Page 97 of This Side of Beautiful

“Okay, not Brian.” I grinned. “But everyone else hated me. I messed with their money and they didn’t want to fuck with me.”

“Such a potty mouth, and she still owes us seventy-three dollars and five cents.” Charles winked at the camera.

I rolled my eyes. “Whatever. I just made y’all a lot of money these past two months.”

They all nodded and mumbled.

Cedrick tapped the back of my head playfully. “We’re going to miss you too, big head.”

I rubbed the spot he’d tapped and looked behind me. “My head is nowhere as big as yours.”

Santiago and Brian laughed loudly while Charles said, “Now that’s true.”

I smiled at Cedrick, and he frowned back, though I saw the twinkle in his eyes. We had come so far.

Brian pushed his locs behind his ear as he stared into the camera. “We won’t miss her that long. We wanted the fans to know that we love Janae Warner, and without her, we wouldn’t have had the number one record in the country and sold-out shows. We also wouldn’t have eaten such good food. This woman can cook her ass off. She needs to do a cookbook or open a restaurant.” He rubbed his belly before leaning closer to the camera. “I don’t know… Should we ask her to do a few more shows with us? Maybe cut another track or two in the fall?”

I searched their smiling faces. “Does Landon know?”

“Yep. We’ve been discussing it and told him not to say a word. We wanted it to be a surprise because it was our idea. Not his,” Cedrick replied.

I jumped up and started dancing silly.

“Since there’s no music playing, I guess that’s a yes,” Brian exclaimed, and they started dancing to the sweet sound of success and friendship. Cedrick grabbed my hand and twirled me around while Santiago pressed one of the control buttons.

“Stuck Between,” the first release from their finished sophomore album, slated to be dropped later this year, sounded, and we danced even harder to Landon’s song.

“Can you see why I love these men?” I shouted to the camera.

Chapter Thirty-Two

landon

June 13

Janae had been partially rightabout my reluctance to travel to Austin with her. It wasn’t just about the city. Being in her space meant adjusting to a world that clashed with my own.

Her condo was stylish and modern, filled with personality. It was also overwhelming. She loved bright colors, bold art, and decorative pieces that seemed placed on a whim. My head spun just looking at it.

And she was messy. Not dirty, just disorganized. Clothes draped over furniture. Shoes scattered in places they shouldn’t be. Half-full water bottles left behind like she had meant to finish them but got distracted. She insisted she had been too busy traveling to call her housekeeper, but I suspected otherwise.

Janae wasn’t careless with money, but she managed three properties and had accumulated debt over the years. She never seemed worried about it, but I had a feeling she was not as comfortable as she let on. Sooner or later, we would need to have a real conversation about finances.

I paused at the thought. I had never gone this deep in a relationship before. Did I even have the right to ask about her money? Was offering financial advice overstepping? At what point did her problems become ours?

Part of me wanted to combine accounts and build something together like my parents had. Another part of me knew it was smarter to keep our finances separate, protecting both of us from any future conflict.

I sighed and rubbed my temples.

Janae was right about another thing. I hated change. But here I was, standing in the middle of her chaotic and colorful world, trying to figure out how to make space for both of us in it.

I strummed my guitar on her balcony, hoping I wasn’t disturbing anyone. Four days in her space had left me feeling restless. In my own home, I played whenever I wanted, but here, I hesitated out of concern for her neighbors. The unease had been constant since we arrived in Los Angeles, except when she was in my arms.

I hated how much I needed her. The thought of losing her made it hard to breathe. That night, when I thought she was ending things, my heart felt like it had stopped. I stayed calm on the outside, but inside, the panic was suffocating. If she had walked away, I don’t know how I would have handled it.

I rarely had episodes anymore because I had learned to manage them. Keeping my environment controlled helped me stay balanced. But my life had never included someone like Janae. She was unpredictable, impulsive, and constantly challenging the stability I relied on. I wasn’t sure how much longer I could hold everything together.

The door behind me opened. I glanced back to see Cedrick step outside, smiling as he dropped into the chaise longue across from me.

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