Page 8 of A Daddy for Christmas 3: Matty

He looked torn between going with me and staying with Finn. “I, uh, better stick around.” He nodded at our bandmate who was flirting with the guy while his arm was around the girl. And they were ordering another round.

“Yeah.” I patted Gonzo’s arm. “He needs a caretaker tonight.”

Gonzo only grunted and handed me his keys. But I needed to get the fuck out of there. I made my way to the back of the club and drove the van back to my place. It was safe enough for the night, and I’d deliver it to the warehouse where we practiced in the morning.

Upstairs in the dim light of my tiny apartment, I smelled the light and breezy cologne that Matty favored. It was slightly floral but leaned more into a fresh citrus. He was probably still at work, but I wanted to call him. Wanted him here. Wanted him too fucking much.

Damn, he deserved so much better. I had no clue why he’d set his sights on me. I was never happy or satisfied with anything. Partying it up to try and fill a void, but it never worked, and probably because I didn’t know what was missing. I should cut him loose. But damned if every time I thought about letting him go, I only wanted to hold on tighter. That made me the asshole.

Chapter three

Drake - Miami

We were in Miami for a few weeks to check out places to stay and sign the final contracts. Donny had sent them over for us to look at. I liked our terms. It was incredibly generous, but not so much that I felt like we were taking advantage. For some reason, Jinx and his boys wanted to give us the whole fucking world, but if they didn’t get anything out of it but expenses, it wasn’t going to work long term. I agreed to a two-year deal with options to extend and renegotiate. But we needed to actually be in Miami before we started recording.

Jinx and Miami met us at a nice little Mexican restaurant. We ate like pigs, but otherwise, we were on our best behavior. After dinner, we passed the paper around and signed it.

“Shots, shots, shots!” Finn looked around at all of our straight faces. “Surely, they serve tequila here? This is a celebration, right?”

Gonzo rubbed his hands over his face, and I refrained from rolling my eyes, barely. Tank snorted. I held up my index finger. “One shot.”

“Yes, Daddy,” Finn mocked. I flipped him off in response, and we ordered a shot. Jinx and Miami joined in. They were good sports, and we all fell into ribbing Jinx about how wasted he got when they’d visited us in Vegas the first time. Then the fun we had at the club show where Matty worked.

“Speaking of Matty, how is he?” Jinx asked.

“Good. Works a lot.” I hadn’t called him before we left for Miami, and it’d pissed him off. We still hadn’t agreed to an exclusive relationship, but I knew damn well he wasn’t fucking around with anyone else. Admittedly, neither was I.

“Does he like working there?” Miami’s concern was unexpected.

“No, but he loves dancing, and they let him.”

Finn grabbed another chip. “He dominates the pole, dude.” Then shoved the chip in his mouth.

That wasn’t wrong, but I knew it also bothered him, though he didn’t talk much about it. He’d been destined for much greater things. A real dance career on a big stage like the ones we were about to be performing on. Which was one more thing bothering me. Would he come to resent me?

“Anyway…” Jinx called for the check. “It’s time for us to get going. Miriam will meet you in the hotel lobby at ten to talk about places she’s found. Pick what works best for you. I mean it.” He scowled at me, probably knowing I was the hardest sell. We needed something that would work, but it needed to be at least reasonably affordable. I wasn’t taking advantage of their generosity.

We all called it a night, since the meeting was early. For us, anyway. And I wanted to call Matty. If we figured this out, maybe I could have him come out. Midnight Hunt and Bramble Punk were finished with their tour, so perhaps we could have a playdate.

Miriam was nice and took us around to check out nearly a dozen houses, two of which were huge. Afterward, we met in the hotel lobby to discuss them.

“What are we doing?” I dropped the listings on the coffee table. “We have individual houses, which aren’t terrible and reasonably priced, but getting four of them is a lot.”

“We could split up two and two.” Tank flipped through, pulling out a couple of the bigger houses with three rooms and two baths. “I like this one.” He handed me a four-bedroom that had two en-suites.

“That’s still a lot.” It was nearly a million dollars. I handed the listing to Finn.

He tossed it back on the table. “All of these are way better than I’d thought.”

Tank grunted. “Way more expensive, too.”

“We could get one of these.” I shuffled through the papers until I found the two giant places. One was listed at just under a million, but the other was in the upper eight hundreds. It was gorgeous, and I remembered loving the kitchen when we walked through it. It would probably go for a lot more than that price, but it could work for us. “If we picked one of these and all stayed there, it would be less expensive than buying two for nearly as much.”

“The cheaper one.” Finn tapped the top of the paper.

“Either. Let’s just pick.” Tank growled.

Gonzo shrugged. “As long as I have space.”