Bonham (Pushing Daisies Book 3) by Heather Young-Nichols (the little red hen read aloud txt) 📗

The only outcome to that was to end the relationship because once a woman started to worry in this situation, it’d become an obsession.

Looked like that was some sage advice right there.

“What are we talking about?” Daltrey joined us, dropping onto the other end of the couch.

“Bonham’s longing,” Van answered before I could. All of a sudden, the rest of my siblings joined us.

Lawson sat in the other chair with Daisy on his lap, much the way Van and Lexi were sitting. Mack found his place on the step in front of the fireplace. My guess was that Mom and Dad were in the kitchen enjoying a cup of coffee and snickering at the rest of them giving me a hard time. This was bullshit.

“Fuck you.” I pointed at my twin. “I’m not fucking longing for anything.” As an afterthought, I added, “That wasn’t meant for you, Lexi.”

“Well,” she said when I’d expected Van to start back up, “you were thinking about something.”

Yeah. I was. That auburn-haired girl with the deep green eyes from the bookstore whom I just couldn’t get out of my mind.

I let out an audible groan then decided to tell them the whole story. From meeting her to us texting. Maybe I didn’t give every detail, but I gave enough.

“That was really good of you,” Daisy spoke first. “As a fellow woman, I can attest that sometimes, you just need that other person there.”

“True that,” Lexi agreed.

“Not because we can’t take care of ourselves, but because some guys don’t take no for an answer.”

“Also true.”

“You’re going out tomorrow?” Daisy inquired. Damn. She was going to push for every detail. I nodded. “Where are you taking her?”

“You should take her back to the bookstore,” Lexi told me. “I’d love a lazy trip to the bookstore.”

“Oh, yes!” Daisy sat up straighter. The movement caused Lawson to hold tighter to her hips because she’d moved so fast that she’d almost fallen. It was as if she knew he’d catch her so she didn’t have to worry about it. “A bookstore date is the dream.”

“Let her buy all of the books she wants,” Lexi added. It was as if the women had forgotten that the rest of us were here. “Magical.”

“Agreed.”

Mack cleared his throat and mumbled, “Fucking hell.” I didn’t think he meant for all of us to hear it. Having another woman around for Daisy to bond with had a good side and a bad. Good being she had that another person similar to her best friend, Bri. Bri had been the only other girl Daisy had hung out with as a teenager. Otherwise, it had been us. Now she had Lexi, though I’d heard Bri was coming on tour with us when we went back.

“Hey, isn’t Bri coming for a visit when the tour starts back up?” I asked.

I could’ve been mistaken, but I thought I caught Mack sitting up straighter out of the corner of my eye.

“She is. Which is awesome. It’s been too long since we’ve been able to see each other.” Daisy glanced down with a sad look on her face. “She’s going to join us for a bit when we come back to Detroit. I told her she could stay the rest of the summer if she wants to. She could stay forever for all I care, but school starts at the end of August, I think.”

“She good with the traveling?” Daltrey asked Daisy.

“I think so. She said she has Daddy’s credit card, so there are no worries.”

Mack snorted then buried his face in the huge cup of coffee he’d brought with him.

Bri’s dad was ridiculously rich. He was in commercial real estate and it wasn’t contained to Detroit. He had a lot of business in New York and Los Angeles, among other places. Plus, her parents were divorced and he used that platinum credit card as a replacement for any actual fatherly involvement outside of brief visits.

“Good,” I told her. “Want to know the best part about the woman I’m going out with tomorrow?” There was a murmur of sures around the room. “She doesn’t seem to have any idea who we are. Pushing Daisies. She’s not said a word and there wasn’t a moment of recognition when I said my name, though admittedly, I didn’t tell her my last name.”

“Seriously?”

“No offense.” Lawson held a hand up. “But is that unusual?”

Daisy nodded then wrapped her arms around his shoulders. “Around here, it usually is. People have been following us for years around Detroit.”

“She hasn’t mentioned anything about music, actually,” I told them. “She probably doesn’t know who Courting Chaos is, either.”

“Oh, burn,” Daisy cooed while looking at Lawson. He chuckled and rand a hand over her back.

“Not everyone knows everyone,” he said, but Courting Chaos was pretty big now.

“So what’s this girl’s name?” Mack asked me, finally deciding to participate in the conversation.

“Jurnie.”

“That name’s familiar.” Daltrey stroked his chin like he was deep in thought. “Wait! Is it that intern from the radio this morning?”

“What intern?” I asked him. I barely remembered the ride home. I’d been exhausted.

“From the radio,” Mack said again like it would make more sense the second time I heard it. “The intern we were listening to on the drive.”

Still not understanding what they were talking about, I shook my head and tried to focus. That was when it all came back to me. “Oh, shit. That was her name, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah.” Daltrey chuckled. “I can’t imagine that name is all that common.”

“I wouldn’t think so.”

“What does she do?”

I groaned internally. “She’s an accounting intern.”

The roar of laughter in the room was almost deafening. The intern from this morning was the accounting intern.

“That means…” Van could hardly control his laughter. “That means she knows who Daisy is, but not you.”

Again, my brothers were laughing so loudly that it was annoying. I couldn’t deny the humor of the situation, but damn.

“Hey,” Daisy yelled above the noise. “I’m awesome.”

It did nothing to help calm my brother. Lawson was biting back a