Page 37 of Home Coming

Seeing this was going to take awhile, he leaned back on the sofa and made himself comfortable as he settled in to start reading.

It didn’t take long to realize Axel’s career, if you could call it that, began when he was a DJ who’d rubbed elbows with the hottest celebrities in the music industry.

Basically a party boy with a deep contact list.

Then he opened his own record label and released his album—Quinn guessed the inspiration to start his own label was because no existing label wanted his album. One short listen told him the man had no talent. At least in Quinn’s opinion. Axel had nothing like Bailey’s skill.

Nevertheless Axel earned a viral following by performing his songs live, sometimes accompanied by his celebrity friends, on Instagram and TikTok.

Quinn flipped through the long list of websites his search had returned. Skimming the headlines he soon realized Axel was a player. A party boy as famous for his romantic life as his music and celeb connections.

And amidst that long list of the famousIt Girlshe’d been seen with was Bailey’s name.

Opening one link Quinn navigated around the multitude of ads on the page to read the flimsy article. Light on facts. Heavy on click bate.

Then he got to the comments.

A few stuck up for Bailey, obviously on her side of the rift. Most were proof that people were horrible when they could hide behind a keyboard. Vicious. Ignorant. And completely adverse to the use of punctuation and the basic rules of grammar.

who is this nobody who broke Axels heart? bitch ain’t even famous

celebrity adjacent is the new celebrity

100% that’s the only reason Axel is anybody at all

Bailey is more of a celebrity than Axel did you even listen to her song???

that cheating cow will be nobody again now that Axel dumped her

her eleven million followers say different

this conversation is exactly what is wrong with America

can’t take it move to Canada you snowflake

As the commenters devolved into name calling Quinn lowered the cell. No wonder Bailey was rattled in the car, if she was reading this shit.

Quinn flashed back to the studio time where he witnessed Bailey lay her heart and soul open for him to see all the emotion inside. Notorious party boy or not, Axel had cut her deep with his betrayal.

He’d seen the pain as she sang. Both that night in Josie’s room and again in the studio.

God, she was talented. She’d stood from the piano bench where she’d played her heart out while singing and moved to the guitar where she was equally proficient. Equally moving.

He remembered her playing a bunch of instruments when she’d been in band with Josie. Back then he’d written it off to nerd skills. Now, he had to wrap his head around the fact that she was a legitimate musical prodigy. And more than that, he had to wrap his head around the fact that watching and listening to her was a huge turn on.

Thirteen years later, Bailey’s nerd skills were giving him a hard on.

He couldn’t deny he’d almost kissed her during the short time he’d been at that damn reunion he probably shouldn’t have gone to. Out on the back deck, he’d been inches away from kissing Bailey before common sense hit him up side the head.

Then today, here in the apartment… He wanted to kiss her. Hell, he wanted to do way more than kiss her and he shouldn’t.

He was leaving for the other coast in just a couple of weeks and didn’t know when he’d be back. And she was Josie’s friend, the girl who’d practically lived with them when she was a kid. A one night stand, or even a two-week stand, was out of the question.

Maybe if he kept repeating the reasons they’d start to sink in deep enough that his brain and his dick would both listen. So far, it wasn’t working.

Close personal protection meant he had to be close. And damn, this was all feeling far too personal.

Given he couldn’t seem to control his libido around her, a smart man would put as much distance between them as he could, but as long as he was the one protecting her, that was the one thing he couldn’t do.

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