Page 75 of Everything After

“I wasn’t, but now I am,” Alfie admitted.

“Please stop, it’s bad enough there’s that strain ever present on his side, you getting all up in it is making me feel worse,” I pleaded. “I’ve dealt with Cody’s ways for years. I really don’t need you to fight my battles.”

“I’m your husband, Lily. That little fucker should be feeling like he won the lotto tonight since I didn’t lay him out on the floor earlier.”

“That’s what I’m scared of. Why are we talking about him again? We argued for weeks until recently, and we’re only just getting close again. Please, don’t allow something I can’t control to come between us. You must trust me—I can handle Cody.”

“My point is you shouldn’t need to handle any man pawing you. Bandmate or no bandmate. No one has the right to invade your personal space. Working with the guy is one thing, but it still happened today, and I was the only audience. I can only imagine how he is when there is no one around to witness his behavior.”

“Right, I’m drawing a line under this. He doesn’t touch me when no one’s around. If he did, I’d call him out. The minute we step out of this car there’s no more talking about Cody. He’s wasting the time we have together.”

Alfie stared ahead for a long, silent pause, then grabbed my hand and nodded. “I won’t mention it again while we’re home.”

What I took from that was that his beef with Cody was far from over, but for the time being he’d play nice… for now anyway.

CHAPTER 43

ALFIE

ONE MONTH LATER

Lily flopped down on our large sectional sofa with her wild curly hair sprawled all around her. The contrast between her pale skin and rosy cheeks made her look flushed and adorable. She glanced up at me through her lashes and gave me a seductive smile.

I immediately sank to my knees, pushed her legs apart and closed the space between us. “I’m stoked that everyone loves the album. There were one or two songs that I felt shouldn’t have been there, but once they’d been reworked, one of them is surprisingly being the first to be released as an EP,” Lily gushed, looking pleased with herself.

“You mean track number four on the LP. ‘Am I There?’ that song?” I guessed that Lily had written it without the band knowing she was pregnant. She hadn’t told me she’d penned new lyrics either, but I’d have had to be deaf not to hear the emotional insecurities in the tone of the words the song held.

Lily broke our gaze, stretched her arms above her head and stared at the ceiling. “You know it’s about me, right?”

“I do. And I’m here to say, I’m with you all the way. If you want to work once the baby is here, who am I to stop you?”

Lowering her arms, she stared me straight in the eye. “I know, and I do trust you,” she replied, reaching for my head and sifting her fingers through my hair.

“This little one is going to be loved,” I said, spreading my hands over her still flat belly. I pushed her top up and stroked my palms across her smooth soft skin. “You know, you’re almost a third of the way there,” I remarked.

“Which is why now is the right time to tell everyone. I didn’t want to say anything before in case something went wrong. Can you imagine how the band would treat me?”

I could. They all adored Lily, fawned over her welfare, and have always been protective of her in the past. “What time are the caterers coming tomorrow?” I asked.

“8:30 a.m., Hazel and Keith will be staying this week. So they’ll be using the pool house.”

Lily didn’t like the idea of full-time staff at our home but conceded that we’d needed to bridge the gap, for the times when we were in transit.

The couple we employed part-time filled that void. Keith kept our house shipshape while we were away by doing regular maintenance on the place. He also managed and oversaw the landscapers and pool guy, while Hazel deep cleaned each time we left and replenished our supplies.

“Who all will be staying?” I asked. Lily sat up, dug in her jeans pocket and pulled out her smart phone.

“Let’s see… Rick, Lennie and Coral, your sister Layla and James, Andy, Des, their plus ones, Gibson and Chloe, Elle and Drew… Elle’s mom is having the kids. Jack and Mya, their kids are staying at Elle’s along with Mya’s mom. Digs and Shawn,not sure about plus ones for them, but they’ll head back over to Miami. You know them, they love nothing better than clubbing as opposed to going to bed.” Lily smiled, then her eyes widened. “Oh, I almost forgot, Holly and Brett, of course.”

“And Cody?” I probed.

“And Cody,” she remarked flatly. “Alfie, please, let’s not be weird. I want peace in my life. I can only say this so many times, I am completely uninterested in Cody in any capacity apart from our band business.”

I nodded because Lily needed my agreement. Beside everyone else in her band was invited, it would cause working relationship waves if we left him out. And I had requests of my own, which I believed might cause Lily some stress.

“Can I make some additions?” I asked, climbing back to my feet and sitting on the sectional seating beside her.

“Sure, but not too many,” she mumbled.