?”

  “Yeah,” Tilly said, smiling.

  “She said he’s a rock star?”

  Loren laughed. “Yeah.”

  “Is that someone who’s going to the party tonight?”

  “You are sworn to secrecy, kid,” Tilly said. “You can tell people you got to meet him, and that he gave a guitar lesson, but nothing about the other party. I’m serious.”

  He held up his hand. “I swear. Who is he?”

  Tilly looked to Susan, who stood in the hall and wore a smile. “You want to tell him?”

  “I think it’d be funnier to make him stew, but I’ll take pity on him. Mevi Maynard.”

  Kyle’s eyes widened. “No!”

  Susan nodded. “That’s why we kind of insisted you come with me. We knew you’d like to meet him.”

  “Oh, my god! Thank you!” He hugged her before racing back to the living room, presumably to go find Laurel and talk to her about her instructor.

  “Well, Darryl will be consoled that his years of trying to teach Kyle piano won’t go totally to waste,” Susan teased. “At least it’s a musical instrument.”

  Tilly walked over and high-fived her. “Cool stepmom status: achieved. Mission accomplished.”

  * * * *

  “I hope she likes me.”

  Doyle thought it was adorable that Mevi Maynard of Portnoy’s Oyster, a man who had been—and still was—one of the top musicians in the world for over twenty years, felt so nervous.

  About giving a guitar lesson to a little girl.

  “She’ll love you, dude. You’ve been video chatting with her, right? Tilly said she’s been practicing every day.”

  “Yeah, but…this is different.”

  In exchange for Tilly helping the band out of an awkward jam, Mevi had readily agreed to giving Laurel guitar lessons to hopefully counteract Tilly’s inadvertent super-villain training the girl had received.

  Which Mevi had totally thought was hyperbole on Tilly’s part…

  Until they saw what Tilly actually did to help their band out.

  Exaggeration?

  Not so much.

  He’d been working with Laurel for two months now over Skype and FaceTime after telling Eva what kind of guitar to get her, and suggesting music books and iPad apps that would help her. Minimum two times a week, sometimes more often depending on his schedule. But he had yet to meet Laurel in person.

  Once they were living in Florida full-time, he’d be able to give Laurel lessons in person on a regular basis. They’d found a nice piece of property across the road from Tilly, Landry, and Cris, and were talking to an architect in the area about plans. They loved Tilly’s house and if the architect could provide them something comparable, tailored for their specific needs, it’d be one burden off their plate.

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sp; Mevi had just flown in the day before from follow-up studio sessions in LA for Portnoy’s Oyster’s latest album. Doyle had already started working for a local addiction treatment facility in Sarasota. They had a condo in LA in the same building as Tilly, Landry, and Cris that they stayed in when out there. But with Doyle’s new job, he couldn’t get away as frequently now to join Mevi in California. In Florida, they were renting Kel’s apartment until their house was built and ready to move into.

  The media circus had finally died down after a couple of months following the revelation that Mevi had not only come out as gay, but had married another man. New, fresh Hollywood gossip had taken over, finally.

  Sarasota would, hopefully, be their refuge from craziness when Mevi wasn’t on press junkets or on tour. They didn’t know how often they’d be able to join their friends at Venture, because they didn’t want to risk exposing them to paparazzi. They were average people not asking to be drawn into the craziness.

  Once they had the house built, Mevi wouldn’t have to travel to LA for studio sessions. They’d have a full professional-grade studio there at the house for him to record in. He could even invite other friends in the industry to come use it, if they wanted, able to escape LA for a while.

  There were a couple of cars already parked in front of Tilly’s house when they arrived. Mevi got his guitar out of the back while Doyle waited for him. They were walking up to the front door when it flew open and there stood a little girl with blue eyes and long-curly brown hair up in pigtails.

  She let out an ear-piercing squee before running down the walk, bypassing Doyle completely and aiming for Mevi.

  Mevi just barely had time to set his guitar case down before she launched herself at him. Doyle laughed as Mevi caught her in midair and she looked like she was going to strangle him with her hug.

  “Mevi!” she shrieked.

  Doyle snickered. “I think it’s safe to say she likes you.”

  Mevi stuck his tongue out at him.

  * * * *

  Leigh nervously got ready for the party. Fortunately, she was always nervous before one of these parties, so maybe, if she was lucky, Lucas and Nick wouldn’t notice anything wrong.

  I’m such a fucking dumbass!

  Between handling a hectic series of work snafus over the phone the past three days, and the party plans, a few things had…slipped through the cracks.

  One of those things being she’d awakened that morning realizing she’d forgotten to take her birth control pills over the past couple of days.

  It hadn’t been a problem, because she’d been busy with work, and Nick and Lucas took care of each other.

  But this was a party night, and Lily would be over at Tilly’s.

  No doubt her men would want to play with her, if not during the party then definitely after everyone left.

  And she wanted to play with them.

  But…

  It had not been on purpose. Not even subconsciously. It’d been a case of trying to juggle too many metaphorical balls in the air to remember to take the pill that would protect her from the literal balls that juggled for her attention in bed.

  They had talked about more kids. She wanted more kids. The men had told her it was up to her if and when they tried again, and had not brought the subject up since.

  They really meant it.

  But she knew they wanted more kids.

  The question was, did she admit what happened and just…keep not taking them and let nature take its course, or did she own up to her flub and listen to Lucas playfully kvetching that she’d be giving a lot of blowjobs and getting her ass ridden for the next several weeks?

  She couldn’t decide. She felt mentally frozen, vapor-locked, unable to make up her mind.

  She hadn’t even told Tilly yet. It didn’t feel quite right burdening her friend with this. Yes, Tilly was a happy mom now, but Leigh knew how tough it’d been on her watching her friends get pregnant and having babies when she hadn’t been able to.

  Worse, Tilly had been forced to get a hysterectomy due to her monthly agony growing unbearable.

  Her choice had been forcibly taken from her as a kid.

  Leigh didn’t feel right whining to her stoic friend about her own first-world mom problem of whether or not to admit she’d forgotten to take her pill.

  Maybe I can avoid the guys and fall asleep on the couch or something.

  She’d have to deal with that if—or when—it—or her men—came up.

  * * * *

  Three hours after their arrival, Doyle and Mevi finally left Tilly’s to go to Leigh’s house. Not only had Mevi given Laurel lessons, but Susan’s stepson, Kyle, was eager to give it a try, as well. Before they left, Mevi gave Susan a similar list of things to purchase for him as he had to Laurel’s mom, and offered to work with him.

  “You know,” Doyle teased, “if this rock star gig doesn’t eventually pan out for you, you could always be a music teacher.”

  Mevi chuckled. “Not sure, Sir. It’s only been twenty-something years. I might hit it big yet.”

  Doyle reached over and patted his thigh. “You made those kids really happy.”

  Not only had Mevi worked with Laurel and Kyle, but he’d played a couple of kid-friendly numbers for everyone, the adults and all the children in attendance singing along and enjoying themselves.

  “You know, Sir,” Mevi softly said. “This is going to sound really weird, but I think that was my favorite concert I’ve ever given.”

  “How so?”

  “I love doing the small charity events. But that…none of those kids had any expectations. Or the adults. Everyone had fun. I could see every single face, and they could see me without a big-screen needed. I don’t usually get to do that. And while, yeah, the adults and Laurel and Kyle obviously knew I was famous, they didn’t care. I was just Mevi.”

  “Uncle Mevi,” Doyle playfully corrected. “I think I’m jealous. I’m just Doyle. I haven’t been promoted to ‘uncle’ status yet by Laurel.”

  “Okay, that is kind of cool. I’ve never been close to kids like that before. I mean, some of the kids of the guys in the band, I hardly ever see them. I knew Tom’s kids because they were always around and part of the operation.”

  Tom had been Bonnie’s brother, Bonnie also being in the band and Mevi’s ‘it’s complicated’ ex. Tom had been an integral part of why the band became famous, due to what he did running the website and helping them record their early songs.

  He’d died a few years ago due to cancer.

  “Being here in Florida means you’ll get to see everyone more often. The non-kinky parties. Family-friendly fun.”

  “Yeah.” Mevi looked wistful. “I meant to ask how your lunch with Kathy went this week.”

  It’d been the first time Doyle had seen his ex-wife face-to-face in a while, even though they’d been friends on Facebook and they exchanged cards periodically. She’d contacted him after news broke about his wedding to Mevi to congratulate him. Once he started working in Florida again, he offered to take her and her husband to lunch, and they’d accepted.

  “Melancholy,” Doyle admitted. “I’m always going to love her as a friend, just like you’re always going to love Bonnie. There weren’t any huge hard feelings when we divorced. Sadness more than anything. Their baby’s gorgeous, and Kathy’s happier than I’ve ever seen her. It was kind of uncomfortable at first, because other than offering me a congratulations on our wedding, I could tell both of them were stepping around the topic of who you are, until I told her I didn’t mind if they asked questions or were curious about you. And her husband’s a really nice guy.”

  “I wouldn’t mind meeting them sometime,” Mevi said. “If you think it’s appropriate, Sir.”

  “I’d be okay with that. We can have them over for dinner or something.”

  “I’m looking forward to being able to have friends over for dinner, Sir.”

  “Me, too, boy. Me, too.”

  Chapter Four

 
Scrye stuck his head through Leigh’s front door without bothering to knock or ring. “Tony? Ross? Lucas? Somebody?” he called out. “I need carrying help, please.”

  He walked back to his truck, soon joined by Tony, Kel, and Seth.

  “Where’s June?” Tony asked.

  “I already dropped her off at Aunt Tilly’s Junior Terrorist In Training Camp Valentine’s Day Massacre Party.”

  “Ah,” they all said.

  “When I dropped her off, Eliza and Rusty were getting ready to start combat training. Mevi had just finished giving them a concert. They should be here soon.”

  “What the hell is this?” Tony asked as they started pulling metal frame pieces out of the back of Scrye’s truck.

  “The new A-frame I told you guys about. Just got it in this week. Guy insists it’ll hold three thousand pounds. And June will kick my ass if she gets any reports of me lifting anything tonight.”

  “She is a scary little woman,” Seth teased.

  Scrye snorted. “You ain’t kidding. Try being her Master.”

  Seth grunted as he took the other end of the piece Tony had grabbed. “Holy crap, this is heavy. How the hell did you get it in your truck?”

  “Before I threw my back out? Stupidly, by myself. One piece, at least. Then I had the neighbors come over and bought them dinner after as a thank you. Told them it was some framework for a friend’s gazebo. I hope you guys don’t mind if we just leave it set up on your lanai for a couple of weeks, huh? Unless someone else wants to take it down and move it to Venture. I want to put it on the old side and move the old A-frame over to the new side.”

  Kel had joined them. “Holy…jeez, Scrye. I thought you meant it was a small frame. No wonder you threw your back out.”

  “Yeah, I do shit right when I do it wrong.”

  “You sure you want this at the club?”

  He turned to his friend and fellow rigger. “I can’t exactly set it up in my living room. My girls are grown up. If I try to tell them it’s a plant hanger or an indoor porch swing, they won’t buy that shit anymore. I’ll use it more at the club than if it’s in pieces in my garage.”