“Want us to remove them?” Loren offered as casually as Braxton pretended to be. The only difference was that he wasn’t putting on a show. He’d knock this entire house down with a wrecking ball if she asked him too.

Peeking over her shoulder, probably to gauge if he was serious, she laughed and shook her head when she saw that he was. “No.” There was a twinkle in her eye when she turned to face us with her elbows propped on top of the ledge now. “I also read that they ward off evil spirits. I wouldn’t want you boys getting spooked all alone in these woods. Los Angeles is too far away for me to come and check under your beds.”

As soon as she finished speaking, she was gazing off again as her expression fell.

Fuck.

I could tell that it hadn’t dawned on her until now that we lived a thousand miles apart. Eventually, she’d have to go back. Ultimately, we’d have to do without her and try to make an already complicated relationship work long-distance.

The only solution was if she stayed here…with us.

Loren, apparently coming to the same conclusion, brought it up before I, or any of us, could think it over and broach the subject carefully.

“So that’s what your little history lesson was really about,” he teased her. “You want to move in.”

Her eyes bucked as she stood up straight. “What? No, that’s not what I was saying.”

“It’s cool, baby fawn. We’ve got the room.”

She frowned at him before rolling her eyes when she realized that it was him leading her into a trap and not the other way around. “I’m not moving in with you, Loren.”

He frowned deeply, confirming what I already knew. Loren hadn’t been just teasing. “Why not?”

“Because we’ve been dating for two seconds?”

“You plan on going anywhere?” he asked her quietly, his tone curious but his gaze blank.

Braxton’s answer and how carefully she tread would determine how fast this escalated. Rich and I glanced at one another, but for some reason, neither of us felt compelled to step in. He was supposed to be the voice of reason, and whenever that didn’t work, I brought the heavy hand and put my foot down. Loren’s job usually consisted of finessing the situation—whenever he wasn’t causing trouble to begin with.

“There’s no harm in taking it slow, Loren. The tour won’t be over for months. Can’t we just talk about it then?” she reasoned.

Unfortunately, Loren wasn’t in the mood to be reasonable. Everything she said had gone in one ear and out the other. “Why put off tomorrow what can be done today?”

Nostrils flaring, there was a fire in Braxton’s eyes as they searched the ground, and I knew from firsthand experience that she was looking for something to throw at his head.

Rich and I both exhaled our relief when we searched the ground as well and saw no rocks lying around.

When it looked like he wasn’t getting his way anytime soon, Loren dug his—our—hole a little deeper. It wouldn’t escape her notice that we didn’t step in, and eventually, she’d figure out why. “Stop pretending you’re not into it too when we all know better,” he snapped.

With a mock gasp, Braxton slapped her palm to her forehead. “How could I forget? Naturally, my gender means I’m perpetually confused and don’t know my own mind. Have mercy, big man. Tell me what I really want.”

Loren threw his head back and made a frustrated sound in his throat. “Are we really going to fight about this again?” he mumbled, referring to her demand to be treated like our equal.

I’m sure we were beyond that now since it started to feel like we worshiped the ground she walked on. Either she couldn’t see that because she was stubborn, or we were still shit at this boyfriend thing.

“No, because I’m done talking to you.”

She started for the door and the steps that led back inside, and Loren was hot on her heels. Though not as closely, Rich and I followed, and I was once again wondering why neither of us was stopping Loren while he was ahead.

I didn’t have to tell him that he could never force Braxton to do something she didn’t want to do. He already knew. The problem was that people don’t just change overnight, and Loren was too used to getting his way.

Even if Braxton did want to move in, I knew she wasn’t sure she could handle that yet. It meant leaving her friends, moving to a strange place, sinking deeper into our web, and abandoning the independence that had taken every ounce of her courage to build in the first place.

“Loren,” I called out, making him glance over his shoulder at me.

I knew the moment he read the look in my eyes and realized what he was doing and how bad he was fucking up. His footsteps reluctantly slowed, but by then, Braxton had reached the room we’d given her last night, and we were still right on her heels.

We already shared a house. Obviously, the three of us had never considered or needed to share a room as well, so we each had our own. Until we could think of a better arrangement, it just made sense to give Braxton her own space while she was here.

Thanks to Loren and his “superior” finessing skills, it was already coming in handy.

I could tell Braxton was still pissed when she turned to face us once she was over the threshold. Even during the longer-than-necessary walk that it took to reach her bedroom since she kept getting lost, she hadn’t cooled down one bit.

None of us got a chance to say a word or maybe even apologize before she pushed the door shut, making the sound reverberate throughout the house, and we were left staring at the wood we’d painted black.

“Damn,” Loren mumbled after he’d turned to face us. “She’s been here less than a day, and we’re already getting doors slammed in our faces.”

There was a loud thump on Braxton’s door that came from the inside, telling us that she’d heard him, and I sighed. It was only noon, and I was weary.

“If I don’t get laid tonight, I’m making you suck my dick,” Rich spat as he turned and walked away.

Loren snorted but didn’t say more about it before he went off in a different direction.

I stared at Braxton’s door for a moment, but when nothing smart came to mind that would get us back in her good graces, I decided to leave it alone.

For now.

We were sitting in our practice room, attempting to piece together a new song, when she ambled in after spending the last twenty-four hours hiding in her room.

“Oh, shit,” Loren whispered once he noticed her. Braxton, wearing a blue spaghetti-strapped dress that only reached her thighs and her hair pinned in a ponytail at her crown, wandered the far edge of the room. She looked over our awards and photos hanging on the red wall as if she hadn’t seen them already. “No one make any sudden movements. We don’t want to scare her off.”

Braxton’s head swiveled toward us at that exact moment, and…those two idiots actually froze.

She gave them an exasperated look before her curious gaze met mine. I nodded my head to the empty seat on the leather sofa next to me since Loren and Rich occupied the armchairs on the other side of the black trunk we used as a table.

After only a moment’s hesitation, which I still didn’t care for, she came.

I’d texted her an hour ago to let her know where we were and what we were up to, hoping she’d come. I had just begun to fear we’d lose another day when she showed up.

It wasn’t until she dropped down onto the sofa, and I got a whiff of her brown sugar body wash and saw that her red hair was still damp, that I realized what had held her up. It was still early in the afternoon, so I figured she must have just woken up.

The only time I got her out of bed before noon was when Rich or I coaxed her out of it since Loren was no better. He was worse, actually. Today was the exception, and I had the feeling he’d woken up early in the hopes of catching her roaming instead of knocking on her door and apologizing.

She felt his stare even now and ignored him. Loren was burning a hole in the side of her face, but Braxton kept her gaze steadfast on her purple nails that my back knew were as sharp as they looked, along with the ten silver rings adorning the index, middle, and ring finger of her left hand.

Deciding to break the silence, I handed over the notepad with the current version of one of our new songs scratched onto the paper.

“What do you think?” I asked, watching her closely after she finally took it from me. My heart was pounding as Braxton read over the lyrics, and I didn’t have to question why. It seemed like it took an eternity for her to be done even though less than a minute had passed.

“I think finding a melody is going to be tricky.”

Damn it.

She’d chosen her tone and expression carefully so that I couldn’t tell what she was really thinking. The only evidence that she was feeling anything at all were the subtle cues she gave, like the slight wrinkling of her nose and purse of her lips as if she tasted or smelled something unexpected.

Nodding, I picked up the acoustic next to me, and her brows shot up when I held it out to her. “Would you prefer a keyboard?”