Chapter 77: (Pregnant) Bad Girls Flip Their Bitch-Switch

Okay SOOOO much happens in the chapter....like SOOOOO much. We've been so focused on Madam and Babycakes in the last few chapters, but this is really a whole band chapter....So excited to give you guys this one.

Magic in the Hamptons...this is the song I imagine that was drifting out somewhere when Bodie took his beach walk last night, looking for a fangirl and finding one that sort of belongs to Adam......WHAT?!?!?!?! Read on...

Mac

Over the next few hours, Adam is the perfect husband. He makes me a plate, brings me a drink, jokes with me that all the sugar in the apple pie a la mode that I eat for dessert is going to give Babycakes cavities.

"That doesn't even make sense for so many reasons. Mostly because she doesn't have teeth yet," I inform him.

"Bet me," he says. "The last bite of your pie."

I thought it was an easy win, until Google proves me wrong. Apparently, babies form their teeth inside their gums around three to four months gestation.

"Poor Babycakes," Adam shakes his head as he mumbles around his mouthful of pie. "Not even born and you are already rotting her brand new baby teeth." He grins at me, that charming grin he gives industry types, people that work for us, strangers. Adam's nice guy version of the rock star face.

His eyes tell me the truth.

He's charming me, but he's still worried and hurting and holding back.

I touch his face, but he takes my hand and kisses my fingers absently as he looks away. His attention lands on Kelsey. He calls her over to ask where's she's at with finding me a nutritionist/cook that's willing to air-ship me food. She tells him she's still working on it...it's complicated because of the logistics of the tour and the ever changing locations, and the high profile celebrity food experts she's contacted are looking over the itinerary and considering if they can fit Mac into their client schedules.

"We may have to go with a food guru that's a little more hungry for work," she says. I laugh at her pun and Adam grins a little to see me laugh.

Riley breezes by. "Call a few of the best universities. Find a few brand new graduates of doctoral nutrition programs. People who are that serious about nutrition are always experienced food preparers as well. Tell them the job is to become a personal celebrity nutritionist/cook for a year. Along with salary, their student loans will be paid in full, but the gig includes going wherever MacKenna goes, all expenses paid of course. Tell them they can vlog about the experience, subject to Mac's approval on content. You'll have no problem filling the position with a highly trained nutrition expert eager to do a great job and make a name for themselves as a personal nutritionist."

Kelsey's dark eyes light in agreement. "Great idea."

"We want to interview candidates, of course," Adam says. "Make it happen while we're in Nashville, okay? Get Penelope to take over the interview logistics. I know you've got to get home to your family in the morning and won't be with us in Nashville. We really appreciate you working over the weekend to get Mac out of LA." If I needed the confirmation, he gives her the same nice-guy smile he's been giving me all night. He means it, sort of, but he's holding back, maintaining a boundary.

I don't mind a boundary between Adam and Kelsey at all, but I do mind one between us. Now is not the time to call him out on his continued reserve, however. You can't force fear out of someone, any more than you can force intimacy, and Adam and I know that well. It took me years to open up to him. How ironic that now that I have, he's shutting down on me.

Still, as Kelsey wanders off to make lists and plans, I snuggle deep into Adam's lap on the patio loveseat. He pushes lazy massaging circles on my back. He may be holding back his private worries, but he's lavishing me with loving care, and I have missed him so much, that I will take all the touching and tenderness I can get.

We go to bed by ten, when the party is barely getting started. Despite my high energy levels and the nap, I don't mind. I need to catch up on my rest after my exhausting stint in LA, just as much as Adam needs to catch up on his lost night of sleep.

I worry about what to wear to bed, for some stupid reason. Adam and I almost always sleep naked, but that's typically accidental...we're usually too fuck-drunk to bother with putting on any pj's. I decide to go with his Johnny Cash t-shirt, and he moans in approval as I slide into the bed beside him.

He pulls me tight. "I swear to the Man in Black himself, this is my favorite thing to see you wear," he murmurs into my hair as he turns me and spoons me from behind.

"I'm probably going to ruin it, you know. Stretch it all out of shape with a big baby belly."

He chuckles and stuffs one of the throw pillows up my shirt, patting it all down, shaping it to mimic my future belly.. Then he puts a hand across it. "Mmmmm...like this? My favorite t-shirt will be a welcome sacrifice for our baby. First of many, probably," he assures me, his voice a little forced, like he's forcing hope.

"Sacrifices or babies?" I ask. The dark makes it easy for me to ignore the uncertainty in his voice.

He doesn't answer right away. Instead, he lifts my hair and softly kisses the back of my neck. "I love you, MacKenna Lawson. Our love will see us through. Whatever sacrifices we have to make. However many babies we are given. Our love will see us through."

My spine shivers and my heart races with love and a plea to god to let his words be true, even if Adam doesn't wholly believe them right now. I picture our life in a few months, in bed just like this, Adam's hand cradling my actual big belly, and then a few months after that, a vague little baby girl I can't quite see snuggled between us.

We're almost asleep when a firm thump on the door jerks us back to consciousness. "You guys awake?" Trace's voice sounds through the door.

"Are now," Adam growls, and the door flies open as the lights flip on. We blink as all the guys pile in, except Riley who hangs in the doorway, a mild look of consternation on his face. "Perhaps you should have asked if they were disposed to a band meeting, Trace?"

"Ya think?" Adam asks in irritation, glowering at Trace, who grins.

"Well, we knew nothing good was going on up in here," he teases.

"Wow, Adam. I can't believe you told them the doctor banned sex," I feign indignation. I don't mind, but it just surprises me, because he's so private about our sex life.

"Of course he didn't," Mr. Cool-As-Fuck smirks at me. "I was looking over his shoulder at the list of guidelines the doctor gave. He skipped over that one, but the word sex always catches the eye, you know what I mean?"

"Yep," Leed pops the p as he flops down on the bed and slings an arm around me while I struggle to sit and discreetly discard my pillow baby. "Especially when preceded by the horrible phrase 'abstain from.' I guess that means the honeymoon's over for these two. Babycakes is running the show now, and she's cockblocking her daddy already."

Adam sits up, his six pack curling as he pushes himself up against the headboard. He reaches over me and neatly shoves Leed off the bed. While Leed yowls in mock protest, Adam runs his hands through his hair and complains, "Oh so now our lack of sex life is the big joke?"

"Obviously," Bodie dead-pans. I crack up. Adam glares at me.

"What? The reversal is kinda funny." I say between giggles.

"Listen, speaking of Babycakes running the show..." Trace redirects, "We need to know how you feel about performing tomorrow at the Call-Out. We can play a stripped down set without you. It won't be the same of course, but the show can go on...it's your call, Priestess."

He's right. We had to replace Trace when he was "on leave", but the guys could deliver a raw, less stylized version of our songs without me. It's a festival, and even though we are one of the headliners, the crowd will be so flooded with music and sun and fun that we are not likely to come under critical fire if Soundcrush's sound is a little different than what is expected.

I look at Adam. "Do you want to talk about this, just the two of us?"

He presses his lips in resignation and shrugs. "You know I'll worry for you to exert yourself, but how can I argue against what a medical expert thinks is reasonable?"

Beneath the covers I take his hand. I look around at the guys. "So, what if we change the set order and move Liars Last to the top? You guys could crush with that as an opener, even without keys. Then do the next four without me, and then I'll jump in on Ties that Bind and finish the set with you? That way, the fans will leave with the sound they are expecting and yet I'll only be onstage about forty minutes."

The guys look around at each other. "That works for me," Trace says. Leed and Bodie nod. "Adam? What do you think, man?"

He looks at me. "What about the festival itself? The plan was for us to superfan it..."

"I don't mind hanging out in the trailer with the new stylist, instead of standing on the festival grounds all day, getting sunburned and sweaty. I need a restyle anyway," I say with a smile, holding up my chipped manicure job and flicking at my red hair. Truthfully, hanging in the trailer will suck and I would much rather be out there enjoying the day, holding off on my beauty needs until the tour resumes, but it's just not going to happen. I do not need to get tired and dehydrated before performing.

"That won't be much fun," Adam says gently. "Stuck in a box, when a hundred thousand other people are getting their party on."

"Won't bother me at all. I've been around party people non-stop for a month in LA. I could use a day to do nothing but watch Netflix while I get a pedicure," I fib.

"Okay, but I'm not binging some chick show with you," Adam says. "Let's watch that android-western show."

"I don't think that's on Netflix." I muse.

"Fine, HBOGO, whatever," he grins. "I can make it happen, baby. I bought you that rock on your finger, I'm building you a Nashville mansion. I don't mind picking up an app subscription for you."

"We're building that house," I remind him.

"Nope, I just didn't want to fight with you on my birthday weekend. I'm building that house for you. It's your wedding present. But if you want, you can shell out to decorate it."

"Fine, but back to the point, you don't have to stay with me during the festival tomorrow. I want you to go out and have fun with the guys," I tell him. I don't know why. It's not really what I want, but it feels like what I should want, for him.

"I'm sick of these asshats," he grins. "We've been up in each other's shit the whole time you've been gone, Shortcake. I want to spend time with my wife."

"Adam-"

"MacKenna, this sounds like a win all the way around. Perhaps you should take the deal, dearest?" Riley advises with his crooked grin.

"Fine." I roll my eyes at my sexy husband, and he rumples my hair.

"Fucktastic!" Bodie jumps up. "Let's get out of here and let Adam get back to his long, sexless, night."

"I don't see Arabella anywhere to help you out, man," Adam shoots back.

Bodies expression goes snarly. "If Arabella can fuck Harry Styles and I still have to be her fake boyfriend and not say shit about it, then I think I earned me a fangirl pass," he growls. I blink. It's not like Bodie to be...edgy. But then his dark look clears as he laughs and sticks his tongue out. "I'm headed down the beach with Strut to recruit some party-goers." He dances out of the room, his dreads bouncing.

"Why don't you go with him, Leed?" I tease my brother, who is still laying akimbo on the floor where Adam pushed him, staring at the ceiling.

"Nah. To be honest with you, Babycakes isn't the only baby cock-blocker in the band. I think my own kid is giving me the adulting disease. I'm just not feeling the fangirl lovin' right now."

"Blame it on the kid if you want to, but one shot of tequila and you'll be closer to the truth of it," Adam retorts quickly. I shoot him a surprised look and elbow him. Trace is still sitting backwards in a chair, looking at all of us. Adam knocks his head on the headboard. "Fuck. Forgot," he mutters. "I'm so tired I'm fucking loopy."

Trace snorts. "I smell a rat. So you and Mac know who this girl is, huh? Give it up, Leed. What is this bullshit about the Tequila Girl?" Trace says. "Who is she? You never mentioned her once in four years. You run into her recently, or something?"

"Yeah," Leed says, flipping up on his feet, eager to leave. "Or something. But it's not gonna happen. She's got...other stuff going on in her life. There's no point in going down the romance road, because being with me won't end good for her, and I can't be a part of messing her up. She's better off where she is."

"What, she got a man or something?" Trace asks.

Leed is almost out the door, but he's completely the Lion as he turns his ferocious gaze on Trace,rakes his mane back and says, "No. A drug problem she's trying hard as hell to kick, chronic brain pain that takes all her focus to manage, and an ex-husband that I'm pretty sure she wants to avoid."

For once, Trace's rock star face fails him. The utter shock on his face would be funny, if I didn't feel so much for him and Leed, in this moment. Trace is speechless. Finally, he manages two syllables. "No shit?" Like he can't believe what he heard.

"No shit. But don't worry about it. Like I said, it's not happening. Because back in our scene is the last place she needs to be. Because she needs a quiet life. Because I wouldn't do that to you, Brother. Or aren't, I guess. You're in love, you waited a long time for something good, and I'm not rocking the Ballard Sister Boat. I got my head on straight about that. I just..." he fingers his chest, experimentally. "I...I got too close, you know? Trying to be a friend to her with the whole alternative rehab thing. Kind of freaked her out anyway, so I'm walking it back. I haven't talked to her in weeks—not since Mac went to LA. I just send her a text now and then, to check on her. She's good. We're just friends. We were maybe sketch for a minute, but it's all good now."

He turns around and walks out. Trace stares after him. He turns to us, a look of panic on his face. "No shit?" he says again.

"No shit." I tell him solemnly. "You gotta let him out of this bro-code thing, Trace. He really cares about Ashlynn. He won't even let himself feel how much, I think."

"Bro code doesn't work like that, Shorty," Adam says softly. "It's not enforced. It comes from the inside, you know?"

"No shit," Trace says darkly, nodding at Adam. He looks like someone just proved to him the earth was flat. Like all his beliefs are being called into question. "Christ. This is..." he cracks his neck. Looks out the door, and rises. "This is...not good," he mutters, and he walks out without another word.

Adam and I stare out each other. "Well, damn." I say softly. "Like we don't have enough shit going on. You know what we have to do now, right?"

Adam rises, closes the door, flips off the light, crawls back into bed, and whines. "Don't, Shortcake. For the love of god, I'm begging you. Please don't get out of this bed. Don't go to Leed. Don't make me go to Trace. Don't even get on the phone and call Ash. You wanted me to stay with you. Stay with me. I'm betting those two will just circle around each other until it's the right time for them to work it out. If Leed and Ash are meant to be, it will sort itself. I'm begging you, let it go. Let's sleep."

He's rubbing my belly and twining his legs into mine and he sounds so tired, I take pity on him. "Okay, baby. You're right. Let's just sleep."

For the moment, I see it his way. All I want is peace. We drift off.

The next morning, lying in bed with my dozing husband, looking at the Lash situation from all angles, I'm convinced he's right. The way things worked out last night was probably perfect. Leed and Trace won't even talk about it for awhile, but it will give Trace time to get used to the idea before Ashlynn comes to LA in November. She has an "official" reason for coming now...she's a bridesmaid like me for Tamara's Wedding/Thanksgiving extravaganza. She and Tam are good friends too, but I'm pretty sure Tamara had a secondary reason for asking her to be in the wedding party. Because she knows Leed well enough to know what he needs, even if he doesn't.

Feeling supremely happy about how that's all shaking down, I roll over and kiss Adam awake.

"Morning, wife," he says, with the sexiest voice I've ever heard.

"Morning, husband," I purr right back.

Adam's eyes fly wide as I reach down and take his hard cock in my hand. He grips my wrist. "What are you doing?"

"I'd say it's pretty obvious," I explain sweetly.

He groans and rolls away from me. "No, Shortcake."

"No?" I tease, reaching around him and rubbing him through his underwear before he fights me off and rises out of the bed. I lean up on my elbows. "Come on, Adam. Just because I'm not supposed to disturb my uterus and our baby with your giant, orgasm-inducing penis doesn't mean I'm some Suddenly Virgin Mary. I'm still your dirty, sexy, freak-in-the-bed wife. I like satisfying you. I can give you a hand job, or a blow job, or a boob job, or—"

"I don't even want to know what the next 'or' in your imagination was, but no to all of them," he says decidedly. "If you can't get off, I'm not getting off. We're in this together." He rips the covers off me. I squeal. "Get your ass up, Woman. We're taking a shower."

"Oh that sounds fun," I tell him. "Lots off opportunity for my mouth to accidentally fall on your dick."

He raises his eyebrows, unimpressed. "We'll see about that. I think you'll be squealing to get out as quick as possible because we are taking a cold shower."

I crawl out of the bed and discard Johnny Cash, giving Adam a show of my nakedness. "We are not taking a cold shower. But I promise to behave, if your dick can."

Amazingly, when Adam follows me into the shower a few minutes later, he's lost his hard-on. I stare at his nakedness pointedly. That's usually all it takes to get him hard, but he returns my stare and turns me by the shoulders, soaping my back, on hand firmly on my ass, refusing to let me back up against him.

I keep glancing over my shoulder, but he really does have himself under control. "How are you doing that?" I ask.

"I'm running the show in my head," he saids without inflection. "Every note I have to play."

"Wow," I say. "Impressive work. I guess I'll stop torturing you."

"Thank you," he grins, and hands me the soap. "Do my back?"

I admire his beautiful back as I wash him. "I guess this isn't so bad, being close to you without it ending in sex," I say, as I step aside to let the spray rinse him. "I'm just glad to be with you."

He turns and catches me in a hug, kissing me with a closed mouth kiss. "I'm glad to be with you too. We have a lifetime to be together—and lots more sex to come, too."

When my hand goes down to cup his balls, he twists the shower nob to cold and I scream and hastily step out of the shower. He moves right into the cold spray, just so he can keep hold of me, making sure I don't slip in my haste, I think.

Guys like Adam are so lucky. He goes from dripping wet to smokin' hot in about two minutes, Even his incognito good-ole-boy festival disguise of a Southern Tide t-shirt and a UGA trucker hat doesn't hide the sexy. It takes me a little longer to get ready, so he heads downstairs first. When I take the backstairs to the kitchen, I find no one there but the dark-haired girl that must be Dr. Kade's girlfriend.

I guess she and Kade ended up crashing here last night, which is weird, because there was plenty of transport for all our out of town, non SCIC guests back to the hotel, but whatever. Maybe they got left behind after the last car. She's flipping pages in a magazine, so I just give her a nod and smile as I scan the trays of coffee-house cups that Penelope must have ordered. Decaf skinny with stevia. Score.

I eye the dark-haired girl. Dr. Kade's a lucky dude. She's beautiful, in the way that Marianne and Bridget way, but where they are elegant, she seems like she might be a little more...quirky. Something about the way she scrunches her lightly freckled nose and smiles at something in the magazine she's reading makes her look like she's got a party on the inside, just waiting to happen. I've seen a lot of girls like her...hugged up next to Adam at afterparties during our "breaks." I laugh at the idea that under different circumstances, this princess with the hidden party would be exactly Adam's type of fangirl.

Just to see if her personality matches my suspicions, I ask her. "You met my guys? The Soundcrush guys, I mean?"

She looks up, her eyes, wide. "Uhhm, yeah. We haven't met, though. I mean," she gives a little snorty laugh like she's embarrassed. "I mean. You and I haven't met. Sorry about that," she bites her lip. "I meant to introduce myself but I didn't want to intrude."

I wave it away. "No biggie." I lean across the counter confidentially. "Okay, I know you're not here for them, but sometimes I play a little game and try to guess which one of my fellas that girls will go for. If you were a fangirl, which one would you want? It would be Adam, right?"

She blinks. "Are you...are you making some kind of joke?"

"No, I'm serious. You can tell me. From the outside, I'd definitely say Adam, but I saw you in some weird conversation with Bodie last night, and I couldn't tell if he was confusing you by flirting or making you mad with his nonsense. It's weird how the same girls that like Adam sometimes like Bodie, too. They seem so different on the outside, but some girls just realize by instinct that they are the most alike. Even though Bodie's been through it in ways Adam hasn't...he isn't complicated like Trace and Leed. Bodie and Adam are both practical, and they both have hearts of gold," I muse, almost forgetting my point. Then I shake my head. "Anyway, I'm just messing around. I know you are Dr. Kade's girlfriend, I know you are not a fangirl."

She bites her lip again and makes a weird awkward expression. "Oh god. You don't...you think...oh wow. Okay. I'm really not here with Kade, although he's very nice and I went for a walk with him on the beach last night and he's seems interested in me and I don't how I feel about that, and he said he wants to hang today at the festival, and he's really nice...but I already said that, didn't I? But he's obviously smart and hot...but I don't know if I should hang out with him. It's really complicated because this other weird thing happened last night, and I don't how I feel about that either..." she's rambling.

"Wait. You didn't come up with Dr. Kade? But I saw you with him at the airport."

"No, I just happened to..." she trails off, then takes a breath and starts again. "Adam asked both of us to wait for him."

"Adam? What?" My heart is starting to pound.

"I'm so sorry. I should have introduced myself already. I'm Marley. Marley from the Lunar Lounge. I mean," she shakes her head and laughs in that funny awkward way again. "I mean, I'm Marley Watkins. I was Adam's counselor, but not anymore? You and I spoke on the phone once. I...uhhh..."

"I got you," I snap. I put a finger up to stop her ramble as I take a long slug of coffee and talk myself down from the rage she has instantly ignited in me.

I will not freak out on this bitch. I cannot brawl with this girl. I mean obviously, I could take her, but it would still be an exertion, and I might slip and fall on the knife that I want to stab her with. That's a high risk situation for Babycakes, just for the satisfaction of cutting this little cunt that's sitting in the kitchen of Trace's rented mansion, drinking coffee. Like she belongs. Like Adam wants her here.

No, I can not freak out on Marley. Think of Babycakes.

Anyway, Adam is the one that deserves my wrath. I get that he had already comped her tickets and accommodations. But did he really think it was a good idea to invite her to our vacation house, knowing how I feel about her? And to add insult to injury...not even tell me? Or have the courtesy to introduce us? It's like he's tryna keep his woman and his side-piece together but separate.

Okay...don't go psycho bitch. This is Adam we are talking about. Marley is absolutely not his side-piece, right? In fact, she means so little to him that in the crisis about our baby, he forgot all about her, right? That's why he didn't introduce us, right? He blew her off at the airport and then maybe she didn't even come up on his radar last night, right?

Right.

I swallow the coffee deliberately. Okay. I can totally adult this.

"It's okay, Marley. It's not your fault. Adam should have introduced us, he just has a lot on his mind this weekend." I can't bring myself to be so civil as to shake her hand.

"I completely understand," she nods eagerly. "He was in a really bad way night before last."

"Night before last. You talked to him then?"

She blinks. "Uhhhm, not one-on-one or anything. No. Just...I was here, when you guys arrived. See, he wanted me to come tell the guys about what was going on with you, and make sure they didn't go crazy or anything. They wanted to hop on plane to California finish off your old manager for giving you drugs."

"Oh, seems like you've got the whole story." Didn't Adam promise me he wouldn't talk to Marley about me? Suddenly, more words I didn't plan spew forth. "I knew he sent you tickets to the Call-Out, so I can see how you might have been useful to him while he was with me, making sure our baby was ok, but I'm actually kind of confused. What are you still doing here, this morning, in the house that's supposed to be for Soundcrush Inner Circle? Why aren't you at the hotel, where you belong—with the rest of our guests that are just favors and fangirls?"

Yeaaaaahhhh, there went my bitch-switch.

Marley's mouth is hanging open. She closes it and takes another deep breath, but before she can fully regroup Bodie bounces into the kitchen. And freezes. Like a deer in the headlights. His vision flicks from Marley to me.

He blushes.

It's freaky to see the dark flush on his normally perfectly even butterscotch skin. I didn't even know he could blush. Never seen anything get under his skin. I guess he's supposed to be wingman again, running interference between me and Marley. That must be why I kept seeing them have ruffling exchanges at the cook-out last night.

"I didn't know black boys could blush," I say cynically.

"Guess it's the Irish in me," he moves quickly to the fridge and grabs a Red Bull.

I wait as he does exactly what I just did...uses his drink to cover his moment of indecision. I wait as he chugs, my fury building. Somebody better say something before I actually pick up that knife and throw it.

To my surprise, Bodie's explanation is not to me. He crushes the can, tosses it in the trash. "Marley...I uhhhh...I thought you cut out."

"I slept on the couch.I couldn't find my phone to call an Uber..."

He gives me a look like he wishes I would melt into the ground, but then he sighs and pulls something from his pocket. He slides it across to her. "You left it when you snuck out on me."

Her face scrunches in the awkward way again that I thought looked adorable but now I hate. She just stares at her phone, like it's contaminated or something, "Yeah, I figured. It had all my cards, cash and ID, in the case. It's the reason I'm still here...I'm sorry."

"You didn't have to creep out in the middle of the night in the first place," Bodie says unhappily.

"Oh.My.Fucking.God." I whisper. "Butters! Did you fuck Adam's biggest fangirl? Where's the Bro-Code now?"

"Mac," Bodie sighs. "Please.Don't."

"Okay!" Marley says brightly, practically falling off the barstool, knocking over her slouchy purse, laughing in a crazed hyena kind of way as she dashes to pick up the scattering contents. Bodie moves to help her but she jumps away from him like he's radioactive, and she grabs her phone off the counter and leaves half her things on the floor as she backs out of the slider. "Okay! Super fun party. I'm just gonna go...drown myself in the ocean now," she jokes.

"That doesn't seem like a very healthy attitude, Marley," I snark. "Maybe you should talk to somebody about your problems. Just not my fucking husband, okay?"

"Mac!" Bodie says sharply. "Don't be a bitch."

"Bodie!" I snap back. "Don't fuck girls that want to fuck my husband and I won't have to be!"

"Oh god," Marley mutters as she turns and walks woodenly across the deck and down onto the beach.

And into the ocean. Up to her knees. Fully clothed, her phone trailing in her hand dangerously near the waves.

Bodie and I watch. "Is she actually going to drown herself, you think? Butters, are you that bad in bed?"

"Jesus, God," Bodie moans. He stalks out the door after her, the playful bounce in his normal gait completely absent. I pick up the rest of her crap off the floor and thoughtfully put it in a grocery sack.

Then I sling it onto the beach, nearly clocking Bodie. "Make sure she takes all her shit so she doesn't have a reason to come back!"

Bodie picks it up and then does something he has never done.

He flips me off.

Holy Shit. Bodie likes her.

Like, likes her.

That does not make me happy. It's bad enough Adam has his little secret pseudo counseling phone calls with her and that now Trace is talking to her about his problems too—though clearly she's loony-tunes herself so I don't know how much professional help she can actually be to either one of them.

But if Bodie likes her...I'm never fucking getting rid of her. That's three out of four of my fellas with an affinity for the pretty pretty princess with freckles.

Then again, she did seem fairly horrified about whatever happened between her and Bodie. Maybe it will be enough for her to run and hide from all things Soundcrush.

I slam around the kitchen, trying to scrounge up some breakfast while watching them on the beach. Bodie doesn't even try to talk her back to shore. He strips down to his boxers and dives in the ocean, popping up in front of her, grabbing her phone, throwing it up onto the beach, and then doing the same with her bag. Then he picks her up and tosses her headfirst into an oncoming wave. She comes up spluttering and shocked. She looks mad. She stalks toward him and he lowers himself into a stance like he's going to catch her up again, but she pulls a fast one on him. She goes low, grabs his calf and jerks hard. He completely wipes out, getting a noseful of surf as she uses the wave to push her past him. She hurriedly grabs her bags—purse and grocery—and her phone and quick walks down the beach.

Laughing, his bouncy gait restored, Bodie hops through the surf after her. He's yapping at her, and she's shaking her head and holding a hand out to ward him off. He keeps coming at her like he plans to throw her back in the water. She reaches in her bag and pulls something out. Bodie halts immediately, holding his hands up in surrender. I strain to see what stopped him.

She has a little cannister.

That bitch is going to pepper-spray my Butters! And they say I'm crazy!

I walk out on the deck because I want to intervene, but then again I kinda want to hear him scream if she does pepper-spray him. The bitch in me hopes she does, because it serves him right for creating another wrinkle of complication with this girl I really wish Adam had never met and also because there's a possibility if she sprays Bodie that it will be the end of her Soundcrush association. How could Adam and Trace trust a "counselor" who screwed Bodie and then pepper-sprayed him hours later?

But to my dismay, she doesn't fire her weapon. Bodie keeps talking to her, his hands now on his chest, as he inches closer and closer to her. Whatever he's saying makes her lower the pepper spray.

Then they hug it out.

Fuck!

He even kisses her on the cheek, and then she goes on down the beach, and he turns back toward the mansion, looking smug. He hops back into his clothes, bounds back up onto the deck and stares at me, cool as shit.

"Come on, Mama," he says, completely ignoring my anger. " The cars are here."

"Well?"

"Well what?"

I stomp my foot. "Did you sleep with her?"

"Mac, that's really not any of your business."

I pick up a beer can and throw it at him.

"Oh my fucking god, I will murder you if you don't answer me right now, Bodie Jamieson." I throw another beer can at him.

"Shit! Calm down, baby! Think of the baby!"

"Answer me, then!"

"I didn't. I mean...not technically, no."

"But you messed around with her." I have a beer bottle in my hand.

"It was Adam's idea," he blurts.

"Adam told you to take Marley to bed?!?!?" I screech.

"Wait...that makes you more upset? Then, no. Definitely not. He had nothing to do with it. That was a total lie," Bodie says. "I wanted her bad." He shrugs and traces a finger through condensation on the patio table. "Really, I kinda did, when I saw her on the beach with Dr. Kade. I don't know why. It was really weird. I felt kinda mean, like I wanted to take her from him. So I did. I don't know, maybe it was just some stupid get-even-with-Arabella-thing, and Marley was just...there. That sounds terrible, and I feel like shit, thinking maybe I just used Marley. I fucking hate all this confusing girl drama! I miss the simple fangirl days!" Bodie pulls at his dreads.

Bodie is full of shit. Okay, maybe the part about being messed up in the head over Arabella and Marley is true, but he's full of shit for saying Adam didn't have anything to do with it, after he said it was Adam's idea. Clearly, Adam was trying to find his favorite fangirl a consolation prize. Who better than Bodie? That way he gets to keep his best fangirl, and his best bud gets to eat her cake too.

My husband. The fucking nice guy with fucked up rock star morals.

I'm storming through the house, headed to the car, Bodie trailing me. "Mac, please calm down. Adam is gonna kill me for upsetting you."

"You have upset me like this much," I spread my fingers an inch. "Adam, has infuriated me this much!!!" I fling my arms wide and twirl in the massive foyer of the mansion. "I can't believe Adam told you to fuck her! What the fuck is that!??!" I screech. "Some kind of sick Bro-Code vicarious fangirl fuckery? He would fuck her but he can't because he's married so he passes her off to you?" I pick up the giant vase of flowers on the foyer table and hurl it to the floor. "God, I'm so fucking pissed! I feel crazy right now!!!"

Bodie grabs me by the arms. "Look, you gotta sto' ya shit, okay? You can't go psycho like this! It's bad for Babycakes and also...we have a show to do!"

I glare at him, panting in anger. He glares back, panting from his lust triangle confusion. We glare and pant, locked in a battle of will for a few minutes. He's not hurting me or really even holding me against my will, but there is something to say for a Bodie that means business. He is literally got me locked down with his eyes willing me to get my shit together. For the first time, maybe I see the kid from the hood, telling his homies in his gang to "Tuck yo chain." Staring at the business side of Bodie, I do feel a little more in control. Like the Killer, but in control.

"Okay, I'm calm," I tell him.

"You gonna go out that door and freak out on Adam?" he asks suspiciously.

"No."

"You a lie," he says. He grabs my bag and rummages through it, tossing out my own pepper spray and all my pens. Does he think I might stab Adam? Satisfied I have no weapons, he opens the door for me.

"Here we fucking go," he says unhappily.

Betcha didn't see ANY of that comin? Did ya? I guess this chapter is the last time we will deal with Leed and Bodie's upcoming stories in this book, so we are left hanging with how Trace REALLY feels about the Leed-Ashlynn  reveal and also with what the heck REALLY happened between Bodie and Marley! We will PROBABLY open Bodie's book with that particular night...I think. But the  rest of this book is mostly all Madam and TrayKat!!!!

Thoughts!?!?!?!?What was going though Trace's head when he learned that Leed has a thing for Ashlynn? Was Leed right or wrong to confess it? What REALLY happened between Bodie and Marley? Was he just being petty and using her? Is their more to the "weird" feelings he has around her?  Is Adam going to be able to survive his she-demon wife "torturing" him while trying to give him one-side pleasure? Or is that all over with now that Mac realizes Adam is more involved in Marley's personal business than she thought? Is Mac gonna be able to "sto' her shit?" or is she going to go pregnant psycho on Adam?