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

Brian, I was going to lighten up on the catching up. I’d have plenty of time to busy in the fall, but for now, I should just soak up whatever I could, even though I was working in the accounting department. They told me I could sit in on their shows whenever I wanted, but accounting would need to spare me for a few minutes. I had already started using my break to sit in with them and thankfully, they didn’t always put me on the air. I wanted to focus on learning how they made their show the number one morning show in the area.

This all meant that the last four days of constantly missing Bonham’s calls would come to an end. In fact, I pulled out my phone as I left the station to call him. My attempts to call him hadn’t been successful yet, so imagine my surprise when I heard his voice.

“Are you telling me that we’re both free at the same time?” He hadn’t said hello. We almost never said hello when we did talk as if taking the time to exchange pleasantries would use up our precious minutes.

“This is weird,” I told him. “I don’t know what to say.”

“If we’re both available, we should Facetime. I need to see you.”

His words swirled low in my belly. I didn’t have a lot of experience, so I had to wonder if just hearing your boyfriend’s voice was supposed to turn you on so much. I didn’t think so, yet I also didn’t want it to go away.

“Can’t,” I told him. “I’m driving home.”

“That fucking sucks.”

“I know.” Because seeing him would’ve made my day better. “But I don’t want to waste the time we have worrying about it.”

“You’re right.”

“Two more days, right? Then we see each other in the flesh?” I asked him. For whatever reason, I felt the need to confirm it. He’d been gone a week and while it’d been the busiest of my life, it’d also been the longest.

“In so much flesh.”

My cheeks burned and suddenly, I wasn’t as upset that he couldn’t see me. Yes, I was still new to all of this, but the fact that the man had seen me naked and had had his mouth on me, yet I still blushed at his words irritated me.

“So what’s the plan? I need to prepare.”

He chuckled low into the phone. “Prepare?”

“Yeah.” I merged onto the highway. I wouldn’t be on it long, but it was the quickest way home. “Make sure my legs are shaved and all of that.”

“Baby, you could look like Chewbacca and I wouldn’t care.”

“You like Star Wars?” I almost yelled.

“I do. That a problem? I’ll have you know that Booker, the bass player for Courting Chaos, loves Star Wars. So does his girlfriend. It’s not as nerdy as you think.”

“It’s nerdy adorable,” I told him, and also, I thought he would’ve cared if I showed up with so much hair on my legs he could braid it, but I wasn’t going to argue with him.

“The plan…” He brought us back to the important stuff because we both knew it was only a matter of time before one of us had to go. “Is that we get in on Friday, so the moment you’re available, I’d like to steal you.”

“It’s not stealing if I go willingly.”

“Still. We could hang out with my brothers. We could hang out with my friends or yours and we will if that’s what you want, but my vote is to hole up in the hotel and not see another person until soundcheck the next day.”

“Hotel?” That didn’t make sense. He lived here. He had an apartment.

“Yeah. I’d like to go to a hotel if that’s OK with you. We could go to my place, but that would ruin the not-see-another-person-until-soundcheck part of my plan. Van and Lexi will be there.”

“But I like Lexi.”

“I like Lexi too,” he admitted. “But I want to be with you. We get twenty-four hours and I think we have a lot of time to make up for.” My cheeks heated again as I pulled off the highway. Bonham sighed. “I’m not talking about sex, Jurnie. Or at least I’m not talking only about sex. I want to hold you. Talk to you. Have a fucking conversation that doesn’t involve our fucking voicemails.”

“I’m all for that, Bonham. I was just confused for a second.”

“I know. I’m just frustrated.”

“Me too.”

Silence hung between us. Right as I opened my mouth to change the subject, someone called him in the background, something scratched against the phone, and he came back to say, “I’m sorry, baby. I’ve got to go.”

“I understand. I’ll talk to you later?”

“I’ll call you.”

The line went dead and that was a noncommittal answer. My chest deflated. On the one hand, Bonham sounded like he wanted to be with me, talk to me, see me. On the other, he gave such non-specifics on when that could happen other than Friday. I didn’t even have a time.

It sucked. But the guy already had me, so there wasn’t much I was going to do about it.

Later that night, Delaney and I were making dinner together. This time, we’d put a roast in the slow cooker and it’d been working all day. Now we just worked on the sides. I was making a noodle dish my grandma had taught me while Delaney worked on the roasted veggies and the salad. Yes, we usually had both.

“How are you doing with all the changes?” she asked me as she chopped cucumbers for the salad.

“I’m loving them. It’s exhausting uprooting your life, but I’m loving the changes.”

“That’s good. It was brave of you to stand up to Mom and Dad like that. I don’t know that I could do it.”

“You did it,” I told her because she had. More than once. Maybe she couldn’t see it, but I could. “You had a baby as an unwed teen mom.”

She snorted. “What were they going to do, other than